U.S. Official in Charge of Baghdad Leaving Position
BAGHDAD, Iraq � The U.S. official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said Sunday.
Barbara Bodine, the coordinator for central Iraq, planned to depart Baghdad later Sunday, according to U.S. Army Maj. John Cornelio, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the reconstruction effort's civilian wing.
No replacement has been named yet, Cornelio said in an interview. Bodine has been in Iraq for less than three weeks.
Cornelio could not say what the next assignment might be for Bodine, a former American ambassador to Yemen. However, The Washington Post, in its Sunday editions, called the move a reassignment and reported she would become deputy director of the U.S. State Department's political-military division.
Bodine did not know the specific reason for her reassignment, she told the Post.
"I'm not leaving with the sense that we've done everything we could have done, but I'm also not leaving with the sense that it's been a failure," she said in the Post interview.
Bodine's departure comes in the midst of an apparent shake-up of the civilian reconstruction force assigned to oversee postwar Iraq and help it move toward an inclusive post-Saddam interim government.
The top civilian administrator, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, is expected to leave his post shortly after the appointment of his superior, L. Paul Bremer (search), a longtime State Department official.
BAGHDAD, Iraq � The U.S. official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said Sunday.
Barbara Bodine, the coordinator for central Iraq, planned to depart Baghdad later Sunday, according to U.S. Army Maj. John Cornelio, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the reconstruction effort's civilian wing.
No replacement has been named yet, Cornelio said in an interview. Bodine has been in Iraq for less than three weeks.
Cornelio could not say what the next assignment might be for Bodine, a former American ambassador to Yemen. However, The Washington Post, in its Sunday editions, called the move a reassignment and reported she would become deputy director of the U.S. State Department's political-military division.
Bodine did not know the specific reason for her reassignment, she told the Post.
"I'm not leaving with the sense that we've done everything we could have done, but I'm also not leaving with the sense that it's been a failure," she said in the Post interview.
Bodine's departure comes in the midst of an apparent shake-up of the civilian reconstruction force assigned to oversee postwar Iraq and help it move toward an inclusive post-Saddam interim government.
The top civilian administrator, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, is expected to leave his post shortly after the appointment of his superior, L. Paul Bremer (search), a longtime State Department official.
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