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Al-Sadr Pulls Thugs Off Streets, Media Despair

From a deeply disappointed Reuters:

Iraq’s Sadr orders followers off streets

Sun Mar 30, 2008

By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq March 30 (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers on Sunday to stop battling government forces after a week of fighting in Iraq’s south and the capital threatened to spiral out of control.

The government immediately welcomed Sadr’s statement, saying it would help the authorities impose security in Iraq.

A government crackdown on Sadr’s followers in the southern oil port of Basra has sparked an explosion of violence that risks undoing recent improvements in Iraq’s fragile security and jeopardising U.S. plans to withdraw troops.

"Because of the religious responsibility, and to stop Iraqi blood being shed … we call for an end to armed appearances in Basra and all other provinces," Sadr said in a statement given to journalists by his aides in the holy Shi’ite city of Najaf.

"Anyone carrying a weapon and targeting government institutions will not be one of us," the statement said.

Sadr also called on the government to stop "random illegal arrests" of his followers and to implement an amnesty law passed by Iraq’s parliament in February to free prisoners…

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered Shi’ite fighters in Basra to lay down their arms and has extended a 72-hour deadline until April 8 for them to turn over heavy and medium weapons in return for cash.

But a top aide to Sadr, Hazem al-Araji, said Mehdi Army fighters would not hand over their guns. He also said that Sadr’s followers had received a guarantee from the government that it would end "random arrests" of Sadr followers.

"As the government of Iraq we welcome this statement," Maliki’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said in response to Sadr’s comments. "We believe this will support the government of Iraq’s efforts to impose security." …

Alas, this was our watchdog media’s last best hope for a US defeat.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 6:44 am. You can leave a response.

3 Responses to “Al-Sadr Pulls Thugs Off Streets, Media Despair”

  1. JohnMG
    March 31st, 2008 at 9:11 am

    Dollars for guns?!! A lot of US cities tried this scam to no avail. It’s another of those ideas that sounds so good on paper but doesn’t work. I’ve got a better idea. How about we give them a token payment for their weapons and then fit the participants with a highly potent explosive micro-chip. That way when the crap starts up again, we merely press one button on a cell phone and all the trouble is over.

    And another thing. Why do we get such clear pictures of these assholes with their RPG’s from our patriotic media sources. Maybe these seekers of “truth and justice” should be carrying something for neutralizing those turds, rather than immortalizing them on celluloid.

  2. Gila Monster
    April 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 am

    This opinion / article concerning Mookie and Basra was linked over at AofSHQ;

    http://tinyurl.com/3d8k3g

    An interesting and insightful take on the a**-whuppin’ received by Sadr’s Mahdi army in Basra and the real reasons behind it.

    The ‘Intifada’ That Wasn’t

    I won that wager. I had written that “the Iraqi Army’s military operation in Basra will be a spectacular win against disorder and Iranian influence”. And I was right.

    Of course, most western media outlets are declaring Muqtada al-Sadr and Iran as the victors of Operation Cavalry Charge. Nothing could be furthest from the truth.

    The United Alliance List delegation comprising Ali al-Adib of the Da’awa Party, Hadi al-Ameri of the Badr Organization and (I think…) Qasim al-Sahlani representing a group that had splintered from the Da’awa Party, evidently made al-Sadr an offer he couldn’t refuse when they sat down for a friendly chat in Tehran two days ago: the Iraqi state was willing to go all the way in smashing the Sadrist movement—arresting all the leaders and shutting down all the offices—if he didn’t play along with Operation Cavalry Charge and hand over those operatives whose names appear on the wanted lists.

    See Maliki went to Basra with a long-ish list of names comprising all those involved in oil smuggling, drug dealing and the various other crimes that have wracked Basra. It just so happens that many of them claim to be Mahdi Army commanders.

    This is what I wrote a couple of days ago:

    The Mahdi Army in Basra is only an army in the sense that ‘soldiers’ and ‘cappos’ are rankings in the Cosa Nostra. These organized crime cartels serve many purposes, chief among which is getting rich quick. There’s ample opportunity for mischief in Basra and plenty to pilfer and smuggle: oil, arms, drugs, and whatever happens to fall off a truck leaving the port, after the truck itself had been “re-routed”. So there’s plenty of money and very little law enforcement—kind of like that Scorsese movie, Gangs of New York. Maliki made the calculation that he can take on these cartels and withstand the wrath of the other affiliated Mafiosi ‘familias’ that got unleashed in other parts of Iraq. The criminal syndicate knows that once Operation Cavalry Charge squashes their sweet set-up in Basra, then other pockets of criminality are going to be next, so that’s why they are going to the mattresses.

    Well, so far several dozen of these Most Wanted folks have been killed, while tens of others are wounded or in hiding. At least 50 of them are under arrest. The outbreak of violence in places other than Basra was an occasion for the Iraqi Army and police to act on arrest warrants that have been outstanding since 2004, for example, several such dangerous outlaws were taken into custody in Karbala and Hillah.

    http://tinyurl.com/3ay377

    Read the whole post, it’s definitely worth the time. Kazimi makes several key points and his conclusions undoubtedly hold water.
    It’s unfortunate our vaunted MSM can’t take the time to do real journalism instead of their constant recitation of DNC talking points.

  3. 1republicanscientist
    April 3rd, 2008 at 11:15 am

    When is the MSM ever going to be held responsible for their actions? They want to advance the DNC agenda without any regards to the cost. George snuffalufagus laid out what the dims needed to do over the next 4 years (this was after GW won his second term) in order to win the presidency: make the Iraq war look like a failure, make the economy look bad, and get folks angry over waterboarding (they can kiss my ass about that one) and, to borrow a trick from our sickening MSM, and “illegal” wiretapping of terrorists communications. Well, look at what they’ve done. The problem is, by accomplishing these goals, innocent Iraqis and soldiers have died doing very dangerous work the MSM just makes more dangerous, housing market is supposedly collapsing, and all we hear about is waterboarding (which I give no shit about/I’m more distraught about the enemy method of sawing heads off). Problem is people are dying and going broke in the process.


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