Articles about the elections in Iraq

Predictably, the U.S. news media are full of discussion and debate about this weekend’s election in Iraq. Unfortunately, virtually all the commentary misses a simple point: There will be no “election” on Jan. 30 in Iraq, if that term is meant to suggest an even remotely democratic process.

Many Iraqis casting votes will be understandably grateful for the opportunity. But the conditions under which those votes will be cast -- as well as the larger context -- bear more similarity to a slowly unfolding hostage tragedy than an exercise in democracy. We refer not to the hostages taken by various armed factions in Iraq, but the way in which U.S. policymakers are holding the entire Iraqi population hostage to U.S. designs for domination of the region.

This is an election that U.S. policymakers were forced to accept and now hope can entrench their power, not displace it. They seek not an election that will lead to a U.S. withdrawal, but one that will bolster their ability to make a case for staying indefinitely.

This is crucial for anti-empire activists to keep in mind as the mainstream media begins to give us pictures of long lines at polling places to show how much Iraqis support this election and to repeat the Bush administration line about bringing freedom to a part of the world starved for democracy. Those media reports also will give some space to those critics who remain comfortably within the permissible ideological limits -- that is, those who agree that the U.S. aim is freedom for Iraq and, therefore, are allowed to quibble with a few minor aspects of administration policy.

The task of activists who step outside those limits is to point out a painfully obvious fact, and therefore one that is unspeakable in the mainstream: A real election cannot go on under foreign occupation in which the electoral process is managed by the occupiers who have clear preferences in the outcome.

That’s why the U.S.-funded programs that “nurture” the voting process have to be implemented “discreetly,” in the words of a Washington Post story, to avoid giving the Iraqis who are “well versed in the region’s widely held perception of U.S. hegemony” further reason to mistrust the assumed benevolent intentions of the United States.

Post reporters Karl Vick and Robin Wright quote an Iraqi-born instructor from one of these training programs: “If you walk into a coffee shop and say, ‘Hi, I’m from an American organization and I’m here to help you,’ that’s not going to help. If you say you’re here to encourage democracy, they say you’re here to control the Middle East.”

Perhaps “they” -- those well-versed Iraqis -- say that because it is an accurate assessment of policy in the Bush administration, as well as every other contemporary U.S. administration. “They” dare to suggest that the U.S. goal is effective control over the region’s oil resources. But “we” in the United States are not supposed to think, let alone say, such things; that same Post story asserts, without a hint of sarcasm, that the groups offering political training in Iraq (the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, and International Foundation for Election Systems) are “at the ambitious heart of the American effort to make Iraq a model democracy in the Arab world.”

Be still my heart. To fulfill that ambition, U.S. troop strength in Iraq will remain at the current level of about 120,000 for at least two more years, according to the Army’s top operations officer. For the past two years, journalists have reported about U.S. intentions to establish anywhere from four to 14 “enduring” military bases in Iraq. Given that there are about 890 U.S. military installations around the world to provide the capacity to project power in service of the U.S. political and economic agenda, it’s not hard to imagine that planners might be interested in bases in the heart of the world’s most important energy-producing region.

But in mainstream circles, such speculation relegates one to the same category as those confused Middle Easterners with their “widely held perception of U.S. hegemony.” After all, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has dismissed as “inaccurate and unfortunate” any suggestion that the United States seeks a permanent presence in Iraq. In April 2003, Rumsfeld assured us that there has been “zero discussion” among senior administration officials about permanent bases in Iraq.

But let’s return to reality: Whatever the long-term plans of administration officials, the occupation of Iraq has, to put it mildly, not gone as they had hoped. But rather than abandon their goals, they have adapted tactics and rhetoric. Originally the United States proposed a complex caucus system to try to avoid elections and make it easier to control the selection of a government, but the Iraqis refused to accept that scheme. Eventually U.S. planners had to accept elections and now are attempting to turn the chaotic situation on the ground to their advantage.

Ironically, the instability and violence may boost the chances of the United States’ favored candidate, U.S.-appointed interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. While most electoral slates are unable to campaign or even release their candidates’ names because of the violence, Allawi can present himself as a symbol of strength, running an expensive television campaign while protected by security forces. He has access to firepower and reconstruction funds, which may prove appealing to many ordinary Iraqis who, understandably, want the electricity to flow and the kidnappings and violence to stop.

Of course the United States can’t guarantee the favored candidate will prevail. But whoever is in the leadership slot in Iraq will understand certain unavoidable realities of power. As the New York Times put it -- in the delicate fashion appropriate to the Times -- the recent announcement by Shi’a leaders that any government it forms would not be overtly Islamic was partly in response to Iraqi public opinion. But, as reporter Dexter Filkins reminded readers, U.S. officials “wield vast influence” and “would be troubled by an overtly Islamist government.” And no one wants troubled U.S. officials, even Iraqi nationalists who hate the U.S. occupation but can look around and see who has the guns.

The realities on the ground may eventually mean that even with all those guns, the United States cannot impose a pro-U.S. government in Iraq. It may have to switch strategies again. But, no matter how many times Bush speaks of his fondness for freedom and no matter what games the planners play, we should not waver in an honest analysis of the real motivations of policymakers. To pretend that the United States might, underneath it all, truly want a real democracy in Iraq -- one that actually would be free to follow the will of the people -- is to ignore evidence, logic and history.

As blogger Zeynep Toufe put it: “All these precious words have now become something akin to brand names: “democracy,” “freedom,” “liberty,” “empowerment.” They don’t really mean anything; they’re just the names attached to things we do.” http://www.underthesamesun.org/

Right now, one of the things that U.S. policymakers do is to allow Iraqis to cast ballots under extremely constrained conditions. But whatever the results on Jan. 30, it will not be an election, if by “election” we mean a process through which people have a meaningful opportunity to select representatives who can set public policy free of external constraint. The casting of ballots will not create a legitimate Iraqi government. Such a government is possible only when Iraqis have real control over their own future. And that will come only when the United States is gone.

Robert Jensen is on the board and Pat Youngblood is coordinator of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin, TX. http://thirdcoastactivist.org/
They can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu and pat@thirdcoastactivist.org.

-------------------------
Robert Jensen
School of Journalism
1 University Station A1000
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-0113
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
office: (512) 471-1990
fax: (512) 471-7979
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/home.htm

Would they turn to Falsification?!

Rayatularab editorial

On Jan 30, the National Assembly election will be held, according to the State Law issued by Bremer, the American ex-governor of Iraq. Since the count down for this election began, after the American administration stubbornly rejected our people's demand of providing the legal and security conditions to hold it, and of giving bigger opportunity for our people's different forces to participate in a real, free and honest election; since then the country's problems are compiling, and crisis are developing in different fields of life.

Life itself became difficult for our people in their different classes and social sections. These daily life problems begin with fuel, electricity, water, and do not end with the outrageous Iraqi government failure to solve them, whether for corruption or insecurity reasons. Baghdad's inhabitants spent the Eid Al-Adha (Sacrifice Feast) without drinking water which was cut for 10 days.

It has been more than 20 months since our beloved country was unjustly occupied. During this period, all the political forces which collaborated with the occupation, or colluded with it, and the occupation provisional authority before, set a record in failure to reconstruct the state institutions or solve the problems. In deed the plans, if there were any, and the means of implementing them, do not only indicate bad judgment and inefficient planning, but rather stupidity and arrogance.

