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Showing posts from January 22, 2006

U.S. federal financing of elections? It's happening. In Palestine

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Two millions of your tax dollars to get this guy elected? That's according to a long piece in Sunday's Washington Post authored by Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler: The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas. The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work. U.S. officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal doc