VOTE IRAQI! Sunday 1-31-2005
Back to the WWIII: The Moslem Terror War Page

This is a historic day. Iraqi's, just like anywhere else in the world where a free vote was offered, voted despite the threats and violence of terrorists supported by left-wing DEMOCRAP lawmakers. In the case of Iraq this came about because President GW Bush destroyed the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and his sons then rebuilt Iraq's infrastructure and set up a legal system all in record time. And all in spite of the nonstop interference of dictator supporting countries and politicians who collaborated with Saddam to steal money from the Iraqi population and support mass murder, rape, and the corruption of a country's economy. This page will fill with articles on that event.

PRO-U.S. MAYOR HAS TARGET ON HIS BACK

By JOSH WILLIAMS

BAGHDAD — The man replacing the mayor of Baghdad — who was assassinated for his pro-American loyalties — says he is not worried about his ties to Washington.

In fact, he'd like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.

"We will build a statue for Bush," said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. "He is the symbol of freedom."

Fadel's predecessor, Ali al-Haidari, was gunned down Jan. 4 when militants opened fire on his armor-covered BMW as it traveled with a three-car convoy.

Fadel said he received numerous threats on his life as the council chairman, and expects to get many more in his new post.

"My life is cheap," Fadel said. "Everything is cheap for my country."

As Iraq prepared for a volatile election that is being watched across the world, Fadel heaped praise on the United States.

Fadel acknowledged that many in his country appear ungrateful for America's foreign assistance. He said most Iraqis are still in "shock" over the changes, and need time to adjust.

Any public monument to Bush is likely to further incense terrorist forces, who have attacked American troops and their supporters for months.

Fadel said he is undaunted.

"We have a lot of work and we are especially grateful to the soldiers of the U.S.A. for freeing our country of tyranny," Fadel said.

As for his own protection, the new mayor will be traveling in a new $150,000 SUV complete with bulletproof windows and flat-resistant tires.

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Kerry: Iraq Election No Big Deal

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 12:02 p.m. EST

A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event.

"No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press." The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote."

Kerry also pooh-poohed reports of a surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by Iraqi voters, insisting instead that the election has "gone as expected."

Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of a terrorist threat, Kerry at first said: "No, it's more. And, in fact, I believe the world is less safe today than it was two and a half years ago."

But he changed his answer moments later, after "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert pressed him on the bizarre claim.

"I'm glad Saddam Hussein is gone, and I've said that a hundred times," he insisted.

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Jennings: Election 'Illegitimate' for Sunnis

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 10:04 a.m. EST

Reacting to reports that Iraqi election turnout was far higher than predicted, with voters dancing in the streets in celebration of their newfound democracy, ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings insisted that for Iraq's Sunni population, the vote was still "illegitimate."

"I don't want to seem unnecessarily skeptical," Jennings told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on ABC's "This Week." "But in fact the Iraqis seemed to turn out in some places and not turn out in others." Though ecstatic Iraqi elections officials said Sunday that turnout nationwide was 72 percent - and may top 90 percent in Shiite areas - Jennings wasn't satisfied.

"Just today one of the leading Sunni secular leaders said he was worried about the degree of the turnout," he told Dr. Rice. "And it is similarly true that many Sunnis are not turning out because they think this is an illegitimate election in the presence of a U.S. occupation."

Dr. Rice said that if Sunni turnout was depressed, it was largely because of threats of violence from Iraqi terrorists, and not because of American involvment.

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Bob's Note: Chris Matthews on Hardball last night suggested that the millions of Iraqis who voted were coerced by American troops.

Iraqis Defy Attackers in Historic Election

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 8:17 a.m. EST

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis danced and clapped with joy Sunday as they voted in their country's first free election in a half-century, defying insurgents who launched eight suicide bombings and mortar strikes at polling stations. The attacks killed at least 36 people.

An Iraqi election official said that 72 percent of eligible Iraqi voters had turned out so far nationwide. The official, Adel al-Lami of the Independent Electoral Commission, offered no overall figures of the actual number of Iraqis who have voted to back up the claim. After a slow start, men and women in flowing black abayas _ often holding babies _ formed long lines, although there were pockets of Iraq where the streets and polling stations were deserted. Iraqis prohibited from using private cars walked streets crowded in a few places nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with voters, hitched rides on military buses and trucks, and some even carried the elderly in their arms.

"This is democracy," said Karfia Abbasi, holding up a thumb stained with purple ink to prove she had voted.

Officials said turnout appeared higher than expected, although it was too soon to tell for sure. Iraqi officials have predicted that up to 8 million of the 14 million voters _ just over 57 percent _ would participate.

In a potentially troublesome sign, the polls at first were deserted in mostly Sunni cities like Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra around Baghdad, and in the restive, heavily Sunni northern city of Mosul.

Clashes had erupted between insurgents and Iraqi soldiers in western Mosul. And in Baghdad's mainly Sunni Arab area of Azamiyah, the neighborhood's four polling centers did not open, residents said. A low Sunni turnout could undermine the new government and worsen tensions among the country's ethnic, religious and cultural groups.

A Web site statement purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for election-day attacks in Iraq, although the claim could not be verified. The Jordanian militant is said to be behind many of the suicide car-bombings, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners in Iraq, and his group vowed to kill those who ventured out to vote.

Casting his vote, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called it "the first time the Iraqis will determine their destiny."

Turnout was brisk in Shiite Muslim and mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods. Even in the small town of Askan in the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, 20 people waited in line at each of several polling centers. More walked toward the polls.

Rumors of impending violence were rife. When an unexplained boom sounded near one Baghdad voting station, some women put their hands to their mouths and whispered prayers. Others continued walking calmly to the voting stations. Several shouted in unison: "We have no fear." "Am I scared? Of course I'm not scared. This is my country," said 50-year-old Fathiya Mohammed, wearing a head-to-toe abaya.

At one polling place in Baghdad, soldiers and voters joined hands in a dance, and in Baqouba, voters jumped and clapped to celebrate the historic day. At another, an Iraqi policeman in a black ski mask tucked his assault rifle under one arm and took the hand of an elderly blind woman, guiding her to the polls.

In Ramadi, U.S. troops coaxed voters with loudspeakers, preaching the importance of every ballot.

The election is a major test of President Bush's goal of promoting democracy in the Middle East. If successful, it also could hasten the day when the United States brings home its 150,000 troops. More than 1,400 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, including a U.S. Marine killed in combat Sunday in Iraq's restive Anbar province. No details were released on the latest death.

