MickityMike

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/in...tml?oref=login

3 Insurgent Groups Warn Iraqis Against Voting

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 31, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 30 (AP) - Three militant groups warned Iraqis on Thursday against voting in the election scheduled for Jan. 30, saying that people taking part in the "dirty farce" risked attack.

The militant group Ansar al-Sunna and two other insurgent groups issued a statement warning that democracy was un-Islamic.

"Democracy is a Greek word meaning the rule of the people, which means that the people do what they see fit," the statement said. "This concept is considered apostasy and defies the belief in one God - Muslims' doctrine."

Ansar al-Sunna had earlier posted a manifesto on its Web site saying democracy amounted to idolizing human beings. The joint statement on Thursday reiterated the threat that "anyone who accepts to take part in this dirty farce will not be safe."

The statements by the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgent groups seemed aimed at countering Shiite leaders' declarations that voting in the election was every Muslim's duty. Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the population, hope to use the vote to wrest political power from the minority Sunnis, who were favored under Saddam Hussein.

Al Jazeera reported that all 700 workers for the electoral commission in Mosul had resigned because they had been threatened. If true, the move would severely hamper efforts to prepare for the vote in Mosul, which has been too dangerous for election preparations to begin.

Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, could not confirm the report. "We have been trying to contact our people in Mosul to see if the report is accurate, but we have not been able to reach them," he said.

The groups' election warning came a day after insurgents in Mosul attacked an American outpost. The military said 25 insurgents and an American were killed in the battle.

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The worldwide outcry at this disgusting display of voter intimidation and abuse of human and civil rights is ... deafening.

*cricket*

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I'd be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons. - Glenn Reynolds

Zilos

This shouldn't be too much of a suprise, well, for some... It will likely only get worse, Bush is so damn stupid in thinking the election will happen without another devistating attack...

-Peace

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MickityMike

When did he say that?

Zilos

Well, I could be wrong, who knows!

Stephanie S.

source WASHINGTON, Dec 20: President George Bush acknowledged on Monday that US-trained Iraqi troops were not ready to take over their country's security and cautioned that next month's elections were not going to be trouble-free.

"I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free," Mr Bush told his second news conference since his re-election on Nov 2. Mr Bush availed this end-of-the-year news conference also to outline his next year's agenda, ranging from overhauling America's social security system to the Jan 30 elections in Iraq.

On one point I agree with the neo-cons...there will be increased violence preceding the January "elections" in Iraq. I think we've seen the reports of the dead increasing everyday recently. Of course, death happens in war. Lots of death. Lots of destruction. Lots of innocent people lose loved ones, lose homes, lose everything in war. But its all in the name of DEMOCRACY!
And by gum it's now the job of the United States of America and its volunteer military to secure democracy for those people.

peace

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"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." —George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 (Listen to audio)

MickityMike

The reason the violence is increasing is because the former Ba'athists and al-Qaeda terrorists realize that whatever limited amount of legitimacy they now have fighting the occupying Coalition will evaporate once a free Iraqi government is elected. Hence the targeting of innocent Iraqis, including Sunnis: they're trying to violently intimidate the populace. We usually regard this as "wrong."

I'm at a loss to wonder what you'd might rather see done in Iraq? Surely you don't think the deaths would stop if the Coalition left Iraq? What do you think the extremists might do to the civilian population if there were absolutely no one there to stop them?