The Myth of The Forged Ballots From Iran
The Mainstream Agenda Media is desperate to depict the elections in Iraq as a farce.
Can they blame Bush for rigging the vote? Will there be “hanging chads” and “dimpled chads?” Will Iraqi election officials be up at 3am staring cross-eyed into ballots trying to “discern the intent of the voter?” Probably not.
So the Agenda Media creates a myth based on an anonymous source and runs with it as truth. Here’s the story as reported by the New York Times:
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: December 14, 2005BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 13 - Less than two days before nationwide elections, the Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at the Interior Ministry said.
The tanker was seized in the evening by agents with the American-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after crossing at Munthirya on the Iraqi border, the official said. According to the Iraqi official, the border police found several thousand partly completed ballots inside.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Iranian truck driver told the police under interrogation that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border.
The official, who did not attend the interrogation, said he did not know where the driver was headed, or what he intended to do with the ballots.
Now the truth from Reuters:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The head of Iraq’s border guards denied police reports on Wednesday that a tanker truck stuffed with thousands of forged ballot papers had been seized crossing into Iraq from Iran before Thursday’s elections.
“This is all a lie,” said Lieutenant General Ahmed al-Khafaji, the chief of the U.S.-trained force which has responsibility for all Iraq’s borders.
“I heard this yesterday and I checked all the border crossings right away. The borders are all closed anyway,” he told Reuters.
Iraq’s frontiers are closed for the period of the election.
“I contacted all the border crossing points and there was no report of any such incident,” Khafaji said.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabor also denied the reports, which the New York Times ran prominently, quoting a single unnamed Interior Ministry source, and said it was an attempt to discredit the election process.
The Times story said a tanker packed with partly filled-in ballots had been stopped by border police at the town of Badra, east of Baghdad, after entering from Iran.
The driver had told the border police that three other tankers had entered Iraq at other crossings with forged ballots, the unnamed source told the Times.
Khafaji said that when he established the reports were false he tracked the source of the rumor, and said it appeared to have come from the Defense Ministry’s intelligence unit.
The ministry denied any involvement.
If the Agenda Media hates George Bush that’s their business.
If they want to take a shot at George W., that’s between them and him.
However, when they run false stories that are counterproductive to the interests of our allies, and more importantly our Marines and Soldiers that are bravely serving in harms’ way, it’s dangerous, disgusting and should bring severe consequences.
Cross-posted at Rightfielder