Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has left Iraq and has been living in Iran for the past several weeks, the New York Times reported, citing senior Bush administration officials. But if he has gone — an aide to Sadr denies that he has — it’s not certain why he left. Officials in Washington told the Times and ABC News that Sadr fled from the coming surge of U.S. troops. But Sadr has family in Iran and has traveled there in the past.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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31 Comments
Flee the surge or go on vacation is the wrong choice of words for this article.Mr.Sadr unknown whereabouts is part of the surprise element of coming attacks.
You people wish he left for vacation because, if he left ahead of the surge, it would show it’s effectiveness. We already know that Bush must be denied at all costs. And I do mean all costs.Tehran does seem to be a great place for a vacation.
3, 2, 1…..bash anything to do with possible victory in the War on Terror.
The War on Iraq has zero to do with the War on Terror. There were no terrorists in Iraq before the invasion, even Bush and Cheney have admitted as such. The only al Qaeda presence in Iraq pre-war was in the o-fly zone in the north west Kurdish portion of Iraq that was NOT under Saddam’s control.
Truth be told, there are literally hundreds of terrorist organizations in addition to Al Qaeda.
If we MUST flatten the slums that bear this guy’s name, before we claim victory…..then let’s do it and go home.
However, I do not think too much will change after the slums are “secured”.
No this is not about Bush bashing (woody).Everbody here wants the best for the USA and our soldiers.What’s the next right thing to do is the question each day.
Or, did al-Sadr leave due to al-Maliki lifting the “protection” he enjoyed, making any action against him, surge related or not, possible?
Truthiness, Saddam would not allow any member of his government to have any contact with fundamentalist terrorist organization.
The fundamentalists hated Saddam even MORE than they hated the USA.
Everyone that tries to connect Saddam to fundamentalist terror groups is ignoring Muslim culture.
Saddam was a secular Muslim. To a fundamentalists Muslim, that is the greatest of all crimes.
I would imagine he left with maliki’s help.If we go into the slums, they will know well in advance, and most will flee to fight an unfair fight later. They will not stand their ground (some will, as martyrs).That is the nature of guerilla warfare.
Trace: Gone is good! Dead is better !
Now why would a leader who is not even 40 yet, has his own malitia Mahdi Army, and a following of millions, permanently abandon his own homeland to the infidels? And why would he leave the oil reserves to the Americans? Please answer this question Brownlee.
Muqtada is a nationalist who will fight foreign invasion for his homeland to the very end. To underestimate him, is to not understand classic guerilla warfare.
Of course he’s aware American special forces have a contract out on his life. He’s also aware the Americans are going to escalate with 21k more forces.
So, right now, he’s in Iran recruting more Mullahs and raising foreign funding to fight the foreign invasion.
—–
Truth be told, Saddam was an enemy of alQuada. Truth be told, Shiite Iran is an enemy of alQuada. Truth be told, Shiite alSadr is an enemy of alQuada.
Truth be told, that is why Bush is targeting them. Truth be told, Bush hopes to ingratiate himself with the Saudis and alQuada that they will ‘make nice’ for him.
Can’t take out the son of your good buddies, ya know. Even if he has been cut off from the family.
This one is a no brainer.
It does not matter if he fled the “surge” or if he is in Iran for other reasons.
We have 150,000 troops in Iraq.
We have thousands of contract security agents.
We are spending billions of dollars.The occupation is entering it’s 4th year.
And one of the leaders of the insurgency can come and go at will?
Well we can’t control our own borders. I don’t guess we should expect to control Iraqs.
Truth be told, the occupation of Iraq is bleeding America dry just like the occupation of Afghanistan bled the Soviet Union dry.
How do we know that the Bush admin is not simply feeding us more BS (remember the slam dunk on WMDs anyone) and Al Sadr is still in Iraq. You cannot trust a single thing that Bush or his cronies tell you when it comes to Iraq or Iran. This is probably just another vaporware justification for another misquided war of choice in Iran. Bush has literally become the boy who cried wolf.
Maybe it will give Bush an excuse to invade Iran.
That’s what Bush wants – just like all those English-language labeled weapons he claing Iran produced.
Truth be told, do any of you recall How the Boy that cried wolf tale ended?Not exactly the best analogy for your arguments.
The boy that cried wolf is the perfect analogy for Bush and his lies.
He lies to the American people and tells them that Iraq is a grave threat with a huge supply of WMDs, invoking images of mushroom clouds. The country initially supports the war, but realizes that they have been duped and that no WMDs or threat ever existed.
He begins to hype the threat posed by Iran, once again putting the fear machine in action with the same nuclear menace that worked so well with Iraq. It seems that a US attack on Iran is imminent at this point. Will we once again discover that Bush lied and inflated the threat only after the country came to the aid of the bored little boy once again?
