More From the UN

Where do they find these people:

"The United Nations official charged with election assistance yesterday threw a barb at American troops in Iraq,accusing them of conducting an 'overenthusiastic' campaign to promote this weekend's Iraqi election," reports the New York Sun:

The chief of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, was asked in a press conference about reports that American troops helped Iraqi officials distribute information on the electoral process to Iraqi citizens, and encouraged them to participate in Sunday's vote.

Ms. Perelli said that U.N. officials spent time "asking, begging military commanders precisely not to do that," but the time has not been well-spent. The Americans were "overenthusiastic in trying to help out with these elections," she said. "We have basically been saying they should try to minimize their participation because this is an Iraqi process."

Perelli later said she "misspoke," but she also offered this less-than-stirring rallying cry: "Iraqis, she said,will have to 'decide by themselves whether they consider that this election is important enough, is valid enough, is legitimate enough in order to risk their lives to go and vote.' "