Offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party are attacked because of its new stand toward the referendum, encouraging Sunnis to support the constitution.
Yesterday, in a video teleconference with U.S. troops in Tikrit, Iraq, President Bush said:
[W]e're facing an enemy that is ruthless and cold-blooded, an enemy that actually has a philosophy, and the philosophy is so opposite of ours, it is the exact opposite of what America stands for. We stand for religious freedom, and freedom to speak, and women's rights, and capacity for people to realize their dreams. They stand for a vision that is -- doesn't believe in freedom, that if you don't agree with their narrow point of view, that you're subject to reprisal.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Sunni insurgents launched five attacks against the largest Sunni Arab political party on the eve of Iraq's crucial referendum Friday, bombing and burning offices and the home of one of its leaders in retaliation after the group dropped its opposition to the draft constitution.
The reprisals came as Sunni and Shiite clerics gave their last advice to their followers in sermons during weekly Friday prayers _ a key political platform. Shiite imams transmitted the word of the majority community's most powerful cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani: Go to the polls and vote "yes."
The message among the Sunni Arab minority was more muddled after the Iraqi Islamic Party threw its support to the constitution after last minutes amendments were made to the draft in an attempt to assuage Sunni objections ahead of Saturday's referendum.
...Sheik Rasheed Yousif al-Khishman told worshippers at Tikrit's al- Raheem mosque to vote against the "infidel constitution written by foreign hands." Mosques throughout the town told people to cast "no" votes and warned "anyone who does not go to the polls is not considered a Sunni."
But in the nearby town of Samarra, Sheik Adil Mahmoud, of the Association of Muslims Scholars, was more tempered in his sermon. "I will go to the polls and vote 'no', but I leave the choice to you to follow you political references," he told worshippers. "I respect the opinion of the Iraqi Islamic party and any other party."
...Before dawn, someone threw a grenade at the house of the main cleric of the Abu Hanifa Mosque, pro-Islamic Party Sheik Muayad al-Azami, but no one was hurt in the explosion. The night before, his son was threatened by Sunni opponents during prayers, al-Azami said.
In four other attacks, Islamic Party offices were damaged by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the northern towns of Beiji and Seniyah, and by an arson attack in Fallujah, police said.
...In another insurgent attack in Baghdad on Friday, the Muslim day of worship in Iraq, a roadside bomb wounded four Iraqi civilians when it exploded near one of the many schools in the capital that U.S. soldiers are fortifying with concrete barriers and barbed wire so they can be used as polling stations in Saturday's vote, said police 1st Lt. Mua'taz Saladin.
As police removed bloodstained shoes and shattered glass from damaged cars at the scene, one of the U.S. soldiers working there remained defiant. "This won't affect anything planned for tomorrow. The election will go off without a hitch," Lt. David Forbes said in an interview with an Associated Press Television News.
...Coalition forces have warned of a spike in attacks by the militants ahead of Saturday's vote, and nearly 450 people have been killed in violence over the past 19 days, often by insurgents using suicide car bombs, roadside bombs and drive-by shootings.
Violence resulting in hundreds of deaths, all aimed to sway the results of an election, is what I would define as voter suppression.
Where is Jimmy Carter?
Why isn't he issuing press releases to condemn the savage tactics employed by the Sunni insurgents?
In "Fix the Electoral System," an article that appeared in The Nation, November 15, 2004, Carter was quoted:
"It's a tragedy in many ways that the standard for accountability and integrity and objectivity is better in many Third World countries than in ours."
In a September 27, 2004, Washington Post Op-Ed piece, "Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote," Carter wrote:
It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy. With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida.
Hey! Jimmy! You Nobel Peace Prize winner, you!
What do you think about the Sunnis' methods?
No comment?
I consider the use of suicide car bombs, roadside bombs, drive-by shootings, and bombing and burning the offices of the largest Sunni Arab political party, and throwing a grenade at the home of one of the party's leaders in order to influence voters to be a problem.
If these practices aren't unconscionable, which ones would be?
Why isn't Carter in Iraq to monitor the election and guarantee its integrity?
After all, he's the expert, right? He's the peacekeeper.
I realize that voter fraud is a serious issue in the U.S. I don't disagree with Carter when it comes to his demands for honest elections. I'm merely pointing out the partisan, selective nature of his complaints.
Carter still whines about Florida, while disregarding problems in other parts of the country.
In Wisconsin, for example, the 2004 election results were tainted due to thousands of documented instances of voter fraud and illegal voting. Kerry won the state by a mere 11,000 vote margin; yet Carter didn't rush to the scene to investigate irregularities. Furthermore, Republican efforts to clean up Wisconsin elections have been thwarted by Dem Governor Jim Doyle. He has vetoed voter photo ID bills THREE, count 'em, THREE times.
Where is Jimmy's outrage over the fact that elections in Third World countries have more integrity than elections in Wisconsin? I guess it's lost in the afterglow of Dem victories in that state. Apparently, only Red States are targets of concern for Jimmy.
Carter is a hypocrite. Equally hypocritical are all the human rights organizations that are standing by silently as Sunnis murder innocents to suppress the vote in Iraq.
When mayhem in Iraq is cited by the Left, it's blamed on the U.S. presence there, not the terrorists carrying out the slaughter, not the enemies of democracy.
I am appalled by the barbarity of some of the Sunnis and their complete disregard for human life.
I am disgusted by the partiality exhibited by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter and like-minded individuals.
Despite the terrorist methods currently employed by Sunni insurgents and the disgraceful silence from human rights advocates, the election in Iraq will go forward.
At least some Sunni voters refuse to be shaken by the violence.
"I will vote 'yes' so as to isolate the troublemakers," said Faisal Galab, a Sunni Arab sheik from the town of Youssifiyah, about 12 miles south of Baghdad. "I have asked my family and clan to vote 'yes.'"
Faisal Galab is a patriot. He is truly a "freedom fighter."
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