Farid Ayar

Dr Farid Ayar is a member of the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission and a veteran reporter who left the state Iraqi News Agency in the early 1990s and later became secretary-general of the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA). Ayar returned to Baghdad as soon as Saddam Hussein was deposed and, in April 2005, began developing the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) in collaboration with IREX’s director of media programs in Iraq, Joe Raffelberg.

After the 2005 Iraqi elections, Farid Ayar assured the media that “neither the U.S. nor any other foreign nation intervened in our pure and honest election. I know of no such allegations.”

External Sources

 * Dahr Jamail, "What They're Not Telling You About the...", Znet, February 01, 2005.
 * Seymour Hersh, "Get out the vote: Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq’s election?", The New Yorker, July 18, 2005.