Senior US civilian and military advisers on Iraq have arrived in Qatar on the first leg of a mission to outline the plan to rebuild the war-torn country, US officials said.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Richard Myers, flew in with Paul Bremer, the newly appointed senior civilian administrator of Iraq.
Bremer outranks Jay Garner, the retired Army lieutenant general who has been the most senior US civilian in Iraq. Garner was also in Doha Sunday to see Bremer, the officials said.
On the flight, Myers told reporters that Iraq's military will be smaller than it was under Saddam Hussein, but still large enough to defend the country from outside threats.
Meanwhile, the American general who commanded the Iraq war issued a statement Sunday saying Saddam Hussein's Baath Party "is dissolved," ordering the political organization that ruled the country for 35 years to cease existence immediately.
The message from Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces, was read over U.S.-controlled Information Radio on Sunday afternoon. "The Iraqi Baath Socialist Party is dissolved," Franks said in the statement, read by an announcer in Arabic.
The statement told Iraqi citizens to collect and turn in any materials they had relating to the party and its operations. It called them "an important part of Iraqi government documents."
"Possessions of the Baath Party must be delivered to the temporary coalition authority," the statement said. "Anyone who possesses documents related to the Baath Party or the Iraqi government must maintain and protect them and hand these documents to the coalition."
Franks' statement also said that "apparatus of Iraqi security, intelligence and military intelligence belonging to Saddam Hussein are deprived of their authority and power." (Albawaba.com)
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