Word: baathists
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...international airport last week, a twisted heap that had once been an Army humvee sat on the highway. Crouched behind a metal guardrail, an Iraqi had triggered a trip wire, detonating a charge. One American was killed. "The only person who knows how to do that is the Iraqi Baathist army," concludes a U.S. naval intelligence officer attached to ORHA. "And they are thinking right now, F___ the Americans; we'll gravitate toward the radicals...
...Armed harassment by Baathist sympathizers is unlikely to grow into a nationwide insurgency, however, because of the history and demographics of Iraq. The Sunnis, after all, constitute only 15 percent of the total population, and although there are mounting signs of disaffection with the occupation among the Shiite majority, they're also the longest-suffering victims of Baathist tyranny and are unlikely to make common cause with their former tormentors...
...backed Iraqi National Congress are challenging Bremer's plan to elect a 35-member consultative body to advise him on political decisions, and have threatened to hold their national assembly in defiance of his edicts. But managing the competing claims of rival Iraqi groups amid mounting tension, fighting the Baathist holdouts while working to restore security and basic services are now part of the administration's daily agenda in Iraq...
...Americans struggle to fill key posts, unreformed Baathist hard-liners are trying to reassert their authority. "We've left the bad Baathists a lot of latitude, and they have had a lot of time to regroup," says retired Colonel Ted Seel, Central Command liaison to the Iraqi National Congress, a group opposed to Saddam that recently returned from exile. Dr. Goran Talabani, a neurologist who is advising the Americans on Iraq's health-care system, says Baath loyalists are threatening Health Ministry employees and telling them not to cooperate with the Americans. Talabani, a cousin of Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani...
...time, the U.S. may adopt a formal system for determining who can serve in the new government. According to an American consultant on Garner's team, the U.S. is considering a plan to purge the top three tiers of Baathist leadership--involving at least 30,000 people. Another proposal would require all government employees to forswear loyalty to the Baath Party. Of course, people desperate for work are likely to sign anything...