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Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 6:47 a.m. ESTHillary Rebuked by Iraqi Leader New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has caused an international incident after she criticized Iraq's leading candidate to become prime minister as a result of last month's historic election, prompting a sharp rebuke. "Hillary Clinton, as far as I know, does not represent any political decision or the American administration, and I don't know why she said this," Dr. Ibrahim Jafari, who is expected to become prime minister, told the Times of London on Thursday. "She knows nothing about the Iraqi situation," he added. During an interview last Sunday,...

One president gave his pre mature "Mission Accomplished" speech about Iraq on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Now another has given his own version as part of a Chicago-ward-politics sales pitch to disabled veterans. The difference is that the first guy was sincere. President Obama's pork-barrel speech to the Disabled Veterans of America yesterday (if you want to help our vets, shut up and do it) would have drawn a blush from those Soviet propagandists who cropped purged Politburo members from Stalin-era photographs. Ignoring his own opposition to the liberation of Iraq, supporting our troops and the surge, Obama...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi PM says he will not accept election results showing secular challenger with win.

debkafile's intelligence and Baghdad sources disclose that prime minister Nouri al-Maliki was injured in an attempt on his life last Thursday, March 11. His armored convoy came under an RPG-automatic fire attack after a bomb hit his car. US and Iraqi authorities have blacked out the incident, but our sources learn that Maliki is being treated for moderate-to-serious injuries at the American military hospital. One source says he was hit in the arm. His doctors apparently found his condition was too serious for him to face TV cameras and deliver a broadcast statement to the nation scheduled Sunday March 14,...

Turnout in yesterday's parliamentary election in Iraq reached 62.4 per cent despite a concerted effort to intimidate voters and scare them away from polling stations. Hamdiyah al-Husseini, a senior official with the Independent High Electoral Commission, released the figure at a press conference in Baghdad. The figure is lower than the 76 per cent turnout for the the parliamentary election of December 2005 but higher than last year's provincial elections when just over half of voters cast ballots. Turnout is an important measure of success for the election. To be credible and effective, Iraq's next government will need the backing...

On March 7, millions of Iraqis "made their mark" and participated in the country's second, generally fair and democratic post-Saddam Hussein parliamentary elections -- an event that is exemplary for Iraq's Arab and Iranian neighbors. Among the good news was that election coalitions this time around were far more ethnically and confessionally mixed than they were during the 2005 polls. The question is whether and how Iraq's fragile, young democracy and national unity can take hold and grow strong enough to resist internal pressure and external interference. In addition to the Ba'athist and Al-Qaeda insurgencies that continue attempts to derail...

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday that victory in Iraq and Afghanistan won't come in one glorious battle. Instead, Adm. Mike Mullen told a Kansas State University audience, success in the long wars will be determined by use of military and diplomatic powers, along with support from U.S. allies. Mullen said there won't be a day when commanders "stand up and say 'That's it, it's over. We won."' "We will win, but we will do so only over time and only after near-constant reassessment and readjustment," Mullen said. "Quite frankly, it will feel a lot less...

Iraqi lawmakers have only a day left to agree on a new bill that would enable the country to hold key parliament elections in January, according to remarks Wednesday by the country's election commission chairman. The chairman, Faraj al-Haidari, said he warned the legislators that if they don't approve the election law by the end of Thursday, the country's nationwide vote will be delayed Any postponement in the Jan. 16 balloting could undermine the country's fragile stability and impact U.S. plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, now scheduled to ramp up after the vote. The possibility of the delay is...

It’s slightly embarrassing to write about this event two weeks after the fact, but it’s even more so not to bring it up at all: On January 31, there were local elections all throughout Iraq. News of the elections didn’t catch the attention of most of the mainstream media. I myself had heard about it only from a WABC-radio news broadcast. CNN, to their credit, was on it, reporting on the 27th that “About 14,000 candidates will be competing for 440 provincial council seats in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces”. That’s fantastic! As for the rest of the MSM, they...

Ever Wonder what ever happened to Iraq? Did our hero's come home? After all, you hardly ever hear about it on the eventing news any more. It used to be the top story every day. Where did it go? Maybe Tim Russert is right, a few months before he passed away he admitted that the better things get in Iraq the less likely that there will be coverage Tim Russert: WE DON'T COVER GOOD NEWS The elections that just took place in Iraq are a great example of what I mean. While it was reported that the elections got off...

