Report: Secret Aid Planned for Iraq Vote

[leftchick]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/politics/17elect.html?ex=1279252800&en=4a49168c24325e4a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

~snip~


The article, by Seymour M. Hersh, reports that the administration proceeded with the covert plan over the Congressional objections. Several senior Bush administration officials disputed that, although they recalled renewed discussions within the administration last fall about how the United States might counter what was seen as extensive Iranian support to pro-Iranian Shiite parties.

Any clandestine American effort to influence the Iraqi elections, or to provide particular support to candidates or parties seen as amenable to working with the United States, would have run counter to the Bush administration's assertions that the vote would be free and unfettered.

Mr. Bush, in his public statements, has insisted that the United States will help promote conditions for democracy throughout the region but will live with whatever governments emerge in free elections.

The article cites unidentified former military and intelligence officials who said the administration went ahead with covert election activities in Iraq that "were conducted by retired C.I.A. officers and other non-government personnel, and used funds that were not necessarily appropriated by Congress." But it does not provide details and says, "the methods and the scope of the covert effort have been hard to discern."

[Sydnie]

1. Ummm can you say "missing 9 Billion Dollars" much? n/t

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Of course!

It makes sense! I remember Allawi had 4% and then Bush cried "fraud!" and then after that he had 14%.

[Richard Steele]

2. Looks like he found one of the holes that swallowed that $9 billion....

[Carni]

3. Isn't this LIKE BIGGER THAN THE ROVE THING?

Covert ops by retired CIA to influence a foreign election... against the approval of congress?

Isn't this like LARGE info?

[mindfulNJ]

4. Not in the LaLa land we're living in now...

Stop being so "reality based" !:sarcasm:

[aquart]

6. Are they leaking it because of Plame?

[ECH1969]

5. He gave a couple million to Allawi in January

He will give a couple more million to Allawi in December, really who cares, it won't change anything, it didn't last time around.

[rox63]

8. So much for that "spreading democracy" blather * spews

I guess he wasn't satisfied with just rigging our elections, he had to rig theirs too.

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

9. Democracy = "We decide who wins"; Freedom = "We freely violate privacy"

[vickitulsa]

10. Sounds like a likely plan of this administration.

And it fits neatly once again into what I've learned from personal experience. Or rather from being educated by the personal experience of a former partner, an ex Navy SEAL who was given assignments he finally choked on and refused.

He told me he had been sent to various countries with wads of cash that you can't imagine, to be handed out as he saw fit but with the purpose of influencing the political directions of those other countries. People think of SEALs as purely combat operatives -- covert ones, most often, yes, but nonetheless very basicly combat oriented. In fact, they have been tasked to accomplish myriad goals that fall more properly into the category of intel ops. Sometimes (yes it's true) "black ops."

My guy Mark finally realized things had gone way TOO far during his ten years as a SEAL when he found himself in Libya teaching demolitions skills to young men who would probably become terrorists! He also worked in the "Rhodesian Pipeline," which is a sort of code term for mercenary work, after leaving the Navy, and found himself given suitcases full of American currency to "spend wisely" in cases and countries where it would do the US administration at the time the most good.

Strange to me that even when he worked as a merc, he was most often hired by -- you guessed it -- Americans! Perhaps not names that we would know, but names connected to names that we might know....

Mark didn't remain a merc for long either, though. SSDB, he said. Same Shit Different Boss. He finally put his diving skills to work and began his own wreck salvage business off the coast of VA, not far from where he had trained at Little Creek. Made friends with a wild dolphin he named Baby, who was seen again recently, making her over 20 years old now.

I always thought that when someone as hardcore as Mark had his stomach turned by what his superiors assigned him to do in the name of patriotism and "necessary intel acquisition" ... when he was shaped into an influence buying operative carrying a suitcase full of U.S. $100 bills ... that speaks worlds about how skulduggerous his bosses really were.

:puke:

[goforit]

11. OUCH!!!!!....Holy smoke!!!!..........

"unidentified former military and intelligence officials who said the administration went ahead with covert election activities in Iraq that "were conducted by retired C.I.A. officers and other non-government personnel, and used funds that were not necessarily appropriated by Congress." "

A split in the

FBI...CIA.....US Military = ouch!!!!!

