Despite violence, Iraq poll can be credible - U.N.
22 Jan 2005 12:42:13 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Conditions for Iraq's election are far from ideal and violence is expected on the day, but the vote will go ahead on Jan. 30 and should be credible, the U.N.'s top election official in Iraq said on Saturday.
With eight days to go before the country's first multi-party election in nearly half a century, Carlos Valenzuela said he and Iraq's Electoral Commission were in a race against time but remained on target to have everything in place on polling day.
"We've got to the stage where we can say that all electoral preparations are, at least at this point, in place, although there is still a lot of work to be done," Valenzuela, 47, told reporters inside the heavily fortified Green Zone compound.
"(Conditions) are not the best and certainly far from ideal, but if the security measures work there is a very good chance that the elections that take place will take place successfully ...and will be accepted as legitimate," he said.
Insurgents have stepped up their 18-month campaign of violence in the build-up to the poll, killing 25 Shi'ites in two suicide bombings in and near Baghdad on Friday in an apparent attempt to drive a wedge between religious communities.
Valenzuela, who has spent the past 13 years planning and overseeing elections in hotspots ranging from Haiti and East Timor to Mozambique and Mali, said he expected militants to try to disrupt the poll but hoped counter-measures would work.
"There has been violence in the run-up and it is likely that there will at least be attempts at violence on the day," he said, emphasising that conditions were far from perfect. "But violence does not necessarily disqualify the elections."
TOO MUCH VIOLENCE?
A little over 14 million Iraqis could potentially turn up to vote at some 5,700 stations, prompting very real fears that militants will target crowds of people waiting to vote.
To try to counteract that threat, the location of voting centres will be revealed only at the last minute in some areas, and intense security measures will be in place countrywide. U.S. forces are hoping to keep a distance, putting Iraqi troops in charge, but they will move in if violence gets out of hand.
Some Sunni Arab politicians have called for a boycott arguing that the violence and intimidation gripping the country is too great, making it impossible for their supporters to go and vote and rendering the poll neither free nor fair.
It is unclear how much violence might be too much violence on the day -- enough to prompt electoral officials to declare the vote invalid or call it off. Valenzuela did not dismiss such a scenario but said the Electoral Commission would decide.
"It's something they will be monitoring very closely," said the Colombian diplomat, who believes conditions in Iraq are still not as bad as they were for East Timor's election in 1999.
"Should there be -- which is something that we hope will not happen -- but should there be massive violence that forces a significant number of polling centres to be closed down, then the commission might decide to do something regarding the election at that time," he said.
If the vote does come off, the results are unlikely to be known for several days, possibly as long as a week, Valenzuela said. And even then, no one expects the violence to disappear. U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last month it would be a mistake to think violence would end and conditions in Iraq improve after the election.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Iraq refuses to say if Zarqawi detained
Iraq refuses to say if Zarqawi detained
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Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 22, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody.
"I wouldn't like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Let's see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it."
Pressing him, a reporter asked, "Does that mean he is in custody?"
"No comment," the minister repeated.
The rumors about al-Zarqawi followed an interview aired on an Arab television station earlier this month in which a Saudi man arrested for a deadly truck bombing claimed that he heard from other insurgents that al-Zarqawi had been arrested by Iraqi police in Fallujah but released because authorities didn't recognize him.
Rumors spread that Iraqi authorities had al-Zarqawi in custody but were waiting to announce it just before the Jan. 30 elections.
Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Iraq's al-Qaida affiliate, has claimed responsibility for numerous kidnappings and the beheadings of several foreigners, including Americans. His group, al-Qaida in Iraq, has also carried out many other bombing and shooting attacks on American troops and Iraqi police and soldiers.
In an audiotape posted Thursday on the Web, a speaker who identified himself as al-Zarqawi called on his followers to prepare for a long struggle against the Americans and denounced Iraqi Shiites for fighting alongside US troops in last November's assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
The United States has offered a US$25 million reward for al-Zarqawi's capture or death - the same amount as for Osama bin Laden.
