Nov. 16, 2003
US To Help Ink Iraqi Constitution
Bremer Says Coalition Will Stay In Iraq For ‘Some Time To Come’
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U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division Spc. Lowary Rick Terry holds a machine gun mounted on a Humvee beside a stone image of the face of Saddam Hussein that has been painted over with a U.S. flag. (AP)
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Soldiers remove the wreckage of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a residential area in Mosul, northern Iraq, late Saturday, killing 17. (AP)
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The chief U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, addresses the Baghdad Symphonic Orchestra during their rehearsal in Baghdad earlier this week. (AP)
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“We'll have a bill of rights. We'll recognize equality for all citizens. We'll recognize an independent judiciary. We'll talk about a federal government,” said L. Paul Bremer in a broadcast interview.
“All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time, probably two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values.”
In other developments:
Bremer said Americans will work with the Iraqi Governing Council in writing the interim constitution. There will also be a side agreement dealing with security and the presence of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, he said.
While the U.S.-led occupation will end, Bremer said the presence of coalition forces will not. “Our presence here will change from an occupation to an invited presence,” he said. “I'm sure the Iraqi government is going to want to have coalition forces here for its own security for some time to come.”
Bremer noted that in a broadcast interview President Bush has said the United States will not “cut and run” from Iraq. But Bremer said the length of time that U.S. troops will be there will be negotiated with the coming Iraqi government.
That agreement, he said, “will provide for our continued presence in Iraq to help them stabilize their country and to help them stay at peace with their neighbors. They have some pretty rough neighbors, and they're going to need our assistance, I think, for some time.”
President Bush says the United States will not spend “years and years” in Iraq as a new government takes shape to replace Saddam Hussein.
“… We think the Iraqi people are plenty capable of running their own country, and we think they want to run their own country,” Bush said in a broadcast interview taped Wednesday that aired today.
“This is nothing more than a power grab,” he said about the recent violence that has pushed the U.S. death toll on Saturday passed 400. “There are some foreign fighters — mujaheddin types or al Qaeda, or al Qaeda affiliates involved, as well…. They've got a different mission; they want to install a Taliban-type government in Iraq, or they want to seek revenge for getting whipped in Afghanistan. But nevertheless, they all have now found common ground for a brief period of time.”
The Senate's top Democrat, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, expressed concern about what he said was the deteriorating situation in Iraq today.
"I don't know that we can say we're losing. ... I'm not sure we're winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people today, and that's of a real concern," he said in a broadcast interview. "I think the president needs, first and foremost, a plan for success, not an exit strategy. I think they're putting too much emphasis on exit and not enough emphasis on success," he said.
A U.S. military official at the scene of Saturday’s helicopter crash said that one of the choppers was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, reports CBS News Reporter Charles D'Agata. Iraqi eyewitnesses say that chopper then collided with the second Black Hawk, bringing both down.
If it was an attack that brought them down, it would bring to 39 the number of coalition troops who have died in helicopter attacks in the past three weeks.
Before the crash, the U.S. military's deadliest incident was the downing of a Chinook transport helicopter on Nov. 2 that killed 16 soldiers. A Black Hawk was also shot down on Nov. 7, killing all six soldiers on board.
There were days early in the war in which more soldiers died, but they were spread over several attacks or accidents.
Violence in the area continued on Sunday. A roadside bomb exploded in Mosul, hitting an Iraqi minibus, slightly injuring four people, Iraqi police said. There were no U.S. troops in the area of the blast.
The crash put the number of American casualties since the March invasion at 417.
On Saturday, the Iraqi Governing Council endorsed a U.S. plan that would create a provisional government by June. The transfer of power would provide Washington with an “exit strategy” in the face of escalating guerrilla warfare.
The plan reflected Washington's desire to speed up the handover of power as attacks against American occupation forces grow more sophisticated and deadly. The Bush administration dropped its insistence that a constitution be drawn up and elections held before the transfer takes places.
However, one of the 24 members of Iraq's Governing Council warned that “execution of the plan won't be easy” without improvement in the security situation and a revival of Iraq's economy.
CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports the Sunni minority who ruled under Saddam is almost certain to lose both power and prestige.
"It's an explosive situation," Palmer observes. "A bitter internal power struggle in Iraq could make violence and insecurity across the country even worse."
Nonetheless, points out CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller, if the new timeline is realized, it would mean sovereignty could be transfered to Iraqis well before President Bush goes before the voters next November.
A senior official denies to Knoller that politics at home is driving U.S. policy in Iraq. But Knoller says no one at the White House disputes that the more quickly Iraq is stabilized, the better Mr. Bush's chances for a second term.
The council, which has acted as Iraq's interim administration since it was appointed in July, announced a set of deadlines that would give Iraq a provisional national assembly by May, a transitional administration with full sovereign powers in June and an elected government before the end of 2005.
©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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