VZCZCXRO2958
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHGB #0866/01 0761350
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171350Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3353
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 000866 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: RESOLVE AND RECRIMINATIONS BOTH IN THE AIR AS 
COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES CONVENES 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY AND COMMENT:  Like so many carefully 
scripted events in Iraqi politics, the inauguration of the 
Council of Representatives on March 16 began poetically, 
had its moments of bickering over rules and procedures, and 
then spilled out into the hallway and onto the airwaves. 
After weeks of debate over when to convene the parliament, 
who could convene the parliament, and what the parliament 
ought to do, Iraq's newly elected 275 representatives found 
themselves still enmeshed in debate and discussion as they 
gathered before a flower-decorated stage inside Baghdad's 
Convention Center.  But ongoing disagreements did not drown 
out a recording of the national anthem nor dent the 
enthusiasm of an extraordinarily wide and representative 
group of newly-minted parliamentarians from 12 disparate 
electoral lists. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY AND COMMENT CONTINUED: By the end of the 
day, all of the delegates agreed on the outcome: Iraq had 
met its constitutional requirement to convene its new 
parliament.  The parliament is now left in "open session" 
until Iraq's leaders decide to re-convene it.  Government 
formation negotiations will resume March 17, but a new wild 
card may come into play: several members frustrated with 
the prolonged talks say they may use a provision in the 
parliament's by-laws to force the parliament to reconvene 
and vote through a cabinet if the political leadership 
fails to show progress in the next few weeks.  In all, the 
session combined the backroom dealing with the public and 
peaceful display of political differences in an elected 
legislature that mark Iraq's evolving democratic practices. 
END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
-------------------- 
The Council Convenes 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The inaugural session of Iraq's new Council of 
Representatives on March 16 lasted less than one hour, but 
that was more than enough time for rhetoric to soar and 
sectarian differences to shine through in Baghdad's 
Convention Center.  This cable is offered as a snapshot of 
another milestone in an embattled Iraq's political 
evolution. 
 
--------------------------------- 
The Kurds Arrive With a Complaint 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kurdish delegates arrived at the Convention Center 
March 17 with small black ribbons affixed to their lapels 
and a letter of protest in their pockets.  As the crowd 
milled and the press photographed, Kurdistan Islamic Union 
representative Muhamammad Mahmud greeted Poloff in the 
Convention Center's main hall and promptly passed a copy of 
a letter he had passed to the speaker demanding a strong 
remembrance of the Halabja massacre.  They would see their 
demand met immediately. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The session opened with a moment of silence for 
the victims of Halabja, but after that gesture had passed, 
several Kurdish attendees were still aggrieved.  The 
speaker was neglecting to translate the session in Kurdish, 
they pointed out, a step that had been taken at the opening 
of last year's Transitional National Assembly.  It was 
unclear at the end of the day if the translation problem 
was an oversight or intentional, but the parliament's new 
Kurdish translator was left at the side of the stage during 
the ceremony without the role he thought he would play. 
 
--------------------------- 
Pachachi Warns Of Danger Of Civil War 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Outgoing National Assembly Speaker Hachim al- 
Hasani made a valiant effort to launch the proceedings on a 
patriotic note with an eloquent speech that praised the 
work of the body he had led.  He predicted success for the 
parliament taking its place and even composed a poem for 
the occasion that proclaimed in eloquent classical Arabic, 
"Baghdad, beacon and pride of Iraq, you remain exalted in 
the finest garments/ O Lord, unify our people and our 
country, and grant as Your favor a clear light."  But 
Hasani's speech also included a brief mention of the need 
to review Iraq's constitution, words that surely grated on 
the ears of Shia coalition delegates already unsettled by a 
session they had pushed off, threatened to boycott and now 
saw being led by Sunni Arabs. 
 
