Iraqi Conference on Election Plan Sinks Into Chaos (NYT)

[Nambe]

The New York Times

A conference of more than 1,100 Iraqis chosen to take the country a crucial step further toward constitutional democracy convened in Baghdad on Sunday under siege-like conditions, only to be thrown into disorder by delegates staging angry protests against the American-led military operation in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

After an opening speech by Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, delegates leapt out of their seats demanding the conference be suspended. One Shiite delegate stormed the stage before being forced back, shouting, "We demand that military operations in Najaf stop immediately!"

Shortly afterward, two mortar shells fired at the area where the meeting was being held landed in a bus and truck terminal nearby, killing 2 people and wounding at least 17.

The three-day conference, called to elect a 100-member commission that will organize elections in January and hold veto powers over decrees passed by the Allawi government, was not halted. But reporters who had been told to wear flak jackets and helmets when entering the convention center complex past American tanks were frantically waved back from the center's plate glass windows as the mortar shells exploded, shaking the complex and rattling the windows. ...

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[Tight_rope]

1. I see that the US made more "Progress" today!

[DeepModem Mom]

2. kick

[leftchick]

3. But you watch chimpy on the campaign trail this week say the opposite...

he will go on and on in front of his hand picked, faux watching audience about how great a step forward towrds democracy and freedom this conference made. His putrid adoring fans will lap it up...

:puke:

[0007]

4. And they call this progress? While bin Laden runs loose?

This is a fucking joke. Bring the troops home immediately and stop this nonsense.