Seymour Hersh's Latest: Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq’s election?

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Monday July 18, 2005 15:44

by redjade

America's best investigative journalist comes out with another one...

Seymour Hersh

The January 30th election in Iraq was publicly perceived as a political triumph for George W. Bush and a vindication of his decision to overturn the regime of Saddam Hussein. More than eight million Iraqis defied the threats of the insurgency and came out to vote for provincial councils and a national assembly. Many of them spent hours waiting patiently in line, knowing that they were risking their lives. Images of smiling Iraqis waving purple index fingers, signifying that they had voted, were transmitted around the world. Even some of the President’s harshest critics acknowledged that he might have been right: democracy, as he defined it, could take hold in the Middle East. The fact that very few Sunnis, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein, chose to vote was seen within the Administration as a temporary setback. The sense of victory faded, however, amid a continued political stalemate, increased violence, and a hardening of religious divides. After three months of bitter sectarian infighting, a government was finally formed. It is struggling to fulfill its primary task: to draft a new constitution by mid-August.

Whether the election could sustain its promise had been in question from the beginning. The Administration was confronted with a basic dilemma: The likely winner of a direct and open election would be a Shiite religious party. The Shiites were bitter opponents of Saddam’s regime, and suffered under it, but many Shiite religious and political leaders are allied, to varying degrees, with the mullahs of Iran. As the election neared, the Administration repeatedly sought ways—including covert action—to manipulate the outcome and reduce the religious Shiite influence. Not everything went as planned....

Read the rest...
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050725fa_fact

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Seymour Hersh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh

Comments (1 of 1)

White House says Election Rigging Approved, But Didn't Do It

Tue Jul 19, 2005 14:06

• note: 'scrapped before the January vote.' and what about before the election?

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U.S. Says It Did Not Carry Out Plans to Back Iraqis in Election
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/17/AR2005071701046_pf.html

President Bush authorized covert plans last year to support the election campaigns of Iraqis with close ties to the White House, but government and intelligence officials said yesterday the plan was scrapped before the January vote.

Some officials with knowledge of the original proposal said the Bush administration backed down after congressional objections, but others cited concerns within the intelligence community that the effort was likely to backfire.

The White House would not comment on classified matters or confirm whether such a plan existed. But National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones acknowledged in a statement that before the vote, "there were concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran."

[....]

"I don't believe we actually did provide covert support in the end, but the gray area may have been did we ever consider it?" said one intelligence official who would discuss the classified proposal only on the condition of anonymity. "Early on, the administration had approved a policy and then, talking to the working level, they saw there was little chance of success and that it was more likely to backfire."