MEET THE NEW BOSS

Democracy, Iraqi-style:

A safe house in Baghdad for abused and threatened women — a refuge that a Nashville Army Reserve major helped establish — has fallen.

But rebels didn't take it. Instead, with no advance warning, the interim Iraqi president ordered the eviction of the women and staff, according to a U.S. Embassy daily report.

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"The President's office also questioned why there was a women's refuge inside the Green Zone and complained that it could become a center for a 'homeless mafia.'"

The green zone is an area in Baghdad that is heavily secured by the military. Three women and a 5-year-old child forced to leave the safe house were given temporary shelter by a U.S. Army civil affairs unit, the memo said.

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Many officials had wanted the house, according to the embassy memo.

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