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"I feel as if I've just been born"; "It was the best thing I have actually ever done in my life"; "This is just like a dream." Those were the words of Iraqi expatriates Friday as they went to polling sites around the world to take part in the first free Iraqi elections in more than a half-century.

One after another, Iraqis descended on a polling place in Skokie today for the first of three days of voting in their home country's first election in 50 years. Some turned up at the polling places outside Chicago after driving hundreds of miles. And as they left, they showed obvious pride in the ink stains that were placed on their right index fingers to signify they'd voted. It will prevent them from voting again. Isho Mishail (EEE-sho' Meh-SHALE), a Chicago driving instructor, says he simply had to vote, particularly after he called his mother-in-law in Iraq and learned about visits...

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jubilant Iraqi exiles cast their ballots in a "vote for freedom" on Friday and urged their compatriots in Iraq to defy insurgents and do the same. An Iraqi man shows his right index finger stained with blue ink after his casting his vote in an Amman polling station, January 28, 2005. Iraqis living abroad enthusiastically cast the first ballots in their homeland's landmark election and urged countrymen back home to defy insurgents and vote for democratic Iraq (news - web sites). (Ali Jarekji/Reuters) In the United States, Iraqi expatriates defied frigid temperatures and long trips to the...

Iraqi Expatriates Hopeful for Future as Voting Begins By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Correspondent January 28, 2005 New Carrollton, Md. (CNSNews.com) - Music, shouts and dancing filled a parking lot in New Carrollton, Md., Friday as Iraqi expatriates began casting absentee ballots in the first free elections of their lifetimes. "I came here to vote for these boys," said Salam Majeed, pointing to his sons, Jawal, 14 and Badahr, 12. "This is their future, that's what I'm here for, the future of Iraq." Iraqi nationals living in the United States can cast absentee ballots in five U.S. cities through Sunday. The...

Morning Edition, January 24, 2005 · For thousands of Iraqis who live in the United States, casting their vote means driving, in some cases, thousands of miles. Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Nashville are the only polling sites in the U.S. Some critics have said the locations are too few, but for some Iraqis no distance is too far.

GENEVA -- Voter registration by Iraqis living outside their country has been far below expectations - perhaps due to apathy or fear of reprisals - but it has shown signs of increasing, prompting organizers to extend it for two days, they said Saturday. Only about one in nine of the estimated 1.2 million overseas Iraqis eligible to vote in their country's Jan. 30 elections have registered in the first five days of the drive, said a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which is organizing the overseas vote. The migration body has been trying to drum up interest in...

The tally of foreigners confirmed dead from the quake and tsunami waves throughout southern Asia, according to their foreign ministries. Authorities said many more are missing and feared dead. _ Britain: 17 _ Italy: 13 _ United States: 11 _ France: 10 _ Germany: 10 _ Switzerland: 9 _ Australia: 8 _ Sweden: 6 _ Austria: 5 _ Poland: 4 _ Japan: 4 _ South Korea (news - web sites): 4 _ South Africa: 4 _ Denmark: 3 _ Brazil: 2 _ Netherlands: 2 _ Belgium: 2 _ Finland: 2 _ Colombia: 1 _ Taiwan: 1 _ New Zealand: 1

Over the last few years mainly since 9/11 I have posting to numerous websites and blogs. Reporting from one of the front lines in our war on terrorism. I am an American citizen who has been living and working in Southeast Asia for the last 17 years. I have spent most of my time in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. I look forward to having you guys support my blog and hope to keep everyone both informed and entertained. If you have any questions regarding the local scene here, anything from business, business contacts, culture, customs, religion, politics, to gardening...

hello freepers, i'm asking for help and suggestion about how to get liberal traffic to my site www.moveOut.biz. as per a previous post i tried to get on at DU but was summarily banned. new to the site is 'the seven pillars of facism' as authored by fearless leader and a resource list for libs wishing to vamoose. i would appreciate any forwarding to loonies that you might do on my behalf, and, as well, would appreciate and accept helpful hints. cheers, ejd

Toronto – I moved to Canada after the 2000 election. Although I did it mainly for career reasons — I got a job whose description read as though it had been written precisely for my rather quirky background and interests — at the time I found it gratifying to joke that I was leaving the United States because of George W. Bush. It felt fine to think of myself as someone who was actually going to make good on the standard election-year threat to leave the country. Also, I had spent years of my life feeling like I wasn't a...