Earlier on Saturday, an Iraqi insurgent group said in a Web statement that it had killed 15 Iraqi National Guard members seized this month off a bus northwest of Baghdad.
"After the investigation, they confessed to the crimes they have committed with the crusader forces against civilians and mujahedeen," the Ansar al-Sunnah group said in the statement. "With God's help, God's verdict has been carried out against them by shooting them....They should be a lesson to others."
The claim could not be independently verified, and the statement contained no photographs. Iraqi insurgents have targeted Iraqi military and security forces because they are less well-trained, less equipped and less protected than American and other multinational troops.
The Iraqi guardsmen were pulled from a bus Friday near their base in the town of Hit, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A statement posted the following day on an Islamic Web site took responsibility on behalf of Ansar al-Sunnah.
Ansar al-Sunnah is among Iraq's most aggressive insurgent groups, claiming attacks including a December suicide bombing that killed 22 people, most of them Americans, at a U.S. military mess tent at the northern city of Mosul.
The group is also blamed in the August executions of 12 Nepalese construction workers and twin suicide bombings in February that killed 109 members of Iraq's assertive Kurd minority.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 22, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody.
"I wouldn't like to comment for the time being," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said when asked about rumors that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been arrested. "Let's see. Maybe in the next few days we will make a comment about it."
Pressing him, a reporter asked, "Does that mean he is in custody?"
"No comment," the minister repeated.
The rumors about al-Zarqawi followed an interview aired on an Arab television station earlier this month in which a Saudi man arrested for a deadly truck bombing claimed that he heard from other insurgents that al-Zarqawi had been arrested by Iraqi police in Fallujah but released because authorities didn't recognize him.
Rumors spread that Iraqi authorities had al-Zarqawi in custody but were waiting to announce it just before the Jan. 30 elections.
Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Iraq's al-Qaida affiliate, has claimed responsibility for numerous kidnappings and the beheadings of several foreigners, including Americans. His group, al-Qaida in Iraq, has also carried out many other bombing and shooting attacks on American troops and Iraqi police and soldiers.
In an audiotape posted Thursday on the Web, a speaker who identified himself as al-Zarqawi called on his followers to prepare for a long struggle against the Americans and denounced Iraqi Shiites for fighting alongside US troops in last November's assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
The United States has offered a US$25 million reward for al-Zarqawi's capture or death - the same amount as for Osama bin Laden.
Earlier on Saturday, an Iraqi insurgent group said in a Web statement that it had killed 15 Iraqi National Guard members seized this month off a bus northwest of Baghdad.
"After the investigation, they confessed to the crimes they have committed with the crusader forces against civilians and mujahedeen," the Ansar al-Sunnah group said in the statement. "With God's help, God's verdict has been carried out against them by shooting them....They should be a lesson to others."
The claim could not be independently verified, and the statement contained no photographs. Iraqi insurgents have targeted Iraqi military and security forces because they are less well-trained, less equipped and less protected than American and other multinational troops.
The Iraqi guardsmen were pulled from a bus Friday near their base in the town of Hit, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A statement posted the following day on an Islamic Web site took responsibility on behalf of Ansar al-Sunnah.
Ansar al-Sunnah is among Iraq's most aggressive insurgent groups, claiming attacks including a December suicide bombing that killed 22 people, most of them Americans, at a U.S. military mess tent at the northern city of Mosul.
The group is also blamed in the August executions of 12 Nepalese construction workers and twin suicide bombings in February that killed 109 members of Iraq's assertive Kurd minority.
Elite Iranian agent arrested in Iraq
Admits smuggling insurgents,
weapons through border
Posted: January 22, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
An agent of Iran's prestigious Jerusalem Force was arrested in Iraq carrying money and planning attacks against U.S. troops, sources said.
U.S. Coalition forces arrested members of an underground armed group operating in Iraq's eastern Diyala province Thursday. Among them was a senior member of the Jerusalem Force carrying $150,000 in cash, said the sources.
