Juan Cole:. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr says US has file on Twelfth Iman

[RedEarth]

In a worrisome sign that Muqtada al-Sadr has gone deep into an apocalyptic sense of the end of the world , al-Zaman reports that the young nationalist Shiite cleric maintained that the US Department of Defense has compiled an enormous file on the hidden Twelfth Imam, that is virtually complete save that it lacks his photograph.



Al-Sadr said during his Friday prayer sermon in Kufa that "The United States has been preparing for ten years a rapid reaction force against the awaited Imam Mahdi and the US provoked the Gulf War so as to fill the region with military outposts for this purpose."

Of the recent arrest in Najaf by the US forces of his lieutenant, Salah al-Ubaidi, Muqtada alleged, "This is an extension of the attacks on Islam." He added, "Have you asked yourselves what the US has given the Iraqi people save the killing and destruction that you see? . . . That is only a preparation for the advent of the Imam Mahdi."

Oliver Poole reports from Baghdad that the Mahdi Army militia of Muqtada al-Sadr had taken over gasoline stations in Baghdad and were smuggling petroleum from them, earning $1 mn. a day. Apparently the US considers the Sadrists' control of the Ministry of Transportation worrisome in this regard. Muqtada seems to be losing control of local branches of the Mahdi Army, often to Shiite clerics who have taken a more radical position vis-a-vis the new government and the Americans than has he. An example is Abu Dara' in Baghdad, said to be extremely violent


http://www.juancole.com/2006/09/3000-demonstrate-in-tikrit-for-saddam.html

[Bucky]

1. Wow, it's like we have our own Arafat now

Remember how Yasser Arafat was always caught in a tug-o-war between efforts by the occupiers who wanted him to moderate and negotiate on their terms and his own ultraradical underlings and would-be usurpers who suspected that he was going to sell out their cause?

In the end, who won in the Palestinian struggle between accomodationists and violent militarists?