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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] 2 small bits of news, both related to the governing council/cpa relationship, and a nice quote from Pachachi on sanctions 1) I posted a news article yesterday, saying that the governing council had challenged CPA authority by changing rules on de-baathification. On reflection, that interpretation doesn't make much sense. The CPA has already devolved much of the responsibility for 'de-baathification', initially to an 'Iraqi Debaathification Council' (Memorandum 1, 3 June, and Order 5, 25 May), and then (by order 58, 10 December) giving the GC authority to arrange a tribunal for Baathist genocide, war crimes, etc. That is, the GC's encroachment is in an area which the CPA is already trying to distance itself from. [how this delegation applies to Saddam Hussein I don't know. The fact that the US has a claim on him (as an 'enemy POW' doesn't, as far as I can see, reduce the validity of the governing council/special tribunal/debaathification council's claim to him as a genocidal abuser of human rights] 2) The latest CPA order, number 50 is entirely dull in content (formally establishing the ministry of migration), but interesting for a couple of reasons: - Bremer signed it with the wrong year (1/11/03 rather than 1/11/04), the latest in a string of bizarre datings of orders. This is of no importance (the law is retroactive to 30 August) but at least he's keeping up the running joke. - The order is, in part, a ratification of GC decisions on the ministry. Section 1, para 2 reads: "All acts of the interim Minister...to the formal establishment of the MODM under GC Resolution Number 30 and this Order are hereby ratified" 3) Pachachi on sanctions nice quote from Pachachi - interesting that the first thing he confronted Saddam with: 'On his meeting, with other IGC members, with Saddam after his arrest and what did they talk about, Pachachi said: "I asked him: Why did you not withdraw from Kuwait when you had a chance to do so as this would have spared Iraq all the tragedies, tribulations, and disasters that afflicted Iraq because of the war, the Gulf war, and the sanctions that lasted more than 12 years, destroyed Iraq, and caused much damage to the Iraqi people. Those sanctions did not harm the regime; on the contrary, they strengthened it because it made the Iraqi people rely completely on the government to secure their livelihood. Saddam could not give at all a clear and convincing answer because there was in fact no excuse."' [I lost the source for this, but I think it was al-hayat, 11/1/04. I can dig it out if somebody needs to check it] _______________________________________ Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk