On Day 1, a new Iraq emerges

By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers

SCOTT NELSON / GETTY IMAGES Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, speaks with reporters yesterday after the official transfer of power from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Within five hours, scant evidence of U.S. occupation remained.

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The rest had gone, bidding their Iraqi counterparts goodbye and good luck in the building whose hallways until now had been crowded with U.S. advisers to the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council.

In one way, the sudden handover of power, two days ahead of schedule, was symbolic: The Iraqis were called on to react to the U.S. timetable. Few, if any, had been warned of what was about to happen, and the building, once a guesthouse at Saddam Hussein's palace, had an air of chaos as aides scrambled to make deadlines they found out about only when they woke that morning.

But by the end of the day, it was clear that whatever the coming days would show in the rest of Iraq, Iraqis were in charge of the government center.

President Ghazi al-Yawer, in his trademark flowing robes and Arab headdress, strode through the building with a regal air unseen in 15 months of U.S. occupation.

Greetings went from U.S.-style handshakes to Arab-style kisses on the cheek. Traditional lamb was brought in on platters. Sweet tea flowed. People began smoking in the building.

This, then, is an inside look at the first few hours of the new Iraqi government [all times are Baghdad time]:

10:30 a.m.

More than a year of foreign occupation ended in five minutes, as L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, renounced control of the country in a surprise ceremony inside the government center.

A few foreign journalists were herded into a room for what they were told would be a "background briefing" by Bremer. An audience of no more than 30 people sat stunned as the moment Iraqis had been waiting for occurred in virtual seclusion and before most in the country had turned on their televisions.

11:30 a.m.
 
Al-Yawer met with Knight Ridder in his first interview as the president of a sovereign Iraq. In a sparsely furnished office with only a vase of fresh roses as decoration, the president described the handover as "smooth" and promised tough measures for insurgents who dare to continue attacks.

Down the hall, the prime minister's press aides shouted orders over a symphony of ringing cellphones. A man wearing a headset monitored breaking news, as another worker rushed to book hotel rooms when it was determined that no one from Allawi's staff would be allowed to leave the heavily fortified Green Zone, the village-size area in Baghdad where the U.S.-led coalition made its headquarters. Unaware of what the day would hold when they left their homes, none had brought overnight bags.

Noon

The harried staff went into overdrive as reports trickled in of the possible arrest of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who is Enemy No. 1 for Allawi's government. Initial accounts said that al-Zarqawi, who has called for Allawi's assassination and claimed responsibility for many large-scale bombings in Iraq, was in custody after a battle in Hillah, south of Baghdad.

Allawi's aides made frantic calls to U.S. military officials and ordered staff members to keep the news under wraps until it could be confirmed. The excitement over what would have been the crowning moment of the new government's first day was clouded by suspicions among some aides that the news was too good to be true.

1 p.m.

A telephone call interrupted a meeting to announce that Bremer had left Iraq on a U.S. military plane. A huddle of government workers working on a speech stared at one another incredulously until one young aide finally spoke up:

"You mean that's it?" Azhar Ali asked. "He's not coming back?"

2 p.m.

Two Iraqi men in construction clothes ambled down the hallway of the government center carrying blueprints and marble tile samples.

They looked confused and out of place in the swirl of suits and dresses crowding the foyer outside Allawi's office. Finally, an aide asked them what they wanted. The men placed two marble tiles, one in cream and the other a rosy pink, on a guard's table.

"Which one does the prime minister want for his bathroom?" one worker asked.

2:45 p.m.

With glum faces, Iraqi government workers received final word that the al-Zarqawi arrest report was false. A rumor had "gotten out of hand," they were told. They had no time to ponder the disappointing news. A cadre of ministers and international journalists was waiting in front of an empty stage draped with Iraqi flags. The good news was that hotel rooms were booked for the weary staff.

3 p.m.

The prime minister and president, both beaming, took the stage to the cheers of an invitation-only audience. With live television coverage, millions of Iraqis watching at home heard the news of the handover for the first time.