Last Sunday Iraq held new elections. There was no violence so it’s doubtful you heard much about the way they went. Things went too smoothly for our phony media to be bothered reporting this story. The Collins Report was forwarded an E mail from a highly placed American military commander expressing his delight at how the day unfolded. Here’s what he reported. In Anbar Province the news was positively exhilarating. There were no suicide bombers blowing voters up; no Marines had to battle terrorist skunks trying to stop democracy by killing Iraqi voters. …… participating in their very first free...

Polling was peaceful, the results encouraging. We could yet be looking at a model for Arab states The weekend's elections in Iraq were a huge success for the Iraqi people. The remarkably peaceful day of voting on Saturday - and the interim results - give good reason to hope Iraq really is on the way to building a decent society. These provincial elections were held in 14 of the country's 18 provinces (Kurdistan will hold separate elections, and the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk was deemed "too hard" at present). This was the first post-Saddam election that the Iraqis handled...

The Truth - Iraqi elections mean Nothing to the democrats! FOX just had a discussion about President Bush's upcoming speech this Monday night. When asked about the impact it would have, "democratic strategist" Mary Ann Marsh said, "Bush giving a speech, is like having an election in Iraq, it doesn't mean anything". How Foul and Disgusting!!

In selecting al-Jaafari as its nominee for a second term, the dominant Shiite bloc has betrayed the hopes of all those who have wanted Iraq's first constitutionally elected government to make a fresh start at reunifying the country, rebuilding the economy and putting an end to the beating, torture and murder of civilians by Shiite militia members in and out of the official security forces. Jaafari has been a spectacular failure on all these fronts over the past 10 months. He is unlikely to do a better job if he gets the job a second time, particularly since he owes...

The silence was deafening and the seats were empty. The western press was nowhere to be found. The location was Baghdad and the event was a February 10th, 2006 press conference announcing the final verification of December's election results. Although the final allocation of parliamentary seats did not change from last month's tentative reports, the conference was nonetheless significant for American and Iraqi history. What was equally significant was the absence of members of the western press.If the pre-release of the topics to be discussed included reports of widespread voter fraud, complaints by detained terrorists of maltreatment, or a sudden...

Baghdad, 2 Jan. (AKI) - The Sunni Iraqi Islamic party is mooting a possible alliance in the country's first democratically elected permanent parliament with supporters of firebrand Shiite muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a party's spokesman, Ala Makki said on Monday, quoted by Iraq's Nina News agency. "There is much common ground on a number of national political topics between the two formations. This is why we are putting together an agreement to form a new alliance," said Makki. The preliminary results of Iraq's general election, held on 15 December, show Sadr supporters taking as many as 31 seats in Iraq's...

It’s become clear from the active shuttle-like movement of the rival parties and mediators that the intensity of the political crisis began to subside compared to how things looked like a week ago. In spite of the violence that disturbed Baghdad this morning, the rival parties resumed their meetings and talks with some politicians playing the role of mediators; the most prominent of whom is President Talabani and even in the two main competing camps we’re hearing moderate voices emerge to propose solutions like the Virtue Party from the UIA and al-Mutlaq from Maram.

I think most of you have seen the disturbing results of the elections after the commission completed counting 90% of the votes. I think the announcement was due to pressures on the commission which also chose to show the results of the Sunni provinces apparently to calm the Accord Front down a bit as the Front achieved good results in those provinces. Today we heard that a delegation of Hachim al-Hasani (chairman of the National Assembly), Mowafaq al-Rubai’i (national security advisor) and Barham Salih (planning minister, a Kurd) went to the Accord Front to talk to them and convince them...

(sic)I listened to this person arlene violet. She is not happy with election in Iraq. This arlene does not liking of America in Iraq! My Iraqi brothers love the freedoms soldeirs of Americans give us. This woman is worried about Saddamists and there rights. How is this woman so crazy. My people are good and braeve, My people no what blood is given by Anerica. We will not forget! I heard her today, why is she on the side of Saddam! It is her words I swear . This whjj is agaist you the liberators why? This woman should be...

The night the Berlin Wall came down, I was glued to the television coverage and watched ABC's Prime Time Live engage in real-time reporting of the breach of the wall and the spread of democracy to Eastern Europe. Sam Donaldson -- who had served as the White House correspondent during the Reagan Administration -- was one of the co-hosts of the broadcast, and at one point during the coverage, he had a chance to interview his old rhetorical sparring partner -- former President Ronald Reagan. Donaldson was warm and gracious to the former President as they both watched history be...