In election, the occupiers sought a way out of their crisis. Despite the fact that election in principal, is one of the important ways to build a modern state, but it can not be held out of its legal and general conditions. Any free and honest election, even under occupation, should be done in safe security conditions at least, under the UN supervision, or any independent body that is not connected to the occupiers and their collaborators.

This election is an essential demand of our people, but the occupiers rejected our demands of providing it with the necessary security and atmosphere, in the same stubborn and arrogant way, with which they dealt with other Iraqi problems; as if they have magic solutions for all our problems as soon as the election is held.

It is our right to wonder and sarcastically find strange that the occupation and the temporal governments failed to provide any stability or solutions to all the chronic problems, and what kind of additional new method the election would provide to enable them solving these problems, crisis, and chaos. It is our right to wonder why the majority of people are unwilling to participate in this election, and why the demands of the political forces are neglected.

In Iraq we have a deep and accumulative experience in the methods of deceiving voters and maneuvering their will. The royal regime, which was a good disciple of the British colonial authority, was an excellent example in this matter. Our people experienced how the last regime's referendums were turned into celebrations without any democratic, objective, or real content. Our people are aware and believe that the occupiers did not come to secure a national regime, they do not care, or that they would not allow Iran or any other regional state to control Iraq, that they are only after strengthening their colonial authority and their control on oil through their collaborators. All this we know and are aware of.

Because the occupiers badly wanted the election, even though they know very well that the majority of people would boycott, and that a limited minority would join this game, that this minority would not give the election any legality, for these reasons, the occupiers will have no other choice except falsification of the people's will, and bringing a group that fits the American model.

In the absence of law and security, with an election commission appointed by the American governor, with the almost complete absence of any real honest international supervision, because of the American rejection of any such supervision, except for symbolic UN existence, in such circumstances it would be very easy to falsify the election. The American administration which occupied Iraq, and destroyed its beautiful land, would do any thing to achieve its aims. It does not care for the International Law, Human Rights, or any other value. The only important thing is that "its men" take power, and that they are provided with the needed legitimacy. Then it can sign with them the security and oil agreements. The American administration behavior after World War I until now, shows that the American interests are above all legal and moral regard.

That is why we say that the election which is imposed on our people will not be a magic stick to solve our problems, neither its falsification would give the occupiers alliance any legitimacy, it would only be another failure. It would strengthen our people's will to continue its struggle for its freedom, to end the occupation and to build its democratic state, and resume its economic and social procession.

The Dollar Campaigns for Allawi

by Dahr Jamail

January 28, 2005

BAGHDAD - U.S.-appointed interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi recently handed out $100 bills to journalists at a press conference.
He then gave teachers an unexpected $100 bonus.

Allawi seems to be on his way to winning the election in Iraq, such as it is.

Wa`il Issam, an unemployed translator, has his views about this kind of campaign. "Allawi is bribing people and using money to buy votes
and support from journalists, retired people and teachers," he said. "And I promise you that Allawi is fixing it so 70 percent of the Shias will vote for him, even though it will be a faked election."

Wa`il Issam spoke of other `provisions` that will help Allawi. "Now it is possible for one family member to cast votes for all of the people in his house," he said. "How do you think a man who has worked for six secret service organizations from different countries could lose this election?

Allawi has dollars and clout, but he appears to lack the respect of many Iraqis. "Anybody elected in these so-called elections will be a puppet of Bush," said an 18 year-old biology student at Baghdad University. "Especially Allawi."

Allawi`s CIA connections are never far from people`s minds.

"Allawi was a Ba`athist with Saddam and now he is a dummy of the Americans," says Ali Hammad Adnan, a 42-year-old who sells petrol on the black market to feed his family of four.

Allawi left Iraq in 1971 to study in London, and did not return to Iraq until after the U.S.-led invasion of his country. He has been accused on the other side of providing faulty intelligence to the United States to justify the invasion. He is known to have worked with the CIA in an attempt to overthrow former dictator Saddam Hussein in 1996.

Now Iraqis distrust Allawi. "It`s not a matter of elections," said 23-year-old Suhaid, a computer science engineer in Baghdad. "Those with power will stay in power. This is all a big lie we are facing, and these elections are totally illegitimate."

Allawi is determined to hold elections under any circumstances. Security measures continue to increase, and now Iran has announced the closure of its borders with Iraq until after the elections. Curfew hours within Iraq have already been extended.

The U.S. military faces an average of 80 attacks a day now as Iraqi resistance continues to spread.

U.S. forces are hitting back. U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a mosque in Sadr City in Baghdad Wednesday and detained 25 followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who is boycotting the elections. At least nine Iraqis have died during a string of car bomb attacks in Kirkuk in the north.

But many Iraqis still say they will vote for Allawi.

"I will vote for Allawi because I think he will bring the security for us which we so desperately need," said Zuthir Abbas in the Khadamiya district of Baghdad.

Abbas announced his intention even though he said he does not know the number of the electoral list Allawi heads, or where he would go to vote, since the Commission for Elections in Iraq has yet to announce the location of polling stations.

Others say they will vote, whatever the legitimacy of the elections.

"Whether he is legitimately elected or not, he will remain in power," said 28-year-old Shia blacksmith Ahmed Shuhab. "He appears strong and he acts like he knows what he is doing because the American and Iraqi armies are supporting him."

(Inter Press Srvice)

http://www.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=4626

In Armored Vehicles, Troops Tell Iraqis to Vote
Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:02 AM ET

By Ibon Villelabeitia http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7468060

SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - A rumbling column of U.S. Bradley fighting vehicles grinds to a stop in a rebellious Iraqi neighborhood of scarred houses and mud streets.

Heavily-armed troops jump out and begin searching homes as loudspeakers blast in Arabic: "On Sunday you should go out to out. Vote to give freedom to Iraq. Vote to save Iraq." A soldier hands out fliers to a group of untidy children.

In the heartland of Iraq's insurgency, American soldiers are trying to combine fighting with getting out the vote.

It's tough on both fronts.

Several leading Sunni Arab parties are boycotting the poll and Islamist militants have threatened to kill anybody who casts a ballot. It is too dangerous for election workers to hit the streets.

Suddenly, the whistle of a grenade pierces the air and a loud explosion shakes the ground. The soldiers fire back before returning to their armored vehicles and the convoy speeds away.

No wonder candidates in the Sunni city of Samarra are too afraid to campaign for Sunday's landmark election.

Insurgents have bombed polling centers and attacked candidates in a bid to derail the vote -- Iraq's first multi-party elections in nearly 50 years.

Two days before the vote, Samarra, a city in the violent Sunni region north of Baghdad, looks more like a war zone than a place getting ready for elections.

Apache helicopter gunships thunder over mosques and the city's ancient spiral minaret. Miles of barbed wire seal off garbage-strewn streets. A car bomb on Thursday killed an Iraqi soldier and two civilians near an Iraqi army patrol.

CANDIDATES TOO AFRAID TO CAMPAIGN

There are no campaign posters in this city of 200,000 people, and several election officials have resigned after receiving death threats.

Voters don't know where they have to cast ballots because officials are keeping sites secret until election day.

Only U.S. forces, venturing out of their frequently-mortared bases, make an attempt to get the vote out, putting up posters with general information about the polls, passing out leaflets and broadcasting messages.

"We hang posters around the city telling people how important it is for them to vote but they rip them up as soon as we turn our backs," said Staff Sgt. Russ Spike from Akron, Ohio.

He was among a group of soldiers who recently went on a patrol to encourage Samarra residents to vote.

As 30-tonBradley vehicles pointed their 25 mm cannons down alleyways, Spike cranked up the volume of the loudspeakers on his Humvee. He has a list of taped messages with titles such as "Election news," "Freedom to vote" and "Love and family."

Another message reminds people of a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has declared war on the elections.

The noise drew a handful of nervous Iraqis out of their homes. Children stared in awe at the Americans, many of whom wore wrap-around sunglasses and chewed tobacco.

"If I go and vote, the resistance will kill me. They are watching us," said Habib Daoud, a 70-year-old man wearing a brown robe and a black-and-white headcloth.

"We can't vote in Samarra. Freedom is fine but we need security. If we vote they will kill us," said Walid Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, a 54-year-old teacher, said U.S. forces used heavy-handed tactics to put down the insurgency.

"We suffered with Saddam. Now we suffer with the Americans. They come to our neighborhoods with their Bradleys and they want us to love them. Just for standing here they can kill me."

No sooner had he finished talking than a rocket-propelled grenade, apparently aimed at the Humvee mounted with the loudspeakers, exploded nearby.

"Let's get out of here. This place is no good," Spike said as he jumped back into his vehicle.

What is wrong with the Iraqi elections to be held NOW?

For quite a while there has been heated debate about the Iraqi elections to be held this Sunday. Some are pro, some anti, and others are calling for postponement, especially candidates who are actually participating in the elections.

Iraqis have been dreaming of democracy for decades. It sounds strange that when they get the opportunity they are so divided and hesitant. But is it really strange

Security

For one thing they think elections are not possible now at all for practical reasons e.g. security. With all the killings, assassinations, blasts, security procedures, it is almost impossible to convince people to jeopardize their lives and their families to taste their first experience of democracy. Candidates are threatened and killed, officials, political personalities, journalists, scientists…etc are assassinated. Many civilians are being kidnapped and some times killed for unknown reasons. Interior Ministry says that at least 1300 Iraqi policemen were killed since last June.

Armed violence becomes daily life experience now. In deed the security procedures and plans for the elections are terrifying. Health ministry announced an emergency plan in 190 hospitals, curfew is announced, 90 streets in Baghdad are closed a week ago, balloting centers are secret, and people living in surrounding areas are evacuating, candidates names were not announced until 5 days before the elections. Many officials, e.g. Defense Minister repeated that he wished the elections were postponed. Borders, airport, highways, cities, newspapers are closed. Prices get higher, markets are closed, and even bread is a crisis now.

Weeks before the elections, the Iraqis were going through a very difficult winter. There has been fuel, electricity and clean water crisis that the government showed an exemplary failure to deal with. So why people should think that the same government would be more successful in treating the more difficult issue of security during the elections days? In deed, people are asking why all these crises exploded before the elections.

In this atmosphere, and there are much more details, how could it be possibly believed that people would risk their lives, or even care, to choose "their representatives"?

Who are they anyway?

Who are the Candidates?

It is another problem, even if people do want to participate in the balloting; they do not know who the 7471 candidates are. It is announced that their names are kept secret for security reasons, fair enough, but you can not vote unless you "know" whom you are giving your voice to. Knowing does not mean names only ; that is why it was a joke to announce the candidates' names 5 days before the balloting. These candidates had no proper chance at all to introduce themselves, their political programs, and their attitudes…etc. Big players however had their chance to do some electoral campaign, political parties with big funding, newspapers, posters, satellite and local TV interviews, radios …etc. Others had only the chance to put some banners.

Again, it is a widely debated issue in the sense that it raises suspicions. Are the winners already determined? Why is it so secondary to do any kind of political propaganda for the candidates? Do not we, Iraqis, deserve to know who is going to rule us next? Why are we so neglected? What are the political scenarios ahead?

These are just few examples. In this atmosphere rumors flourish. Candidates are accused of different stories, and loose credibility, if some still have any, in this farcical scene.

Political Reasons

More important are the political difficulties. Political critics, even within the candidates, e.g. Dr. Adnan Al-Pachechi, who is heading the Independent Democrats list in the elections, believe that these elections will not be representative of all the Iraqi people and therefore the national assembly and the draft constitution which will come out of it will not be legitimate enough. In a meeting held in his house and included at least 17 political parties and many personalities, Al-Pachechi tried unsuccessfully to postpone the elections for 6 months to give all the political forces in Iraq more time to reach national consensus.

It was made obvious by the American administration, especially by Bush that the elections must not, in any circumstances, be delayed. Many political groups boycotted the elections. It was Al-Pachechi's aim to convince all of them to agree on a broad national unified attitude and to join the political process. He was worried too that instead of elections on January 30, Iraq would have a blood bath. Many political parties shared these worries. In deed the American embassy in Baghdad sent a delegation to meet the Moslem Scholars Association and try to convince them join the elections. They agreed on one condition, that the American administration announces a troop withdrawal schedule from Iraq. The American refused.

The only political groups who are enthusiastic about the elections to be held now are mainly the Unified Iraqi Alliance (Shiite) and the Kurds' coalition.

The general feeling is that it is the American' will alone that is dictating the elections, (many Iraqi officials admitted that) which is making it even more difficult. People ask "why?" whenever a new explosion kills more civilians in connection to the elections; it deepens the feeling that the occupation does not give a dime for their lives or their country. It is the same question repeatedly asked when Falluja was flattened by bombs and thousands were killed and made homeless, just to prepare the ground for the elections. "What kind of democracy is this?" was the sentence on peoples' tongues "are we going to sign in our brothers' blood?"

Iraqis believe that the occupiers are seeking a way out of the Iraqi quagmire by elections, the sooner the better. It is much more than merely political propaganda for the US administration to say," Look, we gave the Iraqis democracy!! There is a wide understanding that the human, material, and political bleeding is becoming too costly for the occupiers, that they want to do these elections as soon as possible so that they can withdraw to the barracks and use the Iraqi security forces as human shields, to turn the fight into Iraqi-Iraqi fight rather than Iraqi-occupiers.

Another reservation is the absence of real international supervision. The 25 UN observers are definitely not enough to cover a country as big as Iraq in the current situation, if the supervision is meant to be real and complete, not symbolic. In East Timor, which is half the size of Baghdad, for example, there were 300 UN observers.

There are many indicators that it would not be “honest” elections. People talk of blackmailing, buying, intimidations, and bribes already being practiced by some political parties. Many people say that they were told that their food ration is going to be cut if they do not vote. Religious symbols are being used, and religious decree was issued telling people that it is their religious duty to vote. Reports of fraud (mistakes!) in registration and documentation are mentioned. In Kerkuk, some political groups withdrew from the elections in the last minute, in protest on what they called a deliberate demographic changes being practiced by the Kurds.

Only 20% of the 1.200.000 Iraqis who live outside Iraq are participating. Their participation not determined as how, where, and how to count their votes…etc .

There was much criticism too to the mechanism of considering Iraq one electoral region, rather than dividing it into administrative electoral districts, as it is usual all over the world. A voter in Basra could give his vote to a candidate in Mosul or Arbil, for example.

