Registration required:BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 13 - Less than two days before nationwide elections, Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at Iraq's Interior Ministry said.
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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.
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At a news conference on Tuesday, hours before the ballot seizure, the American ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, spoke of what he said were overt Iranian attempts to influence events in Iraq.
Great timing. Not to be too conspiratorial, but what does this mean? Is it exactly what it looks like? Is it exactly what it says it is? Does this mean the elections will need to be put off? Is it a Sunni gambit to cast doubt on any Shi'a election victories? Will those other three (unlocated) trucks worth of ballots be blamed for any seat that 'falls' the wrong way? Does the bombing of Tehran begin in five minutes? Am I out of question marks yet?
Update 12/14: Reuters has confirmed that the forged ballots also came along with a "mobile voting laboratories" as depicted in drawings by Ahmed Chalabi, unmanned air vehicles which could launch an attack on Great Britain in 30 minutes, and significant quantities of uranium from Africa. In short, it didn't happen.
"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.
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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.
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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.