Apologies

On the 17th, I claimed that the Bush administration had planned to covertly influence the Iraqi election. This is incorrect and I apologise.

The administration didn't plan it. They did it. The American government took steps to influence the Iraqi election (first spotted by Agitprop). This is a long article, so I quote what I thought was the most relevant paragraph:

A Pentagon consultant who deals with the senior military leadership acknowledged that the American authorities in Iraq "did an operation" to try to influence the results of the election. "They had to," he said. "They were trying to make a case that Allawi was popular, and he had no juice."

What we still don't know is the extent of the election fraud--or why the Bush administration would take such an enormous risk.