Another major political criticism was the fact that elections were based on sectarian and ethnic divisions rather than political approach. It is now part of the media language, especially the international, to talk about the Shiite groups, the Sunni attitude, the Kurdish ambitions…There is fear that such divisions would lead to civil strife no matter what the elections results are, which is the last thing that Iraq needs now.

Principally Rejected

While the Iraqis’ ambitions of free, honest, democratic, and transparent elections are questioned for the above mentioned reasons, there are many who principally reject any elections held while Iraq is still under the occupation. They believe that such elections would give the occupation legitimacy, would be impossible in the atmosphere of chaos and lack of sovereignty, that there is no executive authority capable of running them, apart from the occupation authority which is only busy protecting itself, let alone the fact that this authority has no legal right to organize the election or supervise them. No freedom or democracy is possible in an occupied country unless the occupation is ended, no future for Iraq in any political process directed by the occupiers.

The elections are being held according to the Bremer's Transitional Administrative Law, which was rejected by many independent political and religious references, including those who are participating in the elections now as candidates.

The elections Higher Commission was appointed by Bremer too, before the authority (handover) last June, so are all the provinces governors, the local councils' members who worked on these elections, it is impossible, given these facts, to talk about sovereign elections. Many fear that the elections outcome would be exactly like the National Conference which was (elected) from the closest list to the government.

A more dangerous aspect of these elections is the dividing-Iraq-project that is much feared. The Kurds have already announced that they have three conditions to remain Iraqis. Federalism, Kerkuk and returning the Kurd immigrants; Alchalabi who is running in this election on the Unified Iraqi Alliance list, threatened on his part to call for federal region in the south. Critics believe that it is in the interest of the occupiers, and Israel, to dismantle Iraq in smaller federal districts, with a week government in the center. It is a strategy to dwarfing Iraq and turning it into a powerless factor in the Middle East region. Such weak government would sign any security and economic agreement that the US needs to control the region and the whole world.

Bint Al-Iraq

Hollow Election Held on Bloody Day

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail January 30

An overnight rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad that killed two Americans and injured four others set the tone for the election Sunday.

*BAGHDAD, Jan 30 (IPS) - An overnight rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad that killed two Americans and injured four others set the tone for the election Sunday.*

By the end of the day at least 29 people had been killed in attacks on polling stations and voters.

An hour after polling stations opened at 7am, mortar blasts began echoing across the capital city, at almost an attack a minute at times.

Most Iraqis stayed home after resistance fighters threatened to ”wash the streets with blood.”

A suicide bomber at a security checkpoint in Monsour district of western Baghdad killed a policeman and wounded two others. A man wearing a belt of explosives detonated himself at a voters queue in Sadr City in Baghdad, killing himself and at least four others.

Many Iraqis who had intended to vote stayed indoors as gunfire echoed around the downtown area of Baghdad. Mortar attacks on polling stations continued through the day.

”Yesterday a bicycle bomb killed someone near my house,” said 32-year-old Ahmed Mohammed. ”I never intended to vote in this illegitimate election anyway, but if I had wanted to I would never go out in these conditions.”

With draconian security measures in place, even some ambulances rushing to victims of bomb attacks were turned back at security checkpoints.

”Baghdad looks like it's having a war, not elections,” said Layla Abdul Rahman, a high school English teacher. ”Our streets are filled with
tanks and soldiers and our bridges are closed. All we are hearing is bombings all around us, and for the last two nights there have been many
clashes that last a long time. We shouldn't have had elections now because it's just not practical with this horrible security.”

The threats by the resistance fighters followed by a string of attacks across Baghdad clearly reduced voter turnout.

”How can we call this democracy when I am too afraid to leave my home,” said Baghdad resident Abdulla Hamid. ”Of course there will be low turnout here with all these bombings.”

A series of bombings have been reported also in Hilla, Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra and Baquba. In Samarra where a roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol, there was no sign either of voters or of the police on the streets, according to reports from there.

”Nobody will vote in Samarra because of the security situation,” Taha Husain, head of Samarra's local governing council told reporters.

Interim U.S.. appointed prime minister Ayad Allawi announced Saturday that martial law will now be extended for another month. The hope of many Iraqis that the elections will bring security and stability continue to fade.

Voter turnout in the Kurdish controlled north of Iraq and the Shia dominated southern region has been heavy, but most polling stations in
the capital city and central Iraq remained relatively empty.

Aside from security reasons, many Iraqis chose not to vote because they question the legitimacy of these elections.

”They are wrong on principle, the High Commission for Elections was appointed by Bremer (former U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer), so how can we have a legitimate election under these circumstances,” said Sabah Rahwani in the Karrada district of Baghdad. ”This election only serves the interest of the occupier, not Iraqis. This is only propaganda for Bush.”

U.S. President George W. Bush announced in his weekly radio address Saturday that ”as democracy takes hold in Iraq, America's mission there will continue.” His administration has also recently announced that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq at least until 2006.

The parliament elected by the Sunday election will draft a new constitution for the country. A referendum on that is scheduled for Oct.
15, followed by another election Dec. 15.

January 31, 2005

Some Just Voted for Food

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail

*BAGHDAD, Jan 31 (IPS) - Voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, several voters said after the Sunday poll.*

Many Iraqis said Monday that their names were marked on a list provided by the government agency that provides monthly food rations before theywere allowed to vote.

”I went to the voting centre and gave my name and district where I lived to a man,” said Wassif Hamsa, a 32-year-old journalist who lives in the predominantly Shia area Janila in Baghdad. ”This man then sent me to the person who distributed my monthly food ration.”

Mohammed Ra'ad, an engineering student who lives in the Baya'a district of the capital city reported a similar experience.

Ra'ad, 23, said he saw the man who distributed monthly food rations in his district at his polling station. ”The food dealer, who I know personally of course, took my name and those of my family who were voting,” he said. ”Only then did I get my ballot and was allowed to vote.”

”Two of the food dealers I know told me personally that our food rations would be withheld if we did not vote,” said Saeed Jodhet, a 21-year-old engineering student who voted in the Hay al-Jihad district of Baghdad.

There has been no official indication that Iraqis who did not vote would not receive their monthly food rations.

Many Iraqis had expressed fears before the election that their monthly food rations would be cut if they did not vote. They said they had to sign voter registration forms in order to pick up their food supplies.

Their experiences on the day of polling have underscored many of their concerns about questionable methods used by the U.S.-backed Iraqi
interim government to increase voter turnout.

Just days before the election, 52 year-old Amin Hajar who owns an auto garage in central Baghdad had said: ”I'll vote because I can't afford to have my food ration cut...if that happened, me and my family would starve to death.”

Hajar told IPS that when he picked up his monthly food ration recently, he was forced to sign a form stating that he had picked up his voter
registration. He had feared that the government would use this information to track those who did not vote.

Calls to the Independent Electoral Commission for Iraq (IECI) and to the Ministry of Trade, which is responsible for the distribution of the
monthly food ration, were not returned.

Other questions have arisen over methods to persuade people to vote. U.S. troops tried to coax voters in Ramadi, capital city of the al-Anbar
province west of Baghdad to come out to vote, AP reported.

IECI officials have meanwhile 'downgraded' their earlier estimate of voter turnout.

IECI spokesman Farid Ayar had declared a 72 percent turnout earlier, a figure given also by the Bush Administration.

But at a press conference Ayar backtracked on his earlier figure, saying the turnout would be nearer 60 percent of registered voters.

