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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Noah Feldman

Aired January 24, 2004 - 12:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A political dispute in Iraq, a key member of the Iraqi Governing Council now opposes an U.S. plan preferring direct elections. Ahmed Chalabi joins a movement started by the powerful Grand Ayatollah al-Husseini. He is campaigning against U.S. backed caucuses to install a provisional government.
The dispute threatens the June 30th transfer of power deadline. For insight into the issue, we go to Washington and Noah Feldman, a former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Good to see, Noah.

NOAH FELDMAN, AUTHOR, "AFTER JIHAD": Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: Well, still an awful lot of instability there exemplified by -- most recently within the past 24 hours, at least two car bombs that have caused a number of U.S. military deaths. It seems like an awful lot of work still has to be done before even moving toward caucuses or direct elections.

FELDMAN: We need to have stability in the country and security before elections can be safe, because if there are 25 million people in Iraq, you're going to have to have a couple of thousand polling places, and just a handful of attacks on polling places could really make the elections seem illegitimate. So, we've got to get the security problem solved first.

WHITFIELD: And most recently, this past week we saw some incredible protests coming out of there. Most in supporting al- Sistani who has made it very clear that it's direct elections that he would like to see and now with Chalabi, now supporting his movement, do we have another significant problem here or hurdle?

FELDMAN: Well, what Ayatollah Sistani has been saying is that if this is going to be a democracy, where are the elections? And, that's a very powerful message, because it's so simple and it makes a lot of logical sense. So, that's why you're seeing other Iraqi politicians getting onboard with that argument, because it's obviously going to be so popular.

What we need to do, is really two things, first of all, we need to tell Iraqis that there are going to be elections. Then we have to pick a date on which we can realistically have those elections held and announce it, and say on this day, in the beginning of 2005, lets say, there are going to be elections.. I'll make up a date, March 1, 2005, there will be elections. Then Iraqis will calm down. Then we can tell them in the interim, thus and such is going to happen and I think they'll accept that.

WHITFIELD: But, isn't the U.S. throwing its support behind caucuses, caucuses taking place in 18 different territories?

FELDMAN: We have announced that that is our plan, and the reason for that is we're trying to move relatively quickly towards a government that we can hand authority over to, but you know what? The July 1 deadline that we suggested was the time we wanted to do this, is not written in stone and we should be prepared to back off from that if we think that the ordinary Iraqi doesn't believe those caucuses are legitimate. There's no point in producing...

WHITFIELD: But, it sounds like if a message -- a pretty sad message is being sent, if the U.S., as well as the Governing Council, can't come to terms on what type of election or what form of the -- putting in place some kind of permanent government, how in the world can the Iraqi people have any hope that things are going to get better whether the coalition forces are there or not?

FELDMAN: Well, we can reach a solution, because we're -- have prepared to be flexible. You know, we came to Iraq to bring democracy and I sincerely believe that that's what we ought to be doing there and democracy, at some point, is going to involve elections. And although, we're right to be concerned about the elections too quickly, we also have to recognize that if an enormous number Iraqis want elections, we have to say, OK, there are going to elections, and then I think the Iraqis will have some hope of bringing together an arrangement that works for all the Iraqis, not just some of them.

WHITFIELD: Are you seeing a need for a little bit more wriggle room on this June 30/ July 1 deadline?

FELDMAN: I thin it would be wise for us to be flexible, at this point. Because, after all, this is a deadline that we suggested and doesn't correspond to anything in Iraq, it's not as if, July 1 is an important day in Iraq. So, let's just be reasonable about it, and if it turns out that we can't get an arrangement done by July 1, no problem, as long as we communicate to the Iraqis that elections are coming and that they're coming at a specific time, because I think nothing would be worse than putting into place an illegitimate government in Iraq, because that will be bad for the security situation that we were just talking about.

WHITFIELD: Noah Feldman, thanks very much for joining us from Washington.

