| Photos: Don Eberly |
East Hempfield
Township resident Don Eberly, left, stands with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. Presidential Envoy and Administrator of Coalition Provisional
Authority, after a soccer match between the Iraqi national team and the U.S. Army. The Iraqis won 11-3. |
 East Hempfield resident Don Eberly stands in front of a mural outside an Iraqi youth center,
where children received training in the use of AK-47s. Eberly is one of 24 senior ministry officials representing the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. |
Rebuilding Iraq
Eberly hopes sports can instill a ‘civil society’ in Iraq
Works as advisor to Iraqi youth ministry
Third of Four Parts
BY JUSTIN QUINN
Editors Note: Don Eberly, an East Hempfield resident, has lived in Baghdad since March as part of a team sent there to rebuild the country. Eberly recently talked about his experiences during a lengthy telephone interview from a United States military compound.
At the end of World War II, American soldiers and civilian aides were given the unenviable task of trying to rid the German government of all remaining elements of the Nazi party.
They called it “denazification.”
Fifty-eight years later, East Hempfield resident Don Eberly is among 24 senior coalition officials overseeing the removal of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, which ruled Iraq like the Nazis ruled Germany.
Speaking from a palatial military compound that once served as headquarters for Hussein’s brutal regime, Eberly calls it “debaathification.”
“This was really a one-person dictatorship, and many people had no choice about joining the party,” Eberly said. “In my case, I had 20 quite senior Baath party officials we had sent into retirement. Starting about four weeks ago, we strongly announced publicly our debaathification intent.”
Since arriving within a week of Baghdad’s fall to coalition troops, Eberly has been in charge of the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport. The position reflects his role in the Bush Administration, where he served as international policy coordinator for civil society.
“My job is to find community solutions to social problems,” Eberly said. “Well, there is a huge need for that in a place where you’re transitioning out of a socialist state.”
Removing senior Baath officials from the Iraqi government is the biggest challenge facing the coalition as it tries to rebuild the country, Eberly said.
"For humanitarian purposes, these people were given some very small emergency payments,” he said. “There’s not a lot of sympathy for them because these are the people who could take care of themselves. During the previous regime they certainly enjoyed privilege, and in some cases, became well-off and comfortable.
The (senior Baath party officials) are a very clever people. They are cunning and ruthless in the way they go about their business.”
Once Baath party members have been politically exiled, the next step is to replace the old system with one that is credible and effective.
Sorting out the new government’s policies and making sure they are effective “can be tricky,” Eberly said.
"We need to create new institutions that are free,” Eberly said. “We need to create new voluntary associations, and my experience in that arena is directly relevant. We have to build what’s called civil society. That’s the big challenge. That’s what we’re doing.”
As a senior advisor to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, Eberly has two overlapping areas of responsibility.
Not only does he oversee Iraq’s National Olympic Committee, its 37 sports federations and hundreds of athletic clubs, he is also charged with giving children something to smile about again.
We don’t have programs like this in the West,” Eberly said, “but it is very common in developing countries. Our job is to guide the reorganization of a youth ministry that has gotten seriously off track.”
Throughout the 1990s, Iraq’s Youth Ministry got progressively more corrupt, Eberly said.
“This ministry was responsible for some of the worst things you’ve heard about,” he said. “Recruiting kids into fairly extreme Baath party movements, recruiting kids to spy on adults, parents and teachers. Really awful stuff.”
The new Ministry of Youth and Sport is far more youth-oriented than sports-oriented, Eberly said.
As a government program, it consists of 3,000 staff and 130 youth centers across Iraq,” Eberly said. “The 130 youth centers will be our principal instrument for reaching the youth of Iraq.”
One of the few things bringing smiles to the faces of children in Iraq these days is the interim government’s push to give them soccer balls.
“We are in the process of delivering 80,000 of them and for safety reasons, I will deliver some by helicopter,” Eberly said. “There really are no safe land routes to get them out because convoys are often the target of snipers and ambushes. When you’re driving through downtown Baghdad, you get a certain nervousness when you get caught in traffic.”
Restructuring the Ministry of Youth and Sport is will be one of Eberly’s greatest legacies, he said.
We will have replaced corrupt ideological Baath party programs with healthy programs focusing on character, technical training and an appreciation of democracy,” he said.
Nevertheless, “the sports aspect tends to get most of the attention,” he said. “Iraq, like most Arab countries, takes sports very seriously.”