The earlier figure of 72 percent, he said, was ”only guessing” and ”just an estimate” that had been based on ”very rough, word of mouth estimates gathered informally from the field.” He added that it will be some time before the IECI can issue accurate figures on the turnout.

”Percentages and numbers come only after counting and will be announced when it's over,” he said. ”It is too soon to say that those were the
official numbers.”

Where there was a large turnout, the motivation behind the voting and the processes both appeared questionable. The Kurds up north were voting for autonomy, if not independence. In the south and elsewhere Shias were competing with Kurds for a bigger say in the 275-member national assembly.

In some places like Mosul the turnout was heavier than expected. But many of the voters came from outside, and identity checks on voters
appeared lax. Others spoke of vote-buying bids.

The Bush Administration has lauded the success of the Iraq election, but doubtful voting practices and claims about voter turnout are both mired in controversy.

Election violence too was being seen differently across the political spectrum.

More than 30 Iraqis, a U.S. soldier, and at least 10 British troops died Sunday. Hundreds of Iraqis were also wounded in attacks across Baghdad, in Baquba 50km northeast of the capital as well as in the northern cities Mosul and Kirkuk.

The British troops were on board a C-130 transport plane that crashed near Balad city just northwest of Baghdad. The British military has yet to reveal the cause of the crash.

Despite unprecedented security measures in which 300,000 U.S. and Iraqi security forces were brought in to curb the violence, nine suicide
bombers and frequent mortar attacks took a heavy toll in the capital city, while strings of attacks were reported around the rest of the country.

As U..S. President George W. Bush saw it, ”some Iraqis were killed while exercising their rights as citizens.”

Vote For Food

Raed Jarrar, Raed in the Middle

Sunday, January 30, 2005

The cowardly and corrupt bush administration, working along with the dirty allow(ie) government is coercing Iraqis to vote. The allow(ie) puppets are threatening Iraqis who don't vote that they will not get their monthly food rations ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19160-2005Jan18_3.html )

The bush gang can do anything to reach to their goals.
I mean ANYTHING.

It is well known all over Iraq now that if you didn't go to vote, the government will cut your monthly food rations. EVERYONE is talking about this, and EVERYONE believes it too!!! and this is one of the main reasons of why millions of poor and destroyed Iraqis were dragged out of their homes today and sent to election centers in the middle of explosions and bullets. They don't give a damn about elections, they want food. Millions of Iraqis don't have the possibility of testing whether this rumor is true or false, this is about surviving. They are ready to put their lives in danger to go get their monthly food rations.

Even the orders of sistani are not enough to get them out of their homes to go vote. They don't give a damn for bushy freedom.

"I will go and drop a blank ballot, I just want my family's food rations", a friend of my brother Khalid told him a couple of days ago in Baghdad. I called khalid in Baghdad twice today to see what was happening, and he said the same thing i heard on the BBC, that an explosion was happening every two minutes!!

The bush gang, trying to complete their pathetic play in Iraq are dying to add more lies to their long history of deceit.

The "Iraqi government" is announcing confusing and wrong numbers to the public. Instead of announcing the ratio of Voters to the Eligible Voters, the numbers announced are the ratio of the Voters to the Registered Voters!!!!

For example, the number of Iraqis that registered their names in Jordan are less than 20% of the eligible voters living in Jordan, so when 90% of the registered voters go to vote, it means that less than 18% of the total number voted... 90% is not the real number that should be announced to people!!!!!

liars liars liars!!!!!!!

The numbers announced inside Iraq are all fake. The registered voters in Tikrit governorate for example are a couple of thousands out of hundreds of thousands of residents, if one thousand people went to vote today, it doesn't mean at all that the turnout is more than 50%

liars liars liars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The fake government in Iraq announced that 72% of Iraqis voted today. Later they announced that 8 million Iraqis voted, which means that around 56% voted because the number of Eligible voters inside Iraq is more than 14.27 million.

There is NO WAY that the primitive weak Iraqi government could know how many people went to vote today this fast, and these numbers are mere exaggerated guesses.

Yet, they are stupid enough to miscalculate numbers.

The number of Iraqis outside is more than 4,000,000. 56% of Iraqis are older than 18 years, which means that around 2.5 million Iraqis are Eligible voters outside Iraq. Less than 250,000 of them voted.

The surprise is that by a simple calculation, the total number of Iraqi Eligible voters inside and outside the country is more than 16.75 millions, and the number of people that actually voted is less than 8.25 million !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LESS THAN 50% VOTED

These are Illegal elections then!
( http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/election/2005/0120legitimise.htm
Voter Turnout Is NOT Enough to Legitimise Elections!!!

Even with all the lies, even with threatening people's means of survival, it doesn't seem that it worked :*)

When ugly-condi announces to all media stations that "Iraqi Voting Exceeds Expectations", ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4766530,00.html), when little bush hails the Iraqi vote as a "Resounding Success" ( http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7476404 ), the world should see how these two mathematically challenged liars do not know what they are talking about.

Today's elections were another shameful page in the long bush war on Iraq ( http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=6877 ), these elections were another mistake that bush and the occupying armies will pay for in the near future.

raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2005/01/vote-for-food.html

Iraqi Elections: Media Disinformation on Voter Turnout?

by Michel Chossudovsky

www.globalresearch.ca 31 January 2005

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO501F.html

Ongoing preliminary Report, 2.37 EST, 31 January 2004

The media in chorus decided that voter turnout was high.

Western governments and the international community confirmed that the turnout was high, based on contradictory official figures and statements:

"a high turnout in today's election" (BBC, 30 Jan).

"polling stations witnessed an unexpectedly high turnout, demonstrating the Iraqi people's eagerness for liberty and democracy, which is exactly the outcome that the United States wishes for the Iraqis"

"The French government hailed Iraq's first free elections in half a century as a "great success for the international community" and called the surprisingly high voter turnout "good news".

"The initial figures included surprisingly high voter numbers around central Iraq where the rebels have carried out attack after attack."

The turnout figure was first put at 72 percent quoting official sources, at least two hours before the closing of the polls.

"Early figures on the turnout exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts - 72 per cent of voters."

"Correspondent's report from Baghdad says turnout unexpected. Cites Election Commission officials as saying 95 per cent of Baghdadis voted. He says overall percentage is 72 per cent. Heavy security measures in Baghdad. Praises organization of elections and employees attitude."

"Polling places across Iraq have just closed. And despite some terror attacks, an Iraqi election official says 72 percent of eligible voters have gone to the polls, but that has not been confirmed." (Fox New, (9.00 EST, 14.00 GMT)

Where was this 72 percent figure taken? On what was it based? How was it derived?

By the time this figure started circulating in the global news chain, voting booths had not yet closed.

The 72 percent turnout figure, which was on the lips of journalists and network TV talk shows was based on an interview with the Minister of Planning in the interim government, on the 30th at 11.45 GMT, more than two hours before the closing of the polls:

"although a 72 per cent turnout was expected, it appears that the participation level will only reach 50 per cent." (1145 gmt, Al-Iraqiyah live satellite interview with Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafiz, from the Conference Centre in Baghdad, BBC Monitoring, 30 Jan 2005) .

In fact, the 72 percent figure, quoted by journalists was not based on anything concrete.