FELDMAN: Thanks for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 24, 2004 - 12:28   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A political dispute in Iraq, a key member of the Iraqi Governing Council now opposes an U.S. plan preferring direct elections. Ahmed Chalabi joins a movement started by the powerful Grand Ayatollah al-Husseini. He is campaigning against U.S. backed caucuses to install a provisional government.
The dispute threatens the June 30th transfer of power deadline. For insight into the issue, we go to Washington and Noah Feldman, a former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Good to see, Noah.

NOAH FELDMAN, AUTHOR, "AFTER JIHAD": Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: Well, still an awful lot of instability there exemplified by -- most recently within the past 24 hours, at least two car bombs that have caused a number of U.S. military deaths. It seems like an awful lot of work still has to be done before even moving toward caucuses or direct elections.

FELDMAN: We need to have stability in the country and security before elections can be safe, because if there are 25 million people in Iraq, you're going to have to have a couple of thousand polling places, and just a handful of attacks on polling places could really make the elections seem illegitimate. So, we've got to get the security problem solved first.

WHITFIELD: And most recently, this past week we saw some incredible protests coming out of there. Most in supporting al- Sistani who has made it very clear that it's direct elections that he would like to see and now with Chalabi, now supporting his movement, do we have another significant problem here or hurdle?

FELDMAN: Well, what Ayatollah Sistani has been saying is that if this is going to be a democracy, where are the elections? And, that's a very powerful message, because it's so simple and it makes a lot of logical sense. So, that's why you're seeing other Iraqi politicians getting onboard with that argument, because it's obviously going to be so popular.

What we need to do, is really two things, first of all, we need to tell Iraqis that there are going to be elections. Then we have to pick a date on which we can realistically have those elections held and announce it, and say on this day, in the beginning of 2005, lets say, there are going to be elections.. I'll make up a date, March 1, 2005, there will be elections. Then Iraqis will calm down. Then we can tell them in the interim, thus and such is going to happen and I think they'll accept that.

WHITFIELD: But, isn't the U.S. throwing its support behind caucuses, caucuses taking place in 18 different territories?

FELDMAN: We have announced that that is our plan, and the reason for that is we're trying to move relatively quickly towards a government that we can hand authority over to, but you know what? The July 1 deadline that we suggested was the time we wanted to do this, is not written in stone and we should be prepared to back off from that if we think that the ordinary Iraqi doesn't believe those caucuses are legitimate. There's no point in producing...

WHITFIELD: But, it sounds like if a message -- a pretty sad message is being sent, if the U.S., as well as the Governing Council, can't come to terms on what type of election or what form of the -- putting in place some kind of permanent government, how in the world can the Iraqi people have any hope that things are going to get better whether the coalition forces are there or not?

FELDMAN: Well, we can reach a solution, because we're -- have prepared to be flexible. You know, we came to Iraq to bring democracy and I sincerely believe that that's what we ought to be doing there and democracy, at some point, is going to involve elections. And although, we're right to be concerned about the elections too quickly, we also have to recognize that if an enormous number Iraqis want elections, we have to say, OK, there are going to elections, and then I think the Iraqis will have some hope of bringing together an arrangement that works for all the Iraqis, not just some of them.

WHITFIELD: Are you seeing a need for a little bit more wriggle room on this June 30/ July 1 deadline?

FELDMAN: I thin it would be wise for us to be flexible, at this point. Because, after all, this is a deadline that we suggested and doesn't correspond to anything in Iraq, it's not as if, July 1 is an important day in Iraq. So, let's just be reasonable about it, and if it turns out that we can't get an arrangement done by July 1, no problem, as long as we communicate to the Iraqis that elections are coming and that they're coming at a specific time, because I think nothing would be worse than putting into place an illegitimate government in Iraq, because that will be bad for the security situation that we were just talking about.

WHITFIELD: Noah Feldman, thanks very much for joining us from Washington.

FELDMAN: Thanks for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com