Iraqi Shiites fill administrative void

Karbala, Iraq ? Iraqi Shiites are organizing local committees, doling out funds to pay salaries, collecting looted property and sending militias to secure hospitals and electric plants.

The Shiites are fast filling the power vacuum left by the ouster of Saddam Hussein — and some fear their dominance of postwar Iraqi politics could lead to an Islamic theocracy like the one next door in Shiite-dominated Iran.

Long repressed under Saddam’s Sunni-dominated government and representing 60 percent of Iraq’s population of 24 million, the Shiites have divided their religious loyalties between at least three leaders. Yet their opposition to a prolonged U.S. presence on Iraqi soil appears uniform, and some look to Iran as a model.

“The Iranian experience proved to be successful until now and I hope Iraq will be the same,” said Naji Abdel-Razzak, a 45-year-old civil servant in Karbala.

Added Kathem al-Nasiri, a cleric from the Hawza seminary in Karbala: “We want to establish an Islamic, Shiite state, the same as what happened in Iran” — though he doubted the United States would permit that.

Thousands of Shiites demonstrated Wednesday against the United States in Karbala, carrying banners with messages such as “No to America, no to Israel, yes to Islam.” Their brethren recited the final prayers of a fervent religious pilgrimage that dramatized the potential for Shiite power in Iraq.

The pilgrimage to mourn the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson was organized by a center of Shiite learning known as the Hawza al-Ilmiya — the same organization that since Saddam’s ouster has been sending out volunteers to guard banks, get power plants back on line and set up checkpoints.

Reports that Iran seeks to influence Iraqi Shiites are setting off alarms in Washington.

“We have concerns about this matter, about Iranian agents in Iraq,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, responding to reports that Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq to promote Shiite clerics and advance Iranian interests. “We’ve made our points clear to the Iranians.”

An Iraqi Shiite pilgrim woman kisses the gate of the Imam Hussein holy shrine in Karbala, Iraq. Many Iraqis are trying to downplay the influence of Iran on neighboring Shiites, and the possibility that a theocratic government will replace Saddam Hussein's rule.

After toppling Saddam’s regime, the Bush administration is keen on setting up a broad-based, democratic government in Iraq — with representation from Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Paradoxically, however, instituting majority rule could bring theocracy, not democracy — and one that’s not necessarily friendly to U.S. interests.

Winning Shiite support is key to U.S. efforts to block the influence of Iran — and there are signs this may be possible. Senior Shiite clerics have insisted they want to share power with Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds.

Iraqi Shiites are Arab, not Persian like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism. During the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988, they did not rise up against Saddam. Many Shiites oppose the idea of an Islamic state run by clerics, including Iraq’s top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani.

Iraq’s largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has its headquarters in Tehran, the Iranian capital.

The group’s leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, is still in Iran. But his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group’s armed wing, has come back to Iraq to pave the way for the ayatollah’s return.

He told al-Jazeera television on Wednesday that the group opposes any foreign presence in Iraq. Its fighters — the Badr Brigades — are present around Iraq but have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told al-Jazeera television.

“We do not want any fighting … as this would only harm the interests of the Iraqi people,” he said.

Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general overseeing postwar reconstruction, told reporters in northern Iraq Wednesday that the Shiite demonstrations in Karbala and elsewhere were “the first part of democracy — the right to disagree.”

“I think the bulk of the Shia, the majority of the Shia, are very glad they are where they are right now. Two weeks ago they wouldn’t have been able to demonstrate,” he said.

¢ American forces in Iraq captured four top officials of Saddam Hussein’s former government: the air defense force commander, Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti; the former head of military intelligence, Gen. Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib, who surrendered to U.S. troops; Mohammed Mahdi al-Salih, the former Iraqi trade minister; and Salim Said Khalaf al-Jumayli, Iraqi intelligence’s chief of American operations.¢ The Associated Press learned that six Iraqi scientists working at Baghdad research institutions were ordered to destroy some bacteria and equipment and hide more in their homes before visits from U.N. weapons inspectors in the months leading up to the war.¢ American forces are changing their search strategy after searching more than 80 likely hiding places for suspected weapons of mass destruction and finding nothing, officials said. Troops will set aside the list of sites and decide where to go on the basis of new information from Iraqis, defense officials said.¢ A group of 40 retired Iraqi generals met with a U.S. commander in the northern city of Mosul and pledged to work to restore order.¢ A U.S. commander in Baghdad denied the Americans had recognized Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, a returned exile who has declared himself mayor and set up an administration in the capital. Al-Zubaidi told residents he would begin paying salaries to city workers.¢ Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged the United States and Britain to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible and start building a legitimate government there.¢ Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general charged with leading efforts to reconstruct Iraq, said Wednesday he expected anti-Americanism to abate as work to restart the economy and establish democracy starts to take hold.¢ Security Council members who opposed the war in Iraq — including France, Russia and Germany — are insisting that U.N. inspectors be allowed to join a weapons hunt now being conducted exclusively by the United States. The Bush administration says it will search for them on its own.¢ Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that France faced consequences for trying to block the U.S.-led war with Iraq, and Bush administration officials are exploring ways to exclude France from some NATO meetings.¢ U.S. soldiers found $112 million in U.S. currency inside seven dog kennels in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood where top Baath Party and Republican Guard officials once lived.¢ More than 80 percent of Baghdad still lacks power, and doctors have reported the first suspected cases of cholera and typhoid, blamed on the lack of clean running water.