IRAQ: The US intends to adopt de facto martial law in Iraq, imposing a nationwide overnight curfew in the hope of reducing the violence that erupted on Sunday, according to a high-ranking source in the Coalition Provisional Authority.
At the same time, more power will be invested in the US military in Iraq, led by Gen Ricardo Sanchez. "There's a strong opinion that (the US administrator Mr Paul) Bremer has made a total mess of things," the source said. "The military wants to take away the leeway the Iraqis have been given, impose some discipline."
The US is determined to arrest Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Muslim cleric whose followers in the 'Mehdi Army' have fought US forces in southern Iraq and Baghdad this week.
"Our offensive operations will be deliberate, they will be precise, and they will be powerful and they will succeed," Brig Gen Mark Kimmit said yesterday.
Sheikh al-Sadr on Tuesday moved from the mosque where he preaches in Kufa to nearby Najaf, where he is rumoured to have taken shelter in the shrine to Imam Ali, the holiest place in Shia Islam. It is difficult to imagine the US would further inflame Shia anger by desecrating the shrine.
Instead, US officials are rumoured to be negotiating the handover of Sheikh al-Sadr with other Shia leaders - believed to be from the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Dawa party, who participate in the US-appointed Governing Council and view al-Sadr as a dangerous trouble-maker.
The curfew is a precautionary measure that would authorise US forces to shoot anyone outside after dark in the event that widespread rioting follows al-Sadr's arrest, the CPA source said. "He's going to be a scapegoat. The Americans cannot negotiate with him, especially after the burning of the four (security contracts in Falluja last week)."
US officials expect pitched battles like those which continued yesterday in Falluja, pitting US armour and helicopter gunships against militiamen firing rocket propelled grenades. "A lot of people are going to get killed," the CPA source predicted.
Even residents of the 'green zone', the US headquarters in Baghdad, are afraid, he said. Rocket attacks on the al-Rashid hotel, and the sporadic mortaring of the huge complex, show that it is not safe.
"The reason we're not bombarded more is because we're penetrated by Iraqis working for the armed opposition," the CPA source said. "Almost everyone has a beautiful 28-year-old Iraqi interpreter they're sleeping with."
A reshuffle of the Governing Council is also under consideration, because the US is reluctant to empower a body which is already riddled with corruption.
"Every ministry is a family business. It's like 'Fantasy Island'," the CPA source said. "When we first came in, the first Iraqi who hugged and kissed us got appointed. It's a can of worms. You can't pick a good worm from a bad worm."
The source spoke of nepotism, financial corruption and abuse of power throughout the Iraqi 'government', less than three months before the US intends to transfer authority to a still undefined 'sovereign' body.
Several members of the Governing Council have close relatives in high ministerial positions. The son of a Shia member of the Council, Ayatollah Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, is the oil minister. The foreign minister, Mr Hoshyar Zebari, is the nephew of the Kurdish Governing Council member Mr Massoud Barzani. "Everyone who works in the foreign ministry, down to the cleaning ladies, is a Kurd," another source said.
"This is the way it works," the CPA source explained. "An American senior advisor and his interpreter go to lunch with the American's counterpart. Maybe they don't see each other again for a month. In the meantime, the Iraqi minister is pocketing his budget and hiring more friends and relatives.
"They're using government money to build their political parties, for next year's elections. They're so secretive, so mafiosi, that members of the Governing Council don't know among themselves what the others are up to."
US Marines are distributing a 'Wanted' poster for Iraqis who participated in last week's lynch mob, using images taken from video film. But the CPA source said they do not know the men's identity.
"We can't back out now," he said. "The siege (of Falluja) could last a long time. We don't have the backbone to search house to house, so we have to bombard first with tanks and helicopter gunships. It's going to make the population hate us." The US used F-16 bombers over Falluja yesterday. Lt Colonel Brennan Byrne reported that the Marines bombed a mosque, killing up to 40 insurgents.
Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network, managed to get a cameramen and two correspondents into Falluja. They reported 105 people were killed there on Monday and Tuesday, and 195 others were wounded.
Al Jazeera yesterday broadcast images of 25 bodies wrapped in blood-soaked blankets in the courtyard of a house. Here and there, a hand or foot protruded. The victims had reportedly left their own homes to take shelter in a building they thought was safer. .
The CPA source believes the US could have defuzed tension in the Sunni Triangle months ago if officials had been willing to respect tribal traditions. "When we kill people, we should go to tribal leaders and pay blood money. If you don't, their honour requires them to take revenge," he said.