In London, George W. Bush's popularity could be measured with a teaspoon, and it's a commonly held assumption that no American living on these shores could possibly have supported his re-election. For the most part, that belief does hold up. But it's not watertight. Hidden throughout the capital, tucked away in the offices of the City and the townhouses of St. John's Wood, are a few loyal Republicans. They've just chosen to be circumspect about it. Following the invasion of Iraq, anti-Bush sentiment here hit such a crescendo that it would take a very thick-skinned American to broadcast personal pro-Bush...

BERLIN (Reuters) - American expatriates in Germany are turning out in record numbers for the presidential election, spurred on by the German public, U.S. military commanders or a newfound sense that every vote could be decisive. Both the Republicans and Democrats Abroad groups have reported huge jumps in registration this year. A few who missed absentee ballot deadlines are so determined that they even plan to fly to their home states next month just to vote. The fourth largest U.S. expatriate community in the world, the 270,000 Americans in Germany have traditionally leaned towards Republicans because the large number of...

Amid new evidence that civilians lagged far behind soldiers in voting from abroad four years ago, political operatives on both sides of the presidential campaign raced this week to help Americans overseas cast their ballots in time for next month's election. Sixty percent of the overseas military voted in the 2000 election, up from 53 percent in 1996, according to a new Pentagon report obtained yesterday by The New York Times. At the same time, voting by civilians dropped to 22 percent from 29 percent, the report said. Civilians' low participation rate is raising fears among Democrats who believe that...

The U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that it's trying to find a way to permit American expatriates to connect to an absentee voting site that has been cordoned off because of the risk of hackers. Internet users in large portions of the world have been blocked from connecting to the voting assistance Web site, which tells absentee voters how to cast ballots in the November election. The list of Internet providers that appear to be blocked includes British Telecom, Wanadoo, Telefonica and China Telecom. "We're aware of the problem, and we're working on a solution," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen...

With her hair turning silver grey, her strong face and tall frame, there is no doubting the lineage of the woman introduced as Senator John Kerry's sister. But unlike her brother, the presidential candidate, Diana Kerry is no politician. At 57, the drama teacher has a forthright way of saying exactly what she thinks. Asked about the relentless attacks on her brother's Vietnam War record by the Republican-backed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, she comes out swinging. "We did expect that the opposition would use negative and divisive smear tactics, because that has been their strategy in the past," she...

PARIS - Louise Meyers doesn't usually accost strangers in the street and ask them about their private lives. These days, though, she is making an exception: As a Paris-based foot soldier in the Democrats' worldwide campaign to register US voters abroad "I'm not shy," she says. "If I hear anyone speaking English I go up to them and ask if they are registered." As early October deadlines approach for registering to vote in the US presidential elections approach, Ms. Meyers is part of a frantic drive by both major parties to rally their supporters around the world just in case...

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. government warned its citizens to keep a low profile in Kabul Monday after a car bomb hit a private American security company, killing up to 11 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital in two years. Three Americans died in Sunday's attack, according to Kabul's NATO-led security force. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast at the office of Dyncorp Inc., which provides bodyguards for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and works for the American government in Iraq. Security officials have issued repeated warnings in recent weeks that anti-government militants could ramp up attacks...

(08-21) 15:55 PDT MEXICO CITY (AP) -- President Bush's nephew, campaigning for overseas votes in Mexico on Saturday, called the federal policy of arming U.S. Border Patrol agents with plastic pellet guns "reprehensible." Speaking in a mix of English and sometimes-halting Spanish, George P. Bush said his uncle was not to blame for the gun policy, which has angered Mexicans. He instead blamed it on "some local INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) guy who's trying to be tough, act macho." "If there has been American approval for this policy, that is reprehensible," Bush said of the guns, essentially paintball projectiles...

MEXICO CITY - President Bush's nephew, campaigning for overseas votes in Mexico on Saturday, called the federal policy of arming U.S. Border Patrol agents with plastic pellet guns "reprehensible."Speaking in a mix of English and sometimes-halting Spanish, George P. Bush said his uncle was not to blame for the gun policy, which has angered Mexicans. He instead blamed it on "some local INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) guy who's trying to be tough, act macho.""If there has been American approval for this policy, that is reprehensible," Bush said of the guns, essentially paintball projectiles filled with chile powder. "It's kind...

Presidential candidate John Kerry can count on the support of at least one group of Vietnam Veterans – and they're still in Vietnam. Following Kerry's denunciation of the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, criticizing him for exaggerating his war record, a group of former U.S. soldiers gathered in Hanoi to express their support for Kerry and to call President Bush a "draft dodger" for his service in the Texas Air National Guard during the war. And they were selling T-shirts to tourists to raise money for Kerry's campaign. The $5 shirts sport a picture of President Bush with...

BEIJING, (AFP) - Companies are increasingly moving staff and offices to global investment hotspot China, but while still a developing country it has some of the world's highest living costs for expatriates, according to a new survey. Companies are increasingly moving staff and offices to global investment hotspot China, but while still a developing country it has some of the world's highest living costs for expatriates, according to a new survey. Here Beijing construction(AFP/File/Peter Parks) Conducted by the US-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting firm, the survey says the cost of apartments and tuition for children in China's expat hubs was...

MEXICO CITY — John Kerry (search)'s sister urged Americans living in Mexico to support the Democratic presidential candidate, saying Thursday they could help the United States "get back to having a president we can feel proud of." Diana Kerry (search), chairman of Americans Overseas for Kerry (search), campaigned for a second day in Mexico City. Absentee ballots from Americans living abroad have taken on new significance since the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

WHAT EVERY LOCAL ELECTION OFFICIAL NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE FEDERAL VOTING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (FVAP) This is a brief guide designed to give state and local election officials an overview of the FVAP program as it relates to them. It lists only information that might be useful locally. All information is given in thumbnail sketches and is elaborated upon in other FVAP informational channels. What Does FVAP Do? FVAP's job is to make sure that all military personnel stationed both overseas and within the United States and all overseas non-military citizens know how to register and vote and ensure...

American expats have never felt so wanted — or so powerful. With the US presidential election less than six months away, both Republicans and Democrats are working hard to secure expat votes. This massive surge in activity is because many people believe expats could decide the election this year. Even former Vice President Dan Quayle thinks so. He reminded the German chapter of Republicans Abroad in April how much the absentee vote (the ballot papers coming in mainly from abroad) mattered in the pivotal state of Florida in 2000. "It was the absentee votes that turned the tide in Florida....

Danger money for expats as the Saudi exodus grows Extra £1,000 a month for staff willing to stay on Ewen MacAskill in Jeddah Thursday June 24, 2004 The Guardian (UK) Western firms are offering substantial sums of "danger money" to expatriate staff in Saudi Arabia to stem a panic-driven exodus from the kingdom in the wake of al-Qaida attacks. The Guardian has learned that one of the biggest firms in the country, the British-owned defence company BAE Systems, is offering each of its 2,400 expatriate staff an extra £1,000 a month to stay. A BAE Systems source in Riyadh said...

WASHINGTON -- If the recent past is any guide, the beheading of American Paul M. Johnson Jr. is unlikely to trigger a mass exodus from Saudi Arabia. Most Americans in the kingdom have not heeded repeated State Department warnings that they get out, security consultants and analysts said. "You can't expect 30,000 Americans to pack up and leave," Nawaf Obaid, a security consultant to the Saudi government, said in London. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he does not want American workers to flee Saudi Arabia because that would reward the people whose violence in recent weeks has killed Johnson,...

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com U.S. nationals in Saudi Arabia have become a priority target of al-Qaida, reports intelligence newsletter Geostrategy-Direct. Western diplomatic sources said al-Qaida has focused on attacking and abducting Americans in Saudi Arabia more so than other Western nationals. The sources said al-Qaida has targeted Americans in Riyadh to spark a massive flight among the more than 25,000 U.S. nationals in the kingdom. "There's a growing feeling here that al-Qaida has acquired intelligence information on a range of U.S. executives and advisers who live and work in Saudi Arabia," a Western diplomat said. "This is clearly the assessment of the U.S....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government renewed its call on Monday for Americans to leave Saudi Arabia after the recent terrorist attacks, saying the safety of U.S. workers was more important than any effect on oil supplies or the Saudi economy. An estimated 35,000 Americans have been working in Saudi Arabia and it was unclear how many have left since the increase in attacks, which have come at the same time the Bush administration has been pressing the Saudis to boost oil production to help lower gas prices in the United States. Referring to U.S. workers in Saudi Arabia, State...

AMERICAN defence contractors were beginning to leave Saudi Arabia last night after al-Qaeda terrorists began picking them off with a series of precisely planned murders and their first kidnapping of a Westerner. British staff working with the Saudi military asked their employers if they could take immediate holidays with their families as militants threatened to take more hostages. The Foreign Office told all of its non-essential staff and diplomats’ families to leave the country but stopped short of ordering a full-scale exodus of all 25,000 British expatriates. British Airways has banned its aircraft crews from staying overnight in Saudi Arabia....

