Iraq's PM Race Goes to Secret Ballot

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, one of the alliance's leaders.


The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.


Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq (news - web sites)'s oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party's platform is conservative.


Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon (news - web sites) before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.


A link to Juan Cole's thoughts on Jafaari..http://juancole.com/

[thebigidea]

1. he's fallen so out of favor that he's fallen into the running for PM

[cthrumatrix]

4. PM is a powerful spot

[thebigidea]

5. yes, that was irony.

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. if it's Chalabi, then we know the whole the was a set-up

but we knew that anyway

[jswordy]

3. If it's Chalabi, we will be in a bad diplomatic spot...

...which is why we have been sending our diplomats to his offices for the past week or so. Sigh. Nine months ago, we went there to ransack them. Now we go to kiss his ass.

Ain't democracy grand????

[thebigidea]

6. not at all - the neocons would love it.

Chalabi's enemies were at CIA and State - and oh, look - they seem to have been purged. Richard Perle never stopped defending him.

[Bluebear]

7. Iraq PM race going to SECRET BALLOT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Top Shiite politicians failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on their nominee for prime minister, shifting the two-man race to a secret ballot and exposing divisions in the winning alliance. In a chilling reminder of challenges facing the winner, a videotape showed a sobbing Italian hostage pleading for her life.

After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, one of the alliance's leaders.

The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.

Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq's oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party's platform is conservative.

Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon (news - web sites) before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_050216185054

[Dancing_Dave]

8. Right now, these politicos are talking a lot of BS

Probably because Washington still hasn't certified the election results. They don't want to say anything that might cause Karl Rove to abruptly decide that they got a whole lot less votes than previously thought!

Actually, letting Chalabi go on this long might be part of that too...Chalabi is much more of "known quantity" in Washington, where as Jaraari is connected to some popular movements that definately want the occupation to end.