Front Office Football Central - Re: Iraq -- When Push Comes To Shove...

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Re: Iraq -- When Push Comes To Shove...

... are they really so much different than the rest of us and what we want...

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By TAREK EL-TABLAWY

(AP) A young boy celebrates during a small celebration in the streets of Baghdad after Iraq received...
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi voices filled the airwaves of the nation's first independent talk radio station Monday, applauding a surprise move by the U.S.-led coalition to return sovereignty to Iraq two days early.

The callers clogged Radio Dijla's telephone lines to congratulate interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, urging him to be strong, while warning insurgents against continued violence.

"I send my congratulations to all Iraqis and every Iraqi home," a woman who identified herself as Um Yassin gushed, her voice choked with emotion. "I want to tell Dr. Allawi to be bold, to be strong. We need him to build up the army because we need them at a time like this."

Her message was echoed by dozens on the day Prime Minister Allawi was given a letter transferring sovereignty back to the citizens of Iraq after about 14 months of coalition administration.

But in the midst of adulation for the new government, callers urged that all must be vigilant for insurgents seeking to sow more chaos in a country plagued by violence since Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled.

"I send all the Iraqi people my blessings," said Ali, a caller from Baghdad. "But I warn these terrorists, all the Iraqis will rise up and strike them with steel."

With that threat, the station switched to an upbeat song by a Lebanese singer.

"People have been calling in all day, sending their greetings to the new government," said Ahmed al-Rikabi, who founded Radio Dijla about two months after working for years with broadcasters in Europe. "There is a feeling of joy among the listeners. But they are also expressing hope that the day will pass with no problems and no explosions."

"But we've also had calls from people pleading with the terrorists to let Iraqis live this day in peace."

Until well into the afternoon, the car bombings, insurgent attacks on police and government buildings and coalition forces that have become synonymous with daily life in post-Saddam Iraq were conspicuously absent. But the memory of past attacks were still fresh in listeners' memories.

On Baghdad FM, another channel that also hosts callers as well as music, Um Ali, a woman from Hillah, recalled the twin car bombings that struck the heart of her city Saturday night. The blasts claimed 17 lives in the predominantly Shiite city 60 miles south of the capital and injured about 40 others.

"It was nothing short of murder," she said. "Nobody wants any more incidents like this."

Callers to both stations also used the opportunity to stress that all Iraqis - Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians - should stand together in the face of the challenges the country is likely to face in the coming months.

"I say to our new government that everyone here is one," said Layla, calling in from the northern city of Kirkuk, where ethnic tensions have flared among the Arab, Kurdish and Turkomen populations.

I send my best wishes and fervent hopes that the Iraqi people are able to find peace and prosperity in this new age into which they've been brought.

And since Moore's f911 is so prominent on the board, thought I'd ad a little "equal time" propaganda.

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Smiling Bush quietly shares Iraq handover glee with Blair

Mon Jun 28, 2:18 PM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!

ISTANBUL (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) checked his watch, whispered in British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s ear, and shared a smile and a handshake with his closest ally on Iraq (news - web sites) in a quiet but unmistakably joyful reaction to the handover of power there.

AFP/File Photo

Latest headlines:
· U.S. Hands Authority To Iraq Two Days Early
washingtonpost.com - 1 minute ago
· Militants Say U.S. Soldier 'Executed' in Iraq
Reuters - 46 minutes ago
· U.N. Welcomes Iraq Back Into 'Family'
AP - 1 hour, 1 minute ago
Special Coverage

The silent celebration began when US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (news - web sites) passed Bush a note during a meeting of NATO (news - web sites) leaders, not all of whom knew that Iraq's new government was assuming sovereignty two days ahead of schedule.

The furtive message was from US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), who wrote Bush: "Mr President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter passed from (US civilian overseer Paul) Bremer at 10:26 AM Iraq time - Condi."

While the alliance's secretary general spoke, Bush read the note, smiled, scrawled "Let Freedom (news - web sites) Reign!" on the note with a black marker, and passed it back to Rumsfeld, who grinned broadly.

Bush rolled up his left suit sleeve, checked his watch -- it was 10:17 am (0717 GMT) -- whispered a few words in Blair's ear, smiled and extended his hand, which the prime minister happily took as both leaders smiled.

The decision to hand sovereignty two days early -- in an unannounced ceremony held under the tightest secrecy -- came late Sunday after over a week of talks between Washington and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Blair, Bush, and NATO leaders with troops in the US-led coalition in Iraq knew that the handover had been accelerated, but other leaders in the same meeting who did not support the war were in the dark, US officials said.

French President Jacques Chirac, who led international opposition to the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), only learned about it when Bush announced it at the meeting, said a spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna.

Bush and Blair came together again later to formally welcome the handover -- which the president called "a proud moral achievement" -- but temper their joy by warning of a hard fight ahead against insurgents and terrorists.

And one White House aide who requested anonymity ruled out a Bush trip to Baghdad to mark the handover, and added that on Wednesday, the date originally set for the transfer, "he'll be in Washington."

That did little to quell speculation among members of the White House press corps, most of whom Bush left behind in November 2003 to make a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to US troops in Baghdad.

The official downplayed talk that the secrecy of the ceremony only served to highlight the lack of security in Iraq and said the early timing proved the viability of US efforts to shift political power to the Iraqis.

"Our goal was to move as quickly as possible to enable the new Iraqi government to assume as much authority as possible" over day-to-day affairs, the official said.

The White House released the text of an exchange of letters between Bush and Allawi, who agreed to reestablish permanent, formal diplomatic ties, which were broken in 1990 after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.

Washington has already ramped up efforts to secure global legitimacy for the interim Iraqi government and the newly minted US ambassador, John Negroponte, will present his credentials in Baghdad "in the coming days," he said.

Negroponte arrived in Baghdad on Monday as US overseer Paul Bremer moved out.