11.1 | De-Ba’athification

army officer on the American side, that that’s what would happen but, in the event,

it wasn’t.”16

26. At Foreign Office Oral Questions on 6 May, Dr Vincent Cable asked about the

Coalition’s plans for elections in Iraq.17 He asked the Government to:

“… explain the status of important political groups such as the Ba’ath party, the

Communist party and the Islamic fundamentalists? Will they be allowed to compete

freely and democratically in those elections and if they won would they be allowed

to win?”

27. In reply, Mr Mike O’Brien, FCO Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, explained:

“We hope that the Ba’ath Party will not be able to involve itself in that election, and

certainly not in the form that it took under Saddam Hussein. It is not envisaged,

therefore, that it would be allowed to operate.”

28. The creation of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), led by Ambassador L Paul

Bremer, and the appointment in early May of Mr John Sawers as the Prime Minister’s

Special Representative to Iraq are described in Section 9.1.

29. Ambassador Bremer, in his account of leading the CPA, describes being given his

instructions:

“On May 9, my last day of preparation at the Pentagon, Don Rumsfeld had given me

my marching orders in a memo. Among all my other instructions, Rumsfeld’s memo

emphasized: ‘The Coalition will actively oppose Saddam Hussein’s old enforcers –

the Ba’ath Party, the Fedayeen Saddam … We will make clear that the Coalition will

eliminate the remnants of Saddam’s regime.’”18

30. In his memoir, Mr Feith wrote that Ambassador Bremer “wanted his arrival in

Baghdad to have a theme: The Ba’athists are not coming back.”19 Mr Feith wrote:

“Bremer had considered his point carefully. Our forces had not yet captured

Saddam, and many Iraqis remained fearful of the Ba’athists – and therefore unwilling

to cooperate with U.S. officials – on security, political reconstruction, and other

matters. Bremer saw it as his first task to offer assurance … I thought Bremer had

selected his “arrival theme” wisely, and I told him so.”

16 Public hearing, 8 February 2010, pages 117‑118.

17 House of Commons, Official Report, 6 May 2003, columns 522‑523.

18 Bremer LP III & McConnell M. My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope. Threshold, 2006.

19 Feith DJ. War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism.

HarperCollins, 2008.

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