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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (1963)	2/12/2004 11:10:31 AM
From: James Calladine	Respond to of 173976

UN mulls early elections for Iraq A United Nations team has met the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shia Muslims to discuss the possibility of holding early general elections. After two hours of talks with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the delegation head Lakhdar Brahimi said they agreed on the need for direct elections. But, crucially, Mr Brahimi did not specify a time for holding them. Ayatollah Sistani has led criticism of US plans to transfer power to an unelected authority in Iraq by 30 June. The US says conditions are not right for elections - a position underlined by the fact that these talks follow one of the bloodiest 24 hours in Iraq since the war ended. 'Insistent' Mr Brahimi met Ayatollah Sistani at his heavily-guarded house in the holy city of Najaf. "[The ayatollah] is insistent on holding the elections and we are with him on this 100%," the envoy told Reuters news agency. "These elections should be prepared well and should take place in the best possible conditions, so that it would bring the results which [the ayatollah] wants and the people of Iraq and the UN," he added. These elections should be prepared well and should take place in the best possible conditions Lakhdar Brahimi UN envoy Two suicide bombings - on Tuesday and Wednesday - killed nearly 100 Iraqis applying to join the country's new police force and army. US officials in Iraq have accused Islamic militants of timing their "sensational" attacks to coincide with the UN visit - with the aim of demonstrating that the conditions do not exist to hold elections. The US has warned that the closer the June handover deadline approaches, the more attacks are likely to be launched by insurgents. The US administration has released the text of a letter said to be written by an Islamic extremist with al-Qaeda links, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which calls for attacks to ignite a civil war between Iraq's Shia and Sunni Muslim communities. According to the 11-page letter, the discovery of which was announced on Monday after a raid in Baghdad, the "only solution" to defeating the coalition was to begin a civil war. The US has doubled the bounty for Mr Zarqawi's capture to $10m. Poles apart If Mr Brahim dislikes both the US and Sistani formulas for transfering sovereignty, the BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says the UN representative's task will be to come up with an alternative. Holding early elections - as demanded by Ayatollah Sistani - would pose a set of logistical problems, our analyst says. Washington wants regional meetings to select a new government, which in turn is to draft a constitution - with elections postponed until at least the end of 2005. But many find this complicated and confusing, and regard a selected government as a poor substitute for an elected one, our analyst says. Ayatollah Sistani wants an interim constitution to be approved by an elected parliament. He has refused to meet US officials, including the top American administrator, Paul Bremer. Shias make up about 60% of the Iraqi population and correspondents say they want direct elections to reflect their numerical supremacy. But the top Algerian diplomat may find it hard to come up with a solution that satisfies everyone, says our analyst, especially as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan plans to announce his decision on the issue by the end of February. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2004/02/12 14:54:46 GMT

To: Rascal who wrote (1963)	2/12/2004 11:14:13 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

Many of those who disagreed with me (Peggy Noonan) said they thought the president had done well with Tim Russert, that the interview made clear his decency and sincerity. Those who disagreed were probably among the 6,000,000 on Bush's email list who received the digitally enhanced, edited version of Bush's lame appearance on MTP. NBC has made Bushies pull this cannard from its site and cease and desist from sending this malarkey to supporters of Bush.