The United States, under the auspices of the Pentagon, has formed the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to administer the country on an interim basis and to provide humanitarian aid, rebuild damaged infrastructure and help establish a representative government.
The effort is led by retired Army Maj. Gen. Jay M. Garner who reports directly to Gen. Tommy Franks the overal commander of allied forces in Iraq. ORHA consists of three civilian administrators who will each oversee a different region of Iraq. Other officials, mostly Americans with military or government backgrounds, will supervise government ministries with the help of Iraqi exiles. It is unclear how long the ORHA will administer Iraq but Garner says his team will complete the mission 90 days after hitting the ground in Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
has said it may take longer than six months to establish a new government.
Retired Maj. Gen. Jay M. Garner is the new Director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Postwar Iraq.
(Department of Defense/File Photo)
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| ___ Who Will Lead Iraq? ___ 
Iraqi Exiles
 Ahmed Chalabi is president of the London-based Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group for Iraqi exiles, with ties to the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office. Chalabi left Iraq in 1958 and returned only briefly after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to lead a failed uprising in northern Iraq. He is a controversial figure and was convicted in abstentia for bank fraud in Jordan in 1992. The U.S. military airlifted Chalabi and 700 Iraqi exiles dubbed the Free Iraqi Forces into northern Iraq on April 6.
 Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim is the leader of the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) and part of a well-known Iraqi religious family. Supported by Iran, Hakim claims to represent the majority Shiite Muslim population of Iraq. He has long opposed Saddam Hussein's regime and was arrested and tortured in the 1970s before he fled to Iran after the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980.
 Adnan Pachachi is a former Iraqi foreign minister who quit the foreign service in the late 1960s. Pachachi is a Sunni Muslim who also claims support from the Shiite majority and Iraq's exile community because he shares no association with Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. He lives in the United Arab Emirates, serving as a foreign affairs adviser to the Abu Dhabi government.
 Nizar Khazraji is a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army. A hero during the Iran-Iraq war, he was relieved of duty after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 only to be reinstated after the U.S. expelled Hussein's forces in 1991. Khazraji fled Iraq in 1996 and sought asylum in Denmark in 1999. He faces war crimes charges in Denmark for his alleged role in the 1988 Anfal chemical weapons attack against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
Kanan Makiya is a professor of Middle East studies at Brandeis University and author of "Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq." He is one of the best-known Iraqi intellectuals and has been active in drafting plans for a postwar government.
The Kurds
 Massoud Barzani is leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and son of the KDP's most revered military leader. The KDP is one of two Kurdish parties, along with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, that since 1991 has governed an autonomous region in northern Iraq bordering Turkey. Barzani controled the western and northern reaches of the Kurdish zone, including the mountainous areas where tribal traditions are strongest.
 Jalal Talbani, a chief rival of Barzani, is the secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The PUK governs the eastern regions nearest the Iranian border with a base of operations in Sulaymaniyah and regards itself as the more cosmopolitan alternative to the KDP.
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The plan for administering Iraq has been complicated by disputes between the Pentagon and State Department over the team's composition and the extent of the mission. It is also unclear what role, if any, the United Nations will play in postwar Iraq.
Here are some of the key people involved:
Jay M. Garner is a former three-star Army general. His 34-year military career included stints as the assistant vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army and as the commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command (now Space and Missile Defense Command). After the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he directed Operation Provide Comfort, the humanitarian effort that resettled displaced Kurds in northern Iraq.
Barbara K. Bodine, former ambassador to Yemen, served in the U.S. mission in Baghdad during the 1980s. She will administer the central region of Iraq, including the capital, and reports to Garner.
George F. Ward is a former U.S. ambassador to Namibia where he was credited with managing a successful humanitarian de-mining program and helping to fight gender violence. Ward will coordinate humanitarian assistance in Iraq.
Lewis Lucke is a veteran official of the U.S. Agency for International Development and served in Jordan and Tunisia, as well as Africa and Latin America. He will be in charge of Iraq's reconstruction.
Michael Mobbs is a corporate lawyer and former Pentagon legal adviser. Mobbs will be in charge of civic administration and is expected to oversee the process of removing Hussein's Baath Party loyalists from government.
He authored a memo for federal courts last year asserting that the president can deem American citizens "enemy combatants" and detain them indefinitely.
Other key U.S. officials working on the future of Iraq include:
Zalmay Khalilzad, a member of the president's National Security
Council, is U.S. special envoy to Iraqi exiles and former special envoy in
Afghanistan. The Afghan-born Khalilzad served in the the State Department under
previous Republican administrations and worked in the Pentagon policy planning
office under now Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon,
is the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs at the State
Department. Following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, he was the director of the
Iraq-Kuwait Task Force. Crocker is a career foreign service officer who has served
in Iran, Qatar, Iraq, and Egypt.