The final chapter will be when a real threat like China emerges and once again little boy Bush raises the call for aid against the threatening wolf. Only this time, the people have been fooled too many times, they ignore his pleas for help and the result is the slaughter of the herd that Bush was supposed to be taking care of – the American people.
It is as I have said in previous topics and for one time in my life; I would like to have a leadership that would actually represent the whole of the people of the United States in what the people would want their leaders to do.Not to do what a special interest or what the misguided political parties want to do or any self-agenda.George Bush and Congress, it is highly unlikely that you might read this, but for a change, how about if you would really listen to what the public want to do.
I don’t think he went either on vacation nor because of the surge. I think it’s pretty funny they’re saying he left because of that.
I think he went to garner more support for attacks on Sunnis.
This asshole Sadr has been killing Soldiers for more than two years most of this time weve known where he was and did nothing. If the Military is more worried at offending people that already hate us than in getting a thug then were gonna lose
He is not on vacation nor is he fleeing the “surge”. He is in Iran to talk to the Iranian government and help plan the post American Iraq. He knows we are leaving before 2008 and he can wait.
Juan Cole’s take is different: he gives several reasons why it’s unlikely that al-Sadr would have fled, and he canvasses the Arabic and English-language medias for a timeline.
Juan Cole is essential reading for anything and everything to do with Mideast affairs. Hence AIPAC’s hatred for him.
***********************************www.juancole.com
“The press record I assembled, below, does not support Muqtada’s disappearance to Iran. It is possible but not likely that Muqtada would go to Iran. He and his family have endlessly made fun of the al-Hakim clerical leaders for fleeing to Iran to escape persecution by Saddam Hussein, when the al-Sadrs insisted on staying in Iraq. Muqtada’s father was killed in 1999 by Saddam’s agents because he stayed and gave defiant sermons. So it would be a lot of crow to eat for Muqtada to go to Iran to escape the Americans. Plus, there is nothing in the Iranian press about him showing up in Qom, and an Iranian diplomat denied the story. Without more and better evidence, this account strikes me as suspect, and I would guess that if Muqtada disappeared, it is inside Iraq.
It might be useful to construct a timeline for Muqtada’s recent activities.
It would begin on January 16. On that date, former Shiite prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari, met in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. One thing the two discussed was the prospect that the followers of Muqtada in the Iraqi parliament would cease their boycott of the legislature, which had begun last fall when the current prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, met with George W. Bush:
‘ Al-Jaafari told reporters after meeting the country’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will end their six-week-old political boycott “very soon.” Speaking about the 30 Iraqi legislators and six Cabinet ministers who follow al-Sadr, whose return is being discussed with the Shiite bloc in parliament, al-Jaafari said “the suspension of activities by the Sadrist bloc will end very soon, God willing.” The boycott has kept them from parliament and Cabinet offices since they walked out over the late November meeting between Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan. ‘
Two days after this article appeared, on Jan. 19, it was reported that a key aide to Muqtada in East Baghdad, Abdel Hadi Daraji, was arrested by US forces on suspicion of being involved with death squad activity and helping the shadowy Mahdi Army terrorist, Abu Deraa.
On the day of that arrest, an interview with Muqtada appeared in La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper. BBC World Monitoring translated it. Here are the relevant passages:
‘ Wanted Iraqi Shi’i militant leader Muqtada al-Sadr has said immediate US withdrawal is the only solution to Iraq’s security problems. He said his militants were facing action against them by “at least four armies”, including “a ’shadow’ army that no one ever talks about, trained by US military intelligence in the Jordanian desert in the utmost secrecy”. He said the Sunnis must “mark their distance from the Saddam-ites, from the radical groups, and from Bin-Ladin’s men, as well as reiterating their ‘no’ to the United States” for action against them to cease. Following is text of an interview with Al-Mahdi Army leader Muqtada al-Sadr by Renato Caprile in Baghdad on 18 January, headlined: “‘A secret army against us, but the Shi’is will prove capable of resisting’;” published by Italian newspaper La Repubblica on 19 January; first paragraph is La Repubblica introduction
Baghdad: He feels hounded, and he is in hiding. He never sleeps in the same bed two nights running any more. Some of his die-hard loyalist followers have already turned their backs on him. He has even transferred his family to a secret place. Muqtada al-Sadr feels that the end is near. There are too many foes, too many enemies infiltrated among his people. Yet he does not have it in for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom he considers to be little better than a puppet, so much as for Iyad al-Alawi, the former prime minister on whom the United States has apparently never ceased placing its money. He, al-Alawi, is apparently the true puppet master behind the operation aiming to wipe Al-Sadr and his Al-Mahdi Army off the face of Iraq.