Security was tight. About 300,000 Iraqi and American troops were on the streets and on standby to protect voters, who entered polling stations under loops of razor wire and the watchful eye of rooftop sharpshooters.

Private cars were mostly banned from the streets, forcing suicide bombers to strap explosives to their bodies and carry out attacks on foot.

The governor of the mostly Sunni province of Salaheddin, Hamad Hmoud Shagti, went on the radio to lobby for a higher turnout. "This is a chance for you as Iraqis to assure your and your children's future," he said.

Shiite Muslims, estimated at 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, were expected to turn out in large numbers, encouraged by clerics who hope their community will gain power after generations of oppression by the Sunni minority.

A ticket endorsed by the country's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is expected to fare best among the 111 candidate lists. However, no faction is expected to win an outright majority, meaning possibly weeks of political deal-making before a new prime minister is chosen.

The elections will also give Kurds a chance to gain more influence in Iraq after long years of marginalization under the Baath Party that ruled the country for 34 years.

"This proves that we are now free," said Akar Azad, 19, who came to the polls with his wife Serwin Suker and sister Bigat.

Iraqis in 14 nations also held the last of three days of overseas balloting on Sunday, with officials in Australia extending polling station hours because of an earlier riot and bomb scare. More than 70 percent of the 281,000 registered overseas voters had cast a ballot, al-Lami of the Independent Electoral Commission said.

Speaking in Nigeria, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Sunday's balloting "the first step" toward democracy. "It's a beginning, not an end," he said.

Final results of the election will not be known for seven to 10 days, but a preliminary tally could come as early as late Sunday.

One U.S.-funded election observer said early reports pointed to smoother-than-expected voting, despite the violence.

"We're hearing there has been fairly robust turnout in certain areas," said Sam Patten, a member of the Baghdad team of the International Republican Institute.

The chief U.N. adviser to Iraq's election commission, Carlos Valenzuela, also said turnout seemed to be good in most places.

"These attacks have not stopped the operations," Valenzuela said.

Asked if reports of better-than-expected turnout in areas where Sunni and Shiite Muslims live together indicated that a Sunni cleric boycott effort had failed, one of the main groups pushing the boycott seemed to soften its stance.

"The association's call for a boycott of the election was not a fatwa (religious edict), but only a statement," said Association of Muslim Scholars spokesman Omar Ragheb. "It was never a question of something religiously prohibited or permitted."

In the most deadly attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a polling station in western Baghdad, killing himself, three policemen and a civilian, officials said. Witness Faleh Hussein said the bomber approached a line of voters and detonated an explosives belt.

In a second suicide attack at a polling station, a bomber blew up himself, one policeman and two Iraqi soldiers. In a third suicide attack at a school in western Baghdad, three people and the bomber died, police said.

And in a fourth, at another school in eastern Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed himself and at least three others. Another five people died in other suicide attacks.

Also, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the home of Iraq's justice minister in western Baghdad in an apparent assassination attempt. The minister was not home but the attack killed one person, an Interior Ministry official said.

The rest were killed in shootings and explosions in several communities north of Baghdad.

Overall, eight of the 36 people killed were suicide bombers.

In addition, three people were killed when mortars landed near a polling station in Sadr City, the heart of Baghdad's Shiite Muslim community. Two others died when a mortar round hit a home in Amel, and a policeman died in a mortar attack on a polling station in Khan al-Mahawil, south of Baghdad.

In Mosul, the province's deputy escaped an assassination attempt, but his bodyguard was killed.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Bush: World Hears 'Voice of Freedom'

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 31, 2005

WASHINGTON -- President Bush called the Iraqi election a resounding success and promised that the United States will help Iraqis fight continuing insurgency as they build a democratic government.

"There's more distance to travel on the road to democracy," Bush said Sunday, four hours after the polls closed. "Yet Iraqis are proving they're equal to the challenge."

The president mentioned that some were killed while voting, but he focused his brief remarks on the success for Iraq and its citizens. He told of one voter who lost a leg in a terrorist attack last year but still made it to the polls to vote for peace.

"The world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," Bush said. "In great numbers, and under great risk, Iraqis have shown their commitment to democracy."

He called the leaders of three key U.S. allies in the Middle East - King Abdullah of Jordan, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt - Sunday afternoon to talk about building on the Iraqi election and to support democracy among the Palestinians.

Insurgents in Iraq struck polling stations with a string of suicide bombings and mortar volleys, killing more than 40 people, including nine suicide bombers. Bush also said he mourned the loss of U.S. and British forces on election day, including troops killed when a British military transport plane crashed.

"Terrorists and insurgents will continue to wage their war against democracy, and we will support the Iraqi people in their fight against them," Bush said. "We will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security."

Bush did not take questions from reporters or mention any military withdrawal.

L. Paul Bremer, the former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, said Monday the elections were "a great victory for the Iraqi people, for democracy and for the president's message of freedom." He said that while the insurgents, "since they are antidemocratic, won't respect the results of these democratic elections," violence was likely to continue.

"But gradually they're going to lose," Bremer said on NBC's "Today" show. "The balance of power is towards democracy now in Iraq."

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, were stepping up their calls for an exit strategy in Iraq. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in remarks prepared for delivery Monday that Bush "needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead" in Iraq.

"Most of all, we need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there; so that we know what we need to do and so that we know when the job is done."

In a statement, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass, said Bush "must look beyond the election" and start bringing troops home.

"The best way to demonstrate to the Iraqi people that we have no long-term designs on their country is for the administration to withdraw some troops now" and negotiate further withdrawals, Kennedy added.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not say whether U.S. forces will leave the country in great numbers after the vote. She said the United States will discuss the continued need for outside security forces with the newly elected Iraqi government.

So far, more than 1,400 U.S. troops and many thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives. The United States is spending more than $1 billion a week in Iraq.

Rice said the election went better than expected, but did not elaborate on U.S. predictions for turnout, violence or other measures.

In Iraq, officials said turnout among the 14 million eligible voters appeared higher than the 57 percent they had predicted. Complete voting results are not expected for days.

Polls were largely deserted all day in many cities of the Sunni Triangle. In Baghdad's mainly Sunni Arab area of Azamiyah, the neighborhood's four polling centers did not open at all, residents said.

