Reply #27: "If Iraq does become a democracy..."? Nice start, huh?

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030716/pl_afp/iraq_us_bremer&cid=1521&ncid=1480

US administration reaches out to communists, low-paid Iraqis

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Promoting communists, doubling the salaries of the low-paid and banning the death penalty might not sound like the work of a US Republican administration, but then welcome to topsy-turvy post-war Iraq (news - web sites).

Among the more surprising choices made by the top US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, known for his neo-conservative leanings, was to allow communist Hamid Majid Mussa to sit on Iraq's new Governing Council.

"He has two main concerns: preventing extremists taking the key positions among the Shiites and keeping the economy going," explained one of the international advisors involved in the selection process.

"He hesitated at first but became convinced that the communists could prove a counterweight to the imams," he added, asking not to be named.

Iraqi Communist Party official Numan Suhayel explains how the selection was made: "The Americans and the British sent a delegation to see us and then Hamid Majid met personally with Paul Bremer," he says.

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