According to reports, early returns show a strong performance by the followers of the outspoken Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. Some reports estimate Muqtada's nominees winning almost one third of the UIA slate.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122005L.shtml

In These Times
by Mark Levine

12/19/05

In the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush told the world, 'We will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more.' But as is always the case in politics, the devil is in the details. When will it no longer be necessary for the United States to maintain troops in Iraq? And what does 'withdrawing troops' actually mean -- all troops or just most troops? According to Bush's newly released 'National Strategy for Victory in Iraq,' the most important goal of our presence in Iraq is to 'help people defeat the terrorists and build a democratic inclusive state.' But if by terrorism we mean the systematic threatening, torturing and/or killing of civilians to force them to accept a political or military situation they wouldn't otherwise sanction, then the United States has committed far more acts of terrorism and crimes against humanity than the insurgents in Iraq (with perhaps more than 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians and hundreds of billions of dollars in destruction and counting)...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2441/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Yahoo! News

12/19/05

President Bush is making selective use of an opinion poll when he tells people that Iraqis are increasingly upbeat. The same poll that indicated a majority of Iraqis believe their lives are going well also found a majority expressing opposition to the presence of U.S. forces, and less than half saying Iraq is better off now than before the war. Bush frequently talks in general terms about millions of Iraqis 'looking forward to a future with hope and optimism,' as he put it in a news conference Monday. The previous evening, he was more specific in his televised address when he declared, 'Seven in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going well -- and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve even more in the year ahead.' He was referring to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners before the Iraqi general elections last week...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051219/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_fact_check


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The history of guerrilla insurgencies is replete with groups that simulaneously fought on both the political and paramilitary fronts. Listen to how angry the Sunni politicians are, as they speak out in the wake of the elections, both at Bush and at the Shiites, and you get a sense of how detached the Bush administration remains from reality.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11339.htm

White flags on top of houses and cars; plenty of American and Iraqi military vehicles; too many check points and blocks on the road; many frightening walking patrols; curfew after sunset; heaps and heaps of destroyed houses, shops, offices, the only bridge, hospitals and medical care centers; walls covered with bullets shots and election posters; and empty faces with bleak looks wandering in the streets. This is the picture of al-Qa'im after the "Steel Curtain" military operation began on November 5, 2005, with 3,000 American and Iraqi troops participating.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121905Q.shtml

U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States.

http://tinyurl.com/a4dld


From Information Clearing House

Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1783.htm

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s influential former president, on Friday called Iraq’s parliamentary elections a “victory” for Iran and said the vote had shattered any US expansionist ambitions in the Middle East.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11322.htm