What to do with this guy?

[Vympel]

Unelected Mayor Rallies Supporters Against Marines

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page A01

KUT, Iraq, April 23 -- The U.S. Marines who seized control of this city near the Iranian border more than two weeks ago still have not dared enter the mayor's office. That is the domain of Sayed Abbas Fadhil -- and for now, he is untouchable.

Fadhil, a portly Shiite Muslim preacher turned farmer who has proclaimed himself the new mayor of Kut, insists his ascension to high office has been blessed by the city's religious leaders, teachers, lawyers, doctors, municipal workers and just about everyone else around, save for the U.S. military and those who were part of ousted president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

In case his claim of popular support does not deter his eviction, he has welcomed into the mayoral compound several hundred young men who have vowed to defend him if the Marines try to remove him by force.

"We thank the Americans for getting rid of Saddam's regime, but now Iraq must be run by Iraqis," Fadhil thundered during a meeting today with his supporters in the building's spacious conference room. "We cannot allow the Americans to rule us from this office."

In a country where seemingly everyone with influence and connections is seeking to fill the leadership vacuum left by the downfall of Hussein and his once-omnipotent Baath Party, Fadhil's claim to be mayor of Kut is perhaps the most audacious attempt yet to grab power. Unlike Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi the Iraqi exile who has declared himself governor of Baghdad but remains holed up in two downtown hotels, Fadhil has set up shop in an official building and appears to have rallied support across this city of 300,000 people.

He also has been doing more than issuing what he considers official pronouncements. Some of his followers have started police patrols and set up checkpoints on roads out of Kut. Others have fanned out to hospitals, mosques and schools to inform residents that Fadhil is the new boss in town.

The refusal of Marine commanders to recognize Fadhil's new title has fueled particularly intense anti-American sentiments here. In scenes not seen in other Iraqi cities, U.S. convoys have been loudly jeered. Waving Marines have been greeted with angry glares and thumbs-down signs.

Those feelings seemed to reach a peak today. After the Marines arrested a prominent cleric upon finding a gun in his car, hundreds of people converged on a contingent of Marines outside a medical supply warehouse. A noisy protest ensued, ending only after troops threatened over a loudspeaker to open fire. A few hours later, a few hundred young men staged a spontaneous human blockade on both sides of a narrow bridge over the Tigris River, trapping several Marine trucks for about a half-hour.

"Go home! Go home!" one man shouted on the bridge. Another held up a sign that read: "No to imposed administration. Yes to local administration."

Marine officers here said they do not have the authority to decide who can be mayor. That authority rests with a U.S.-run interim civil administration, which has just begun work in Baghdad. The administration, headed by retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, eventually will select leaders of medium-size cities such as Kut, located on the banks of the Tigris about 100 miles southeast of the capital. But such decisions likely are weeks away, U.S. officials said.

Even if such choices were being made now, it is not clear Fadhil would get to keep the job. U.S. officials say they believe he is a local leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite political party that has ties to Iran and a strong following in eastern and southern Iraq. Although the U.S. government has attempted to encourage the party to work with other opposition groups under an American umbrella, the council has so far refused, stating that it is opposed to the U.S. presence in Iraq. The group boycotted a recent U.S.-sponsored meeting of opposition leaders.

A spokesman for the party's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim, said he supports Fadhil's claim to be mayor and is considering traveling to Kut to meet with him. Many members of the party, which is headquartered in Tehran and had been banned under Hussein's government, have returned to Iraq over the past two weeks.

Fadhil said in an interview today that he is not affiliated with the party but is not opposed to its activities. "They are Iraqis. They have come back to their homeland. They are united," he said. "This is the essence of democracy."

Further stoking the anti-American sentiments here is a belief held by Fadhil and many of his supporters that the Marines have been working with former Baathists to reconstitute the police force and restart basic public services. This has prompted a debate about whether those affiliated with Hussein's party, even as technocrats, should be barred from participating in a new government.

"There should be no room in the government for these people, these criminals and opportunists," Fadhil insisted.

The leader of the Marine civil affairs unit in charge of dealing with local leaders and rebuilding the city's infrastructure said the most qualified people should be tapped to restart basic public services, even if they might have been Baathists. "Most of the well-educated people were forced to be Baath members -- they had to join," said Marine reserve Lt. Col. Erik Grabowsky, 43, of the 4th Civil Affairs Group, which is based in Washington. "Simply having a Baath affiliation isn't enough to disqualify them. We should ask -- and we are -- 'Is he a criminal? Is he a bad guy?' But beyond that, it's not our job to vet people right now."

Fadhil, 52, wearing a black-and-white checkered headdress and a white robe, said he cannot understand why the Americans do not want him to stay in the mayor's office. He claimed credit for cracking down on looters and encouraging government employees to go back to work. Kut does not appear to have been devastated by looting. The electric power system is partially operational here, as are water service and trash pickup.

Grabowsky, a utility services building manager for the Arlington County government, discounted Fadhil's role in resuscitating public services. "It is the Iraqi infrastructure leadership that is responsible," he said.

For now, Grabowsky has chosen to ignore Fadhil, even though the self-appointed mayor regularly sends emissaries to Marine headquarters asking for meetings and nominating people to serve on a local executive council. "We don't really pay attention to him," Grabowsky said.

The cold shoulder is annoying Fadhil, who declared open season on former Baathists during a meeting with his supporters. He said he had earlier ordered his followers not to engage in revenge attacks -- but no more.

"If it weren't for me, the blood of those ex-Baathists would have been shed," he said. "From this moment on, I no longer protect them."

Fadhil also is incensed by the presence in Kut of members of the Free Iraqi Forces, a military wing of the Iraqi National Congress exile group headed by Ahmed Chalabi. Several signs proclaiming "No No Chalabi" are plastered around the mayor's compound.

The compound had the feel of a university sit-in today. Dozens of Fadhil's friends, advisers and supplicants squatted in several of the second-floor offices that -- in a sign of true clout in springtime Iraq -- are air-conditioned to meat-locker temperatures. Hundreds of youngsters were camped out front in a large tent, where they spent the day watching television and shouting at passing American military vehicles. In the entrance hall, a group of women prepared heaping plates of rice and meat for lunch.

The animosity toward U.S. forces was on display when a group of Marines arrived at a nearby medical supply warehouse to transfer items to local hospitals. Word spread that the Americans were looting it. Hundreds of Fadhil's backers, already upset about the arrest of a local cleric, showed up to confront the Marines.

A tense standoff ensued, with Marines standing with pointed weapons in a line across the middle of a street, while 30 yards away, young men screamed for the cleric's release and beat their chests. Just above the crowd, two helicopters circled. If the firepower in the sky was intended to intimidate the crowd, it had the opposite effect, riling the people even more.

"Why all these guns? What are these foolish acts?" asked Ali Khadam as the helicopters swooped down. "We are unarmed. Is this the freedom they talked about?"

"We want you to leave," one of Fadhil's aides, Abdelrahman Zahra, told the Marines. "You're not needed here anymore."

A few blocks away from the protest, a group of men loitering outside a food shop said they were growing weary with the Americans -- and with Fadhil, whom they accused of trying to seize power for himself. "They should all go away," said the owner, who did not want his name published because he feared retribution. "Both sides are causing trouble."

How do you deal with these leaders popping up all over the place, claiming authority without US blessing? Should anything be done about it? What do you do in a situation like the above one?

[Knife]

Let him have his delussions of grandure, while limiting him from developing a power base. If the locals want him to be mayor, fine. But do not allow him to aquire the equipment and resources to become a warlord.