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Baghdad/Iraqi Governing Council
Governing Council Members:
* part of nine-member rotation for council presidency
Shiite Arabs:
- Ahmad Chalabi, former exile, head of Iraqi National Congress*
- Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, former exile, leader of Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)*
- Ibrahim al-Jafari, former exile, spokesman of Dawa Islamic Party*
- Iyad Alawi, former exile, secretary general of Iraqi National Accord*
- Sayid Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, former exile, Shiite cleric*
- Mowaffak al-Rubaie, former exile and Dawa spokesman, neurologist, author, and human-rights activist
- Izzedin Salim, head of Dawa Islamic Movement in Basra
- Hamid Majid Mousa, head of Iraqi Communist Party
- Sheikh Ahmad al-Barak, leader of Al-Bu Sultan tribe, human rights lawyer
- Raja Habib al-Khuzai, female head of maternity hospital in southern city of Diwaniya
- Wael Abdul Latif, judge, interim governor of Basra
- Abdul Karim Mahoud al-Muhammadawi, southern tribal guerrilla leader, "Prince of the Marshes," heads Iraqi Hezbollah (Party of God)
- Salama al-Khufaji, diplomat, worked with UN in Iraq since 1991; appointed to replace Akila al-Hashimi, diplomat and foreign affairs expert assassinated in September 2003.
Sunni Arabs:
- Adnan Pachachi, former exile, head of Iraqi Independent Democrats, was Iraqi foreign minister before 1968 Baath Party coup*
- Mohsen Abdel Hameed, head of Iraqi Islamic Party, professor at Baghdad University*
- Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, heads National Democratic Party of Iraq, important political figure before 1968 coup.
- Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, former exile, originally from Mosul, nephew of powerful northern tribal leader
- Samir Shakir Mahmoud al-Sumaidy, former exile, writer and opposition figure, represents Sumaidy clan
Kurds:
- Massoud Barzani, head of Kurdistan Democratic Party*
- Jalal Talabani, head of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan*
- Salahaddin Mohammed Bahaddin, Kurdistan Islamic Union
- Mahmoud Othman, formerly KDP, founded Kurdish Socialist Party
- Dara Nor al-Din, judge, originally from Kirkuk
Turkoman:
- Songul Chapouk, teacher and engineer in Kirkuk, head of grassroots Iraqi Women's Organization
Assyrian Christian:
- Yonadem Kanna, secretary general of Assyrian Democratic Movement representing Christian minority
* - part of nine member rotation for council presidency
[Editor's Note: The political information that follows was the situation as of February 2004.]The Iraqi Governing Council was appointed in July 2003 by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), in consultation with a group of former exiles and members of Iraqi political parties. It is comprised of thirteen Shiites, five Sunnis, five Kurds, one Assyrian Christian, and one Turkoman, from diverse professions and political parties. The presidency of the council rotates monthly among a selection of nine prominent members.
The council has been criticized as an unfair representation of today's Iraq. Many of its members were exiles, such as Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, who did not live in Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime and have no natural constituency. In addition, the council was formed on the basis of population estimates that the minority groups argue are inaccurate. The council received further criticism because of its connection to the coalition; U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer maintains a veto over council decisions.
Among the council's tasks have been establishing a budget, selecting cabinet members, and establishing a process for writing and adopting an Iraqi constitution. The council has revised regional appointments made by the coalition in an effort to rid the new government of corruption and Baathist connections, and it has successfully argued that Saddam Hussein and other Baathist war criminals be tried and sentenced by the Iraqi people.
Shortly following the council's formation in July, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a pronouncement declaring that a new constitution would be acceptable only if adopted by directly elected representatives of the Iraqi people. On Nov. 15, 2003, the U.S. and the Governing Council agreed to a revised plan for the transfer of authority to Iraqis by July 1, 2004. The Council would draft an interim constitution of "basic law" by which the country could abide while a larger, transitional governing body could be put in place which would draft a permanent constitution to be voted on, along with a new government, by the Iraqi public in 2005.
The council has until Feb. 28, 2004, to draft the interim constitution. An early draft called for equal political and civil rights for all Iraqis, including women, freedom of speech, and civilian control over the military. Although the constitutional draft included provisions for the implementation of a larger governing body, it did not indicate how it would be selected. The U.S. has appealed to the United Nations to determine whether direct elections in Iraq are feasible by the June 30, 2003, deadline, or whether some version of the U.S. plan for caucus-style elections can be implemented.
