The CIA's Attempt to Rig the Iraqi Elections

[GePap]

Originally posted by Ned
You guys are still attacking the US for being concerned about Iranian subversion of the Iraqi election?

Un-f*cking-believable.

Oh, you are one of those "we should burn the village to save it" people.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Sava
Bush doesn't believe in Democracy... the neo-cons are all lying *******s.

Actually, I'd say it's the CIA that doesn't believe in democracy... or not so much that they don't believe in it, as they don't really care, except inasmuch as it furthers the US' goals.

Which is the way I'd hope they think.

[Ned]

Originally posted by GePap


Oh, you are one of those "we should burn the village to save it" people.

You're talking about the battle of Hue where the Marines used artillery inside the city.

That may have been a mistake.

[Drake Tungsten]

These Bushies will convince themselves of anything if Dear Leader is connected to it.

What does Kim Jong Il have to do with this topic?

[Imran Siddiqui]

You're talking about the battle of Hue where the Marines used artillery inside the city.

That may have been a mistake.

Wonder what it takes for Ned not to have that 'may' in there.

[Ramo]

Maybe if Kerry fired off those shells...

[Moral Hazard]

What does Kim Jong Il have to do with this topic?

I think it's an attempt to call Bush 'Dear Leader' which is similar to comparing him to Hitler.

Actually upon reflection. I probably would have sided against this policy. The PR damage would have been too great when it came out. I don't have ethical problem with it. As donating to candidates does not equal rigging elections. I don't understand why people keep claiming it is. Quite frankly I think it minimizes actually rigging elections.

[Drake Tungsten]

I think it's an attempt to call Bush 'Dear Leader'

Wow, that's pretty stupid. What moron started that?

[Imran Siddiqui]

You didn't know that? You haven't been paying attention at Poly for a while, haven't you?

I think Q Cubed started it, but I'm not entirely sure.

[Drake Tungsten]

You haven't been paying attention at Poly for a while, haven't you?

There hasn't been much worth paying attention to in a long while...

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Ned
Plato, could the leaker been Nancy Pelosi herself?

One would hope that she is American before Democrat, but we are talking about Nancy Pelosi....

[Berzerker]

The idea that they somehow wanted input on the merits of the suggestion by Nancy Pelosi is bull****. Clearly, what they wanted was some money to fund the program.

True, this was no plan being kicked around by a few CIA analysts, it was at the funding stage which is the last before implementation.

[Berzerker]

Do you really think the CIA goes to Congress with everything? I can bet they didn't do so with Iran-Contra.

I believe funding the Contras actually began under Carter. It was only after a few years that Congress stopped the funding and passed the Boland Amendment so the WH and CIA went around them by seeking outside funding from the Iranians (for weapons bought by our taxdollars) and the Saudis et al. Reagan should have been impeached, convicted and jailed for that...

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

You actually believe that we were merely thinking about countering this alleged "Iranian subversion?" Un****ingbelieveable. Are you that naive?

Hehe... and, of course, the best way to counter Iranian subversion is to have covert funding actions by the CIA. These Bushies will convince themselves of anything if Dear Leader is connected to it.

The level of paranoia here is astounding.

[bipolarbear]

President Bush and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi insisted last week that Iraq would go ahead with elections scheduled for January, despite continuing violence. But U.S. officials tell TIME that the Bush team ran into trouble with another plan involving those elections — a secret "finding" written several months ago proposing a covert CIA operation to aid candidates favored by Washington. A source says the idea was to help such candidates — whose opponents might be receiving covert backing from other countries, like Iran — but not necessarily to go so far as to rig the elections. But lawmakers from both parties raised questions about the idea when it was sent to Capitol Hill. In particular, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi "came unglued" when she learned about what a source described as a plan for "the CIA to put an operation in place to affect the outcome of the elections." Pelosi had strong words with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a phone call about the issue.

Rice spokesman Sean McCormack says, "I cannot in any way comment on classified matters, the existence or nonexistence of findings." But, McCormack says, "there have been and continue to be concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran. This raises concerns about whether there will be a level playing field for the election. This situation has posed difficult dilemmas about what action, if any, the U.S. should take in response. In the final analysis, we have adopted a policy that we will not try to influence the outcome of the upcoming Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office." A senior U.S. official hinted that, under pressure from the Hill, the Administration scaled back its original plans. "This was a tough call. We went back and forth on it in the U.S. government. We consulted the Hill on this question ... Our embassy in Baghdad will run a number of overt programs to support the democratic electoral process," as the U.S. does elsewhere in the world.

All of this sh** doesn't surprise me, the same thing happened in Vietnam.