Iraq Notebook
Perle quits to avoid distractions

	BURHAN OZBILICI / AP Dreaming of home An unidentified U.S. soldier sleeps with his M-16 in his hands after arriving at the Turkish air base in Incirlik from Iraq. He is among some 130,000 soldiers scheduled to return to the United States; 110,000 will replace them in Iraq, one of the largest troop rotations in history.
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Perle informed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that he was quitting the board in a letter dated Feb. 18. In his letter, Perle said he was resigning after 17 years on the board so that the Bush administration and the Department of Defense would no longer be associated with his outspoken views.

It comes as President Bush, who had hoped to ride popular support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to a second term, finds his administration facing a growing number of congressional, legal and internal investigations into dubious prewar intelligence on Iraq and lucrative contracts for Iraqi reconstruction.

"We are now approaching a long presidential election campaign, in the course of which issues on which I have strong views will be widely discussed and debated," Perle wrote. "I would not wish those views to be attributed to you or the president at any time, and especially not during a presidential campaign."

	Richard Perle

In recent weeks, Perle has called for the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet, criticized Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior U.S. officials as "soft-liners" and urged the Bush administration to consider pulling out of the United Nations if the agency doesn't legalize preemptive attacks on states that harbor terrorists.

Perle also is a prominent supporter and close friend of Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who is the subject of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into exaggerated and fabricated intelligence about Iraqi weapons programs and ties to Osama bin Laden.

Requests from Kurds muddy completion of constitution

BAGHDAD — Kurds and Turkomen pushed their causes as Iraqi officials struggle to draw up an interim constitution, a central pillar of U.S. plans for transferring power to an Iraqi government June 30.

A Kurdish group presented a petition it said had 1.7 million signatures supporting a referendum on independence for Kurdish areas in northern Iraq. About 4,000 people held a rally demanding protections under the constitution for the Turkomen, who have expressed fears about Kurdish domination.

The constitution is due to be completed this week, but members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council are sharply divided over some of its most important points, including the makeup of the presidency and the shape of a Kurdish federal region.

In New York, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, said the council may not meet the Saturday deadline.

But the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq insisted the council would meet the deadline, set in the timetable for the power handover agreed on in November. Council members "have indicated to us that they think it will be complete by the time that they have indicated in the Nov. 15 agreement, Feb 28. They are moving forward," said coalition spokesman Dan Senor.

Some council members say a partial constitution may be agreed on by the end of the month, delaying key issues like federalism and the Kurdish question until a permanent constitution is drawn up next year.

Kurdish leaders are demanding terms of federalism that would give them extensive control of oil and other resources in their region and allow them to maintain a distinct Kurdish armed force.

Teenager receives honor for gallantry from queen

LONDON — A 19-year-old soldier who rescued a colleague from U.S. "friendly fire" in Iraq received the George Cross yesterday, the youngest person honored with Britain's second-highest award for gallantry.

Trooper Christopher Finney, who received his award from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, had been a member of British army's Blues and Royals regiment for less than a year when he rescued a comrade who came under fire from U.S. warplanes in fighting in March near Basra in southern Iraq.

The George Cross is surpassed only by the Victoria Cross.

The queen presented 96 military and civilian personnel from the Iraqi war with honors for bravery. Others included Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, leader of Britain's forces in Iraq, who became a Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath.

Senior policeman killed on way to work in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq — Gunmen assassinated one of the most senior policemen in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as he drove to work yesterday, police said, in the latest deadly attack on Iraqis cooperating with occupying forces.

Police identified the victim as Brig. Hikmat Mahmoud Mohammad, chief of administration in the provincial police headquarters in Mosul.

Guerrillas have repeatedly targeted Iraqi police. Monday, a car bomb killed 13 policemen in the city of Kirkuk, the latest in a series of suicide attacks on police stations.

Also...

U.S. soldiers captured five Iraqis after they attacked a convoy with a roadside bomb in Baqouba, the U.S. military said yesterday. No one was injured. ... British prosecutors dropped all charges yesterday against translator Katharine Gun, a former British intelligence employee who leaked a confidential memo from the United States asking Britain to spy on members of the U.N. Security Council before the Iraq war. Gun, 29, had admitted leaking to The Observer newspaper the memo from the National Security Agency asking for British help in eavesdropping on U.N. delegates in the months before the war in Iraq. Some observers suggested the government wanted to avoid a lengthy trial dredging up the divisive war, which Britain and the United States fought without the backing of the United Nations.

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