- Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's
first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out
with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed
programme of privatisation.
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- In an interview to be broadcast on BBC Newsnight tonight,
he says: "My preference was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as
we can, and do it with some form of elections. I just thought it was necessary
to rapidly get the Iraqis in charge of their destiny."
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- Asked by the reporter Greg Palast if he foresaw negative
repercussions from the subsequent US imposition of mass privatisation ,
Gen Garner said: "I don't know ... we'll just have to wait and see."
It would have been better for the Iraqis to take decisions themselves,
even if they made mistakes, he said.
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- "What I was trying to do was get to a functioning
government. We as Americans like to put our template on things. And our
template's good, but it's not necessarily good for everyone else."
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- Describing his dismissal after he called for elections
, he said: "The night I got to Baghdad, [the defence secretary Donald]
Rumsfeld called me and told me he was appointing Paul Bremer as the presidential
envoy. The announcement was somewhat abrupt."
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- Gen Garner was careful not to criticise his successor
directly. He said the imposition before elections of free market economic
schemes drawn up by the US as early as 2001 "was a more orderly approach"
than his own.
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- But he had wanted the Iraqis to decide economic policy
for themselves. "They'll make mistakes, and that's OK _ I don't think
they need to go by the US plan."
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- Despite being a protege of Mr Rumsfeld, Gen Garner was
the subject of what was alleged to be a White House whispering campaign,
describing him as weak.
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- A year after the invasion, his disclosure of policy differences
with the White House highlights the dilemma still faced by the US occupation
forces.
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- The Pentagon said yesterday that it would withhold payment
of $300m to Haliburton, its biggest contractor in Iraq, until an audit
of the company's financial controls was completed.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1171881,00.html
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