bush misleads

BUSH MISLEADS ABOUT TRANSFER OF POWER IN IRAQ

Speaking at the NATO conference in Turkey yesterday, President Bush said, "15 months after the liberation of Iraq...the world witnessed the arrival of a free and sovereign Iraqi government." [1] The reality, however, is much different.

The same day that U.S. administrator Paul Bremer officially ended the occupation, U.S. prosecutors refused to abide by an Iraqi judge's order acquitting Iraqi citizen Iyad Akmush Kanum of attempted murder of coalition troops. [2] Instead, the prosecutors returned Kanum to the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, claiming that "they were not bound by Iraqi law."

In the days leading up to his departure, Bremer "issued a raft of edicts" in an effort to "exert U.S. control over the country after the transfer of political authority."[3] Specifically, Bremer empowered a seven-member appointed commission "to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support." Bremer also "appointed Iraqis handpicked by his aides to influential positions in the interim government" with multi-year terms to "promote his concepts of governance" after the handover.

Iraq remains plagued by violence and "the primary military responsibility for fighting the insurgency remains as much in American hands as it did yesterday."[4] As a result, the New York Times concludes it is "ludicrous for administration officials to suggest that America's occupation of Iraq has now somehow ended."

SOURCES:
1. "Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair," Whitehouse.gov, 6/28/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2960685&l=42686.
2. "Prisoner 27075 learns limits of sovereignty, Financial Times, 6/29/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2960685&l=42687
3. "U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership," Washington Post, 6/27/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2960685&l=42688"
4. "A Secretive Transfer in Iraq," New York Times, 6/29/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2960685&l=42689



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