"It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Bush's re-election challenger in November, said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

© 2005 The Associated Press

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Iraqis Defy Threats to Vote for Assembly

Jan 30, 11:26 PM (ET)
By SALLY BUZBEE

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis embraced democracy in large numbers Sunday, standing in long lines to vote in defiance of mortar attacks, suicide bombers and boycott calls. Pushed in wheelchairs or carts if they couldn't walk, the elderly, the young and women in veils cast ballots in Iraq's first free election in a half-century.

The electoral commission said it believed, based on that anecdotal information, that turnout among the estimated 14 million eligible Iraqi voters appeared higher than the 57 percent that had been predicted, although it would be some time before any precise turnout figure was confirmed.

The ticket endorsed by the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was the pre-voting favorite, while Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's slate was also considered strong. But officials said it might take 10 days to determine the vote's winner.

"We broke a barrier of fear," said Mijm Towirish, an election official.

Uncertain Sunni turnout, a string of insurgent attacks that killed 44 and the crash of a British military plane drove home that chaos in Iraq isn't over yet.

Yet the mere fact the vote went off seemed to ricochet instantly around a world hoping for Arab democracy and fearing Islamic extremism.

"I am doing this because I love my country, and I love the sons of my nation," said Shamal Hekeib, 53, who walked with his wife 20 minutes to a polling station near his Baghdad home.

"We are Arabs, we are not scared and we are not cowards," Hekeib said.

With helicopters flying low and gunfire close by, at least 200 voters stood calmly in line at midday outside one polling station in the heart of Baghdad. Inside, the tight security included at least four body searches, and a ban on lighters, cell phone batteries, cigarette packs and even pens.

The feeling was sometimes festive. One election volunteer escorted a blind man back to his home after he cast his vote. A woman too frail to walk by herself arrived on a cart pushed by a young relative. Entire families showed up in their finest clothes.

But for the country's minority Sunni Arabs, who held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein, the day was not as welcome.

No more than 400 people voted in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and in the heavily Sunni northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah, where Saddam made his last known public appearance in early April 2003, the four polling places never even opened.

"The world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," said President Bush, who called the election a success. He promised the United States would continue training Iraqi soldiers, hoping they can soon secure a country America invaded nearly two years ago to topple Saddam.

Iraqis, the U.S. president said, had "firmly rejected the anti-democratic ideology" of terrorists.

The vote to elect a 275-National Assembly and 18 provincial legislatures was only the first step on Iraq's road to self-rule and stability. Once results are in, it could take weeks of backroom deals before a prime minister and government are picked by the new assembly.

If that government proves successful by drawing in the minority Sunni Arabs who partly shunned the election, the country could stabilize, hastening the day when 150,000 U.S. troops can go home.

With the polls just closed, international debate immediately turned to just that issue. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid plans to call Monday for President Bush's administration to outline an exit strategy for Iraq. And Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his country will keep troops only if the country's newly elected government wants them.

Iraqi interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, told Britain's Channel 4 News he expected there would be no need for U.S. troops any longer than 18 months because that's when he anticipates Iraq's security forces will be trained well enough to handle the job themselves.

But in comments to CBS'"Face The Nation," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not say whether U.S. forces would leave the country in great numbers now that the vote is complete, and Bush did not mention any U.S. military withdrawals in his statement.

On Sunday, coalition soldiers raced through Baghdad's streets in Humvees and tried to coax people to vote with loudspeakers in Ramadi, a Sunni city where anti-U.S. attacks are frequent. Iraqi police served as guards at most polling stations and U.S. troops had strict orders to stay away unless Iraqi security forces called for help.

At the Louisiana National Guard headquarters near Baghdad, nervous U.S. officers paced the halls, muttering, "So far, so good," after the first 30 minutes of polling passed without attacks.

But the violence soon broke out.

While a driving ban seemed to discourage car bombs, the insurgents improvised, strapping on belts of explosives to launch their suicide missions.

At least 44 died in the suicide and mortar attacks on polling stations, including nine suicide bombers. The al-Qaida affiliate led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for at least four attacks.

Most attacks were in Baghdad, but one of the deadliest came in Hillah to the south, when a bomber got onto a minibus carrying voters and detonated his explosives, killing himself and at least four others.

In another reminder of the dangers that persist in Iraq, a British C-130 Hercules transport plane crashed north of Baghdad. The wreckage was strewn over a large area. No cause was given, but Britain's Press Association, quoting military sources, said about 10 British troops were believed to have died. Elsewhere, one U.S. serviceman died in fighting in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Despite the string of attacks and mortars that boomed first in the morning and then after dark, a people steeled to violence by years of war, sanctions, the brutality of Saddam's regime and U.S. military occupation were not deterred from the polls.

In the so-called "triangle of death" south of Baghdad, a whiskery, stooped Abed Hunni walked an hour with his wife to reach a polling site in Musayyib. "God is generous to give us this day," he said.

And in heavily Shiite areas in the far south and mostly Kurdish regions in the north, some saw the vote as settling a score with the former dictator, Saddam.

"Now I feel that Saddam is really gone," said Fatima Ibrahim, smiling as she headed home after voting in Irbil. She was 14 and a bride of just three months when her husband, father and brother were rounded up in a campaign of ethnic cleansing under Saddam. None have ever been found.

Many cities in the Sunni triangle north and west of the capital, particularly Fallujah, Ramadi and Beiji, were virtually empty of voters also.

A low Sunni turnout, if that turns out to be the case, could undermine the new government that will emerge from the vote and worsen tensions among the country's ethnic, religious and cultural groups.

Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni elder statesman and candidate for the National Assembly, said he believes the best hope for harmony lies in giving Sunnis a significant role in drafting the country's new constitution.

"The main thing, I think, is we should really have a constitution written by representatives of all segments of Iraq's population," Pachachi said. "I think it would improve the security situation."

Across the largely authoritarian-ruled Arab world, where dislike and distrust of U.S. power and American intentions dominates the public debate, some dismissed the poll as a U.S.-orchestrated sham. Others hoped it might prove a catalyst for a region-wide democratic push.

Iraq's elections are a "good omen for getting rid of dictatorship," said Yemeni political science student Fathi al-Uraiqi.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak - sure to win his own country's much-less-democratic vote later this year - telephoned Allawi to congratulate him on the smooth election, saying he hoped it would "open the way for the restoration of calm and stability" in Iraq.

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Hamza Hendawi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Jason Keyser contributed to this report.

© 2002-2005 My Way

Al-Zarqawi Group Claims Credit for Attacks

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 31, 2005

CAIRO, Egypt - A Web site statement purportedly from insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility Sunday for at least four attacks on polling centers across Iraq.

