NorthwestFebruary 11, 2004

Kempthorne, five others meet with U.S., Iraqi officials on secretive two-day trip

Gregory Hahn

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and five other governors were whisked through the streets of Baghdad Tuesday in a two-day visit kept secret until the first day was halfway over.

The governors met Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, and met with him and other top officials in the Coalition Provisional Authority's headquarters, once Saddam Hussein's grand Republican Palace.

They met Iraqi business owners in a growing retail center in downtown Baghdad, and they toured a factory on the outskirts of town that made ice cream and the plastic containers and Styrofoam coolers it goes in.

Kempthorne, the chairman of the National Governor's Association, led the delegation that included New York Gov. George Pataki, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and Lousiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

The trip has been in the works since before Christmas, but the country was only just deemed safe enough to risk bringing more than one-tenth of the nation's governors to meet the troops, learn about Iraq's struggling new economy, and, eventually, meet with emerging leaders in what the United States hopes will be on its way to a democracy by June 30.

That's when the United States hopes to hand the government to the Iraqi people.

But at the moment, the businessmen who met the governors Tuesday just want the lights to stay on all day long.

"The main problem is the electricity," factory chief Walid Haussain said, as the governors, a few reporters and swarms of armed soldiers converged on his Styrofoam plant.

Down the alley at the Al Smah plastics factory, Mohummed Jubaer agreed, saying that for them, at least, the power was better before Saddam was deposed.

But at least in these open-market friendly sections of Iraq, Kempthorne and the other American governors were treated warmly. The motorcade, which traveled with several Humvees and helicopters, attracted a crowd in the Karkh District, where the governors visited Saad Yaakoob's fabric store and one of the city's burgeoning electronics outlets.

Through an interpreter, Yaakoob said he understood that American sons had been sacrificed along with Iraqi sons for the people here, but he said the goals still hadn't been met. He did say, though, that he appreciated the new freedoms of speech the Americans brought to Iraq.

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"He can complain about his government just like my citizens can complain about us," Pataki joked.

But there seems to be a timid optimism coming from a few of the Iraqis the governors have talked to so far. Yaakoob mixed a metaphor when talking to the governors (the visit was a surprise to him, too), but perhaps he sums up the feeling.

"We didn't used to see the green light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Now we do." The governors have yet to meet local leaders, but they sat down with Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the top American in the country.

And so far, the trip has been fast, hectic and surreal.

The flight in (no visiting dignitaries sleep "in-country") was on a C-130, built for moving troops and cargo, and the drop into Baghdad International Airport (called BIAP, or "buy-opp" by the troops) was fast and steep. Kempthorne sat up front with the crew for the drop.

The governors have driven past a few of Saddam's palaces, and spent a few minutes at the grand and gruesome "Crossed Swords" parade grounds, which are a Hitler-style amphitheater flanked with giant statues of Saddam's arms with swords and piles of helmets worn by Iranian solders from the Iran-Iraq war.

Kempthorne, who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has taken these trips to Mogadishu and Bosnia, is the lead governor on the trip. He gave a brief talk to the governors and reporters before heading to Iraq Tuesday morning and has been among the first to ask the businessmen questions and shake hands with Iraqis and the American troops.

The trip comes at an intriguing time in Iraq. Just a couple of days ago, a delegation from the United Nations arrived to evaluate the plan to create a democratic system in Iraq, and at about the same time, Japanese forces arrived to aid the reconstruction. Japan has not fired a shot in combat since 1945, and the move is historic.

The United States took sole power of the country as it worked to rebuild the government, and according to a recent study by the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, it's one of just four successful cases from the United States' 16 similar efforts.

One of the biggest questions at the moment here is how to elect the new government. The United States' plan calls for regional caucuses, but perhaps Iraq's most powerful religious leaders have called for direct elections. The network of Shiite Muslims is said to be strong and conservative, and the difference could mean a more fundamentalist Islam government than the United States would want.

That's one of the differences the United Nations is working to resolve now. United States' leaders have said they are open to new ideas, but they're sticking to the goal of returning the country to home rule by June 30. Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated that on Friday.

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