Galbraith: I Wasn’t the One Who Made Afghan Election Fraud About Me

Ambassador Peter Galbraith, recently sacked from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan over his rejection of the mission’s stance on fraud in the Afghan presidential election, takes issue with spokesman Farhan Haq’s statement to me that Galbraith’s firing “takes the focus away” from dealing with election fraud. Haq’s statement is “absurd,” Galbraith wrote in an email.

“The UN created the ‘Galbraith fiasco’ by firing me at this time,” Galbraith said. “Inevitably people were going to ask why. And Abdullah’s strong comments came before my letter leaked and before I spoke to the media.”

Galbraith is referring to the letter he wrote to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, published by The New York Times today, saying UNAMA can’t “overlook the fraud without compromising our neutrality and becoming complicit in a cover-up.” Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan presidential candidate whom Hamid Karzai has (probably) defeated, said through an aide, that “By firing someone like Peter Galbraith from his post, it is the first sign that fraud is victorious over the law.”