TROUBLE IN THE MIST

tHIS IS VERY HEAVY!!!!

[kittenpants]

12. Wow. Nominated! I was thinking

about this around the time of the elections - what if Iraqis elected an anti-american government, and if the administration had a contingency plan...

[MissWaverly]

13. didn't we provide election machines for the election

I seem to remember a story about flying voting machines over there.
And of course, no one believes that the 2004 election was rigged.

[libodem]

14. nice to have something to back-up the suspicions

I've had all along. I never liked what I saw on TV or the pictures in the newspapers of cordoned off streets surrounded by heavy military presence ushering the voters down the streets to vote. Sure they were protecting them from possible suicide bombers but can you imagine what it would be like if cops surrounded your neighborhood and the National guard came out and said 'it's time to go vote' You couldn't very well say no, could you? Seems to me it would be pretty easy to pick and choose what areas to surround and 'protect' and then herd the folks down to vote. Plus who they were voting for were all picked out for them...it wasn't like they had run off elections to decide who they could vote for. I'm pretty sure it was rigged to skew the out come in their favor. Plus the Iraqi vote here in America where they only set up certain areas of the country to vote. And for those people were born here what right did they have voting in a foreign election. That still gets me. Do we have that many unnaturalized Iraqi citizens living in this country? It's all too strange. Yes, I think you are all on to something with the missing 9 million buckeroos...being pay offs.

[lovuian]

15. I bet this is where the I billion dollars a week they are spending

GAO is wondering where it went heres one of the places!!!

[halobeam]

16. Now I understand why Bush keeps saying it's hard work

It MUST be, to do ALL this. I'm exhausted just reading it.

[grytpype]

17. Jesus, it's one scandal after another.

And this is one of the less heinous things they have done.

[cyberpj]

18. And still not a word in US press about Iran joining Iraq military efforts.

Not a word!

[sniffa]

19. hey Look, another scandaL

[Pirate Smile]

20. Do they EVER actually do what they are saying publicly? I don't think

so.

Why the f#$k do people think they are "straight talkers"?

Up is down, black is white, just another day in Bush's America.

[vickitulsa]

21. I love this reference...

..."and the animals looked through the windows at the pigs eating and drinking with the men, and they looked from the men to the pigs and the pigs to the men -- and they couldn't tell the difference!"
:mad: :eyes: :think: :argh: :nopity: :thumbsdown:


To paraphrase what I think is the best of all the great lines in Orwell's _Animal Farm_.

[leftchick]

22. war is peace

bush amerikans are smart.

[Peace Patriot]

23. "Why the f#$k do people think they are 'straight talkers'?"

People don't. They had these liars and hypocrites figured out long ago. Think about this: 58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war BEFORE THE INVASION! I will never forget that stat. We just can't get our will enforced. Both countries have been disenfranchised--here, by Bushite voting machine companies owning and controlling the secret, proprietary programming code that tabulates all our votes, and by Bushite election officials purging blacks from the voting rolls; there, by scads of cash and the presence of an occupying army.

----------

The answer to the stink in Washington DC is restoring our right to vote, by throwing Bushite electronic voting machine companies--Diebold, ES&S and brethren--out of the election business NOW--or, at the least, achieving some measure of election transparency with paper ballot backups, no secret programming code and strict auditing. The only place where we can get that done is in state/local jurisdictions, where the authority over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some say. See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

[Barrett808]

26. Always assume the opposite of whatever a Bush mobster is saying

This position is usually much closer to the truth. It's uncannily effective.

[Joanne98]

24. OMG! Bush is a GLOBAL election thief! Thank you Sy!

[Sydnie]

25. Kicking it up so it doesn't fall off the radar n/t

[deminks]

27. Kick. This is amazing.

Not surprising, but I am amazed that this would see the light of day. I have always wondered...

[mwb970]

28. This story is on MSNBC.com's front page now

Look right under the latest Rove headline.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[kainah]

29. KICK n/t

[veracity]

30. One Blogger had it this morning!

Rove story overshadowed this... but it's huge:

http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=52