Hezbollah wins easy victory in elections in southern Lebanon

[DeaconBlues]

By Hussein Dakroub
Associated Press
Monday, June 6, 2005; Page A14

BINT JUBAYL, Lebanon, June 6 -- Hezbollah, the armed Shiite Muslim movement, and its allies claimed a massive victory in southern Lebanon in the second stage of national elections Sunday, a vote the group says it hopes will prove its strength and send a message of defiance to the United States.

Four hours after polling stations closed, Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, and an ally, Nabih Berri of the Shiite Amal movement, said they had won all 23 seats in this region bordering Israel.

Supporters of Hezbollah turn out in Tyre, in southern Lebanon, where they expected to sweep local parliamentary elections. Voter turnout was noticeably heavier in Shiite areas.

Kassem said that in one constituency, with more than half the votes counted, a Hezbollah official, Mohammed Raad, was leading with 69,207 votes against his closest rival, Elias Abu Rizk, with 7,000 votes. In another area, with more than a third of votes counted, Berri was leading with 35,560 while his closest opponent, Riad Asaad, had 5,304 votes, Kassem said....(more)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/05/AR2005060501144.html

[Kipling]

1. Oh dear.

At this very moment Bush is ringing Rumsfeld to ask if the US army has a window in it's schedule around, say, summer '07.

[DeaconBlues]

2. Israel is close by

we can use our proxy army the IDF to do all the heavy lifting

[sendero]

3. Doesn't Bush** go around saying..

.... that democracies won't support terrorism?

Looks like he's wrong again!