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A purported al-Qaida statement Saturday claimed the terror group had kidnapped one American man in the Saudi capital and killed another American. It threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners. Earlier Saturday, an American identified by the U.S. Embassy as Kenneth Scroggs was shot and killed as he pulled his car into the garage of his Riyadh home. The statement claimed al-Qaida had killed an American at his house but did not identify him. The U.S. Embassy confirmed an American was missing but would not identify him. "We do have reports...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A purported al-Qaida statement Saturday claimed the terror group had kidnapped an American man in the Saudi capital and threatened to treat him as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners. The online statement also claimed al-Qaida had killed an American. American citizen Kenneth Scroggs was shot and killed in the parking garage of his house Saturday afternoon. The U.S. Embassy confirmed another American was missing but would not identify him. "We do have reports of a missing American," an embassy spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are working with local authorities to find him and...

An American man has been shot dead in the Saudi capital, Riyadh - the third westerner to be killed there in a week. Witnesses say the man was shot inside his car as he parked in front of his house. A United States military contractor and a BBC cameraman have already been killed this week amid a spate of attacks on foreigners in the kingdom. The attacks have been blamed on radical Islamists with links to the Al Qaeda network. Last month, gunmen opened fire on foreigners in the eastern city of Khobar, killing 22 people. Another attack in the...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - An American was shot and killed Saturday while parking his car at his home in the Saudi capital, the third slaying of a Westerner in the kingdom in a week. Witnesses told The Associated Press that the American man was pulling into his home's parking garage when three militants shot him in the back, then moved closer to fire more shots from a short distance. The chief of police in Riyadh said a "resident holding the American nationality" was killed in the capital's Malaz district Saturday afternoon, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. A...

This is from an email I rec'd from an Ex-aramcon. It purports to be two emails exchanged between ARAMCO manageers. I am going to talk tough, so here is my opinion...... There are contract "hired guns" available. Ex-SAS, US Special Forces and ex-CIA operatives have set up private security firms. We should consider hiring these chaps. We want a team who can take action within minutes and take out permanently any unauthorized armed intrusion. The exodus of ex-pats has begun. Many of those leaving are close to retirement or have young families. So we lose our experience and our most...

Bruce Bonine, a native of Mercer Island, Washington, who now lives in Austria, uses a hockey stick to slap rubber ducks down a stream in Klosterneuburg during a mock 'election' race between George W. Bush and John Kerry, on Sunday, May 2, 2004. A duck bearing Kerry's name won. The event was organized by Democrats Abroad, which is trying to get Americans overseas to vote in November'sU.S. presidential election. (AP Photo/Hans Punz)

Left out of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 were young Americans who have never lived in the United States but who do have U.S. citizenship through an American parent... Twelve states allow Americans who have always resided abroad and are children of U.S. citizens to use a parent's voting address, Brunelli said in a telephone interview from Washington. The states are Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin... There is no precise count of Americans abroad, although a U.S. census experiment is under way in three countries - France,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Often caught in the firing line when foreigners vent their anger at George W. Bush, many American expatriates are flocking to Democratic primaries abroad and pinning hopes on a John Kerry (news - web sites) election victory in November. U.S. expatriate voters number more than six million worldwide, but they have long been a nebulous and somewhat neglected bloc whose absentee ballots end up scattered, with limited impact, across 50 states. But three years of Bush's foreign policies have rattled their adopted countries and shaken into action many expatriates weary of hostile questions on Iraq (news -...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Often caught in the firing line when foreigners vent their anger at George W. Bush, many American expatriates are flocking to Democratic primaries abroad and pinning hopes on a John Kerry (news - web sites) election victory in November. U.S. expatriate voters number more than six million worldwide, but they have long been a nebulous and somewhat neglected bloc whose absentee ballots end up scattered, with limited impact, across 50 states. But three years of Bush's foreign policies have rattled their adopted countries and shaken into action many expatriates weary of hostile questions on Iraq (news -...

Americans living in Japan gathered at the Democrats Abroad Caucus Japan in Tokyo earlier in the week and elected separate delegates to support the U.S. presidential candidacies of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as well as uncommitted Democratic voters in Japan. The unexpectedly high turnout and the stridency of the participants led to a heated session at the caucus, which was held Sunday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo. The turnout was a record 156 people. In the 1996 and 2000 caucuses, participation ranged between 40 and 50, according to Democrats Abroad Japan...

LONDON, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Janet Sproul, originally from Seattle but now in London, voted for President George W. Bush in 2000. But that was then. Monday night, amid hundreds of cheering expatriate U.S. Democrats at an overcrowded room in the Bloomsbury Holiday Inn, she cast her vote for Democratic frontrunner Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "I thought Bush was the right choice four years ago, but I've gotten to loathe the guy," said Sproul. "I really don't like his stand on the Middle East and especially going to war with Iraq. Kerry looks like the guy to beat him."...

