First Video Interview Since Uprising: Newly Skinny Al Sadr: “I Am In Control!”
Related: “The Shiite Tet”
Related: U.S. Continues To Bomb The Shit Out Of Basra
Apparently, he isn’t fat anymore either…the video is down a few paragraphs
BAGHDAD (AP) - A feisty Muqtada al-Sadr, making his first public appearance since May, said in a TV interview aired Saturday that he was in almost total control of the Mahdi Army and that the “liberation” of Iraq was his militia’s chief goal.
The radical Shiite cleric also said the impact of the U.S. presence on Iraq was more negative than that of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Al-Sadr alleged that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, was as “distant” from the people of Iraq as Saddam’s Sunni-led regime. The government, he said, was “looking after its own interests, not those of the people.”
Al-Sadr’s interview with Al-Jazeera, conducted in an undisclosed location, came as violence was on the rise as part of a nationwide backlash by the Mahdi Army to the government’s attempt to crush Shiite militias and criminal gangs in the southern port of Basra.
In the interview, the 34-year-old al-Sadr appeared to have lost a great deal of weight but none of his hallmark confrontational style, frequently interrupting or correcting the interviewer.
Al-Sadr is widely thought to be spending his time between Iran’s holy city of Qom and Najaf, another holy Shiite city south of Baghdad. But nothing in the room where the interview took place offered a hint of his location.
He and the interviewer, well known Al-Jazeera reporter Ghassan Bin Jidou, sat on bamboo armed chairs with a coffee table between them. Behind al-Sadr was a brown cabinet with several volumes of Nahj al- Balagha, a work of philosophy by Imam Ali, the seventh century cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and the founder of the Shiite faith.
Al-Sadr said his withdrawal from public view was motivated in part by his desire to focus on his studies to become a mujtahid, or a religious authority.
But he made clear that he remained in charge of his political movement—his loyalists have 30 of parliament’s 275 seats—by personally overseeing the work of a ruling committee.
“Who among you doesn’t want me to be a mujtahid?” he said. “I have given the community five years (of my life), now I want a few years to study.”
He warned against interpreting his seclusion to be a sign of weakness and said the overwhelming majority of the Mahdi Army was “under control.” Those who broke away from the militia, he added, “always came back to the fold and repented.”
Differences between the government and al-Sadr’s supporters came to a head after hundreds of arrests by U.S. and Iraqi forces of al-Sadr supporters that U.S. commanders say are members of Iran-linked cells attacking American soldiers.
In the interview, al-Sadr said the militia’s “strategic objective” was “the liberation of Iraq from the occupier,” meaning the Americans. He outlined the aims of his political movement, saying he wants to rid Iraq of sectarian politics, prevent its breakup and create an Islamic society.
Mahdi Army commanders say their militia has been taking delivery of arms and cash from Iran, but al-Sadr sought to distance himself from the Iranians, saying he has recently told Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, that he did not approve of the “political and military interests” that Tehran pursued in Iraq.
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Sniffing his fingers…..wonder where he’s had them?
March 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pmPicking his ass and smelling his fingers. That’s about all this interview is about. Kill the little Hitler.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pmTake him out.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pmSudden weight loss most likely due to AIDS.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pmThey will fight to the death then die they must!
March 29th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Could be diabetes as well…
March 29th, 2008 at 5:33 pmBooger picking moron.
Why can’t we/somebody just off this fuck and we be done with him? Not like anybody would really miss him.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pmSo he’s now basically daring the CG and MNF to take out his Army? Smart move, stupid, smart move!
March 29th, 2008 at 7:00 pm“Who among you doesn’t want me to be a mujtahid?”
March 29th, 2008 at 7:17 pmI don’t, I want you dead tonight, knuckledragger.
Sudden weight loss? So thats what hes been doing in Iran, “Persias Biggest Loser”.
March 29th, 2008 at 8:03 pmIraqis fucking hate al-Sadr and the JAM
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Iraq/ss/events/ts/082701iraqplane/im:/080329/photos_wl/2008_03_29t121213_450×355_us_iraq/
If you can hold a demonstration thing must be kinda stable.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pmSome of al-Sadrs fighters take up malikis offer to surrender.
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=74628&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1
Suck that you fat shit.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pmBill roggio estimates 2.5% of al-Sadrs gang gone allready.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/03/mahdi_army_taking_si.php
“With the fifth day of fighting in Baghdad, Basrah and the South completed, the Mahdi Army has suffered major losses over the past 36 hours. The Mahdi Army has not faired well over the past five days of fighting, losing an estimated two percent of its combat power, using the best case estimate for the size of the militia.
A look at the open source press reports from the US and Iraqi military and the established newspapers indicates 134 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 81 were wounded, 98 were captured, and 30 surrendered during the past 36 hours.
Since the fighting began on Tuesday 347 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 531 were wounded, 343 were captured, and 30 surrendered. The US and Iraqi security forces have killed 125 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad alone, while Iraqi security forces have killed 140 Mahdi fighters in Basra.
While the size of the Mahdi Army is a constant source of debate, media accounts often put the Mahdi Army at anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 fighters. With an estimated 1,000 Mahdi fighters killed, captured, wounded and surrendered, the Mahdi Army has taken an attrition rate of 1.5 to 2.5 percent over the past five days. “
March 29th, 2008 at 9:34 pmStupid fucks at Foxnews.com think an AC-130 is a jet. Under a link called “U.S. Jets Kill 16 Insurgents in Basra”
…is a story that says…
“An AC-130 gunship then opened fire on enemy positions on three roofs.
“Initial reports indicate 16 criminal fighters were killed,” he said in an e-mail response to a query by The Associated Press”
March 29th, 2008 at 9:38 pmI ment to say:
Iraqis fucking hate al-Sadr and the JAM. CHECK OUT SLIDE 9
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Iraq/ss/events/ts/082701iraqplane/im:/080329/photos_wl/2008_03_29t121213_450×355_us_iraq/
If you can hold a demonstration thing must be kinda stable.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:34 pm“al-Sadr sought to distance himself from the Iranians, saying he has recently told Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, that he did not approve of the “political and military interests” that Tehran pursued in Iraq.”
Isnt shithead admitting here that Iran is tinkering around inside Iraq? Good talking point here for when you have to argue with a leftard about Iran. Even Al Sader admits it, and the AP dope let it slip out that
“Mahdi Army commanders say their militia has been taking delivery of arms and cash from Iran.”
This is an excellent piece that everyone should keep handy.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pmHey Bash…..I swear Mookie is in training for the train ride from the well to Tehran.
March 30th, 2008 at 3:39 amHe must be killed, if not you’re looking at the new Iraqi dictator. He’ll start killing off the Iraqi government the minute our troops pull out.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:17 am