Iraq: Soverignty handover complete

2 days early....intresting move.

Iraq handover of sovereignty completed

Monday, June 28, 2004 Posted: 3:50 AM EDT (0750 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government took place at 10:26 a.m. Baghdad time Monday, two days before the June 30 deadline previously announced by the U.S.-led coalition, CNN has learned.

The low-key ceremony happened inside the Coalition Provisional Authority's "Green Zone" headquarters in Baghdad.

Coalition Administrator Paul Bremer -- now the former administrator -- handed the transfer document to the head of the Iraqi Supreme Court, who then gave it to President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and the deputy prime minister also attended.

"This is a historic and happy day for us in Iraq," al-Yawar said. "It is a day that all Iraqis have been looking forward to. This is the day that we take our country back into the international community.

"We want a free and democratic Iraq, and we want a country that is a source of peace and stability for the whole world."

The interim Iraqi leaders expressed thanks to the coalition officials and troops, saying their sacrifices would not be in vain.

Bremer said he was proud to have been able to return sovereignty. He said he was confident the new government was ready to meet the challenges ahead.

Bremer boarded a helicopter less than an hour later to begin his trip out of Iraq after 14 months as the administrator, according to coalition military spokesman Mark Kimmett.

Asked by reporters attending the ceremony about why the handover was stepped up by two days, an Iraqi official said Prime Minister Allawi requested it because "every day matters" and they were ready to crack down on violence.

The decision to speed up the ceremony came Monday morning as Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari met with coalition leaders gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, for the NATO summit.

Zebari told reporters in Istanbul Monday morning the early transfer of sovereignty is "a sign we are ready for the job."

"We are ready to take up our responsibility even before June 30th," he said.

The handover comes as insurgents continue their attacks, with car bombings still taking many lives and more hostages being seized.

The Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape Sunday of a man who it said an Iraqi resistance group identified as a captured U.S. Marine.

A coalition spokesman in Baghdad confirmed that a Marine has been missing in Iraq since June 21, but stopped short of saying he might be a hostage.

The Pentagon and the coalition spokesman identified the missing Marine as Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, but the Pentagon said it could not confirm that he was the man shown in the video. (Full story)

Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

i have to say it...

FIRST! (my first time ever doing such stupidity)

Why do you think America did this? Weird.

with all the resistance activity going on, you can be damn sure it would be a fucking mess on the 30th. theres just no way around that. guess they felt too much was at risk.

truedat.