The group, Al-Qaida in Iraq, said its "lions" attacked at least four voting centers in Baghdad, including one in the upscale Mansour neighborhood. The statement's authenticity could not immediately be verified. It was posted on a Web site noted for carrying militant messages and it was purportedly issued in the name of the group's media coordinator, Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi.

The group claimed to have killed "police, national guards and Americans," without giving specifics. It also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Green Zone, the fortified Baghdad enclave holding the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government buildings, which it called the "Black Zone."

The group also said it was active in the cities of Mosul, Samarra and Baqouba as well as the Anbar province.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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McCain Predicts 'Horrific Things' in Iraq

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 31, 2005

Davos, Switzerland - Senator John McCain believes some "pretty horrific things" could happen during Sunday's elections in Iraq.

The Arizona Republican is calling militants the "enemies of freedom and democracy" who are determined to disrupt the vote. McCain spoke Saturday at the World Economic Forum of international leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

Also attending the conference is Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie. He said Iraq has become the leader of the "global war" against terror, yet Iraqi security forces are unable to protect even their own voters.

He predicts Iraq's new government will need security help from U.S.-led forces for many months to come. He says asking troops to leave would be "a recipe for disaster."

President Bush also cautions that Sunday's election in Iraq won't instantly solve the country's problems. In his weekly radio address, he says "terrorist violence will not end with the election." But he adds that "tomorrow's election will add to the momentum of democracy."

Bush warns that terrorists are bent on disrupting the vote. But he says they're doing so only to keep people living in fear because, as he put it, they "know that free elections will expose the emptiness of their vision for Iraq."

The president also says whatever the outcome, the US will stand beside Iraq's next government. He says the country has a duty to help Iraq's next leaders.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Iraqi Leaders Urge Voting As Bomb Kills 8

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber attacked a police station Saturday in a Kurdish town, killing eight people, and insurgents blasted polling places in several cities on the eve of landmark elections in which the president acknowledged many Iraqis will not vote because of fears for their lives.

In Baghdad, bursts of heavy machine gun fire rattled through central districts at midday, and several heavy explosions shook the downtown area in the afternoon. American fighter jets roared through the skies in a show of force. Iraqi police and soldiers set up checkpoints through streets largely devoid of traffic as the nation battened down for the vote, with a nighttime curfew imposed across the country and the borders sealed.

Seven American soldiers were killed Friday in the Baghdad area, including two pilots who died in the crash of their OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter.

Insurgents blasted polling places in at least eight cities Saturday and central Baghdad shook with shelling and heavy machine gun fire. American fighter jets roared through the skies in a show of force and buzzing U.S. military helicopters dotted the skyline.

West of the capital, in the insurgent bastion of Ramadi, five Iraqis with hands tied behind their backs were found slain Saturday on a city street. One of the bodies was decapitated. Militants accused them of working for the Americans.

Sunni Muslim extremists have warned Iraqis not to participate in the election Sunday, threatening to "wash the streets" in blood. Iraqis will chose a 275-member National Assembly and provincial councils in Iraq's 18 provinces. Voters in the Kurdish self-ruled area of the north will select a new regional parliament.

At a press conference, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman sought to boost Iraqi morale, appealing to his countrymen to set aside their fears and take part in the election.

"I encourage the Iraqi people to overcome their fear. It is important. It will preserve the integrity of Iraq," spokesman Thaer al-Naqeeb said. "If you vote ... the terrorists will be defeated."

But President Ghazi al-Yawer predicted many of Iraq's voters will stay home, not because of boycott calls from some in the Sunni minority but because of fear of bloodshed.

"What we hope is that everyone will take part," al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, said at a news conference. "But if the majority of the Iraqi people does not take part, and we know that the majority will not take part because of the security situation and not because they are boycotting the elections."

The suicide attack occurred in Khanaqin, 70 miles northeast of Baghdad on the Iranian border. Police Col. Mohammed al-Khanaqini said the man who carried out the suicide attack was wearing a belt of explosive and detonated himself between a U.S. base and a courthouse.

Mosul

In the northern city of Mosul, rebels distributed leaflets warning people to stay clear of polling stations to avoid getting hurt.

Insurgents also attacked a power station in the city on Saturday, and Iraqi security troops held off the attack and killed one insurgent, the U.S. military said.

In Khaldiyah, about 50 miles northwest of Baghdad, insurgents burst into a school used as an Iraqi National Guard base, asked the few members there to leave and then destroyed it with explosives, residents said. No one was reported hurt.

Eight mortar shells landed at an Iraqi National Guard barracks in the central town of Suwayrah, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding another, the Polish military said. South of Baghdad, rebels opened fire on U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces as they placed concrete blast barriers around polling stations south of the capital Saturday.

Attacks on polling stations were reported in a total of seven cities from Dohuk in the far north to Baghdad in the center and Basra in the south.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have imposed strict security measures, including sealing the country's borders, closing Baghdad's international airport, extending the hours of the curfew and restricting private vehicles.

In Basra, however, hundreds of Iraqi police uniforms have gone missing in Iraq's second largest city and may be in the hands of insurgents to help them slip through checkpoints, according to a report by the British media pool.

Members of the country's Shiite Muslim majority _ estimated at 60 percent of the population _ are expected to turn out in force for the ballot, encouraged by their clergy. A heavy turnout is also expected in Kurdish areas.

But the key issue is participation by Sunni Arabs, many of whom fear domination by the Shiites or face intimidation from insurgents active in Sunni areas.

An electoral commission official in one of the four Sunni provinces where turnout is expected to be light said voting would be "almost impossible" in some cities because of violence. Khalaf Mohammed Salih, a commission spokesman in Salaheddin province, said he expected violence to virtually shut down voting in the provincial towns of Beiji, Dour and Samarra.

Militant groups, meanwhile, have taken their campaign of intimidation to the Internet, posting threats of bloodshed and video footage of grisly slayings in hopes of scaring people away from the polls.

Iraqi election officials have begun delivering ballots to polling places in parts of the country, and Iraqi police have taken up positions around the sites.

The seven Americans killed Friday in Baghdad died in four separate incidents, including the Kiowa crash. U.S. officials said they do not believe the aircraft was hit by hostile fire and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Three other soldiers died in a bombing in southwestern Baghdad and the other two were killed in separate engagements elsewhere in the city, the U.S. command said.

