Undermining Democracy

I've touched on this before, but it's so important, because it really shows the bankruptcy inherent in this so-called "democracy project" we've undertaken. Our ambassador in Iraq has now taken to appealing to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to try and overturn the will of the Iraqi people.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad is reportedly campaigning to either dump the United Iraqi Alliance's (UIA) candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, or force him to withdraw. Khalilzad has taken the drastic measure of appealing to the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to that effect.

There are conflicting reports from Iraq about the mechanism of sending this message to Sistani and about who conveyed it. [...]

According to one report, the US government sent a letter on the issue to Sistani. Washington has denied Bush was the signatory. In all likelihood, Khalilzad used one of his own back-door functionaries to send a letter.

According to another source, Khalilzad used a meeting with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to deliver the message to Sistani. Considering the sensitive and highly unusual nature of the request, Hakim reportedly refused it at first, but then passed it on.

Jaafari has ties to Iran, is the preferred candidate of Muqtada al-Sadr, won't shake hands with women, and recently laid a wreath at the grave of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He presided over chaos as the interim Prime Minister. But he was duly elected, in an election we shepherded. To go to Sistani and try to gain some moral authority by having the region's most powerful Shiite bless what amounts to an internal coup reeks of desperation. It also will intensify Shiite restlessness; they've already accused Khalilzad of siding with the Sunnis (Khalilzad, unfortunately, IS a Sunni) and causing the bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra.

The Bush Administration has denied seeking to ouster Jaafari... sort of.

Bush spokesman Scott Mcclellan was asked about reports that Bush had written to powerful Shia leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim asking him to oust Jaafari as the next Premier.

"I don't think that's an accurate report at all, what you just described," Mcclellan told reporters yesterday asking about the reports.

"It is up to the Iraqi people to decide who the Prime Minister is," he said.

The reports say the letter was given to Hakim by the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.

But Mcclellan said, "I know of no letter." Hakim heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main party in the Shia United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) that won December elections.

So McClellan says it's not exactly as the reporter describes, and there was no letter... although, no word on, say, a phone call or a meeting. And "It is up to the Iraqi people," which is why, as the report says, we're trying to persuade leading Iraqis so they will make the switch.

Another way we've undermined democracy in the region is through these "psy-op" news stories the Lincoln Group continues to place in Iraqi papers. The Independent (UK) has printed some of these stories, and as it turns out, according to one of the stories, "IRAQI ARMY DEFEATS TERRORISM"!

That's great! Since they've got it under control, can we leave now?