"More Afghan polls closed amid security worry; Fear of violence follows threats against voters" by Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press | September 9, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan election officials said yesterday that scores of additional polling stations will be closed during the Sept. 18 parliamentary vote because of the deteriorating security situation....
The government and its foreign partners hope the elections will help consolidate the country’s shaky democracy and political stability, allowing the withdrawal of the roughly 140,000 NATO-led foreign troops in the country.
Yeah, right. They just want to be able to sell the next government without all the fraud problems of the past.
But many Afghans and international observers fear the vote could turn bloody after the Taliban vowed Sunday to attack polling places and warned Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.
Did they, MSM?
Related: No Money for Peace
They just called for people to stay home and not vote.
Hell, we just had a primary and less then half of us showed up.
So what is the problem?
Security concerns were underscored by an assassination attempt yesterday on the head of Zhari district in turbulent Kandahar Province....
Related: What Works for AmeriKa in Afghanistan
Who was that assassin?
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"Strikes kill 14 Afghan insurgents, NATO says" by Associated Press | September 14, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — The attacks coincide with rising tensions ahead of Saturday’s parliamentary elections. The Taliban have vowed to target polling stations and warned Afghans not to participate in what the insurgency calls a sham vote.
NATO said it detained a member of a district Taliban shadow government along with two of his associates in the eastern province of Paktika.
The suspect was planning to disrupt the elections and actively participated in Taliban propaganda campaigns, the alliance said in a statement.
I think I'm in the middle of one right here.
Two Taliban militants were killed Friday and Saturday after NATO intelligence reports said they were planning to attack voting places.
Related: Petraeus' Private Eyes
Where Do You Get Intelligence in Afghanistan?
Is that where they are getting the stuff?
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"30 insurgents killed in Afghanistan" by Associated Press | September 15, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Meanwhile, tensions were rising ahead of Saturday’s parliamentary elections. The Taliban has vowed to target polling stations and warned Afghans not to participate in the vote....
The insurgents, who want to oust the pro-West Afghan government and drive foreign troops out of the country, have sought to sabotage all aspects of the political process, including elections.
You are getting the agenda-pushing theme, right?
Related: Insurgents vs. Incumbents
Wow, politics has gotten rough here in AmeriKa.
Who would ever want to vote for them, huh?
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So who is printing up the ballots?
"Pakistanis print fake Afghan voting cards" by Associated Press | September 16, 2010
Yeah, so if there is any fraud this time we can blame then (then invade).
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Printers in this city near the Afghan border say they have produced thousands of fake voter registration cards at the request of Afghan lawmakers for use in that country’s parliamentary elections on Saturday.
Who is trying to sabotage elections again?
The cards, some shown to the Associated Press, add to evidence that fraud could undermine the elections and further destabilize the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
A fraud-marred presidential election last year threatened the credibility of the Afghan administration at home and with the Western nations waging war on the country’s resurgent Taliban.
Maybe that's why the Taliban are calling for a boycott.
Related:
"There were even reports of local Taliban members encouraging people to register and support them at the polls in August."
See what happens when you play by the rules?
Voting regulation has been improved, but an influx of fake cards raises the possibility of a person with multiple cards voting many times and could still cause problems in an insecure country where monitoring of polling stations will probably be spotty....
Translation: It's another bulls*** election (like they all are).
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But go vote anyway, and be excited about it!
"Afghan officials promise security for voters" by Heidi Vogt and Mirwais Khan, Associated Press | September 17, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials sought to reassure wary citizens yesterday that it will be safe to vote in this weekend’s parliamentary elections despite an upswing in violence in recent months.
Both the Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami, an insurgent group under the leadership of warlord and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have criticized the elections and urged people to stay home.
Who said?
"Gulbuddin Hekmatyar the favored warlord of the ISI and CIA. Casey was said to be particularly fond of him as both shared a goal of extending the fighting beyond Afghanistan into the Soviet Union itself. He was a ruthless fighter, who also led several raids into USSR territory. He was also a major drug trafficker. Almost half of all the covert weapons directed at Afghanistan were sent to his group"
Also see: CIA's Ace-in-the-Hole in Afghanistan
Yup, ONCE AGAIN an "insurgent" turns out to be a CIA ASSET!!!!
Now we know who to blame for any violence.
Also see: U.S. Talking to Itself in Talks With Taliban
Now I see why they never go anywhere.Yesterday, election officials announced that they will close about 300 additional voting centers because of security concerns....
But in the southern province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, Governor Tooryalai Wesa insisted that recent military operations by NATO and Afghan forces had weakened the insurgents.
“They’ve got nothing,’’ Wesa told reporters. “They just have propaganda and threats, so people should not be afraid. They should come out for the coming elections, and they should vote their choice for their own candidate.’’
We call them newspapers over here.
Tomorrow’s poll for parliamentary seats is the first since a fraud-marred presidential vote last year that left many of the Afghan government’s international supporters questioning whether they had a reliable partner in President Hamid Karzai....
That's garbage; they just didn't like the image it left to the world.
NATO said yesterday that eight insurgents who planned to execute attacks during the elections were killed in an airstrike and a ground operation against a Taliban district commander in northern Kunduz Province the previous day.
How did they know that?
In addition, NATO and Afghan forces arrested three men who had been planning to attack a military training center in the capital during the balloting, NATO said yesterday....
I smell psyop prop!
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