The crash came two days after a U.S. helicopter transporting troops went down during a sandstorm in the western desert, killing 30 Marines and one sailor in the deadliest single incident for U.S. forces in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Iraq Confounds the Prophets of Doom

Emotional Iraqis Cast Votes in America

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Sunday, Jan. 29, 2005

SOUTHGATE, Mich. -- Voting in an Iraqi election for the first time was as personal as it was political for Adim Altalibi. Altalibi, a 55-year-old engineer who left Iraq in 1987, was tearful Friday as he thought about his five nephews killed under Saddam Hussein's regime.

"We lost a lot of our young men and women struggling against Saddam Hussein. It's paid off now," he said after casting his ballot at a suburban Detroit voting site. Altalibi was among hundreds of Iraqis who streamed into polling places in five U.S. cities Friday, the first day they could vote in their homeland's election. Nearly 26,000 people have registered to vote in five metropolitan areas with heavy Iraqi populations: Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, Tenn., Los Angeles and Washington. Tens of thousands more are expected to vote in 13 other countries during balloting that runs through Sunday.

In Iraq and around the globe, the voting has been a cause for jubilation among Iraqis who have long been tormented by Saddam, but the threat of violence is still present. Insurgents bent on disrupting the election process have killed U.S. soldiers - two more died Friday in Baghdad - set off suicide car bombs, assassinated officials and bombed polling places.

About 84,430 Iraqi expatriate voters - or 30 percent of the total registered - cast ballots Friday, the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said. The United Arab Emirates recorded the highest proportion of voters, with 49 percent - or 6,154 - voting, according to the IOM, which is conducting the expatriate vote on behalf of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.

Isho Mishail, 40, a driving instructor who was voting at the Chicago polling place, said it is important for him to vote because he does not know if his relatives in Iraq will have the same luxury.

Insurgents "went to the houses and threatened them, `If you go to the polls, we'll kill everyone in the house,'" Mishail said.

In the United States, organizers said lack of documentation, large travel distances, bad weather and concern about retribution could be keeping some Iraqis away from the polls. Voting in the United States is expected to make up about 10 percent of the 240,000 Iraqi expatriates to cast ballots around the world.

Eligibility

To be eligible, voters had to be born in Iraq or have an Iraqi father. They also had to have turned 18 by Dec. 31.

Sedeer Saba, 24, said she was excited to vote even though she was born in the United States. But she said many Iraqi-Americans feared going to the polls.

"They're afraid that their name is going to be on the ballot and that one day it will come back and haunt them, that one day Saddam Hussein will come back in power," said Saba, who was voting in the Los Angeles-area.

But others were determined to participate. Adl Almusasarah, 30, traveled from Denver to Nashville, arriving at the polling site an hour early so he could be first in line.

"We pray for the election to go well," said Almusasarah, who has been in the United States for 12 years. "I wish well for all the parties - for all the people in Iraq."

Mona Al-Mugotir, 25, drove from Omaha, Neb., to Chicago on Friday, after making two trips last week because she lost her registration card. Farooq Alshimmari, a security guard from Albuquerque, N.M., spent the last two weeks in the Detroit area so he could vote.

"Ten to 20 years from now, all the generations will remember that this is the first time we practiced our freedom of choice," said Alshimmari, 49, who worked as a history teacher and was jailed by Saddam before leaving Iraq in 1991.

Security was tight outside Detroit, the U.S. site where the most voters are expected to cast ballots. Private security guards checked identification as people entered the parking lot and ushered visitors through metal detectors. Bomb-sniffing dogs also were at the site, where an oversized Iraqi flag hung from the rafters.

Voters are choosing parties rather than individuals, with the number of candidates seated from each party determined by the party's percentage of votes. Those elected will make up the 275-member assembly that will draft Iraq's new constitution.

© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Major networks missed joy in Iraq

By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 1, 2005

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

Purple fingers, jubilation, hope and courage: Most news organizations offered positive and often uplifting coverage of the Iraqi elections in the past 48 hours.
    Then, there were the holdouts.
    "Dan Rather looked like he was about to burst into tears," radio host Laura Ingraham said yesterday.
    Indeed, the CBS newsman appeared initially mournful over news events that might reflect the success of White House plans to establish Iraq as a democratic stronghold in the Middle East.
    "Fear is running high. ... Bombs exploded at two Baghdad schools that are expected to serve as polling stations, and anti-election leaflets were everywhere threatening to, quote, 'Wash the streets of Baghdad with the blood of voters,' " Mr. Rather told viewers.
    He later began his main election report with more bad news: "More than 30 people died in insurgent attacks today."
    Habitual negativity can exact a toll on credibility, though.
    "Most everyone had positive reports, particularly on cable. But there were glaring exceptions who emphasized violence or uncertainty," said Brent Baker of the Alexandria-based Media Research Center.
    "Reporters look bad when they insist on being dour and sour when actual images on TV screens are so happy and thrilling," Mr. Baker said. "These correspondents look out of touch, grasping the negative so hard."
    Such reporting caps off weeks of critical coverage, which often predicted the worst outcome for Iraq, Mr. Baker said.
    "But in the end, these correspondents just couldn't compete with such powerful, positive images," he added.
    Mr. Rather was not the only gloomy anchor as the election coverage unfolded.
    ABC's Peter Jennings noted Sunday, "All over Baghdad today, there is no question that it looked like an occupation."
    He later observed that in Sunni regions, "The election process has been rejected. Somehow, the future here is still pretty bleak."
    Even after the Baghdad polling places had closed, NBC's Brian Williams detected "general unease," calling the events "a fairly unquantifiable election so far."
    Although many press accounts of the election were initially positive, few said the election guaranteed that Iraq would become a full-fledged democracy -- or that U.S. troops will return home soon.
    Sour or guarded reports result because many journalists "think Bush's foreign policy is crude, and it reflects in their coverage," National Review's Rich Lowry told Fox News yesterday.
    The tendency was more pronounced overseas, where reports were dire enough to warrant criticism from Britain's Guardian newspaper.
    "Yesterday, Iraq became the most democratic country in the Arab world. What a pity that so many writers who, in other circumstances, are optimists about human progress, should shut their eyes to what is happening. In their determination to say: 'I told you so,' they are coming perilously close to siding with jihadi murderers. Shame on them," an editorial noted yesterday.
    •Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washingtontimes.com or 202/636-3085.

Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

93 Percent of Iraq Expatriots Voted

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

GENEVA -- About 93 percent of the 280,000 Iraqi voters registered abroad cast absentee ballots in the country's election, the agency that organized the vote said Monday.

