Gunmen Kill Three Iraqi Candidates

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20050118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot and killed three candidates running in Iraq (news - web sites)'s Jan. 30 elections, officials said Tuesday, as a suicide bombing killed two people outside the offices of a leading Shiite political party.


With insurgents trying to ruin the election, officials announced that Iraq will seal its borders, extend a curfew and restrict movement to protect voters during the balloting. President Bush (news - web sites) spoke Tuesday morning with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the latest in a series of conversations between the two leaders on Iraq's efforts to ensure maximum participation in the election.


Two of the slain candidates belonged to Allawi's political coalition, the Iraqi National Accord, a member of the group said.


Alaa Hamid, who was running for the 275-member National Assembly, was shot dead Monday in the southern port city of Basra in front of his family, the official said on condition of anonymity. Hamid was also the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in Basra.

more

[toymachines]

1. so two of the secret candidates have been killed?

these elections confound me.

[Cocoa]

2. the politics of personal destruction

[el_gato]

5. I had to laugh at that one

[SodoffBush]

3. nothing's perfect

~

[wildwww2]

20. And everything is perfectly screwed up if Bu$h Inc. is involved.

Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[shadowknows69]

24. uh..I thought our troops were there to provide security for the election

wouldn't that include guarding the candidates? just a thought.

[underpants]

4. Those election flyers seem to have lost something in translation

You don't vote with a gun you do it in a booth, got it?

[radric]

8. Guess the Sunni's are worried..

from power brokers to minority status.

[NYC]

30. Ballots not bullets?

?

[Roland99]

6. I thought Basra was a safe city

Isn't the world safer with Saddam behind bars?


Mission accomplished


Freedom is on the march

[NNN0LHI]

7. Would I be wrong to assume these are all Ahmed Chalabi's goons? n/t

[louis-t]

9. Oh, so now they're going to

"seal the borders"? I hope they don't use real seals.

[egoprofit]

17. hahahaha

sorry just had to laugh, that was great.

[fryguy]

10. further lessons in democracy?

n/t

[ima_sinnic]

11. hey that's some "democracy" ya got goin on there, Bushit

. . . but that's how the BFEE runs things anyway.
par for the course.

[Massachusetts]

12. This is like a "Duck Shoot' at the carnival.

[daleo]

13. This election is a farce of Bushian proportions.

No matter what happens, the resulting "government" will have zilch legitimacy. You just can't force democracy on people by military conquest, especially sham democracy.

I wonder how the real voting went? My guesses:

- Poppy got two votes.
- Chimp got two votes.
- Cheney got three votes.
- Rice got one vote.
- Rummy got one vote.
- Powell got half a vote.
- Sharon got one vote.
- Poodle got one tenth of a vote.

I think Allawi won.

[sarcasmo]

14. It's starting the surge of Violence here it comes.

There will be great chaos in the next two weeks.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Really. When was it calm. No shit. When? n/t

[Roland99]

16. No kidding...the media is feeding this BS

about the attacks all being to disrupt elections. Some certainly are but we've had over 1,000 soldiers killed since "Mission Accomplished" and over 500 killed since Iraq became "sovereign".

It's not about the elections.

[NNN0LHI]

19. 181 car bombs detonated in the past 6 months and no one noticed?

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=national&story_id=011505b11_iraq_carbombs

181 car bombs detonated since Iraq government takeover June 28

[leftchick]

18. Allawi's days are numbered....

but then the folks in is party aren't given US $ paid mercenaries for protection....

[Carni]

21. Ok let me get this straight--

Three candidates have just been killed and bush's guy we have just learned is probably as bad as Saddam (it's on another LBN thread)

*Freedom is on the March*

[superconnected]

22. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Bush would tour Iraq

Really, commander and chief visiting/supporting the troups.

How do we get him there.

[jimshoes]

27. Remember, this is the same guy

who need 6,000 police and Secret Service guards and the brand new bulletproof Caddy to run that mile long gauntlet in DC. He's paranoid you know.

[Jacobin]

23. I wonder if these were some of the 'anonymous' candidates

or if they were ones who had made themselves known.

BTW, I wonder if I could run anonymously here in the states for something....like maybe governor?

[KansDem]

26. How would that work?

I must not have read all the DU threads over the past few weeks (holidays, and all), so I haven't read the news about anonymous candidates in the Iraqi election. How does this work? Is there a pseudonym for the candidate's name? Is there a number, or is it just blank? What about the issues? How do we know what anonymous candidate stands on certain issues? Or are the issues anonymous as well?

If I ran for governor of my state, would I appear on the ballot as "Anonymous Candidate A" who supports "Anonymous Issues X, Y, and Z?"

[NYC]

31. My vague understanding is that the anonymous candidate

runs on party affiliation. In other words, you vote for the "Democrat", and in our most recent presidential election, that would have turned out to be Kerry.

I'm not sure of it, though.

There was a woman candidate who was not anonymous, and was nearly assassinated for the second time two days ago. I can't think of her name. She "campaigns" by sending other people out into the street to see what the voters want.

[karlrschneider]

25. Rummy was right, it's a bit untidy.

:eyes:

[leftchick]

28. Silly Iraqis! This is how they should travel....

with US Tax $ Paid mercenaries as Allawi does....

[fleabert]

29. kick

:kick: