[Marxism] 17 parties -- most seen pro-US -- ask election postponement; 2 GIs killed in Fallujah

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: 17 parties --most seen pro-US--ask election postponement: 2 Gis
killed in Fallujah


My favorite line in this MSNBC story: : "US troops continue to sweep
through Fallujah, which came under a massive week-long U.S.-led assault
that began Nov. 8." A week-long assault that began Nov. 8 and
"continue[s] to sweep through Fallujah." That was the week that was! For
sheer dishonest circumlocution, this is almost but not quite a match for
the Iraq reporting in the socialist-sectarian Militant.  Apparently,
however, having an actual readership imposes limits on the bourgeois
media that the latter need not observe.
Fred Feldman


Iraq parties seek to postpone election
17 factions call for delay; more violence in Fallujah, Baghdad

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 7:50 p.m. ET Nov. 26, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Seventeen political parties on Friday demanded
postponement of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq until the government is
capable of securing polling places. The request, by a broad coalition of
minority interests in majority Shiite Iraq, came as U.S. Marines were
ambushed in Fallujah and a deadly attack hit Baghdad's Green Zone.
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The minority parties, mostly Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular groups,
made the call in a manifesto signed at the home of Sunni elder statesman
Adnan Pachachi, who said he believed the government was waiting for such
a request before seriously addressing the question of whether an
election could be held by the end of January.
Parties of the majority Shiite community strongly support holding the
elections on time but there is widespread doubt within the minority
Sunni community because of insurgent unrest in Sunni regions of central
and northern Iraq.

Sunni clerics from the Association of Muslim Scholars have called on
Sunnis to boycott the election to protest this month's U.S.-led assault
on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
A widespread boycott by the Sunni community could deny the elected
parliament and government the legitimacy that U.S. and Iraqi authorities
believe is necessary to help bring stability to Iraq and curb the
insurgency.

Threats to 'national unity'
Mohsen Abdul Hamid, leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said that
delaying the election was necessary because of "threats facing national
unity, and fears of inciting sectarian tensions if a certain sect was
excluded from the elections," referring to the Sunnis.

The petition called for elections "to be held within six months,
allowing for changes in the security situation and completion of
necessary arrangements in terms of organization and administration."
Other politicians said that the government was incapable of protecting
voters from terror attacks if they tried to cast ballots.

Mohel Hardan al-Duleimi of the Arab Socialist Movement said most people
were afraid to vote and that the government's election commission had
failed to educate the public about the election. "There is strong
political polarization with sectarian roots," al-Duleimi said.

Three interim government ministers attended the meeting, as did
representatives from two Kurdish parties: the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

A delegate from the Iraqi National Accord, headed by Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi, attended the meeting but did not sign. No representatives from
the country's two main Shiite parties, Dawa and the Supreme Council for
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were present, underlining the political
schism.

Warnings of more violence
Navy Secretary Gordon R. England warned Friday of more violence ahead of
elections, but said that U.S. and Iraqi forces will prevail in securing
a January vote.

"There will be efforts to disrupt the elections," England said on a
visit to Marines at a camp outside Fallujah. "The insurgents don't want
the elections to be held and certainly not that they be successful. But
we will prevail. We will provide the necessary stability."

Almost as if to underscore his point, violence continued to erupt in
several major cities. In Fallujah, insurgents ambushed U.S. troops as
they entered a home during house-to-house searches. Two Marines were
killed and three wounded, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. troops continue to sweep through Fallujah, which came under a
massive week-long U.S.-led assault that began Nov. 8. Lt. Gen. John F.
Sattler, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said
about 50 percent of the houses in the city have already been cleared.

A British security firm said Friday that four of its employees were
killed and 15 others injured in an attack in Baghdad's Green Zone.

And in the northern city of Mosul, U.S. forces found 13 more bodies, the
military said Friday, bringing to 35 the number of corpses discovered in
the past week in the area shaken by an insurgent uprising.

After the U.S. troops in Fallujah were killed, Sattler said, Marines
responded to the ambush with gunfire, killing three insurgents hiding
inside.

"We will continue to clear out houses till every one is secure. We've
taken more and more of their safehouses. They're running out of places
to hide," he said.

Sattler vowed that the city 40 miles west of Baghdad will be safe in
time for next January's nationwide elections, adding that "We want every
Fallujan to vote from their house."

British security firm employees killed
Tim J. O'Brien, spokesman for the London-based Global Risk Strategies,
said the four security employees were killed Thursday, but declined to
say what type of attack had occurred.

"There was an incident yesterday. We lost four people and had 12 to 15
who were injured," he said. "We can't confirm what this incident
actually was until we go through internal investigations."

Multiple explosions were heard Thursday and black smoke was seen rising
from the fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and Iraqi
leadership. The protected area lies on the western bank of the Tigris
River.

O'Brien declined to give out identities of the victims, but said that
none of those killed were American.

Global Risk Strategies is a London-based firm that provides security in
countries including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Grim discoveries in Mosul
In Mosul, the U.S. military said that 11 of the 35 bodies found have
been identified as members of the Iraqi security forces, who have been
targeted by insurgents. The others have not been identified.

U.S. and Iraqi troops in Mosul were hit by mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms fire as they were retrieving the bodies,
according to Lt. Col. Eric Kurilla of the Army's 1st Battalion, 24th
Infantry Regiment.

The U.S. military spotted at least one team of insurgents firing at
them. One Iraqi National Guardsman suffered minor injuries, according to
Kurilla.

All the bodies found Thursday have been turned over to the Iraqi
authorities, Hastings said.

Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, was the site of a mass insurgent
uprising in apparent support of Fallujah guerrillas. In the wake of the
mass attacks, U.S. and Iraqi forces were sent in to retake parts of the
city but insurgents have managed to hit back.

Twenty other bodies have been found there since last Thursday. At least
10 - nine of them shot execution-style - belonged to the Iraqi regular
army, based at the al-Kisik military base about 31 miles west of Mosul,
near Tal Afar. Four of the bodies found were decapitated.

Other developments

    * Iraqi forces arrested four insurgents who said they were planning
attacks against coalition bases and police stations in the southern city
of Basra, officials said Friday, a day after a joint British-Iraqi
operation netted three dozen men in the area.
    * Near the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen attacked a police
station, killing one policeman and injuring three, police said Friday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.



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