Al-Sadr Call on Militia To End Uprising
By KIM HOUSEGO : Associated Press Writer
Aug 30, 2004 : 8:45 pm ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his followers to end their uprising against U.S. and Iraqi forces while he considers forming a political movement, senior al-Sadr officials said Monday.
Al-Sadr has backed off other commitments in the past, but a truce would be a major victory for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi by removing a serious insurgency and potentially bringing many of the Shiite cleric's followers into the effort to build a peaceful democracy.
Sheik Ali Smeisim, a political adviser to al-Sadr, announced the cease-fire decision in Najaf, calling on the cleric's Mahdi Army militiamen to "stop firing until the announcement of the political program adopted by the Sadrist movement."
Jan 07, 2005 : 8:45 pm ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Supporters of Prime Ministerial Candidate Muqtada al-Sadr today continued to battle the political damage inflicted on their campaign by a group called “Shrine Lunatics For Truth.” The group has been running TV ads featuring former members of the Shiite resistance claiming that al-Sadr has exaggerated the extent of his involvement in the fighting in Najaf last year.
“He claimed that he personally shot down a Black Hawk helicopter,” said Mostafa al-O’Neil, a veteran of the Mahdi Army, “But no such thing happened. The man is not fit to lead his people.” Although the advertisements only ran on one small TV outlet in Mosul, their message has been amplified by constant discussion of the issue on talk radio and in the souks.
Campaign staff for al-Sadr insist that Shrine Lunatics For Truth (SLFT) is a front organization run by and on behalf of al-Sadr’s rival, Ali al-Sistani. “Just because some of our donors have contributed to SLFT does not mean that our organizations are acting in concert,” said Sistani’s campaign manager, Karl al-Rove. “And, OK, maybe some of the technical people who made the SLFT commercial have worked on some of our ads, but it’s a small world, am I right?”
Asked if it was true that the entire staff of SLFT was living in his garage and eating food prepared by his wife, al-Rove replied “You’re trying to make a connection that’s just not there. I have a lot of people living in my garage – Shrine Lunatics For Truth, the Iraqi National Assault Rifle, Bazooka, and Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery Association, (INARBALAAAA), and some Americans from the Heritage Foundation. You can’t hold me responsible for what they do, can you?”
The ads are reported to worry some in al-Sadr’s camp, as the campaign has been struggling enough already. They failed to get an expected “bounce” in poll numbers from the car-bomb assasination of the Kurdish candidate, and Sistani’s campaign has repeatedly characterized Sadr as “Wishy-Washy, Flip-Floppy, and vaguely Jewish-looking.”
Sistani, meanwhile, opens his nominating convention today in New York, a surprising and controversial choice, both because of its reputation as unholy center of debauchery, and because it is not part of Iraq. |
