Iraq's New President Jalal Talabani: Ally of CIA, Iranian Intelligence and Saddam Hussein

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is due to be sworn in today as Iraq's new president. The national assembly ended two months of deadlock Wednesday when it elected Talabani to the largely ceremonial post. He becomes the first non-Arab president of an Arab country.

Talabani told reporters his presidency "means that there is no discrimination, that all Arabs, Kurds and other nationalities have the same rights."

Ousted leader Saddam Hussein watched Talabani"s election from his prison cell on a TV set up by his jailers.

The Iraqi parliament also named: outgoing finance minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and outgoing interim president Ghazi Yawar as the country's two vice presidents. The three men will serve together on the presidency council. They are expected to name Shiite politician Ibrahim Jaafari to the powerful post of prime minister. Cabinet ministers are expected to be named by next week.

The transitional government's main task will be to oversee the drafting of a permanent Iraqi constitution and pave the way for elections in December.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice announced that Zalmay Khalilzad has officially been nominated to replace John Negroponte as ambassador to Iraq. Khalilzad has been serving as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. He was a leading backer of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and has close ties to neo-conservatives in Washington. In 1998 he co-signed a letter to President Clinton sent by the Project for the New American Century calling for regime change in Iraq.

Today we will take a an in-depth look at the new members of Iraq"s government.

* Dilip Hiro, a veteran journalist on the Middle East. His trilogy of books on Iraq and Iran are considered some of the most definitive histories of the wars in the Persian Gulf. His latest book is called "Secrets and Lies: Operation "Iraqi Freedom" and After."

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