"New Law in Iraq Gives Premier Martial Powers to Fight Uprising"
Nice to see attention has been paid to respecting rights and adding checks. Hopefully its implementation will do the same.
Excerpts:
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Tuesday signed into law broad martial powers that allow him to impose curfews anywhere in the country, ban groups he considers seditious and order the detentions of people suspected of being security risks. ...
Under the formal American occupation, Iraqis in effect lived under martial law for 15 months. Soldiers imposed curfews, cordoned off neighborhoods or villages and detained people at will. ...
Since the American occupation authority formally turned over sovereignty to Iraq on June 28, Dr. Allawi ... has tried to strike a balance in dealing with the insurgency. ...
"There are people who have been doing things around the periphery and who call themselves the resistance," he said. "I told them: `What are you trying to achieve, let us know. Do you want to bring Saddam back to rule Iraq; do you want to bring bin Laden to rule Iraq? We will fight you.'"
But he said they would be welcomed into the political process if they severed their relations "to the hard-core and to the criminals and the terrorists." ...
He took great pains to emphasize that the exercise of emergency measures — called "extraordinary powers" in the draft — would adhere to strict legal standards. He said the highest courts in Iraq and a group of judges on call 24 hours a day would be available to approve search warrants and other actions.
The draft of the law states that a national assembly expected to be formed later this month could oversee how the law is enforced.
The prime minister's decisions under emergency rule are subject to the review of the court of appeals, which can cancel the decisions, the draft said. The document also forbids the prime minister to cancel the transitional administrative law during a state of emergency.
Excerpts:
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Tuesday signed into law broad martial powers that allow him to impose curfews anywhere in the country, ban groups he considers seditious and order the detentions of people suspected of being security risks. ...
Under the formal American occupation, Iraqis in effect lived under martial law for 15 months. Soldiers imposed curfews, cordoned off neighborhoods or villages and detained people at will. ...
Since the American occupation authority formally turned over sovereignty to Iraq on June 28, Dr. Allawi ... has tried to strike a balance in dealing with the insurgency. ...
"There are people who have been doing things around the periphery and who call themselves the resistance," he said. "I told them: `What are you trying to achieve, let us know. Do you want to bring Saddam back to rule Iraq; do you want to bring bin Laden to rule Iraq? We will fight you.'"
But he said they would be welcomed into the political process if they severed their relations "to the hard-core and to the criminals and the terrorists." ...
He took great pains to emphasize that the exercise of emergency measures — called "extraordinary powers" in the draft — would adhere to strict legal standards. He said the highest courts in Iraq and a group of judges on call 24 hours a day would be available to approve search warrants and other actions.
The draft of the law states that a national assembly expected to be formed later this month could oversee how the law is enforced.
The prime minister's decisions under emergency rule are subject to the review of the court of appeals, which can cancel the decisions, the draft said. The document also forbids the prime minister to cancel the transitional administrative law during a state of emergency.
// 7/07/2004 
