The Black Vault - U.S. Sends Private Advisers to Assess Iraq Effort

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has sent a group of private experts with extensive experience in the Clinton administration to assess reconstruction efforts in Iraq amid instability and escalating attacks on U.S. and British troops, officials said on Friday.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the five-strong team will be in Iraq for up to 12 days in the role of "informal consultants to the U.S. government, bringing extensive field experience, and offering a broad, objective perspective on Iraq reconstruction."

The official said the team would report to Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, and would brief Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on their observations.

"This team was not dispatched to go rescue Bremer because Bremer does not need rescuing. He is open to having assistance," Lawrence Di Rita, special assistant to Rumsfeld, told reporters. He referred to the experts as "a good group of smart people."

The team includes members of three prominent organizations: the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and New York-based Council on Foreign Relations think tanks, and the U.N. Foundation, a private grant-making group founded by media mogul Ted Turner.

Mark Schoeff Jr., a spokesman for CSIS, said the team left on Thursday and its task would be to "provide perspective" on the reconstruction efforts.

POSTWAR PROBLEMS

The CSIS experts are John Hamre, Frederick Barton and Bathsheba Crocker.

Hamre served as a senior Pentagon official under President Bill Clinton and is president of the think tank. Barton formerly served as U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees in Geneva and was an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development. Crocker previously worked in the State Department.

The other two on the mission are Robert Orr of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served at the United Nations under Clinton, and Johanna Mendelson Forman of the U.N. Foundation, a former USAID and World Bank official.

Di Rita said the Republican Bush administration had in the past tapped others who served in the Democrat Clinton administration. "I view this as people with technical expertise. I don't think that their party affiliation is that interesting."

Di Rita said the team would study issues related to getting the economy moving, building a civil society and fostering a new political order in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's authoritarian rule.

Barton and Crocker authored a January CSIS report that said "getting post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq wrong could prove devastating" to U.S. interests. Officials said Rumsfeld found the report interesting.

The Bush administration has faced criticism that it was poorly prepared to handle postwar responsibilities in Iraq.

Bremer, a veteran diplomat, replaced Jay Garner, a retired general, as the top U.S. civil administrator in Iraq.

U.S. and British troops are facing mounting attacks. The Iraqi economy remains comatose, with unemployment at staggering levels, and basic services have yet to be restored in some parts of the country.

Kroll Inc., a risk consulting company, issued a report to corporate clients this week saying the most likely scenarios for the rest of 2003 are either an Iraqi revolt against the occupying forces or a "wobbly landing" amid some instability.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3004004