Replies

Press Conference Update:

I have been told that the Sinclair broadcasting group will be in attendance as well as someone from the Financial Times.

C-Span will not be covering the story.

We expect to have a satellite up-link and you should be able to view the press conference in streaming video Friday. I have also been told that full transcripts of the press conference will be made available.

If you know of journalist who can attend please send them to the press release below.

The sectarian war Shia-Sunni is increasing in Iraq (as well as in Pakistan):

ANSAR AL-SUNNAH ARMY CLAIMS IT BEHEADED SHI'ITE WORKER. The military wing of the Ansar Al-Sunnah Army posted a videotape and statement to an Islamic website (http://www.alhesbah.org) on 12 October claiming to have captured and beheaded an Iraqi Shi'ite working for multinational forces. The man, Ala' al-Maliki, "confessed" in the videotape to having worked in the "Citizens Claims Office" established by U.S. forces to collect and buy weapons from Iraqis.

Al-Maliki said he was a follower of deceased Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr and claimed to have close ties to al-Sadr organizations. The Ansar Al-Sunnah Army said in a statement: "The lions of monotheism and protectors of the faith captured one of the most dangerous spies named Ala' al-Maliki.... He collected weapons and ammunition and handed them over to the Crusader U.S. forces with the intent to deplete the market." The group also accused al-Maliki of "liquidating" many Sunnis. "He confessed that an undisclosed relationship exists between al-Sadr's movement and the U.S. forces." "After completing his interrogation...the mujahedin implemented the verdict of God and beheaded him to make him an example to others," the statement said. The militant group said it beheaded a Turkish contractor and his Iraqi Kurdish translator on 11 October (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 October 2004). KR

source: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 194, Part III, 13 October 2004