In a surprise move the U.S. held a brief, secret ceremony in Baghdad on Monday, June 28, to mark the so-called handover of power to the new unelected government of Iraq. The handover was scheduled to take place on Wednesday June 30 but the US moved up the date with hopes that it would pre-empt further attacks by members of the Iraq resistance to coincide with the handover. The ceremony was attended by a handful of Iraqi and coalition officials including the head of the Coalition Provision Authority Paul Bremer and Iyad Allawi who was selected to be Iraq's prime minister. Allawi is a former Baathist who has ties to the CIA and Saudi intelligence. Iraq's newly selected president Ghazi Yawer was also present.

What this surprise turnover does show is that the US is unable to control Iraq despite the presence of 140,000 troops and massive firepower. This public relations maneuver will satisfy the concern of some, especially in this election year, but we must ask, what does real sovereignty mean following an illegal and immoral war, a war of aggression, and an illegal occupation?

We call upon the US and the governments of all the occupying forces to...

1. RESPECT THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND END THE OCCUPATION
The Us Will Maintain All Meaningful Military Control:
140,000 US troops will remain in Iraq and American contractors are presently building 14 permanent US bases there. The new Interim Government of Iraq (IGI) has no power to deny nor even, necessarily, to influence US military operations within Iraq. On Saturday Bremer signed an edict that gave US soldiers and military contractors immunity from Iraqi laws even after the handover of power.

The Us Will Maintain All Meaningful Administrative Control:
The US is building in Iraq the largest embassy in the world which will have 1000 permanent US staff. John Negroponte, who was US ambassador to Honduras during the US-supported military dictatorships which killed thousands in Central America in the 1980s, will be the new ambassador to Iraq. He will dole out billions of dollars in aid and coordinate control of about 140,000 American troops.

The new government, the Interim Government of Iraq (IGI), are actually alumni of the now-disbanded Iraq Governing Council, which was hand-picked by the US. The IGI will be barred from amending the interim constitution that was drawn up by the US and the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

Bremer has also issued a series of other edicts that could affect how Iraq will be governed for years to come. He has appointed at least two dozen Iraqis to government jobs with five-year terms including Iraq's new national security advisor and national intelligence chief. This means the US will have high-placed allies in government regardless of who wins the upcoming Iraqi elections. Bremer has also formed a seven-member election commission that will have the power to disqualify political parties and candidates. Meanwhile it has been widely reported that unelected prime minister Allawi is considering imposing martial law or issuing special emergency laws.

Although government ministries are supposedly headed by IGI members, they are bound to be US-friendly in their decision making due to oversight by US-installed technical advisers. Ministers will be beholden to the US for their operating budgets. Funding for the ministries will depend for years largely on appropriations by the US Congress -- as long as Iraq's revenues suffer from oil industry sabotage, the Saddam-era legacy of odious debt and Kuwait war reparations, privatization of public resources, and the corporate-friendly tax structure cemented in by Bremer's CPA.

All of this is an attempt to establish a strategic foothold in the Middle East.

2. ALLOW REBUILDING OF IRAQ FOR THE BENEFIT OF IRAQIS AND NOT THE AGENDAS OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND CORPORATIONS
The Us Will Retain All Meaningful Economic Control:
During his term as CPA Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer signed orders which together provide for the full privatization of public enterprises, full ownership rights by foreign firms of Iraqi businesses, full repatriation of foreign profits, a Flat Tax, the opening of Iraq's banks to foreign control, national treatment for foreign companies (which means, for example, that Iraq cannot require that local firms able to do reconstruction work should be hired instead of foreign ones), and elimination of nearly all trade barriers. So far, Iraq's oil--at least its extraction and initial processing--is excluded.

The new Interim Government of Iraq has no authority to revise pre-June 28 business regulations or tax structures imposed by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Nor can they revisit thousands of CPA-approved construction and oil contracts with mostly US- and UK-controlled companies, for example, Haliburton. These regulations, tax structures and contracts generally favor foreign over Iraqi interests. Thus, the U.S. corporations that have received billions of tax-payer dollars for reconstruction in Iraq could own every business, do all the work, and send all of their money home. Nothing need be reinvested in Iraq nor specifically designed to aid the Iraqi economy. Clearly, without economic sovereignty, even real political sovereignty will mean little.

