Iraq

Iraqis will find a way to recapture cities, Rumsfeld says

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he is confident the interim Iraqi government will be able to retake cities now in the hands of insurgents.

Rumsfeld said the war in Iraq has not created more terrorists there, but he also cautioned that the country needs a more capable security force of its own to eventually defeat the insurgents.

He said interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi understands the threat from continued instability.

"The prime minister and his team fully understand that it is important that there not be areas in that country that are controlled by terrorists," he said. Later he added, "For their country to succeed, they simply cannot over a sustained period of time have areas that are under the control of people who are violently opposed to that government."

He was referring to major cities like Fallujah and Samarra, where neither U.S. forces nor the Iraqi government are in control.

Rumsfeld blamed "a combination of terrorists, former regime elements and criminals" for the continuing violence in Iraq.

BAGHDAD - Salem Chalabi, the man charged with organizing the trial of Saddam Hussein, will be removed from his post by the interim government because he failed to return to the country to face murder charges, the Iraqi National Congress said Tuesday.

There was no confirmation from the office of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, where a spokesman said the prime minister hadn't signed any document that would remove Chalabi.

But Chalabi, reached by Knight Ridder in London, said he had been removed and declined to comment further.

What effect Chalabi's reported removal as executive vice president of Iraq's Special Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity would have on Hussein's trial was unclear.

He had appointed the seven judges and four prosecutors who will try Hussein, and the government said earlier this week that it plans to begin the trial within weeks.

The action, however, reportedly prompted Chalabi to make plans to return to Iraq on Thursday to fight charges that he murdered a finance minister official and to fight for his position on the tribunal.

Chalabi's role directing Hussein's trial has been controversial, primarily because his uncle, Ahmad Chalabi, is head of the INC and was once a Pentagon favorite to lead a post-Hussein Iraq.

WASHINGTON - A report on Iraq being released today by a prominent Washington think tank concludes that Iraqis remain guardedly optimistic about their future despite continuing violence, but it warns that they could lose hope without faster progress toward stability and economic growth.

The document, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recommends accelerated spending on reconstruction, funneling more aid through local governments directly to Iraqis, and backing the return of the United Nations and other international groups to prepare for January's national elections.

The report also calls for increasing the visibility of Iraqi units in security operations when possible, asserting that Iraqis have lost faith in American and other international military forces struggling to impose order there.

"With the possible exception of the Kurds, Iraqis generally dislike the continued presence of the U.S.-led military forces in their country," concluded a summary of the independent think tank's report, titled "Progress or Peril? Measuring Iraq's Reconstruction."

In many ways, the conclusions echo other independent assessments that have followed the handover of sovereignty from a U.S.-led occupation authority to an interim Iraqi government.

However, the extensive nature of the data involved in the CSIS study, gathered over 13 months from 16 different polls, about 400 private interviews, and nearly 80 public, official and media sources gives it additional significance.

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