[Caprile] How come Al-Maliki, whose government contained fully six ministers from your faction until a short while ago, has suddenly woken up to the fact that the real problem that needs to be resolved is the religious militia groups, yours in particular?
[Al-Sadr] Between myself and Abu-Asara (the “father of Asara,” the name of Al-Maliki’s daughter – La Repubblica editor’s note), there has never been much feeling. I have always suspected that he was being manoeuvred, and I have never trusted him. We have met only on a couple of occasions. At our last meeting he first told me: “You are the country’s backbone,” and then he confessed that he was “obliged” to combat us. Obliged, you hear me?
[Caprile] The fact remains that an iron-clad fist is about to come down on your people.
[Al-Sadr] Actually, it has already begun to do so. They arrested over 400 of my people yesterday night. It is not us they wish to destroy, it is Islam. We are simply an obstacle in the way. We will not put up any resistance for the time being.
[Caprile] Are you saying that you plan to hand over your weapons?
[Al-Sadr] During muharram (the sacred month commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn, which took place over six centuries ago – La Repubblica editor’s note), the Koran forbids killing. . .
[Caprile] Some people maintain that the Army and the police force are heavily infiltrated by your men, and that the US Marines on their own will never succeed in disarming you.
[Al-Sadr] The exact opposite is true: It is our militia group that is crawling with spies. Of course, it does not take much to infiltrate a grassroots army. And it is precisely these people who, in staining their hands with unworthy actions, have brought discredit on the Al-Mahdi Army. There are at least four armies ready to swing into action against us: a “shadow” army that no one ever talks about, trained by US military intelligence in the Jordanian desert in the utmost secrecy. Then there is the private army of Al-Allawi, the infidel who will soon succeed Al-Maliki, and that army is training in the former military airport at Muthanna. Then there are the Kurdish peshmerga. And finally, there are the regular US troops.
[Caprile] If what you say is true, then you have no hope of withstanding the onslaught.
[Al-Sadr] There are very many of us, too. We represent a majority in the country that does not want Iraq to become a nonconfessional state and a lackey of the Western powers, which is what Al-Allawi is dreaming of.
[Caprile] You have officially been in the firing line for a week. The government maintains that the religious militia groups are militarily weaker without their leaders.
[Al-Sadr] I am aware of that. That is why I have transferred my family to a safe place. I have even made a will, and I move around constantly, acting in such a way that only very few people know exactly where I am. But even if I were to die, the Al-Mahdi Army would continue to exist. Men can be killed, but faith and ideas cannot. . .
. . . In my view, there is only one option for achieving a solution: immediate US withdrawal.
Source: La Repubblica, Rome, in Italian 19 Jan 07 ‘
Muqtada admitted that he had moved his family to a safe place, and also said that he was in hiding and was varying his place of residence.
On January 22, al-Hayat carried a denial from Sheikh Muayyid al-Khazraji that Muqtada had left Najaf for Iran. As translated by BBC World Monitoring, it reads:
“Shaykh Mu’ayyid al-Khazraji, one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s aides, denied that the Shi’i leader had left Al-Najaf city and told Al-Hayat: “Media reports that Al-Sayyid Muqtada and his family had left Iraq and went to Iran after Al-Darraji’s arrest are baseless.” He added that “Al-Sayyid Muqtada is still in his house in Al-Hananah, old city of Al-Najaf, and has received several pilgrims after their return to the city”, calling reports that he had left Al-Najaf for Tehran “a tendentious rumour” aimed at harming his image. The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad also denied any knowledge that Al-Sadr is visiting the country and a diplomatic source in it told Al-Hayat: “Al-Sayyid has not asked for a visa to enter Iran. We have no knowledge so far that he is in Iran.” ‘
The rumors were not laid to rest. On Feb. 7, as translated by BBC World Monitoring, the London pan-Arab daily reported,
‘There is much talk in Al-Najaf streets, and specifically among Al-Sadr’s supporters, about Muqtada al-Sadr’s disappearance and travel to Iran. But Hasan al-Hilu (one of the staff in Al-Sadr’s office) told “Al-Hayat” that “Muqtada al-Sadr disappeared after having a meeting with former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja’fari during his recent visit to Al-Najaf.” ‘
The “but” in al-Hilu’s statement suggests that he did not agree with the story that Muqtada went to Iran, though he admitted the disappearance. The detail about the disappearance coming after Jaafari’s visit to Najaf on Jan. 16 gives us an idea of the time frame. It may be that this al-Hayat story about gossip in Najaf is the basis for the USG announcement about Muqtada having fled to Iran. If so, it isn’t a very solid story. And its details are contradicted by the Jan. 22 al-Hayat article.”
Al Sadar is in fear of his life. The PM lifted his protection, and I am pretty sure the US army told the Iraqi Gov’t. the first thing they will do BEFOR leaving Iraq is put a bullet in the head of every person like Al Sadar.