Ahmad Chalabi
A secular Shiite and founder of the prominent London-based exile group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), Chalabi is among the most prominent members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Having spent more than a decade lobbying the U.S. government to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Chalabi is a controversial figure, viewed by many Iraqis as a former exile with no constituency in today's Iraq. Convicted in absentia of embezzlement by a Jordanian court in 1992 (though he has steadfastly maintained his innocence), Chalabi was a close adviser to the civilian leadership at the Pentagon during the build-up to the U.S.-led invasion, providing what is now viewed as questionable intelligence sources on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and ties to terrorism. Read FRONTLINE's interview with Chalabi from the October 2003 report "Truth, War and Consequences."
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Abdul Aziz al-Hakim
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a group of Iraqi Shiite exiles based in Iran until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. Having long opposed Saddam and operated clandestinely against the regime, SCIRI did not interfere with the U.S.-led invasion, and it has since formed a tactical alliance with the Coalition Provisional Authority. Al-Hakim is also believed to be the commander of SCIRI's militia wing, the Badr Brigade, which has since been renamed the Badr Organization for Development and Reconstruction. Al-Hakim's brother, the revered Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, was killed in a car bombing in August 2003 outside the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Their father served on the Hawza in the 1960s, in the preeminent position that Grand Ayatollah Ail al-Sistani now holds. Read FRONTLINE's interview with al-Hakim.
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Adnan Pachachi
Pachachi, a former foreign minister of Iraq and ambassador to the United Nations before the 1968 Baathist coup, is now president of the Iraqi Independent Democrats and an influential member of the Iraqi Governing Council. As a Sunni with secular liberal-democratic views, Pachachi has been mentioned as a potential Iraqi leader favored by the U.S. While Pachachi stresses that the secular-religious divide among the Iraqi people, and the influence of Shiite clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr, must be addressed, he insists that Iraq does not have a history of ethnic violence. "This is not Northern Ireland," he says in an interview with FRONTLINE. "It's not Lebanon. It's not Bosnia."
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Mohsen Abdul Hameed
Hameed is a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and sits on the Iraqi Governing Council as a Sunni and leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which had opposed the American invasion prior to the war. The party was founded as the Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1960, and Hameed was imprisoned under the former regime because of his involvement with the Islamic fundamentalist group. Hameed has made it clear that his allegiance ultimately lies with his Sunni brethren, and that he is on the Iraqi Governing Council out of the necessity to represent them.
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Massoud Barzani
Barzani, a member of one of the most powerful Kurdish tribes, sits on the Iraqi Governing Council and is president of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which was founded in 1945 by his father, Mustafa Barzani. Barzani's KDP was commonly viewed as a more rural, tribal counterpart to Jalal Talibani's urban-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) when the two parties clashed in the mid-1990s. During the fighting in 1996, Barzani engaged in a temporary alliance with Saddam Hussein, receiving assistance from Baghdad to take on the PUK. Barzani was accused of being a traitor, not only by his constituents but by the United States, which had assisted him in the past. However, the strategic move allowed the KDP to achieve some stability in the region without further interference from Saddam.
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Jalal Talabani
Talabani is secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and sits on the Iraqi Governing Council. A former lawyer and journalist, he was originally a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, founded by KDP President Massoud Barzani's father, Mustafa Bazrani. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Talabani's views became increasingly divergent from the KDP party line, and after a failed attempt at overthrowing the elder Bazrani, Talabani and his followers were expelled from the party. In 1976, he founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which initially rivaled the KDP but joined forces with it in 1985 to form the Iraqi Kurdistan Front. The two parties would diverge again following the 1991 Gulf War, until a 1998 peace accord signed in Washington, D.C. outlined a joint-rule policy. Talabani has gone on the record in favor of an ethnically diverse Iraq.
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Songul Chapouk
A teacher and civil engineer, Chapouk is head of the Iraqi Women's Organization. She is one of three women on the Iraqi Governing Council. Chapouk is also a Sunni Muslim and has served as a voice on the Governing Council not only for Turkomans, but for women and Sunnis. The Iraqi Turkoman Front has been critical of her placement on the council because she comes from outside of the party and does not share its positions on important issues.
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Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani
Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, Sistani is one of four ayatollahs on the religious council called the Hawza, in the holy city of Najaf, and is regarded as a marja, or supreme spiritual guide. Sistani -- who, largely for security reasons, rarely, if ever, leaves his residence in Najaf -- issues his pronouncements through a network of aides who serve as his communicators to and from the outside world. Sistani's "quietist," as opposed to activist, brand of Shia Islam maintains a distance between religious authority and direct political involvement, holding that Islamic clerics should not govern or assume political power as in Iran. However, Sistani is plainly cognizant of his own influence and has asserted himself in the demand for direct elections leading up to the June 30 transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an interim Iraqi government. Many Shiite Iraqis say they are ready to challenge, and even fight, the U.S.-led coalition should Sistani's call for elections not be met.
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