An hour later, a senior official of the Independent Electoral Commission in Iraq (IECI), Adil al-Lami, repeated the same 72 percent figure. at a news conference at 12.24 GMT in which Adil al-Lami, and Safwat, another IECI official, provided very precise figures on voter turnout for the 18 governates (see Table below).

At this news conference, overall voter turnout was placed at 72 per cent and in some areas 90 per cent.

After the polls had closed and another news conference was held, the same senior IECI official stated that he expected the voter turnout to be 60 per cent.

How was this last figure arrived at, without the counting of the ballots?

Why was it 72 per cent and then, two hours later it was revised to 60 percent?

With shattered communications systems, how did the information get transmitted so quickly to the IECI for release at a News conference at 14.00 GMT?

When questioned, a senior IECI official was evasive regarding the source and methodology underlying his figures (see complete interview in annex):

"These estimates are what they (the offices) have seen, their observations and their feelings," Lami said. "These estimates are based on human flow at their polling stations."

On what did the percentages that were announced at the news conference depend? Were they based on the flow of people only?

(Ayyar) Yes, on the basis of the flow of people and the expectations in front of the polling centres at many places throughout Iraq and also some contacts with the presiding officers of these centres, whether in the north, the south or the centre. The person who announced these figures did not say that they were final figures. So far, we have no results for the elections. The counting is taking place right now. I heard that Al-Sharqiyah knows some things, which we do not know.(Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV, 30 January)

Observations and feelings?

And a few hours later, the news reports start shifting. First its 72 percent, then its 60 percent, then its down to 50 percent.

...this election appears, based on everything that we know right now, to have been a tremendous and even surprising success, particularly if the turnout to be as high as 60 percent, despite the participation or lack of it by the Sunnis.... 8 million Iraqis went to the polls, about 60 percent of the electorate. That turnout, in some areas as high as 95 percent. The mood in Baghdad tonight has been described as exuberant. (CNN, 30 Jan, 6 PM EST)

From 60 percent to 50 percent.

Iraqi officials hope for a turnout of at least 50 per cent to lend legitimacy to the outcome. Even if turnout is lower, the election is expected to receive the international stamp of approval. (Australian 31 Jan)

If the turnout is finally reckoned to be 50 per cent, or anything like it, and the deaths attributable to the insurgency are less than a total bloodbath, that will be considered a step forward. ...

Early reports from polling stations show that the turnout in Iraq's election yesterday could reach or exceed 50 per cent, political party officials said.

"The reports we are receiving indicate that the turnout will hit more than 50 per cent. Iraqis are looking at these elections as an issue of dignity," Hafedh said. (China Daily 31 Jan)

Now the word is that a 30 per cent overall turnout would be satisfactory (New Statesman, 31 Jan )

Related Facts regarding Voter Turnout, which contradict the official figures and statements:

1. In five out of 18 governates, according to a Russian parliamentary observer, the elections were either cancelled due to the lack of security or were marked by a very low turnout. (Novosti, 30 Jan). This statement contradicts the figures presented by the IECI at the Press Conference, which indicate voter turnout of 50 per cent or more in all the governates. (including Sunni regions where there was a boycott, as confirmed by several press reports). (See Table 1 below)

2. According to Xinhua (5 hours before the close of polling stations): "The turnout was very low during the past few hours in Tikrit, Dujail, Balad and Tuz, much lower than expected," a source in the electoral body told Xinhua. "In addition, no voters showed up in Baiji, Samarra and Dour," said the source, who declined to be identified. The cities of Dujail and Balad have mixed population of Shiites and Sunnis, while Tuz has a mosaic of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen. In Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, 75 percent of the voting stations have not been visited till now. (Xinhua, 30 Jan 2005, 9 AM GMT)

3. Several cities in Iraq did not receive electoral materials, "In the city of Mosul, the deputy governor said that four towns did not receive the election process materials. How do you justify this? These towns are Bashqa, Bartillah, Al-Hamdaniyah and Jihan. They did not receive the material for the election process." (Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV, 30 Jan)

Table 1: Breakdown of Voter Turnout according to IECI official : 2 hours before closing of voting booths

At the start of the live relay, Al-Lami listed the voter turnout in each governorate as follows: "70 per cent in Al-Sulaymaniyah Governorate (northeastern Iraq), 60 per cent in Salah-al-Din Governorate (north of Baghdad), 60 per cent in Al-Ta'mim Governorate (northern Iraq), 82 per cent in Duhok Governorate (far northern Iraq), 65 per cent in Baghdad Al-Rusafah, 95 per cent in Baghdad Al-Karkh, 90 per cent in Karbala (southeast of Baghdad), 50 per cent in Diyala (Governorate, northeast of Baghdad), 66 per cent in Babil (Governorate, south of Baghdad), 75 per cent in Wasit (Governorate, southeast of Baghdad), 66 per cent in Basra (Governorate, southeastern Iraq), 80 per cent in Dhi-Qar (Governorate, southeastern Iraq), 92 per cent in Maysan (Governorate on Iranian border, southern Iraq), 80 per cent in Al-Muthanna (Governorate, in southern Iraq), 50 per cent in Al-Qadisiyah (Governorate, to south of Baghdad), and 80 per cent in Al-Najaf (Governorate, southern Iraq). Vote turnout in Al-Anbar (western Iraq) and Salah-al-Din governorates is a big surprise; it will be announced in the coming news conference (as heard), God willing. The number of polling centres opened is 5171 in all of Iraq's governorates."

Source IECI Press Conference, Al-Iraqiyah TV, Baghdad, in Arabic 1224 gmt 30 Jan 05

January 30, 2005

IRAQI ELECTORAL COMMISSION SPOKESMAN QUIZZED ON TURNOUT FIGURES, VOTE COUNT

Text of satellite interview with Farid Ayyar, official spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, in Baghdad, by Iman Sadiq, broadcast live by Iraqi Al-Sharqiyah TV on 30 January

(Sadiq) First of all, we welcome you. We are happy to have you with us in your capacity as a fellow journalist. You and your staff have performed very well in the Iraqi elections. This is a national effort, for which you should be thanked. This was not really expected. Secondly, we welcome you as the official spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI).

(Ayyar) Thank you very much and you are welcome.

(Sadiq) We have several questions to put to you, since you are the official spokesman of the IECI. But we want you to answer in your capacity as a fellow journalist as well. First of all, Al-Sharqiyah has received many complaints. Two hours before the polls closed, there was a news conference. You explained that the voter turnout had reached 72 per cent and in some areas 90 per cent. After the polls were closed and at a news conference, you told those present that the expected voter turnout was 60 per cent. Why this contradiction, although there was only a difference of two hours between the two statements?

(Ayyar) Thank you very much for your introduction, which was realistic, because the success of these elections does not concern a certain category or group. Rather, it concerns all Iraqis, including those who did not take part in the elections. Iraq is for all and the elections are for all. Therefore, responsibility should also be assumed by all.

(Sadiq) Dr Farid, why this contradiction?

(Ayyar) I will answer you. First of all, about the question that has to do with announcing a certain turnout; well, the percentage that was announced in the afternoon was an estimate and it depended on the flow of people in front of polling centres and not on official statistics produced by counting the ballots.

(Sadiq) On what did the percentages that were announced at the news conference depend? Were they based on the flow of people only?

(Sadiq) In the city of Mosul, the deputy governor said that four towns did not receive the election process materials. How do you justify this? These towns are Bashqa, Bartillah, Al-Hamdaniyah and Jihan. They did not receive the material for the election process. Why is this?