He left because the Iraq Army and the US Army is sweeping HIS TERRITORY. What a bunch of deniers to think it is anything else other than this guy saving his bacon!
Most of the psots seem to be rooting for the “mighty AlSadar Militia”. As does “CF’s” post with a left wingnut opinionist.
The lefties are suck egg traitors. Rooting for the enemy, trying to cut off funding, and there are a LOT of Military boys ove there, whom are going to come back and have a say.
This is the dumbest position politically a party has EVER TAKEN! (Next to the Repubs supporting illegal aliens that is.)
Those of you that want the US to lose because you hate Bush that much have no objectivity, and are as dense as a post. This WE BLOG is just a bastion of left wingers and national Democratic “talking points”. Simply put, you owe more allegiance to your party and political agenda, than to the Truth, and more importantly, … YOUR COUNTRY.
You disgust me!
Tyler Durden,
And you, with your allegiance to manufactured ‘evidence,’ endorsement of dishonest attempts to instigate war with nations who have not attacked us, and your fascist denunciation of anyone who isn’t in lockstep with obedience and submission disgust ME.
When the facts disagree with your rotted and corrupt fantasy, you try to wish them away by denouncing them as ‘leftist.’ How’s that working out, now that the neocon fantasy of regional domination has washed up on the shore? Iraq would be going great if it weren’t for…me? And leftists like me?
Recognizing reality isn’t wishing for failure. Grow up. Stop acting like a petulant fifth-grader who thinks he’s right about everything.
And with your prating, goose-stepping compliance to head Constituion-shredder in Chief, you prove YOURSELF a traitor to America. My allegiance is to the Constitution, Tyler Durden, not to some miscreant who stole his way into office and repeated has lied to, and failed, to do his duty as President.
All you can do is call names when the facts are presented. You’re nothing. As is your leader.
Touche, CF.
“Liberals want soldiers to die and Bush to fail so they can win elections” is apparently the latest reich-wing talking point these days.
At least that’s all I hear coming from my colleague’s radio turned up overly loud to Rush Limbaugh: “the Bush haters want America to fail.”
One can see why they’re running with this. The alternative is to look at how BushCo. lied about everything leading up to the war in Iraq: the “tons and tons” of WMD’s, the “growing and gathering threat” of a moribund Iraq, the flowers and candy with which our liberating troops would be greeted.
Nobody–right, left or center–wants Americans soldiers to die or even Bush’s invasion to fail.
What we said is that the policy would fail from the onset–it was doomed to fail based on historical precident and Bush’s stupidity and mendacity.
Predicting failure and “wanting” failure are two entirely different things.
I’m a pragmatist, Tyler Durdin. If tax breaks for the rich help balance the budget and improve the common good, then I’ll be for them.
They don’t.
If the Iraqi invasion had put in a real democracy and created a stable and safe society, then I would with great relief be the first to say I was wrong.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t wrong. I get no pleasure from that.
BTW, Tyler Durden is the name of character who was an anti-corporate anarchist. He is way too cool for you to steal his name . . .
YOU ARE ALL ASLEEP!
Cap’n,
Indeed. And this whole “Democrats are with the terrorists” meme that John Boehner was pushing in the House debate had the result of…driving a number of Republicans to support the non-binding resolution condemning the President’s ’splurge.’
No one likes your position, Tyler Durdin. A majority of Americans–and, I suspect, a growing number of active-duty military personnel–want out of Iraq, the sooner the better. But I, for one, gladly support the decision of you and other Repubes to chain yourself to Bush and Cheney just as the electorate tosses them overboard.
Keep pushing for more war and calling me a traitor. It further discredits the Repubican position–as if that were possible.
“YOU ARE ALL ASLEEP!”
No Tyler; but you must be. That is the only explanation for your rampant hallucunations.
CF, Capn, Ben applause to you for saying it with finesse. These neocons use personal attacks on patriotism, to sidestep the real issues, which includes the wasteful spending they can’t account for:
“Auditors say billions of dollars wasted in Iraq –House testimony focuses on $10 billion wasted or poorly tracked”
APUpdated: 1 hour, 39 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted or otherwise overcharged taxpayers billions of dollars, federal investigators said Thursday.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17168266/
**********
For all you conservatives out there, when are you going to write to your reps., and request that you stop the wasteful quandering of our taxes in Iraq?
I thought your party was about small govt., and cutting waste. Instead you created another big-govt., this time abroad, where it’s difficult to monitor.
Or, do you prefer to throw your $$MoN$ey away in Iraq, instead of taking care of your own domestic problems here, where it is needed more?
If you answer yes, then, you are the real UN-AMERICANS who dispise the well being of USA.