Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Page 33
In a 2002 article: L. Paul Bremer III, “Corporate Governance and Crisis Management,” Directors & Boards, January 1, 2002.
He was fifty then: Bill Powell, “The CEO of Iraq,” Fortune, August 11, 2003.
When a visitor noted: Patrick E. Tyler, “Overseer Adjusts Strategy as Turmoil Grows in Iraq,” The New York Times, July 13, 2003.
Even in his early years: James T. Yenkel, “Couples: The Price of Success,” The Washington Post, May 11, 1982.
In 1994, the couple converted: Mark Zimmerman, “Iraq Envoy Says Faith Gives Him Strength,” Catholic Standard, June 19, 2003.
He wrote a memo to Pentagon officials: Michael R. Gordon, “Debate Lingering on Decision to Dissolve the Iraqi Military,” The New York Times, October 21, 2004.
When CPA officials complained: In an op-ed piece in The New York Times on January 13, 2006, titled “In Iraq, Wrongs Make a Right,” Bremer acknowledged that it was a mistake to leave implementation to Iraqi politicians. “De-Baathification should have been administered by an independent judicial body,” he wrote.
5 Who Are These People?
Years earlier, when he was appointed: Christopher Drew, “A Street Cop’s Rise from High School Dropout to Cabinet Nominee,” The New York Times, December 3, 2004.
Kerik’s first order of business: Hamza Hendawi, “Adviser: Iraq Police Reform to Be Tough,” Associated Press, May 26, 2003; and NBC Today show transcript, May 27, 2003; and Romesh Ratnesar, “Can a New York Cop Tame Baghdad?,” Time, June 9, 2003, p. 41.
Steele, who served as Bremer’s counselor: In addition to my own reporting, I gleaned insights from Jon Lee Anderson, “The Uprising: Shia and Sunnis Put Aside Their Differences,” The New Yorker, May 3, 2004, p. 63.
One former CPA employee: The e-mail was first published in the Web log of Daniel Drezner, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. It has been archived at http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001326.htm.
Jay Hallen didn’t much like his job: Unless otherwise cited, all direct quotes from Hallen are from a transcript of an interview of Hallen conducted by Susan M. Klingaman of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, on October 1, 2004, for the United States Institute of Peace’s Iraq Experience Project.
It wasn’t just Hallen who was: Yochi J. Dreazen, “How a 24-Year-Old Got a Job Rebuilding Iraq’s Stock Market,” The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2004, p. A1.
At Yale University: Ann Ritter, “Rediscover Your Inner Child at ‘The Lorax,’” Yale Herald, January 23, 1998.
Five days after Hallen arrived: Jay Hallen, “Greetings from Camp Arkansas,” TCS Daily, September 23, 2003. Available on the Web at http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=092303E.
7 Bring a Duffel Bag
Behind the podium: Senor made the statement about Iraqis not wanting Coalition forces to leave at a May 24, 2004, CPA press briefing. A poll conducted for the CPA by the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Security Studies from April 14 to 23, 2004, in six large Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, reported that 55 percent of respondents said they would feel “more safe” if Coalition forces left immediately. Forty-one percent of respondents said they wanted Coalition forces to “leave immediately,” and 45 percent said they wanted Coalition forces to “leave after a permanent government is elected.” Only 7 percent of respondents said they had confidence in Coalition forces. A poll conducted for the CPA by the same organization from May 14 to 23, 2004, reported that 866 of 1,068 respondents wanted Coalition forces to leave Iraq.
Several days later: Michael Furlong, SAIC’s project manager in Baghdad, and Ahmed al-Rikaby, a senior Iraqi journalist with the IMN, said they were present at the meeting where Senor asked North why IMN didn’t broadcast the tape. Both men told me they recalled North’s comment to Senor. They also described Senor’s questioning of Bremer as an interview. Senor insisted to me that he did not interview Bremer for IMN. Senor claimed that the incident in question involved one of Bremer’s addresses to the Iraqi people, during which he prompted Bremer while the tape was rolling.
IMN staff worried that running: Kathleen McCaul, “Troubles at Iraqi Media Network,” Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003.
Michael Battles arrived in Baghdad: Neil King, Jr., and Yochi J. Dreazen, “Amid Chaos in Iraq, Tiny Security Firm Found Opportunity,” The Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2004, p. A1.
We got that contract: Ibid.
8 A Yearning for Old Times
Physical reconstruction was a means: Most quotations and other material attributed to Agresto come from several interviews I conducted with him in Iraq and in the United States. A few quotes have been taken from an unpublished book manuscript he shared with me.
10 The Plan Unravels
I don’t think it would be responsible: Bremer, My Year in Iraq, p. 205.
198 Bremer landed at Andrews: Ibid., p. 224.
203 Frankly, I’m disappointed: Ibid., p. 231.
11 A Fool’s Errand
Despite its selective admission of Iraqis: “Iraqi Hospitals to Regain First-Class Status Quickly,” Agence France Presse, February 27,2004.
12 We Cannot Continue Like This
A few weeks after he arrived in Baghdad: As with the earlier section, all direct quotes from Hallen, unless otherwise cited, are from the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training interview.
15 Crazy, If Not Suicidal
But back in Washington, the desire for revenge: In addition to my own reporting, I gleaned insights from Alissa J. Rubin and Doyle McManus, “Why America Has Waged a Losing Battle on Fallouja,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2004, p. A1.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. He was the newspaper’s bureau chief in Baghdad from April 2003 to September 2004, and he has reported from more than two dozen countries in Asia and the Middle East. He lives in Washington, D.C.
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Copyright © 2006 by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv.
Imperial life in the emerald city : inside Iraq’s green zone / Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Postwar reconstruction—Iraq. 2. Coalition Provisional Authority. 3. Iraq War, 2003– 4. United States—Politics and government—2001– 5. Political corruption—United States. I. Title: Inside Iraq’s green zone. II. Title.
DS79.769.C53 2006 2006041014
956.7044'31—dc22
eISBN: 978-0-307-26592-0
v3.0