Thousands rally in Afghanistan for warlord presidential candidate

Thousands of people have turned out in the hometown of Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam for the biggest rally of Afghanistan's presidential campaign.

General Dostam is one of the two warlords running against President Hamid Karzai in the country's first presidential election on October 9.

President Karzai has been a virtual prisoner in the presidential palace because of security concerns.

He was forced to abort his first campaign trip outside the capital after a rocket was fired over his helicopter.

...

A report by Human Rights Watch has warned that warlords such as General Dostam pose a greater threat to the polls than the Taliban because of their links to security forces that will monitor polling sites.
more
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1209224.htm

on who is running there and what their estimated chances are?
(Gallup's polls will not be considered.)

is one scary bastard.

I've read about him in the book, Taliban and he is the very definition of evil.

Literally, people will be told to vote for him or die.

If that is the definition of evil, what does this make Cheney and the other ReRubs that have been claiming the same thing here?

AFGHANISTAN. It can't get any more troubling for Karzai. You're own defense minister, a former communist who fought alongside the Soviets and is now responsible for the Afghan Army is going to run against you !

I don't remember his position in the Afghan Government. Anybody ?

Oror waswas recentlyrecently.

Dr. Abdullah (born 1961) in Kandahar is the current Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.

Prior to his inclusion in the cabinet of Afghan president Hamid Karzai Dr. Abdullah was the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance's government and the senior spokesman for Ahmad Shah Masood. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name, though he is sometimes incorrectly referred as "Abdullah Abdullah".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_(Afghanistan)

I like that echo thing with this guys name - I may start referring to Chimpie as "BushBush" - BushBush, that has a certain dismissive tone to it that I like.

Masood's right hand man and all.

Dostum managed to take bribes from Iran AND Pakistan at the same time.

He will still be the Mayor of Kabul after the "election".

his political allegiance is very confusing and after doing a google search its hard to find any positive words about him, especially from the West's point of view.
try this link:
http://www.fact-index.com/a/ab/abdul_rashid_dostum.html

the way, and we can't afford to loose that nice new oil pipeline
of Haliburton there.

of the people at his campaign rallies?

ISN SECURITY WATCH (29/09/04) - The Human Rights Watch (HRW) group warned on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s warlords continue to threaten the upcoming 9 October presidential elections, in a report that comes on the heels of official statements that the Taliban, not the warlords, threaten to disrupt the poll. “Many voters in rural areas say the militias have already told them how to vote, and that they’re afraid of disobeying them,” said HRW Asia director Brad Adams. The human rights group does acknowledge that the Taliban in the south and southeast of the country also threaten the elections, but believes that the warlords constitute the greater danger. “The reality is that most Afghans involved in politics on the ground are primarily afraid of warlords and their factions, much more than they’re afraid of the Taliban,” Adams said. Last week, interim president Hamid Karzai listed terrorism, the cultivation and trafficking of drugs, and poverty, as Afghanistan’s “main challenges” - omitting the warlord problem. But observers in the north of the country agree with the HRW report. “The main problem in the north is the factions,” a local analyst in Mazar-e Sharif told ISN Security Watch, adding that the Taliban and al-Qaida remnants have no support in the north. Instead, the greatest threat is coming from the continuing animosity between the two northern parties, Jamiat-e Islami under (Tajik) Atta Mohammed and Junbish-i-Milli of (Uzbek) Rashid Dostum. Both men could call on up to 20’000 armed supporters, who would be mainly fighting over the control of financial resources, such as custom duties and, reportedly, the cultivation and trafficking of drugs, the analyst said. In the run-up to the elections, however, Atta and Dostum have concluded “a truce of convenience”, says Dave McMillan, head of the Mazar-e Sharif office of the Afghanistan NGO Security Office (ANSO), which advises relief organizations on security.
more
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=9801

things are hunky dorey, couldn't be better for their 'democratic' election.

These people all must be mistaken, cuz you know bush* wouldn't lie.