The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said that 265,148 Iraqi expatriate voters went to the special polls over three days in 14 countries.

While participation of the registered voters was unusually high, those who registered in a special nine-day campaign that ended Jan. 25 represented only 23 percent of the estimated 1.2 million Iraqi expatriates eligible to vote.

The low registration figure was attributed partly to fears of violence and retribution from insurgents but also the fact that not all countries with large numbers of Iraqis, including Egypt, participated and many voters had to travel abroad to register and then again to vote.

"I have worked on many post-conflict out-of-country elections, but this is honestly the first time I have seen this level of emotion and excitement among voters," said Peter Erben, who directed the project for IOM. Most recently he worked on the Afghanistan election.

Erben said IOM was "delighted" that the three days of polling outside Iraq went smoothly "and that so many expatriate Iraqis took this historic opportunity to vote."

He noted that Iraqis had turned out to vote in traditional dress and were dancing in the street.

"Many, many people (were) proudly holding up their inked finger as a sign of their freedom to choose their future leaders," Erben said.

The agency marked the voter's index finger with ink meant to avert any repeat voting.

Countries hosting the vote were Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran, Jordan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Syria, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. Those countries chosen to host the project because they are where the largest concentrations of Iraqis were believed to be living, according to the IOM.

In Germany, organizers said that about 95 percent of Iraqis who had registered to take part cast their ballots. Some 26,000 Iraqis _ many of them Kurds - had registered in Germany.

Iraqi election officials have yet to determine the voter turnout in their homeland, but it is believed to be higher than expected.

Counting of the overseas vote has already begun in many of the 14 countries, IOM said. The agency will send the final results of the out-of-country count electronically to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq in Baghdad by Saturday. The commission alone will release the election results in Baghdad, IOM said.

© 2005 The Associated Press

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Democrats Shy From Iraq Exit Timetable Leaders disagree with Kennedy's call for an immediate withdrawal of some troops. But they want Bush to detail a strategy for pulling out.

February 1, 2005
By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Democratic congressional leaders distanced themselves Monday from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's call for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, but urged President Bush to present a detailed exit strategy in Wednesday's State of the Union speech.

Remarks by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) reflected the dilemma Democrats have faced — and their presidential nominee could not resolve — since the U.S. toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but then confronted a violent insurgency.

The party has grappled with how to criticize the administration's handling of the violence in Iraq without appearing to undercut the U.S. effort to bring democracy to the Iraqi people.

The party's task grew more complicated Sunday, Democrats and Republicans said, when Iraqis conducted their first free election in half a century.

"When a party establishes a position where they win politically by things working out poorly for the U.S., that creates a conundrum," said Mike Franc, vice president for governmental relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It is a political strategy, not a policy strategy."

In his remarks Monday, Reid praised Iraqis for voting, noting that "millions of Iraqi citizens risked bloodshed in order to raise their ink-stained fingers in a powerful symbol of democracy."

But he gave little credit to the administration for helping Iraqis hold the election and said, "We all know that these brave men and women will never be truly freed until they can walk through their cities and towns without fear."

The American people, he said, need an "exit strategy" for Iraq "so that we know what victory is and how we can get there; so that we know what we need to do, and so that we know when the job is done."

Still, setting a timeline for a troop withdrawal would not be "a wise decision," he said.

Kennedy, in a speech Thursday, urged Bush to begin negotiating a withdrawal timetable with the Iraqi government immediately after the election. "At least 12,000 American troops, probably more, should leave at once to send a strong signal about our intentions and to ease the pervasive sense of occupation," Kennedy said.

The Massachusetts Democrat was one of 23 senators to vote against the authorization to use force against Iraq more than two years ago and has been one of his party's most outspoken critics of Bush's Iraqi policy.

Pelosi sided with Reid in discussing Kennedy's withdrawal proposal.

Ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq "is not about a calendar, it's about performance," she said. "You have to establish … the goals, and you have to work toward them, and you have to recognize the milestones when you reach them."

She added: "But if you have no plan, no road map, no standards, it's very hard to judge whether you have succeeded and whether it's time to come home."

Pelosi and Reid made their comments as they delivered what they called a "prebuttal" to Bush's State of the Union address. They faulted him on a variety of issues, including his push to restructure Social Security.

The Democratic balancing act on Iraq will likely be highlighted again when the administration seeks congressional approval for $80 billion in emergency funding for the U.S. military operation and rebuilding effort.

Many Democrats plan to use the debate on the request to stress their criticism of administration policy in Iraq. But most say they probably will vote for the funds because they want to support the troops.

"Many of us really feel, even those who voted against the Iraq war, that given that [the funding] is for the supply of the troops, we would rather not vote against it," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.).

Feingold said Sunday's elections in Iraq had intensified the debate about an exit strategy not only among Democrats but among Republicans.

"This step … has moved us into a new period," he said. "Both Democrats and Republicans are reevaluating the situation and what our commitment should be. I don't think it is peculiar to Democrats."

But Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for the Democratic Leadership Council, a group that promotes centrist views within the party, said the apparent success of the Iraqi vote complicated the larger debate for Democrats about U.S. policy.

"It is always difficult for the party in opposition to weigh in on a matter when it redounds to the benefit of the party in power," Wittmann said. "How do you celebrate the success and still maintain your strong opposition to the administration?"

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said most of his Democratic colleagues "disagree with Sen. Kennedy."

Nelson said Sunday's elections were "a first successful step in a long journey" toward stabilizing Iraq. That goal cannot be achieved, he added, by moving now to establish a timetable for pulling out U.S. troops.

Sen. John F. Kerry, who enjoyed strong support from Kennedy in his successful quest for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, also differed with his fellow Massachusetts lawmaker.

"Obviously, you've got to provide security and stability in order to be able to turn this over to the Iraqis and to be able to withdraw our troops," Kerry said in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press." "So I wouldn't do a specific timetable."

But Kerry added: "I certainly agree with him [Kennedy] in principle that the goal must be to withdraw American troops."

The Bush reelection campaign relentlessly criticized Kerry for supporting the authorization-of-force resolution in October 2002, but then opposing emergency funding for the Iraq operation a year later.

Kerry also was criticized by some Democrats during the campaign for not, in their view, clearly articulating his position on Iraq.