Howard Dean finally won a first-place victory this weekend—he came out on top in the caucus run by Democrats Abroad in... Sweden.

Democrats Abroad Japan Press Release Submitted by Heather on 9 February, 2004 - 05:59 UTC. - For Immediate Release - "Dean Takes Tokyo, Sweeps Past Kerry on Third Count" A record 156 participants gathered at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho Tokyo, on Sunday 8 February for the Democrats Abroad Japan Caucus. The purpose of the Caucus was two-fold: firstly to elect delegates to the Democrats Abroad Convention in Edinburgh in March, members of which will in turn be elected to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and secondly to propose and debate resolutions to be adopted...

Army program helps with absentee votingBy Andrea Takash WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 5, 2004) – Americans across the country are now voting in presidential state primaries, but many Soldiers can’t make it to the polls, said Jim Davis, the Army’s voting action officer. The Army’s Voting Assistance Program aims to ensure that Soldiers, their families and DoD civilians overseas can exercise their right to vote, Davis said. Absentee ballots can be applied for by filling out the federal postcard application, standard form 76, which can be found at the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s Web site, Davis said. “Not...

The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday backed off plans for a large-scale test of a voting system designed to let Americans who are overseas cast ballots in the coming election over the Internet. The Pentagon will scrap the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) until the current system can guarantee the security of the voting process or a new system is designed, a Defense Department spokesperson said. "The action was taken in view of the inability to ensure the legitimacy of the votes cast," the spokesperson said. The decision follows a January report by four experts--three computer science...

Citing security concerns, the Department of Defense canceled a $22 million project today that would have allowed Americans overseas to vote over the Internet. The system, the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or Serve, was developed with financing from the Defense Department. The decision was announced in a memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Paraphrasing the memo, a department of defense spokeswoman said "the department has decided not to use Serve in the November 2004 elections. We made this decision in view of the inability to ensure...

US expats in Holland search for a Democrat champion They are thousands of miles away from the action, so what do American expats know or care about the 2004 presidential race? President George W. Bush is the Republican candidate, but freelance journalist Tiffany Aron investigates what US expats in the Netherlands know of the Democratic hopefuls vying for the opportunity to oppose him. Carrie Ballard, 50, grew up in various places - Egypt, Lebanon and Nigeria - when her father worked for an international oil company, and she has spent much of her adult life abroad also, including six...

The group was formed out of opposition to the war in Iraq In Prague, an organisation of expatriate Americans is launching its voter registration drive ahead of the US presidential elections later this year. The launch comes on the day the Democratic Party holds its Iowa caucus, the first stage in choosing a candidate to run against George W Bush in November. American Voices Abroad has chapters in 10 capitals, including Paris, Berlin and London. It developed out of groups opposed to the war in Iraq and opposes many of the policies of the Bush administration. In all, organisers...

While the number of Americans who visited France dropped in 2003, a great part of those who live in, or pass through France complain of a genuine harassment. “We've had it,” they say. It's not easy to be an American in Paris these days, as the political and strategic disagreements between France and the United States continue to grow. Since the Iraq war, many students and businessmen or just tourists passing through admit they are experiencing a kind of pressure they had not expected: off-color remarks, dubious jokes, verbal (if not physical) assaults. Have the French become Americanophobes? “Yes,” said...

ANKARA, Turkey - New evidence emerged that terrorists may be planning attacks at Western targets in Turkey during the holidays, according to a police document, while Americans living abroad were warned to keep a low profile. The threats Tuesday of new attacks followed Sunday's decision by the Bush administration to raise the terror alert level to orange on new fears that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror group could stage a major attack soon at home or abroad. Based partly on information from British and Israeli intelligence, the Bush administration suspects terrorists are eyeing Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Bahrain, Yemen and...

RIO JOURNALAn American Family Abroad: Horror Strikes in the Night By TONY SMITH IO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 2 — The detectives at Rio de Janeiro's homicide division are a world-weary bunch, inured to the horrors of violent crime by their daily hunting down of killers in one of the world's most dangerous cities. But the grisly assault last weekend that left Zera Todd Staheli, a 39-year-old American oil executive, dead and his wife, Michelle, 34, in a coma has shocked even the most case-hardened officers. [Michelle Staheli died of her wounds early Thursday, Reuters reported.]According to the police chief, Álvaro...