It seems the occupiers' options are severely limited: if al Sadr is arrested it's easy to predict more violence as his followers demand his release. If he's killed and, thereby, becomes a matyr it will almost surely mean more resistance.
Yet, as the controlling authority, concerned with 'credibility', the US cannot ignore al Sadr's provocations (or perhaps counter-provocations is more accurate).
The bloody ironies pile one atop the other -- the US, armed to the teeth with enough killing gear to knock alien spacecraft from the sky is backed into an operational corner by a (we're repeatedly told) minor cleric with a relatively small following. Meanwhile, the more widely respected al Sistani tries to keep the lid, now violently rattling as pressure mounts, from blowing completely off and ruining his politically-centered plans for acquiring power. But the question is, if the US comes down hard with its customary rain of fire on al Sadr and his adherents -- fellow religionists of Sistani's followers -- how long will the lid stay in place? How long before the wider Shiite community decides to put down the protest signs and pick up the Kalashinikov?
The superpower plots and plans but as always, merciless chaos, no respecter of JDAM ordinance or Stealth bombers throws an indestructible monkey wrench into the mechanism of social engineering and control.
.D.
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Monday, April 05, 2004
Muqtada Under Siege, US Helicopters Patrol Skies above East Baghdad
Sistani calls for calm
In the aftermath of one of the most turbulent days yet in American-occupied Iraq, the London daily al-Hayat reports that American helicopters were deployed late Sunday against the Army of the Mahdi militia of Muqtada al-Sadr in East Baghdad.
It said that Muqtada al-Sadr had withdrawn into his mosque in Kufa, south of Baghdad, for a spiritual "retreat," and that it was reported that Coalition military forces had surrounded the mosque. (Mosques are considered sanctuaries in the Muslim world, and there are always protests when they are invaded by security forces or military troops).
Agence France Presse reported that an aide close to Sistani said, ' The Ayatollah has called on the Shia demonstrators to remain calm, to keep a cool head and allow the problem to be resolved through negotiation," the source said. "Ali Sistani also called on the demonstrators not to retaliate against the occupation forces in the event of an aggression . . ." Nevertheless, the revered cleric believes "the demonstrators’ demands are legitimate," and "condemns acts waged by the occupation forces and pledges his support to the families of the victims", the source said. '
Ash-sharq al-Awsat also reports that the gunfire at Najaf broke out when demonstrators began throwing stones at Spanish-speaking troops and Iraqi police, and the latter replied by firing at the protesters. The Salvadoran troops that were involved probably had no training in crowd control, and the Salvadoran military has a poor human rights record, so the US decision to deploy them there may have been a big political miscalculation.
If you want irony, and provocative irony, it turns out that the Plus Ultra base where the Sadrists protested was called "al-Andalus." That is a reference to Arab Spain, to which the Catholics of the Reconquista put a bloody end in 1492. Although much has been written about the Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in the aftermath, it is not realized that many more Muslims stayed and were forced to convert under the watchful eye of the Inquisition. For the Plus Ultra to call their base Andalus is in incredibly bad taste, and shows the sort of triumphalist mentality that has accompanied the Bush administration's rehabilitation of "empire." Unfortunately, naming things is not as easy as actually controlling imperial subjects.
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full at -
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Arrest Warrant Issued for Radical Iraq Cleric
Dan Senor said the arrest warrant had been issued several months ago. U.S. officials have accused Sadr of inciting violence, and shut down his newspaper in Baghdad last week.
Asked when Sadr would be arrested, Senor said: "There will be no advance warning." One of his senior aides was detained on Saturday in relation to the same assassination.
Sadr commands strong support among Iraq's majority Shi'ites, especially urban poor in Baghdad who rally to his anti-occupation rhetoric and his promises that Shi'ites once oppressed by Saddam Hussein will come to dominate Iraq. The warrant links him to the murder of Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, hacked to death at a Najaf mosque in April 2003 by a mob that also killed one of Khoei's aides. Senior clerics at the time blamed the killings on a group linked to Sadr. Sadr's group denied the charge.
Coalition forces detained Sadr's aide Mustapha Yacoubi at his Najaf home Saturday. His detention stoked anti-American demonstrations across Iraq, many of which turned violent.
At least 48 Iraqis, eight American soldiers and one Salvadoran were killed in clashes in Baghdad and Najaf Sunday.
from -
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040405/ts_nm/iraq_arrest_dc_2>