He sharpened his message in the campaign's closing weeks, charging that Bush had neglected the larger war on terrorism to pursue "the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times

Reply 1 - Posted by: cap MarineTet68, 1/31/2005 11:40:02 PM He already gave the exit strategy in his press conference. We will leave when the job is done. We have not left Germany, Japan, South Korea, Kosovo or Bosnia.

Reply 2 - Posted by: njdittos, 1/31/2005 11:40:47 PM Yes, I'd like to know what the exit strategy is....of how soon these Congressional dopes will be leaving Washington at the polite request of their dwindling constituencies. Talk about Two Americas! There's the Bush Brigade promoting, supporting, celebrating freedom throughout the world, and then there is Them. History is leaving you all behind if you hadn't already noticed.

Reply 3 - Posted by: rlwo, 1/31/2005 11:47:25 PM Democrats: "Are we there yet?" Are we there yet?"

Reply 4 - Posted by: OrygunRod, 1/31/2005 11:53:07 PM The dims just do not get it. No integrity, no thought of what is best for the country. Just trying to make political points any way they can. No overall plan for the world or even for combating Islamic terrorists. Name calling is not a platform or policy.

Reply 5 - Posted by: RT Atlanta, 1/31/2005 11:55:54 PM The best exit strategy is to show the Democrats the door..

Reply 6 - Posted by: radrelic, 2/1/2005 1:15:13 AM Reid and Pelosi, strange bedfellows. Reid so laughable, trying to prate the party line without out and out lying. Good luck, harry. lie down with dogs... The exit strategy is to leave when the Iraqis request it. Kennedy, Pelosi, Anti-shrew Boxer, etc might call Zarqawi, and others, to see what date they prefer, so they can hold off until then. The Congressional dem obstructionists look like fools and deserve every bit of contempt we have for them. It will snowball. Have far will Ted Kennedy go in his quest for return to majority power? He would sell us short with political ploys, but would he scheme with overseas governments or groups? Nothing is too low for dems to do, that's for sure.

Reply 7 - Posted by: antigummint, 2/1/2005 4:14:02 AM When did we announce our exit strategy for the war against Hitler or Japan? When did we announce our timetable for ending the war against Hitler or Japan? Where did this cockamamy idea of exit strategy or timetable come from? There's only one logical exit strategy and that's that we leave when all the enemy is either dead or on their knees pleading for mercy and the only timetable is that we continue to kill and burn and destroy until there's nothing left. Sheesh? Don't let these liberals define the terms or set the agenda. If we do we deserve to get a pounding.

Naysayers tight-lipped since success of Iraq vote

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

By James G. Lakely
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 2, 2005

Skeptics of President Bush's attempt to bring democracy to Iraq have been largely silent since Iraqis enthusiastically turned out for Sunday's elections.
    Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros and left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore were among critics of the administration's Iraq policy who had no comment after millions of Iraqis went to the polls in their nation's first free elections in decades.
    The Carter Center determined that the security situation in Iraq was going to be too dangerous to send election monitors, so the Atlanta-based human rights organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter posted its personnel in neighboring Jordan.
    Despite widespread predictions of spectacular terrorist attacks on election day in Iraq, fewer than 50 were killed, and the 60 percent turnout for the elections was much higher than many predicted.
    Asked whether the Carter Center had a comment on the election, spokeswoman Kay Torrance said: "We wouldn't have any 'yea' or 'nay' statement on Iraq."
    Mr. Carter told NBC's "Today" show in September that he was confident the elections would not take place. "I personally do not believe they're going to be ready for the election in January ... because there's no security there," he said.
    Mr. Soros, the Open Society Institute founder who contributed millions of dollars to groups seeking to prevent Mr. Bush's re-election, had denounced as a "sham" the administration's plans for a democratic Iraq.
    "To claim that we are invading Iraq for the sake of establishing democracy is a sham, and the rest of the world sees it as such," Mr. Soros said in a Washington speech in March 2003, adding that "the trouble goes much deeper."
    "It is not merely that the Bush administration's policies may be wrong, it is that they are wrong," Mr. Soros said in the speech. "Because we are unquestionably the most powerful, [the Bush administration claims] we have earned the right to impose our will on the rest of the world."
    Mr. Soros' Web site (www.georgesoros.com) has no reference to the Iraqi elections. Its latest comments are in a Jan. 26 op-ed article on what Mr. Soros calls Mr. Bush's "ambitious" second inaugural address.
    "Mr. Soros has not released any statements about the elections in Iraq," said Soros spokesman Michael Vachon. "He has been traveling since Sunday on various foundation projects and hasn't had occasion to comment."
    Mr. Vachon said Mr. Soros' "position regarding the Bush administration's policies in Iraq and his criticism thereof have been consistent."
    In his Jan. 26 article, published in more than 20 newspapers, including the Toronto Globe and Mail, Mr. Soros said he agrees with Mr. Bush's goal to spread democracy around the world, "and [I] have devoted the past 15 years and several billion dollars of my fortune to attaining it," but accused the president of "Orwellian doublespeak."
    "Mr. Bush is right to assert that repressive regimes can no longer hide behind a cloak of sovereignty," wrote Mr. Soros, 74, who made his fortune as an international currency trader. "But intervention in other states' internal affairs must be legitimate."
    There has been no comment since the Iraq elections from Mr. Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who characterized the Iraqi insurgents as "Minutemen," and predicted "they will win."
    The last posting from Mr. Moore on his Web site (www.michaelmoore.com) is dated Jan. 10 and concerns "Fahrenheit 9/11" being named best dramatic movie in the People's Choice Awards. An e-mail to Mr. Moore requesting comment was not returned.
    On the day before the elections, Mr. Moore featured a link to a column in the New York Times with the headline, "A Sinking Sensation of Parallels between Iraq and Vietnam." On the day after the elections, Mr. Moore linked to a story in the left-wing Nation magazine titled "Occupation Thwarts Democracy."
    Moorewatch.com, a site dedicated to countering the filmmaker's political statements, knocked Mr. Moore for "failing to acknowledge [the Iraqi people's] achievement."
    "I find it telling that the man who has lamented such great concern for the kite-flying, tea-sipping Iraqi people featured in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' can't be bothered to string together a few words of admiration for those same people who braved the threat of death to cast their votes this past weekend," the anti-Moore Web site said. "It seems Moore only admires the Iraqi people when they validate his agenda of hating George Bush."
    Some administration critics, however, saw the Iraqi elections as reason to revise their opinion of Mr. Bush.
    Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown, who has consistently opposed Mr. Bush and the war in Iraq, wrote for yesterday's edition that "it's hard to swallow," but "what if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?"
    The Chicago columnist wrote that he was struck by "television coverage from Iraq that showed long lines of people risking their lives by turning out to vote, honest looks of joy on so many of their faces."
    "If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance," Mr. Brown wrote.

Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Iraqis Cite Shift in Attitudes Since Vote
Mood Seen Moving Against Insurgency

washingtonpost.com

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 7, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Feb. 6 -- With a hero who gave his life for the elections, a revived national anthem blaring from car stereos and a greater willingness to help police, the public mood appears to be moving more clearly against the insurgency in Iraq, political and security officials said.

In the week since national elections, police officers and Iraqi National Guardsmen said they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country.

None of the officials said they believed the violence was over. An attack Sunday on a police station in Mahawil, 50 miles south of Baghdad, left 22 policemen and National Guardsmen and 14 attackers dead, the Associated Press reported. The incident was a bloody end to a day in which at least nine other Iraqis were reported slain, and a U.S. soldier was killed and two others were wounded north of the capital. Four Egyptian engineers were kidnapped and two insurgent groups issued statements threatening to kill an Italian journalist who was taken hostage on Friday.

But officials in Baghdad said a relative lull in violence in the capital has fueled the sense that something has fundamentally changed since the vote. A change of attitudes in Baghdad could make a crucial difference in the battle against the insurgency, and a buoyed sense of civic pride is already beginning to change the way the public treats the police, authorities say.

"They saw what we did for them in the election by providing safety, and now they understand this is their army and their sons," said Sgt. Haider Abudl Heidi, a National Guardsman wearing a flak jacket at a checkpoint in Baghdad.

Reports from Iraqis reflected a similar shift in attitudes in large areas of the north and south, although authorities acknowledged that in some parts of the country, people remain hostile to the emerging Iraqi authority and supportive, to varying degrees, of the insurgents.

The insurgency began to emerge soon after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, on a tide of anger over the U.S. occupation. But in interviews over the past week, officials and Baghdad residents cited what they called a renewed nationalist pride since the elections that they said may be dampening anti-American sentiment, and may be starting to dispel Iraqi tolerance and support for the insurgents.

"I feel very optimistic that things will change for the better because of the strong turnout in the elections. That reinforced our faith and gave us a sense of change for the better," said Ali Jassem, 32, the manager of a bakery in Baghdad.

"You can feel the situation has changed," said Haider Abdul Hussein, 30, a pharmacy owner. "People seem to linger on the street longer. You can feel the momentum, the sense of optimism."

Part of that mood change is credited to Abdul Amir, Iraq's newest national hero. On election day, Amir, 30, a policeman in Baghdad, noticed a man walking toward a polling station who appeared to be carrying something heavy under his coat. Amir wrapped his arms around the man and dragged him away from the crowd. A belt of explosives wrapped around the man blew both men to shreds.

Members of Iraq's interim cabinet have touted Amir as a symbol of national pride. Newspapers have been filled with stories about him. A statue is being planned, and the elementary school that served as the polling station where he died may change its name to honor him.

"It's too simple to say what he did was heroic," said Najat Abdul Sattar, the principal of the school, where bright-eyed children study in dim concrete classrooms just yards from where Amir was killed. "What more honor could we give the man?"

"When people saw what he did, they said we will not let those violent people intimidate us, and they went to vote in even greater numbers. Where there were three or four in line, after the blast there were 30 or 40," said Mohammed Hadithi, who lives near the school.

The change has also been evident in the recent popularity of "My Homeland," a mournful song that was banned by Hussein but has been revived as a national anthem. Iraqis sing along to the paean to Iraqi glory and nationalism as it blares from radios and from speakers propped up outside storefronts in the capital.

Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister and a powerful figure in the Shiite-led coalition expected to dominate Iraq's new National Assembly, contended that the elections created a sense of solidarity that helped dissolve an Iraqi aversion to trusting neighbors, a habit ingrained during the Hussein era.

"People know their neighbors now. They know they are on the same front as their neighbors -- they all went out and voted," he said in an interview Saturday. "I think this has uncovered the terrorists and insurgents. They are less legitimate now."

The elections also appear to have renewed public confidence in Iraqi security forces, who were on the front lines of a largely successful effort to protect 5,000 polling centers from violence.

In the weeks before and since the Jan. 30 elections, Iraqi forces have claimed increasing success in arresting ringleaders of the insurgency.

Security forces announced Sunday that they were holding a former Iraqi general who they said helped finance insurgent bombings and plotted attacks. The general, Khamis Masin Farhan Ugaydi, 51, was captured Dec. 20 in the town of Baiji, about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported. Officials did not explain the delay in announcing the arrest.

"We are arresting more terrorists than ever before," said Iraqi National Guard Sgt. Kathem Hanish in Baghdad. "The people are coming to us with information. They are cooperating."

At the station where Amir had worked in the Yarmouk neighborhood of Baghdad, policemen said they were encouraged by the reaction to their colleague's heroism.

"It was a turning point," Capt. Muthana Latif said. "People saw that there weren't any Americans or foreigners there. Only policemen. The suicide bomber was just after Iraqis."

"Policemen did not have a role in this country," police Col. Katham Abbas Hamza said. "Now we are considered number one guardians of the country."

Insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi security forces, branding them traitors for working with the Americans and propping up the U.S.-backed government. At least 1,300 have been killed in the last six months, according to U.S. officials.

On a board at the Yarmouk police station, the daily shift notices are penciled in next to a handwritten list of funerals: Patrolman Bilal Jassim, shot; Patrolman Mushtaq Talib, ambushed in patrol car; Patrolman Luay Ubaid, killed by roadside bomb. The list has now grown to nine names, including Amir's.

"But if we opened up the recruiting right now, we would be swamped," Latif said.

In Baiji, Iraqi forces arrested 10 people in a raid on Sunday, without triggering an angry public reaction.

"Even though he was taking my son away, he was so nice," an 80-year-old woman who identified herself as Um Younis said about a hooded Iraqi security officer.

"We were surprised because they had very good manners, so polite, and respected everybody," said Anwar Zuhair Khalaf, 38, whose 21-year-old brother was among those arrested. "They asked me, 'Where are the women's rooms?' and when we pointed at their rooms, they did not enter these rooms even though we have a AK-47 in one of these rooms."

Special correspondents Khalid Saffar in Baghdad and Salih Saif Aldin in Baiji contributed to this report.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company