"For many conservatives, Iraq is now the test case for whether the U.S. can engender American-style free-market capitalism within the Arab world." Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal, 5/1/03.

3. UPHOLD HUMAN RIGHTS
“The horrors of Abu Ghraib were not simply the acts of individual soldiers. Abu Ghraib resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to cast the rules aside,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

4. UPHOLD LABOR RIGHTS AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The US is presently enforcing Saddam Hussein’s laws banning labor unions in Iraq. Women have been appointed to only six of the 30 cabinet posts, short of the 25 percent goal. The US refused to support a mandatory number of female-held seats in the future National Assembly. Bremer even allowed the creation of a constitutional drafting committee that was all men, although it was clear that the constitution was pivotal to establishing women’s rights.

5. PAY REPARATIONS TO FAMILIES OF IRAQIS KILLED OR INJURED AS A RESULT OF THE ECONOMIC AND MILITARY WARFARE SINCE 1990
Tens of thousands died from this latest aggression, hundreds of thousands more from 14 years of economic sanctions and bombing.

6. CLEAN-UP ALL CLUSTER-BOMBS, MINES, DEPLETED URANIUM AND OTHER UNEXPLODED WEAPONS USED AGAINST THE IRAQI PEOPLE SINCE 1991
Experts in clearing conflict zones of unexploded bombs and Depleted Uranium munitions (which remain radioactive for 4.5 billion years) say that millions of Iraqi adults and children are at risk, along with humanitarian aid workers, UN personnel, civilian staff and military officials.

7. REDIRECT PENTAGON MONEY TOWARDS HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND PRISONER REHABILITATION IN THE US
In 2003-05, the US will spend $200 Billion above normal military expenditures -- which now amount to $400 Billion a year -- in the Iraq war. Meanwhile, social programs are facing their most severe cuts here in the US.

For more info on the “transfer” of sovereignty to Iraq, please see “Who's Sovereign Now?”  by Michael Schwartz  http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0617-14.htm . "Sovereignty transfer" is a sham since the United States will maintains (1) military (2) economic and (3) administrative control.

ACTIONS
1. Write/call your congressperson  and senators and ask them to fulfill the above just demands.
Call 202-224-3121 and ask for your senators and congressperson .
Write them by going to www.congress.org (see Sample Letter below)
2. Share this leaflet with family, friends, coworkers and your faith community.
3. Take heart, a just world is possible if we continue to work together to  make it happen.

SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Senator/Congressperson (name)

In a surprise move the U.S. held a brief ceremony in Baghdad on Monday, June 28, to mark the so-called handover of power to the new unelected government of Iraq. The handover was scheduled to take place on Wednesday June 30 but the US moved up the date with hopes that it would pre-empt further attacks by members of the Iraq resistance to coincide with the handover.

What this surprise turnover does show is that the US is unable to control Iraq despite the presence of 138,000 troops and massive firepower. This public relations maneuver will satisfy the concern of some, especially in this election year, but we must ask, what does real sovereignty mean following an illegal and immoral war, a war of aggression, and an illegal occupation?

We call upon the US governments to...

1. Respect The Right to Self-determination And End The Occupation
2. Allow Rebuilding of Iraq For The Benefit of Iraqis And Not The Agendas of Foreign
Governments And Corporations

3. Uphold Human Rights
4. Uphold Labor Rights and Women’s Rights
5. Pay Reparations to Families of Iraqis Killed or Injured as a Result of the Economic and Military Warfare since 1990
6. Clean-up All Cluster-bombs, Mines, Depleted Uranium and Other Unexploded Weapons Used Against the Iraqi People since 1991
7. Redirect Pentagon Money Towards Health, Education, and Prisoner Rehabilitation in the Us

Sincerely,