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I am really tired on how the battle over incorrect use of the newsmedia story facts about this wonderful patriotic election are seemingly being false on TV and in print. The current news is wrongfully using the false term of the ememy forces as being "insurgents". They are not, in a majority of the cases. This is being proven to all with military investigations. Months ago, there was a careful press battle over the newsmedia being incessitantly WRONG and BIASED in calling the armed enemy, "insurgents". This is a liberal, soft, vague and inaccurate term. You could experience it on...

Messages of support poured in from around the world today as Iraqis voted in a landmark election hailed by both supporters and opponents of the US-led war as a key step towards restoring Iraqi sovereignty. US President George W Bush called the vote a resounding success. "There's more distance to travel on the road to democracy, yet Iraqis are proving they are equal to the challenge," Bush said at the White House 22 months after US-led forces invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. "Today the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice...

Iraqis have clashed with demonstrators against the election outside a polling station in Manchester. About 200 demonstrators were chased by another group who burned their flags, while other Iraqis clashed with police. The demonstrators were from Hizb-ut-Tahrir - an Islamic group which is against the elections in Iraq. David Kahrmann, from the Iraq Election Team, said the protesters "were not even Iraqis".

72%, higher than expected. 40 killed - lower than expected, but we must not discount the incredible bravery of the Iraqi people, and now, the rest of the story.... CLICK HERE

Blood continues to flow as Iraqis prepare to answer bullets with ballots. Americans must mourn the losses in the ranks of our uniformed forces. But the enemies of Iraqi democracy have made clear that for them the Western media paradigm posing American invaders against Iraqi "resistance" is merely background noise. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the lead murderer in Iraq, issued a diatribe on Monday, January 24, denouncing the very concept of "democracy," and reinforcing his followers' longstanding commitment to one principle: permanent massacre of Shia Muslims, the majority in the country.             Zarqawi railed against democracy as illegitimate because it is...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - In Baghdad, armed men hand out fliers threatening people with death if they vote in the upcoming elections. But on the Internet a more effective campaign against the vote is under way. Militant groups have stepped up their anti-election propaganda and threatening statements on the Internet, hoping a stepped up cyberspace psychological operation will suppress turnout and damage the elections' legitimacy. Although only about 2 percent of Iraqis have Internet access, due to weak infrastructure, the threats and messages reach the general public when they are reported by local and international television stations and newspapers. "No...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Nightfall approached, the military curfew drew near and Baghdad residents scurried from shop to shop on one of the city's main streets to stock up on food, water and gasoline before Sunday's national election. Umm Ahmed, a 33-year-old housewife, rushed to a store. Like many Iraqis, she was worried she may not be able to shop in coming days because of curfews and violence. "I am looking for bread," she said, explaining that most of the bakeries near her house are closed. Glancing down the street toward a bread shop where people were waiting in line,...

BAGHDAD, Jan 25 (AFP) - Iraq's mosaic of ethnic groups are lined up for Sunday's elections in which the Shiites as the majority community are expected to emerge the dominant force in the post-Saddam Hussein era. The following are short profiles of the main groups: -- SHIITES -- The Shiites, who faced decades of repression dating back to the Ottoman period, make up around 60 percent of Iraq's population and are concentrated in the south of the country and the capital. Their religious leaders, especially spiritual chief Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have encouraged Shiites to seize the moment and turn...

BAGHDAD — Iraq's interim government has met U.S. officials and Iraqi politicians regarding a postponement of the Jan. 30 elections. Iraqi officials said Prime Minister Iyad Alawi and Defense Minister Hazem Shalaan have determined that insurgents would torpedo Sunni participation in the elections, a move that could split the country. "Alawi sees no point in the elections, but doesn't want to do anything without a consensus that would include the United States," an Iraqi official said. "He has been talking to everybody to ensure that any delay would be limited and agreed by all." Sunni insurgents have stepped up attacks...

CAIRO, Egypt — In an audiotape broadcast today by Al-Jazeera satellite television, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of next month's elections there. The voice on the tape described al-Zarqawi as the "emir," or prince, of Al Qaeda in Iraq and said Muslims there should "listen to him." The man speaking on the tape also referred to an October statement in which al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, declared allegiance to bin Laden and changed his group's name to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The speaker called that "a...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Most international experts assessing the fairness of Iraq's elections will monitor the Jan. 30 vote from the safety of neighboring Jordan, but a few observers will head to Baghdad and perhaps other Iraqi cities if security permits, U.N. and other officials said Thursday. Experts putting together the international team made clear it will not conduct the usual on-the-ground election monitoring with hundreds of foreign observers in Iraq such as was recently seen in Afghanistan. Instead, it will be assessing the vote based on more than a dozen different criteria. "We believe we can run a very...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan insisted only Iraq can decide whether to go ahead with elections next month, but he warned that the ongoing bloodshed would have an effect on the polls. Speaking as the United States insisted that the violence would not derail Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein election due at the end of January, Annan said the UN's work in helping to ready the vote was on schedule. "The technical preparations are on track and I hope that all Iraqis will exercise their right to vote," he told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York. "The decision...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A group of 38 Shiite Muslim political parties broke off negotiations Tuesday with backers of Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, claiming a candidate list under discussion was dominated by religious extremists. "We don't want to be an extension of Iran inside Iraq," said Hussein al-Mousawi, spokesman for the Shiite Political Council. "We found out that the top 10 names in the list are extremist Shiite Islamists who believe in the rule of religious clerics." Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has assigned a committee of six of his aides to try to put together a unified Shiite ticket...

President Bush should enjoy his victory celebration while he can. He will soon face the most determined antiwar movement since the 1960s. The Iraq situation is becoming more and more reminiscent of the Vietnam disaster. American troops mostly stay in heavily fortified barracks. When they do venture out, their sweeps don't achieve durable pacification. Militants and young men of fighting age are long gone by the time American bombardments start.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Iraqi government and U.S. military commanders both rejected a Saudi plan for an all-Muslim force to protect U.N. election staff in Iraq, the White House said on Monday. "The Iraqi interim government had some real concerns about having troops from a neighboring country inside Iraq. The multinational commanders also had some concerns about forces operating outside the chain of command structure," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, commenting on a media report. New York daily Newsday reported on Monday that President Bush rebuffed the Saudi initiative because the force would not have been under U.S....

REBUILDING PLAN AGREED Free Iraqis have drawn up a 13-point plan to rebuild their country following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. The plan was agreed at US-hosted talks at Ur, the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham. The delegates also voted to meet again in 10 days' time. In a statement they said a future Iraqi government must be democratic, no leader must be imposed from outside, and the Baath party must be dissolved. As the meeting began, hundreds marched through the streets of nearby Nasiriyah protesting about US involvement in their country's future. They were concerned that the...

Wow, here's an election result even America's Democrats haven't been able to rig: Baghdad announced today it had 100 percent turnout for a "referendum" on Saddam Hussein's two-decade dictatorship, and the wacky Iraqi won 11 million to zip! Of course, there wasn't another candidate on the "ballot," not even a Shiite version of Robert Torricelli, but let's not quibble. The supposed 100 percent "yes" vote shows all Iraqis will defend Hussein against American forces, the country's No. 2 man said. "If they come, we will fight them in every village, and every house," said Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's...