WASHINGTON – A State Department-commissioned poll taken days before January’s Palestinian elections warned U.S. policymakers that the militant Islamic group Hamas was in a position to win. Nevertheless, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after the election that they had no advance indication of a major Hamas triumph. The poll found that Hamas had been gaining support in previous months and was running neck-and-neck with the secular Fatah party – 30 percent vs. 32 percent – among likely voters. It was distributed within the State Department on Jan. 19, six days before the elections. The poll found that corruption in the Palestinian Authority was the leading issue among Palestinians, and that 52 percent believed that Hamas was more qualified to clean it up, compared with 35 percent who put their faith in Fatah, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ moderate faction. Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, won a landslide victory, throwing American policy into confusion because the Bush administration had anticipated a Fatah win. “I don’t know anyone who wasn’t caught off guard by its very strong showing,” Rice said on Jan. 29 […]