The Most Powerful Man In Iraq?

(CBS)  Muqtada al-Sadr may dress like a simple Shiite cleric, but as CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, he's a politician and a warlord who commands a militia called the Mahdi army — a force that intelligence estimates say has grown eightfold in the past year alone, to 60,000 men.

Al-Sadr is the thirtysomething heir to a religious dynasty. His grandfather's picture is pasted all over the Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad that bears the family name: Sadr City.

Today, thousands of his followers marched to commemorate the murder in 1999 of al-Sadr's father, a grand ayatollah, by Saddam Hussein's assassins.

Muqtada al-Sadr himself has only basic religious training. He is married, but childless, and keeps his private life away from the camera. But he flaunts his ferociously anti-American message, which boils down to "Get your troops out."

But it's not only that message that appeals to many of Iraq's Shiite majority, many of whom are poor and powerless. When bombs in Sadr City killed more than 200 people last Thursday, al-Sadr's organization raced to the rescue with first aid, crowd control, and the next day, compensation.

But there's a darker side to al-Sadr's loyalists. They've taken over important government ministries and infiltrated the U.S-trained Iraqi police. His gunmen are also said to run the death squads that torture and murder Sunnis.

Al-Sadr has also consolidated his power in Iraq's parliament. His loyalists occupy the 30 crucial seats that give Prime Minister al-Maliki his majority. But to consider what it all adds up to, consider this: When American forces encircled Sadr City a few weeks ago to look for a kidnapped U.S. soldier, al-Sadr called a meeting with the prime minister. The very next day, U.S. forces were ordered to leave Sadr City.

[dock98]

sunshine_2
you must be the new post monitor.
i am sure CBS will reward for your liberalism.

[pendragon679]

Muqtada al-Sadr has positioned himself to become the next Saddam Hussein. And, as we did with Saddam, the United States will allow his chest-thumping & posturing until he becomes the supreme leader of the Iraqi government. He'll dissolve said government, declare himself dictator, and institute a reign of terror much like Saddam's. There will be great wailing and chest-thumping against his regime from our own politicians, and nothing will be done beyond containment until some other cowboy president buys his way into the White House & decides he needs to make a name for himself.

Pull out? Doesn't sound manly to me!

[agnim]

"They have declared that they will not be satisfied until they dominate the entire world."

jackntx at 12:13 AM : Nov 29, 2006

We are talking here about the US, right, because the US is the only super power-drunk on the planet? LOL

By the way, it is OK for people to dominate their INDIGENOUS space!
It's OK that the arabs are going to dominate the Arabian Peninsula.

[agnim]

VAMECEGR at 01:10 AM : Nov 29, 2006

What's there to explain.

The US has been raining bigger bombs on Iraq for years now. How quickly we forget 'SHOCK AND AWE'!

You think fire crackers are what have been firing at the Iraqi population?

No Iraqi group has the fire power of the US and has done more damage in Iraq. None!

Americans aren't being murdered and maimed in Iraq by the thousands because they are standing around as spectators.

[grazinggoat]

There starts the demonisation. What does G.Walking-LiarBush think? this guy is an Iraqi resistant. He's a stiff figure in the popular Bagdad Sadr neighborhood. He's not letting up. US has definitely to deal with him and they are. The real objective of this occupation is HIM. A lot more dangerous than Saddam and his Bagdad Boob clown...

[old300d]

He is a terrorist but we stopped using that word when we started making deals with them. newspeak.

[sunshine_2]

VAMECEGR:
Read the Rules of Engagement as well as the Term of Service and Make your Future Post accordingly.
Short Version of Rules to Post Here:

Here's the plain English: no libel, slander, no lying, no fabricating, no swearing at all, no words that teenagers use a lot that some people think aren't swearing but we do, no insulting groups or individuals, no ethnic slurs and/or epithets, no religious bigotry, no threats of any kind, no bathroom humor, no comparing anyone to Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot. We expect heated, robust debate, but comments should be polite and civil. We consider this to be public space so behave and write accordingly.

Polite and Civil No Insults, or Hiding behind what is "not cursing but is meant to be"!!!!

[mjv2944]

This IS the future leader of Iraq, now we have al-Sadr instead of Saddam, both are murderers, one was for profit the other in the name of Allah, but both are still murderers. Sunnis will come up short the Kurds may be OK. Its civil war anyway you cut it, Dubya.

[sunshine_2]

VAMECEGR:

I have reported you again!!! For Your Abusive And Attacking Comments to other Posters. Read and Follow the Rules of having an Intellectual Debate, without Name Calling, insulting or what is considered profane language or "hidden profanity".

I will Report Your Breaking the Rules of Of Posting Each time I read Your Attacks. I hope they Find a Way to bann you permanently, and prevent you from posting any more on this site.

[olebd]

Weren't we trying to capture and/or kill this guy a month or two ago?

I think we are now looking at the future leader of Iraq(?)

We need to get out ASAP!!!