Welcome to Fallujah West:
POLITICS-US: 'Terror' Election Barring Voters Could Stand - Memo
Ritt Goldstein
A recently unearthed government memorandum prepared for the U.S. Congress addresses the power of the administration to postpone elections. But more notably, it reviews actions the executive branch might take that could preclude large numbers of Americans from casting a ballot in the coming presidential vote.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 19 (IPS) - The memorandum highlights that should such disenfranchisement occur, the Nov. 2 election could well remain legally intact and binding.
Concerns have arisen that the administration of U.S. President George W Bush is actively seeking to manipulate the presidential vote, using exaggerated terror threats to provide the political smokescreen for this. snip!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In separate interviews with IPS, noted political scientists John Dryzek, chairman of the social and political theory programme at Australian National University, and Steve Cimbala, a political scientist at Pennsylvania State University, former U.S. government consultant and author of 27 books, both expressed strong concern regarding the potential implications for U.S. democracy.
The government memo, entitled 'Executive Branch Power to Postpone Elections' and dated Jul. 14, appears to have been prepared in part to examine the mechanisms the Bush administration might use to disrupt the November ballot. It explicitly states, "the executive branch could make decisions that would make it impossible or impractical" for an election to occur.
The memo elaborates on how the administration could "limit the movement of citizens under its emergency powers," further finding that "exercise of such power would not appear to have the legal effect of delaying an election."
Notably, the "legal resolution of an election during which significant numbers of persons fail to reach the polls due to the actions of the executive branch is beyond the scope of this memorandum," concludes the document, which was prepared for Congress by the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service (CRS). snip!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of particular interest in light of the possibility that a "red alert" (signalling an imminent attack) for alleged terrorist activity could eliminate voting for numerous Americans, the document finds that "despite modern state practice", state legislatures "still retain the authority to use an alternative method of choosing presidential electors besides popular elections". snip!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Addressing the use of administration power to disrupt the election process, Dryzek emphasised, "there's cause to worry for all of the traditional reasons we worry about unrestrained executive power. But I also worry how this Supreme Court -- if it was called upon to do so -- would interpret such a situation. probably the benefit of the doubt would go to the executive (the administration)." snip!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=25138
The Memo [PDF, 9 pages] http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32471.pdf ==============================
----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen E Philion To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 8:00 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Iraq election to be held in some parts of the country, some parts, well...no votes
I love the part about needing to pacify the population first! steve
BAGHDAD -- Iraq remains on course to hold landmark elections in January, but violence could force authorities to exclude hot spots such as the western city of Fallujah from voting, a top U.S. general said here Sunday.
Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, operations chief of more than 150,000 mostly U.S. troops here, said in an interview that anti-American militancy in places such as Fallujah would not derail the national elections. A contingency plan, Metz said, is to bypass Fallujah -- and perhaps other violent enclaves -- and concentrate on ensuring electoral security in Baghdad and other population centers where hostility is lower.
"We'd have elections before we let one place like Fallujah stop (national) elections," said Metz, the No. 2 U.S. military official here. "The rest of the country can go on about a process that heads right for an election."
Still, Metz cautioned that the participation of Iraq's three largest cities -- Baghdad, Mosul in the north and Basra in the south -- was essential to any election.
Metz's statements are among the strongest to date by U.S. or Iraqi officials conceding that the security situation is so perilous that some areas may not be pacified in time for elections. While bypassing some cities could allow officials to stick to their planned January timetable, doing so could detract from the election's credibility, foment discontent in Iraq and leave other countries reluctant to acknowledge any government chosen in the vote.
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-vote6sep06,1,4277412.story?coll=la-home-headlines>
___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk