Ex-minister Aziz in U.S. custody

In the highest-profile surrender since the fall of Saddam Hussein, U.S. authorities on Thursday detained Tariq Aziz, a longtime foreign minister who for many years was the public face and voice of the Iraqi regime.

Aziz’s ranking on the Pentagon’s list of most wanted former Iraqi leaders–No. 43 of 55–reflected his somewhat diminished power. But his previous role as crafter of Iraq’s image and foreign policy made the urbane, cigar-loving Aziz second only to the dictator himself in international prominence.

His detention in Baghdad came as President Bush suggested for the first time that allied forces might come up empty in their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush asserted the U.S. has been thwarted in its search because Hussein had 12 years to hide the weapons and may have destroyed them as a last act.

“It’s going to take some time to find them,” Bush told workers at an Ohio factory where the M1A1 Abrams tank used in the Iraq invasion is built. “But we know he had them. And whether he destroyed them, moved them or hid them, we’re going to find out the truth.”

In Baghdad, U.S. officials struggled to assert control over Iraq’s new government-in-the-making.

Seeking to quash the influence of Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, the self-declared mayor of Baghdad, American military commanders issued a proclamation that only “the coalition had absolute authority within Iraq.”

And Jay Garner, the retired U.S. lieutenant general leading reconstruction efforts, announced that an interim Iraqi government would be in place next week. At the same time, Garner distanced himself from a would-be leader favored by some Pentagon officials, Iraqi National Congress chief Ahmed Chalabi.

“The coalition doesn’t have a candidate,” Garner said after meeting with Baghdad community leaders.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the U.S. to respect international law as the “occupying power” in Iraq as the Security Council voted unanimously to extend until June 3 Annan’s authority over Iraq’s oil-for-food program.

And U.S. forces continued to come under fire. Attackers in Al Kut twice shot at a U.S. Marine command post amid persistent tensions with followers of a Shiite cleric who claims control of the southern city. There were no reported casualties.

In northern Iraq, American forces caught a Turkish special forces team trying to sneak into Kirkuk with assault rifles, grenades and night-vision goggles in their cars, according to Time magazine.

Patrols at Iran border

Along Iraq’s border with Iran, Marines began patrols to capture fleeing pro-Hussein officials and block the entry of potential troublemakers. In Tehran, Iran’s foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, rejected a U.S. warning against meddling in Iraq’s postwar affairs, insisting that “Iranians have no role in Iraq, and it is up to the people of Iraq to decide on their fate and future.”

With Aziz’s surrender, one of the most prominent figures of Iraq’s recent past was in U.S. custody. Aziz, a Catholic and the son of a waiter, was the only Christian among the leadership in Hussein’s Sunni Muslim-dominated regime.

He was only the eight of spades in the Pentagon’s deck of “most wanted” playing cards, but officials said he remained well-wired and may know whether Hussein is still alive.

Shortly before his surrender was announced, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. and British forces were searching for many more former members of Hussein’s regime than the 55 on the list.

“In fact we have a list of some 200,” Rumsfeld told The Associated Press. “That original list was purposely kept low at the outset because we wanted to separate the worst people from the regime, hoping that others would come forward.”

Rumsfeld also said the Iraqi people, after decades of political repression, need time to adjust to a new reality and to determine how to organize a government and elections.

Bush made a similar point in a speech to workers at the tank factory in Ohio.

“One thing is certain: We will not impose a government on Iraq,” the president said. “We will help that nation build a government of, by and for the Iraqi people.”

Even with Hussein out of power and U.S. officials taking the first steps to establish a new government in Baghdad, Bush again declined to declare victory. He said the U.S. is “in the process of finishing a war in Iraq,” but would wait until his commanders in the field told him the conflict was over.

Hussein’s alleged possession of chemical and biological weapons and his pursuit of a nuclear bomb were the primary reasons Bush gave for a swift invasion of Iraq. However, despite weeks of searching, including the last two weeks with nearly full run of the country, the U.S. has found no weapons.

That has led some critics to question the justification for the invasion and prompted a demand from within the Security Council that UN inspectors return to Iraq to conduct a thorough investigation.

And a day after his administration warned France that it would pay a price for challenging the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Bush cautioned France not to use its position “within Europe to create alliances against the United States.” As for French President Jacques Chirac, Bush told Tom Brokaw in an interview with NBC News: “I doubt he’ll be coming to the ranch any time soon.”

Bush tried to put a positive spin on the anti-American demonstrations that have erupted around Iraq since the fall of Baghdad.

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“Today in Iraq there’s discussion, debate, protest–all hallmarks of liberty,” he said. “The path to freedom may not always be neat and orderly, but it is the right of every person and every nation.”

Also Thursday, Garner met with dozens of Baghdad professionals but refused to give any timetable for the American effort.

`As fast as we can’

“We will go as fast as we can, and I think that it will go faster than most people think,” he said.

Garner said he planned to reopen some ministries in the capital, many ravaged by Iraqi looters, but he rebuffed the notion that Americans would help operate them. “Nobody is going to run those ministries but the Iraqis themselves,” he said.

However, he sidestepped questions about the role of dozens of Iraqi exiles cooperating with the Defense Department; some are working out of offices provided in Crystal City, Va., near the Pentagon.

Rejecting the idea that they represented an American-led shadow government, Garner said they were technocrats eager to help their native land.

Garner and his deputy, British Maj. Gen. Tim Cross, held a town hall meeting with about 60 Iraqi professionals, writers, doctors and others–all men.

Stressing the need for Iraqis, especially in the public sector, to get back to work, Garner said employees would be given an emergency payment one week after returning to work–an attempt to stimulate the nation’s moribund economy. Within one month, he said, “we will begin paying salaries.”

Among the meeting participants was Youarash Haidou, a retired English teacher who said many at the gathering urged the Americans to act faster to fill the void left by the collapse of the Hussein regime.

“The most important thing is for everything to be done as quickly as possible,” he said. “We need security, we need peace, we need a government.”

Asked what Garner’s response was, Haidou replied: “He just said he was doing his best.”