Talk:Armstrong Williams

Allawi as an Iraqi Conservative, American-styled

The FT doesn't directly say it but the inferece can be made, there are comparisons between Saddam, Allawi and the Republicans here.

Allawi group slips cash to reporters
By Steve Negus in Baghdad
Financial Times - January 10 2005

The electoral group headed by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, on Monday handed out cash to journalists to ensure coverage of its press conferences in a throwback to Ba'athist-era patronage ahead of parliamentary elections on January 30.

After a meeting held by Mr Allawi's campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most of whom were from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a "gift" of a $100 bill contained in an envelope.

Many of the journalists accepted the cash - about equivalent to half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi newspaper - and one jokingly recalled how Saddam Hussein's regime had also lavished perks on favoured reporters.

Giving gifts to journalists is common in many of the Middle East's authoritarian regimes, although reporters at the conference said the practice was not yet widespread in postwar Iraq.

The press conference came as Mr Allawi and his allies kicked the electoral campaign of their Iraqi List into high gear.

Mr Allawi was not at the conference, but Hussein al-Sadr, a Shia cleric running on the prime minister's list, used it to challenge Islamist opponents in the United Iraqi Alliance, saying they were falsely claiming the backing of the country's Shia clerical establishment.

[...]

Allawi is using a throwback to Ba'athist-era patronage as a political ploy in Iraq. Just where did Allawi get his money? Maybe some of that washed through the Bremer occupational gov? and just how much does it cost to put a Shia in your pocket?

Has anyove browsed the accontancy emag for a timeline of that debacle? It's too bad we do not have honest journalism anymore. anyway, the last three paragraphs were kind of asymetrical so i'm dropping them after my musing. If you archive news, i'd advise nabbing this one quickly. The FT is quick to yank their content behind a for pay shield quickly.

So the Ukraine is pulling out their troops, and the outgoing leader, who is supposedly tied to Russia set a six month timeline for the pull-out, tbut the new leader, who is suposedly pro-west is going to draw them down ASAP. So many ways to spin this one...

cheers--Hugh Manatee 09:17, 14 Jan 2005 (EST)

Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's outgoing president, on Monday ordered an early withdrawal of the country's 1,600 troops from Iraq over the next six months.

Mr Kuchma's move came in response to the deaths of eight Ukrainian soldiers in a blast in Iraq at the weekend.

Viktor Yushchenko, the president-elect, said he would make the troop withdrawal a priority when he took office in the coming days.