 
BAGHDAD 00000866  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) And so when Adnan Pachachi took the stage as the 
session's eldest member and honorary chair, patience was 
already fraying.  Rather than delve straight into 
administering the oath for the new parliament, Pachachi 
swerved into a political address that warned of the danger 
of civil war, trumpeted the need to review the 
constitution, and bluntly called for a restructuring of 
Iraq's security services and a halt to "death squads." 
When he veered back to his prepared remarks and called for 
quick work to form a national unity government, the 
patience of the Shia crowd -- which included the commander 
of the Ministry of Interior's "Commando" forces -- had 
ended.  Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim shouted out from his seat for 
Pachachi to follow the body's by-laws and get to the oath 
of office.  Pachachi paused, said he was within his rights 
delivering his remarks, and completed his speech before 
calling a representative of the Higher Judicial Council to 
the stage to administer the oath. 
 
--------------------- 
An Objection Emerges 
From the Shia 
--------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The oath itself -- a subject of prolonged dispute 
during Iraq's constitution negotiations -- seemed at first 
to come off without a hitch.  The members rose, the words 
were read and repeated, and the crowd was seated as cameras 
flashed.  But then, from the back of the hall, Constitution 
Committee Chairman Humam al-Hammudi rose in protest, 
claiming that the representative of the Higher Judicial 
Council had diverged from the proper oath and misread the 
text.  Hammudi claimed the judge had omitted a preposition 
and rephrased the invocation. 
 
¶9. (SBU) His objection was more than grammatical. The 
constitution, at Shia insistence, stipulates that the oath 
open with the words, "In the name of God the lofty and 
supreme."  The word "lofty," ('ali' in Arabic) is an 
uncommon appendage to the invocation, and it is drawn from 
the Quran.  The term resonates well to many Shia because it 
calls to mind the name of the Imam Ali, but Sunni 
negotiators found it grating during the negotiations, 
another example of sectarian wordsmithing in a document 
that they said ought to represent all Iraqis.  After a few 
minutes of confusion on the stage it emerged that Hammudi's 
objection was baseless -- the text had been read correctly 
and the oath properly administered.  When Poloff spoke with 
Hammudi after the event it appeared the entire objection 
may have been a gimmick to disrupt the proceedings, draw 
the cameras, and send a message to the Shia masses watching 
the Sunni-led event that their leaders were present and 
prepared in the hall. 
 
------------------------ 
The Session "Closes", But 
Then Again Doesn't 
------------------------ 
 
¶10. (SBU) The event closed moments later but not before a 
final blunder threw the legality of the proceedings into 
doubt.  Pachachi had been instructed repeatedly by legal 
aides to suspend the session without "closing" it lest the 
parliament violate its constitutional requirement to elect 
a speaker and two deputies in its "first" meeting. 
Apparently flustered by the interjections from the floor 
and the confusion on the stage, Pachachi suddenly 
announced, "The session is closed!" and the delegates rose 
from their seats.  National Assembly Chief of Staff Saif 
Abd al-Rahman, sitting behind Poloff, gasped, "No!!! He 
just broke the law!  We can't close the session -- it has 
to stay open!"  But none of the delegates streaming toward 
the doors made an issue of the slip-up. 
 
---------------- 
A New Plot Afoot 
---------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Even as that misstep escaped notice, another 
legal maneuver was already in the works.  KDP 
parliamentarian and outgoing chairman of the legal 
committee Muhsin Sa'adun soon approached Poloff amidst a 
crowd in the convention center cafeteria, where members of 
opposing blocks had segregated themselves in clusters among 
the plastic tables and chairs.  Gesturing across the room, 
Sa'adun pointed out that convening the parliament -- even 
if the session was ceremonial -- had just put a new card in 
the hands of those pushing for a quick resolution to 
 
BAGHDAD 00000866  003 OF 003 
 
 
government talks.  The parliament's current by-laws, he 
said, allow 50 representatives to petition to convene an 
"extraordinary" session of the parliament. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Sa'adun noted that he had already heard whispers 
from well over 50 new parliamentarians who are ready to use 
that right and re-convene the assembly.  They could then 
seek to vote through a government even if government 
formation talks stall over the next few weeks, Sa'adun 
speculated.  Those delegates are unlikely to foment unrest 
if their party bosses call for patience, but Sa'adun's 
scheme seems to indicate that this wide gallery of 
enthusiastic new representatives may have already begun to 
think for itself. 
KHALILZAD