Soccer stars are more highly regarded than government leaders and, as such, receive celebrity status, Eberly said.
“That’s why sporting events are so important,” he said. “They will really bring this society back to life.”
Restoring a sense of national pride through international competition also is part of Eberly’s task. Last month, the international press covered a closed-door soccer game between an Iraqi national team and a US Army team that rebuilt Olympic stadium.
“The mood and the atmosphere were both very positive,” Eberly said. “Actually, it was a very high moment here because that Olympic facility was an international story. That event was more than a competition. It was us handing the stadium over to Iraqi athletes and taking all the tanks out of there.”
The Iraqis won the game 11-3.
“If you were to ask the Army, they were really putting up an effort,” Eberly said. “In fairness, the Army team never played together before, and the team they faced was one of two national teams, one of which will go to the Olympics next year.”
The transition of the Olympic committee must be done in accordance with Olympic bylaws,” Eberly said.
“What we’re trying to do is create a new Olympic committee without the Baath party influence,” he said. “There is nothing that would make the Iraqi people more proud than to participate in the Olympics so soon after this war.”
Participation in the Olympics will be especially sweet after scores of the country’s finest athletes were tortured and imprisoned at the hands of Uday Hussein, Eberly said.
Of all Saddam’s sons, Uday is clearly the most disturbed and ruthless, from what I’ve seen,” Eberly said. “For reasons that are truly bizarre, the only official duty he chose to take on was oversight of the Olympic committee.”
In recent years, he committed the committee’s resources to intelligencer and paramilitary operations, Eberly said.
For reasons that only psychiatrists, I’m sure, could explain, Uday developed a record over the years of imprisoning and torturing about 200 athletes,” Eberly said. “I’m not sure anyone could point to a political or ideological reason to abuse athletes. In fact, it was politically stupid.”
Uday not only ran the Olympic committee as a political front, he also ran it as a business front, Eberly said.
“We’ve been having to send teams of investigators to look into the business holdings of the committee,” he said. “These are things we have to untangle because we have to return these holdings back over the Iraqi people.”
US and international Olympic committees are working to restore damaged athletic fields and buildings, Eberly said.
“Facilities and equipment are completely destroyed,” he said. “It’s less from war than the 10 years of sanctions and looting that followed the war. The looting was absolutely breathtaking.”
There is still some sporadic looting, Eberly said, but it is largely under control.
“Until there is a new sense of credible public order, with a new police force and a credible judicial system, there will be a fair amount of lawlessness,” Eberly said. “But already there has been a lot of headway made in addressing the reconstruction needs and getting those services back on line.”
TOMORROW: The effect of Eberly’s work in Iraq on his family.
On to the next story in this series >>>
They called it “denazification.”
Fifty-eight years later, East Hempfield resident Don Eberly is among 24 senior coalition officials overseeing the removal of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, which ruled Iraq like the Nazis ruled Germany.
Speaking from a palatial military compound that once served as headquarters for Hussein’s brutal regime, Eberly calls it “debaathification.”
“This was really a one-person dictatorship, and many people had no choice about joining the party,” Eberly said. “In my case, I had 20 quite senior Baath party officials we had sent into retirement. Starting about four weeks ago, we strongly announced publicly our debaathification intent.”
Since arriving within a week of Baghdad’s fall to coalition troops, Eberly has been in charge of the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport. The position reflects his role in the Bush Administration, where he served as international policy coordinator for civil society.
“My job is to find community solutions to social problems,” Eberly said. “Well, there is a huge need for that in a place where you’re transitioning out of a socialist state.”
Removing senior Baath officials from the Iraqi government is the biggest challenge facing the coalition as it tries to rebuild the country, Eberly said.
"For humanitarian purposes, these people were given some very small emergency payments,” he said. “There’s not a lot of sympathy for them because these are the people who could take care of themselves. During the previous regime they certainly enjoyed privilege, and in some cases, became well-off and comfortable.
The (senior Baath party officials) are a very clever people. They are cunning and ruthless in the way they go about their business.”
Once Baath party members have been politically exiled, the next step is to replace the old system with one that is credible and effective.
Sorting out the new government’s policies and making sure they are effective “can be tricky,” Eberly said.
"We need to create new institutions that are free,” Eberly said. “We need to create new voluntary associations, and my experience in that arena is directly relevant. We have to build what’s called civil society. That’s the big challenge. That’s what we’re doing.”