(Ayyar) The deputy governor is not authorized to make a statement on behalf of the IECI, which is impartial. He does not have the right to speak in our name. I am the official spokesman and I can speak about everything related to the IECI and the elections.

(Sadiq) He did not speak in the name of the IECI. He only said that some areas did not receive the election process materials. What is your justification, since you represent the IECI, which is in charge of the elections?

(Ayyar) This did not happen. We have distributed all the supplies, forms and ballot boxes based on a tight plan to all areas. I do not know how he said this. We are certain that our work was good, although there is a possibility of human error. Anyone might make a mistake. However, this did not happen.

(Sadiq) The IECI exerted tremendous efforts and you deserve to be thanked for that. It was a huge effort that nobody expected and nobody denies this. However, ballot counting has started using lamps. Does this negatively affect the results or the ballot counting?

(Ayyar) I would like to say that among the things that were imported to provide polling stations with is these special lamps. These lamps were brought so as to have enough light, in case a power outage takes place, in order to enable those involved in the ballot counting to do their job. This is part of the things we purchased to supply the needs of polling stations in Iraq. Therefore, lamps are available and the ballot counting is currently under way. We will announce results once we have them.

(Sadiq) If the IECI is the only party concerned with this issue, what is the reason for the delay in announcing the results? Two weeks or 10 days are too much. Everybody is waiting eagerly for the results of the elections. Seventy per cent of ballot counting was completed a few hours after closing ballot boxes. Why then is this delay if the IECI is the only party concerned with this issue?

(Ayyar) Thanks for telling me that 70 per cent of ballot counting was completed despite the fact that I, the spokesman for the IECI, do not know this per cent until now! There is no delay. The official and final results will be announced after receiving the results of the out-of-country voting, which will continue for four days according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Afterward, these results will be collected together with local results here and will be announced to the public in an official ceremony. We want to finish this matter as soon as possible. There is nothing hidden (changes thought) - but we will finish the job and announce results most probably in less than 10 days, or even in seven or six days. We will finish our work and announce results in an honest and transparent manner.

(Sadiq) Then you will not give us a specific date for announcing the final or the initial results.

(Ayyar) The initial results will be announced as soon as the IECI receives them. They will be announced day by day during pre-planned news conferences. If any results become available to us by tomorrow, we will definitely announce them. After ballot counting, every polling centre will announce its results. Afterward, these results will be sent to the main centre -

(Sadiq, interrupting) We received many results from Kirkuk, Huwayjah, Mosul and Basra governorates. Results have started to appear and they are being sent to Al-Sharqiyah TV, but we do not want to announce them so as not to cause chaos or discrepancy in figures. We will wait for the IECI's results. We thank you for the tremendous efforts you exerted and we are happy that you are a fellow journalist. Thank you very much.

An election to anoint an occupation

Had it been held in Zimbabwe, the west would have denounced it

Salim Lone
Monday January 31, 2005
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1402277,00.html

Tony Blair and George Bush were quick to characterise yesterday's election as a triumph of democracy over terror. Bush declared it a "resounding success", while Blair asserted that "The force of freedom was felt throughout Iraq". And yet the election fell so completely short of accepted electoral standards that had it been held in, say, Zimbabwe or Syria, Britain and America would have been the first to denounce it.

Draconian security measures left Iraq's cities looking like ghost towns. The ballot papers were so complicated that even Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader, needed a briefing on how to use one. Most candidates had been afraid to be seen in public, or to link their names to their faces in the media. The United Iraqi Alliance, identifying only 37 of their 225 candidates, explained: "We offer apologies for not mentioning the names of all the candidates ... We have to keep them alive."

The millions of Iraqis, as well as the UN electoral team and the Iraqi election commission staff, who did participate in the process despite the grave risk, deserve our respect. But it was a risk taken in vain. The election was illegitimate, and cannot resolve the rampant insecurity resulting from the occupation. The only way to stop the destruction of Iraq is to end the occupation and enfranchise the Sunnis, who are leading the resistance because they see the US as systematically excluding them from the role they deserve to play in Iraq.

Indeed, this so-called election, with its national rather than provincial voting rolls, was designed to reduce Sunni representation and to anoint US-supported groups who will allow this occupation to continue. A high turnout does not change the fact that this is an illegitimate, occupier's election.

Early in the occupation, the Bush administration recognised that a democratic Iraq would not countenance the strategic goals the war was fought for: controlling the oil reserves and establishing military bases to enable the political transformation the neocons envisage for the Middle East. Even as the US proclaimed its mission as introducing democracy to Iraq, they worked to make sure that the processes they put in place would produce leaders they had picked. The US obtained a carefully circumscribed UN involvement in order to provide the chosen leaders a measure of legitimacy.

It was clear to those of us in Baghdad right after Saddam's fall that no long-term American project there would succeed. The limited self-governance plan was a non-starter because of the transparent control the US exercised over the process. In any event, virtually no Iraqis, not even those benefiting from the US presence, see the superpower as a promoter of human rights and democracy - even before the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, Najaf and Falluja.

Each US-dictated self-governance milestone therefore backfired just like the current election undoubtably will, generating wider support for and bloodier attacks by the insurgency. The first devastating attacks on the foreign presence in Iraq, for example, came soon after the US selected the Iraqi Governing Council: first the Jordanian mission, then the UN's Baghdad headquarters, were blown up.

In its search for greater legitimacy for its preferred Iraqi leadership, the US has avoided the UN security council, since most of its members abhor what is being done to Iraq. The US has instead chosen to work with individual representatives. The first such UN involvement, when the late Sergio Vieira de Mello headed the UN mission in Iraq, was the most effective. He was able to persuade the then US proconsul, Paul Bremer, that he should appoint an Iraqi Governing Council rather than an advisory body. Even then, the anger about the individuals and groups on this council, and for UN support for it, was palpable in Iraq.

Nearly a year later, in another bid for UN support, Bush assured the world that the interim government would be picked by Lakhdar Brahimi, Kofi Annan's special representative. Brahimi spent weeks in Iraq consulting domestic groups about who they felt should lead the country. But on the day the interim government was to be appointed, a deal was struck by the Americans behind Brahimi's back, to make the CIA-linked Ayad Allawi prime minister.

The US has little popular support in the country. It has, however, won the support of the extremely influential Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who tolerates an occupation most of his followers hate, with the single-minded sectarian goal of having the majority Shia at the helm of power in Iraq. The occupation has destroyed Iraq and is destabilising the world by exacerbating the deep animosity that most Arabs and Muslims feel for the US. The Bush administration is now provoking the Muslim world by threats against Iran. The rest of the world looks on, mostly helplessly.

· Salim Lone was director of communications for Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative in Iraq, who was killed in August 2003

salimlone@msn.com

Monday, January 31, 2005 http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/01/voter-turnout-in-iraqi-elections.html

Voter Turnout in the Iraqi Elections Follows Washington's Script

Since the Iraqi elections are typical "demonstration elections," however, the corporate media are duty-bound to ignore such hardball questions as whether the elections were free, fair, and democratic and to hype "a large turnout (indicating voter support for the election itself and thus identifying the election with "democracy")" (Frank Brodhead, "Reframing the Iraq Election," ZNet, January 21, 2005).

