- A Pentagon lawyer who sought to have US citizens imprisoned
indefinitely without charge as part of the war on terrorism will supervise
civil administration in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is removed.
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- Michael Mobbs, 54, who will take charge of 11 of the
23 Iraqi ministries, is one of several controversial appointments to the
Pentagon-controlled government-in-waiting being assembled in a cluster
of seaside villas in Kuwait.
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- Other top-level appointees include James Woolsey, a former
CIA director with Israeli connections who has long pursued a theory that
President Hussein, rather than Islamic militants, was behind the 1993 bombing
of the World Trade Centre in New York. Another is Zalmay Khalilzad, who
once sympathised with the Taliban but later changed tack.
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- During the Reagan administration, Mr Mobbs worked at
the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, where he became known for his
hawkish views on national security and American-Soviet relations.
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- On these issues he was closely aligned with the assistant
defence secretary at the time, Richard Perle, who is widely regarded as
chief architect of the war.
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- Mr Mobbs later joined a Washington law firm where Douglas
Feith - now under secretary for policy at the Pentagon - was a partner.
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- In his current role as a legal consultant to the Pentagon,
Mr Mobbs has been working behind the scenes to help determine the legal
fate of terror suspects and other detainees held by the US military in
Cuba and Afghanistan.
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- He was also author of what has become known as the "Mobbs
declaration", a document presented to the US courts on behalf of the
Pentagon claiming that the US president has wide powers to detain American
citizens alleged to be enemy combatants indefinitely.
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- The former CIA director James Woolsey was initially scheduled
to take charge of the Iraqi information ministry, although opposition from
the White House has made that unlikely. However, sources close to the planning
process say he is expected to be handed a senior role in the post-Saddam
government.
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- Mr Woolsey sits on the advisory board of the Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs, a connection likely to arouse hostility
in Iraq. Mr Feith and Vice-President Dick Cheney were once members of the
same body, and Mr Perle remains on the board.
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- Mr Woolsey has also backed a theory that Iraq was behind
the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, rather than the Islamic militants
who were convicted for it.
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- Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, a former Pentagon and state
department official, has been appointed as the government-in-waiting's
"special envoy" to the Iraqi opposition.
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- His main task is to organise a conference of 250 prominent
Iraqis, the equivalent of the loya jirga in Afghanistan.
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- In 1997, jointly with Mr Wolfowitz, he wrote an article
in the conservative Weekly Standard which called for regime change in Iraq
under the headline "Overthrow him".
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- "What would be required is very substantial bombing,
lasting for weeks," Mr Khalilzad later told the New York Times, "but
you cannot be certain that even that will do the job".
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,929378,00.html
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