As a senior advisor to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, Eberly has two overlapping areas of responsibility.
Not only does he oversee Iraq’s National Olympic Committee, its 37 sports federations and hundreds of athletic clubs, he is also charged with giving children something to smile about again.
We don’t have programs like this in the West,” Eberly said, “but it is very common in developing countries. Our job is to guide the reorganization of a youth ministry that has gotten seriously off track.”
Throughout the 1990s, Iraq’s Youth Ministry got progressively more corrupt, Eberly said.
“This ministry was responsible for some of the worst things you’ve heard about,” he said. “Recruiting kids into fairly extreme Baath party movements, recruiting kids to spy on adults, parents and teachers. Really awful stuff.”
The new Ministry of Youth and Sport is far more youth-oriented than sports-oriented, Eberly said.
As a government program, it consists of 3,000 staff and 130 youth centers across Iraq,” Eberly said. “The 130 youth centers will be our principal instrument for reaching the youth of Iraq.”
One of the few things bringing smiles to the faces of children in Iraq these days is the interim government’s push to give them soccer balls.
“We are in the process of delivering 80,000 of them and for safety reasons, I will deliver some by helicopter,” Eberly said. “There really are no safe land routes to get them out because convoys are often the target of snipers and ambushes. When you’re driving through downtown Baghdad, you get a certain nervousness when you get caught in traffic.”
Restructuring the Ministry of Youth and Sport is will be one of Eberly’s greatest legacies, he said.
We will have replaced corrupt ideological Baath party programs with healthy programs focusing on character, technical training and an appreciation of democracy,” he said.
Nevertheless, “the sports aspect tends to get most of the attention,” he said. “Iraq, like most Arab countries, takes sports very seriously.”
Soccer stars are more highly regarded than government leaders and, as such, receive celebrity status, Eberly said.
“That’s why sporting events are so important,” he said. “They will really bring this society back to life.”
Restoring a sense of national pride through international competition also is part of Eberly’s task. Last month, the international press covered a closed-door soccer game between an Iraqi national team and a US Army team that rebuilt Olympic stadium.
“The mood and the atmosphere were both very positive,” Eberly said. “Actually, it was a very high moment here because that Olympic facility was an international story. That event was more than a competition. It was us handing the stadium over to Iraqi athletes and taking all the tanks out of there.”
The Iraqis won the game 11-3.
“If you were to ask the Army, they were really putting up an effort,” Eberly said. “In fairness, the Army team never played together before, and the team they faced was one of two national teams, one of which will go to the Olympics next year.”
The transition of the Olympic committee must be done in accordance with Olympic bylaws,” Eberly said.
“What we’re trying to do is create a new Olympic committee without the Baath party influence,” he said. “There is nothing that would make the Iraqi people more proud than to participate in the Olympics so soon after this war.”
Participation in the Olympics will be especially sweet after scores of the country’s finest athletes were tortured and imprisoned at the hands of Uday Hussein, Eberly said.
Of all Saddam’s sons, Uday is clearly the most disturbed and ruthless, from what I’ve seen,” Eberly said. “For reasons that are truly bizarre, the only official duty he chose to take on was oversight of the Olympic committee.”
In recent years, he committed the committee’s resources to intelligencer and paramilitary operations, Eberly said.
For reasons that only psychiatrists, I’m sure, could explain, Uday developed a record over the years of imprisoning and torturing about 200 athletes,” Eberly said. “I’m not sure anyone could point to a political or ideological reason to abuse athletes. In fact, it was politically stupid.”
Uday not only ran the Olympic committee as a political front, he also ran it as a business front, Eberly said.
“We’ve been having to send teams of investigators to look into the business holdings of the committee,” he said. “These are things we have to untangle because we have to return these holdings back over the Iraqi people.”
US and international Olympic committees are working to restore damaged athletic fields and buildings, Eberly said.
“Facilities and equipment are completely destroyed,” he said. “It’s less from war than the 10 years of sanctions and looting that followed the war. The looting was absolutely breathtaking.”
There is still some sporadic looting, Eberly said, but it is largely under control.
“Until there is a new sense of credible public order, with a new police force and a credible judicial system, there will be a fair amount of lawlessness,” Eberly said. “But already there has been a lot of headway made in addressing the reconstruction needs and getting those services back on line.”
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