Bremer Still Writing Laws for Iraq

Walter Pincus of the Washington Post reports that US proconsul in Iraq Paul Bremer has unilaterally issued more laws, this time attempting to limit the scope of operation of the new Iraqi intelligence agency (it isn’t to spy on legitimate Iraqi parties), and to place time limits on former intelligence and military officers requiring that they wait eighteen months before taking up a political post. Actually it keeps being assumed by US observers that Saddam’s government was military. It wasn’t. He never served in the military, and came from the civilian wing of the Baath Party. He always distrusted the military and had it intensively spied on. So these restrictions may be salutary, but they do not address the Baath Party, which was civlian in nature and leadership. As Pincus’s interviewees point out, it is highly unlikely that Bremer’s laws will survive his departure from the country for very long.

Bremer Still Writing Laws for Iraq

Walter Pincus of the Washington Post reports that US proconsul in Iraq Paul Bremer has unilaterally issued more laws, this time attempting to limit the scope of operation of the new Iraqi intelligence agency (it isn’t to spy on legitimate Iraqi parties), and to place time limits on former intelligence and military officers requiring that they wait eighteen months before taking up a political post. Actually it keeps being assumed by US observers that Saddam’s government was military. It wasn’t. He never served in the military, and came from the civilian wing of the Baath Party. He always distrusted the military and had it intensively spied on. So these restrictions may be salutary, but they do not address the Baath Party, which was civlian in nature and leadership. As Pincus’s interviewees point out, it is highly unlikely that Bremer’s laws will survive his departure from the country for very long.