The Iranian agent, along with an Iraqi insurgent, reportedly revealed during interrogation the location of a group of other Iranian agents working with them and admitted to having smuggled the group and their weapons through the Iran-Iraq border, avoiding security controls.
The Jerusalem Force is a specialized, elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that reportedly oversees Iran's military activities in other countries.
The arrests follow the confession earlier this week of Col. Muayed Al-Nasseri, an insurgent leader and former head of Saddam Hussein's "Army of Muhammad," who told U.S. interrogators Iran was the principle financer of the insurgency in Iraq.
Al-Nasseri's confession was broadcast on an Iraqi television station operating from the United Arab Emirates, Al-Fayhaa TV, and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
"Many factions of the resistance are receiving aid from the neighboring countries," Al-Nasseri said. "We in the Army of Muhammad � the fighting has been going on for almost two years now, and there must be aid, and this aid came from the neighboring countries. We got aid primarily from Iran. The truth is that Iran has played a significant role in supporting the Army of Muhammad and many factions of the resistance. I have some units, especially in southern Iraq, which receive Iranian aid in the form of arms and equipment."
Al-Nasseri also said another resistance group actually traveled to Iran to pick up arms and cash and to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "As for other factions of the resistance, I have reliable information regarding the National Islamic resistance, which is one of the factions of resistance, led by Colonel 'Asi Al Hadithi. He sent a delegation to Iran from among the people of the faction, including General Halaf and General Khdayyer. They were sent to Iran in April or May and met with Iranian intelligence and with a number of Iranian leaders and even with Khamenei."
Al-Nasseri said the group picked up $1 million and two cars full of weapons.
They still have a very close relationship with Iran," he said. "They receive money, cars, weapons and many things. According to my information, they even got car bombs."
weapons through border
Posted: January 22, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
An agent of Iran's prestigious Jerusalem Force was arrested in Iraq carrying money and planning attacks against U.S. troops, sources said.
U.S. Coalition forces arrested members of an underground armed group operating in Iraq's eastern Diyala province Thursday. Among them was a senior member of the Jerusalem Force carrying $150,000 in cash, said the sources.
The Iranian agent, along with an Iraqi insurgent, reportedly revealed during interrogation the location of a group of other Iranian agents working with them and admitted to having smuggled the group and their weapons through the Iran-Iraq border, avoiding security controls.
The Jerusalem Force is a specialized, elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that reportedly oversees Iran's military activities in other countries.
The arrests follow the confession earlier this week of Col. Muayed Al-Nasseri, an insurgent leader and former head of Saddam Hussein's "Army of Muhammad," who told U.S. interrogators Iran was the principle financer of the insurgency in Iraq.
Al-Nasseri's confession was broadcast on an Iraqi television station operating from the United Arab Emirates, Al-Fayhaa TV, and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
"Many factions of the resistance are receiving aid from the neighboring countries," Al-Nasseri said. "We in the Army of Muhammad � the fighting has been going on for almost two years now, and there must be aid, and this aid came from the neighboring countries. We got aid primarily from Iran. The truth is that Iran has played a significant role in supporting the Army of Muhammad and many factions of the resistance. I have some units, especially in southern Iraq, which receive Iranian aid in the form of arms and equipment."
Al-Nasseri also said another resistance group actually traveled to Iran to pick up arms and cash and to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: "As for other factions of the resistance, I have reliable information regarding the National Islamic resistance, which is one of the factions of resistance, led by Colonel 'Asi Al Hadithi. He sent a delegation to Iran from among the people of the faction, including General Halaf and General Khdayyer. They were sent to Iran in April or May and met with Iranian intelligence and with a number of Iranian leaders and even with Khamenei."
Al-Nasseri said the group picked up $1 million and two cars full of weapons.
They still have a very close relationship with Iran," he said. "They receive money, cars, weapons and many things. According to my information, they even got car bombs."
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