Greg Mitchell looks skeptically at the press's reports on turnout estimates, which have already been brought down 15% in one day:

The widely-publicized estimates a few hours ago from Iraq election officials of 72% turnout has already been cut to about 57% from the same officials. Dexter Filkins of The New York Times reported at midday:

"The chairman of the Independent Election Commission of Iraq, Fareed Ayar, said as many as 8 million people turned out to vote, or between 55 percent and 60 percent of those registered to cast ballots. If 8 million turns out to be the final figure, that would represent 57 percent of voters."

The question remains: what percentage of the population chose to register? What percentage of adult citizens participated? Iraq has a population of at least 25 million, plus expatriates were allowed to vote overseas. (emphasis added, "Iraq, the Vote: The Press Sizes Up the Election," Editor & Publisher, January 30, 2005)

All good questions. I'd also ask where the Independent [sic] Election Commission of Iraq got the figure of 8 million voters.

The answer is that's exactly the same number the commission predicted before the elections:

A senior election official estimates that half of Iraq's 15 million eligible voters ["[t]here are 14 million eligible voters inside Iraq . . . plus 1.2 million abroad allowed to vote in 14 countries including the United States, Britain, Iran and Syria"] will take part in this month's national election and says that to encourage a high turnout, those living in insurgency-racked areas will be allowed to vote in safer communities.

Farid Ayar of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said he expected 7 to 8 million Iraqis to vote on Jan. 30 in a ballot seen as a major step toward fulfilling U.S. goals of building democracy here after decades of Saddam Hussein's tyranny. (emphasis added, Hamza Hendawi/Associated Press, "Half of Iraq Population Estimated to Vote," January 14, 2005)

What precision! A sign that elections in Iraq have been raised to the level of science, far superior to the 4-billion-dollar election industry in the United States that showed disturbing discrepancies between exit polls and vote tallies? Not! A safer hypothesis is that it's a sign of how scripted Iraqi elections were. If Washington needs about 8 million Iraqi voters to achieve a "respectable" turnout of half the eligible voters (Hendawi, January 14, 2005), the Independent [sic] Election Commission of Iraq has to give that number to Washington before and after the elections. After all, "demonstration elections" are theater -- for the American, rather than Iraqi, audience.

# posted by Yoshie : 1:44 PM :

MOSSAD SPILLS THE BEANS: IRAQ ''ELECTION'' TURNOUT WAS AT MOST 40-45% !
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2005/01/818267.shtml

# posted by Anonymous : 3:25 PM

The vote is a joke. That's obvious enough. What I found fascinating is the t.v coverage. There seems to have been a change in network policy towards the war since the election of The Grand Imperial Wizard. During the campaign the networks (except fer Fox snooze) were not nearly as willing as they are now to push forward the delusions of the Iraq situation in the Neo-Republican style. Now it seems that the networks have decided that if you can't beat 'em, suck up to 'em. The sheer amount of blatant propaganda (did ya see NIGHTLINE the other night with the "town meeting"?) in an attempt to make the public view the Iraq situation through rose coloured glasses, is more of a story here then the election.

The networks have given up opposing the Bush agenda, the democrats have given up more or less as well, and as weird as it may seem the loudest establishment voices in protest to the war are the folks from the CSIS. Brzeznski, Scowcroft, Kissinger etc.

The founding editor of the CSIS magazine Washington Quarterly Micheal Ledeen is called by many the leading ideologue of the Straussian (Machiavellian) Neo-Con agenda.The former major domo of the CSIS who now presides over at the American Enterprise Institute which is the sister organization of the Project for the New American Century would appear on the surface to have a different agenda then the folks at the CSIS. I for one do not believe it.

The CSIS is the traditional bastion of the political military industrial bigwigs. They have been the guys and gals who shape American policy behind the scenes. Ledeen was their middle east expert. And yet know the CSIS head honchos have come out and become critical of the Iraq situation, as the folks at their sister organization the Council on Foreign Affairs.I don't buy into this scenario.

It looks to me like the Good cop/Bad Cop trick. The cops use this trick in order to fool their prey into thinking that the Good cop is sane and rational and out to be a friend. Whereas the Bad cop plays the part of the out of control irrational guy who can do anything crazy at any moment. This is the traditional interrogation method used by police. First the Bad cop threatens violence and acts as if he will explode in rage at any moment. This scares the detainee. Then the Good cop grabs the Bad cop and shoves the Bad cop outside the room and tells him to cool off. Then he acts as if he is the friend of the detainee, he tells the detainee that the Bad cop is unstable, he can do anything at any moment. The Good cop tells the detainee that he is safe with him, he's a friend and wants to keep the Bad cop at bay, but he doesn't know if he can do that for long. In this way the whole gimmick is about psychological manipulation. First you make the detainee fear for his life, and then you have a hero save him. The detainee is then so relieved to be saved that he befriends the Good cop.

This is what I believe is going on between the traditional policy planners and the new kids on the block. The AIE and PNAC are the Bad cops, and the CSIS and CFR are the Good cops. The AIE and PNAC are the crazy guys that the CSIS and CFR are trying to control.

In reality they are all part of the same police force. Michael Ledeen went from the CSIS to the AIE, and he is the guy behind Bush foreign policy.

From the above website about Ledeen:

"William O. Beeman tells us about Michael Ledeen’s influence. Writing for the Pacific News Service he says:

“Ledeen’s ideas are repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz…He basically believes that violence in the service of the spread of democracy is America’s manifest destiny. Consequently, he has become the philosophical legitimator of the American occupation of Iraq.”

In fact, Ledeen’s influence goes even further. The BBC, the Washington Post and Jim Lobe writing for the Asia Times report that Michael Ledeen is the only full-time international affairs analyst consulted by Karl Rove. Ledeen has regular conversations with Rove. The Washington Post said, "More than once, Ledeen has seen his ideas faxed to Rove, become official policy or rhetoric.

“Ledeen has become the driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative movement and the military actions it has spawned.”

In 1999, Ledeen published his book, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli’s Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago. (Truman Talley Books, St. Martin’s Griffin, N.Y. 1999.)

“In order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to ‘enter into evil.’ This is the chilling insight that has made Machiavelli so feared, admired, and challenging. It is why we are drawn to him still…” (p. 91)

From The Prince by Machiavelli, in the original Oxford University Press translation by Luigi Ricci.

"When those states which have been acquired are accustomed to live at liberty under their own laws, there are three ways of holding them. The first is to despoil them; the second is to go and live there in person; the third is to allow them to live under their own laws, taking tribute of them, and creating within the country a government composed of a few who will keep it friendly to you. Because this government, being created by the prince, knows that it cannot exist without his friendship and protection, and will do all it can to keep them. What is more, a city used to liberty can be more easily held by means of its citizens than in any other way, if you wish to preserve it...in truth there is no sure method of holding them except by despoiling them. And whoever becomes the ruler of a free city and does not destroy it, can expect to be destroyed by it, for it can always find a motive for rebellion in the name of liberty and of its ancient usage..."

This is the agenda in Iraq. Machiavelli and Leo Strauss (who was a

Articles to understand the Iraqi "free elections" of January 30 2005.

Iraqi Elections: Media Disinformation on Voter Turnout?

by Michel Chossudovsky

Monday, January 31, 2005 http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/01/voter-turnout-in-iraqi-elections.html

Voter Turnout in the Iraqi Elections Follows Washington's Script