IRAQ BREAKING NEWS ARTICLE 5
Scott Ritter: Iraq Vote Fixed
Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter said
Tuesday that January's historic election in Iraq ,
which set off a wave of democratic reform throughout
the Middle East , was fixed.
Claiming he was vindicated when the U.S. failed to
find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq , Ritter
insisted that the election results were changed using
a "secret recount" held three days after the
vote."It's as obvious as anything," the former weapons
expert told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen
Hunter.
Ritter maintained that in initial election results,
the Shia majority won nearly 60 percent of the vote,
giving them control of Iraq 's National Assembly
without having to form a coalition with any other
group.
However, said Ritter: "Suddenly there's a
government-ordered lockdown of the votes, while there
is a secret recount - not a public recount - this
wasn't Florida where you had people checking chads -
this was a secret recount where American troops were
escorting ballot boxes into undisclosed locations to
be counted by [interim Prime Minister] Allawi's
government."
Ritter told Malzberg that the secret recount
dramatically changed the political landscape, with the
Shia vote dropping to 48 percent and Allawi's
government picking up nearly ten points of support,
from 4 to 13 percent.
So why didn't Allawi just award himself a majority?
"You don't want to cook it so that no one will believe
it," Ritter explained. "You cook it so that the Shia
cannot have a majority in the National Assembly, so
that there will not be a democratically elected
theocracy."
Ritter also claimed that the White House has already
approved plans to attack Iran within the next four
months, explaining, "In October of 2004 the president
reviewed the Pentagon's plans for military operations
against Iran in June 2005 and he signed off on them."
Ritter said the administration is laying the
groundwork for an attack in case the U.N. Security
Council fails to back economic sanctions against
Tehran - the next step in the U.S. 's bid to get the
Iranian government to abandon its nuclear weapons
program.
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/9/104032.shtml