Coalition Provisional Authority

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as a transitional government in Iraq following the invasion by the United States and the other members of the multinational coalition which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Citing UN Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003), and the laws of war, the CPA vested itself with executive, legislative, and judicial authority over the Iraqi government from the period of the CPA's inception on April 21, 2003, until its dissolution on June 28, 2004.

Staffing policies

CPA chief Paul Bremer replied to criticisms of the CPA by pleading that he was burdened by an inexperienced staff, with a high turnover. However, critics of Ambassador Bremer would suggest that he bore the responsibility for setting the CPA's hiring practices, and those hiring practices give the appearance of being highly partisan.

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In a Washington Post profile of CPA staff quotes a Pentagon spokesman:

Related Topics:
Washington Post - Pentagon - Spokesman

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:Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa said the CPA was satisfied with the quality of applicants. Some staffers may have been young and inexperienced, he said, but "we have people right out of college leading troops on the ground.

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:Yoswa said the recruiting office had to hire quickly for the Madrid donors conference that fall and "turned to the Heritage Foundation, an educational facility, albeit a conservative one, but primarily a place where you can get good, solid people." He said this was a one-time event and that there was no organized effort to hire Republicans.

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:In late October, he said, the Pentagon set up a job site on the Web. Eleven thousand people filled out an application and several hundred of them were hired. "Nowhere did we ask party affiliation," he said.

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The Washington Post article quotes Colonel Yoswa for official acknowlegement of something the several dozen CPA staffers revealed. The sole criteria the CPA used to choose their staff was a referral by the controversial Heritage Foundation think tank. Ambassador Bremer was responsible for the hiring policy that caused his staff to be composed of young and inexperienced staff, who were then assigned responsibilities outside their nominal fields of expertise.

Related Topics:
Heritage Foundation - Think tank

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