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Worries grow with expansion of Al-Sadr's army
AP ^ | December 7 2006

Posted on 12/07/2006 6:37:54 PM PST by jmc1969

The Iraq Study Group says the private army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr could be 60-thousand fighters strong.

Al-Sadr's Mahdi army is one of the concerns highlighted in the Iraq Study Group's report, released yesterday. It's one of many factions undermining U-S efforts to help Iraq's democracy gain control.

The study group says many of al-Sadr's followers are planted throughout the security forces that protect Iraqi government institutions.

And more worrisome than their numbers, which stood at ten-thousand in 2005, is al-Sadr's organizational ability. One terrorism expert says cell phones, Internet communications and other technology gives the Mahdi army an "enormous" ability to mobilize their forces.

And the panel worries that al-Sadr himself may not be able to manage his growing network.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alsadr; iraq; iraqstudygroup; isg; muqtada; opiraqifreedom
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To: jmc1969
A smart secular young Iraqi Army officer is going to have to step up

And he will become the next leader of Iraq. I hope he will see the US as a strategic ally.
41 posted on 12/07/2006 8:25:11 PM PST by RunningWolf (2-1 Cav 1975)
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To: Parrot_was_devastating

Ack! How did you get inside Hitlery's head like that?


42 posted on 12/07/2006 8:29:20 PM PST by Palladin ("Open a new window; open a new door; travel a new highway.")
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To: jmc1969

Al Sadr and bin Laden must be the laurel and hardy of terror.


43 posted on 12/07/2006 8:34:48 PM PST by swheats ( STAY VIGILANT! Our Victory still depends on you.)
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To: uncbob
Russia,China....Total Fina of France,
must be licking their chops at the prospect of getting back in on their lost Saddam Hussein given oil signatories.
The oil Giants from the 50's who split Iran 30% each [U.S.-Standard oil]/B.P. Dutch Royal Shell saw their fortunes returned when Mossadeq was couped and the Shah installed,
only to have all that go south.
Royal Dutch Shell may take a stake in Iran's 3bn barrel Yadavan oilfield as part of a development deal between China's Sinopec and Iran that it helped prepare, Reuters reported. The deal gives Shell an option to participate in the project, a spokesman is quoted as saying.

DRS quietly moving into Iran while U.S. and B.P. try to stay ahead of Shia and who so ever wills...Loot Iraqi oil.

There's alot of schemeing and theiving going on,
Chairs are definitely getting kicked accross the floor in some boardrooms.

44 posted on 12/07/2006 8:48:59 PM PST by Parrot_was_devastating
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To: jmc1969
The Middle East is all about raw power, not the rule of law. Our completely jacked-up post-invasion strategy failed to recognize this. We issued an arrest warrant for al-Sadr, but then decided it would be better to bring him into the political process. Thus, al-Sadr and the insurgents learned that we are weak.

We should have killed al-Sadr and all of his top "commanders" and put their heads on pikes for all to see. We won't do that because of liberal hand-wringing.

The problem is that everyone knows we won't fight Roman style, so we are destined to lose every one of these post-war pacifications in the Middle East. And this is why we will never stabilize Iraq. The Iraqis must do it, and they will after the sectarian groups fill the streets with the blood of their enemies and install the next tyrant.

45 posted on 12/07/2006 8:51:49 PM PST by adam_smith_76
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To: Palladin
Ack! How did you get inside Hitlery's head like that?

Guess you had to be there...
Bill said anything infront of me.....seldom turned the lights out.
Hillary wanted me dead......thought I knew too much.

I really caught hell from her after saying...

"Rakk!......Put Brown on the plane....Brown on the plane....nobody knows...nowbody knows"

46 posted on 12/07/2006 8:55:43 PM PST by Parrot_was_devastating
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To: Parrot_was_devastating

Certainly Gore-Chernomyrdin facilitated Russian money laundering. Gore being the junior of the Gore Protectors of Armand Hammer "Money Talks and It Speaks Russian".

And Strobe Russophile/Soviet Apologist Talbott looms large in the Clinton Janus' legend.

A remake of the rollicking hit of the 'Sixties "Road to Moscow"? Sure, why not.

It was Strobe Talbott who let Kapitan Man get the intel and get out of Dodge in 1997. 42 was being innaugurated the morning Pavel Borodin was arrested en route to that fete, 42 having accused Chernomyrdin of that money laundering in the debates, evoking the threat of lawsuit--unfulfilled after the Borodin shot.

The New Tone has looked into all of their eyes and seen a soul--but then, The New Tone is a hallucinogen.

In my view, The Clinton Janus and Uncle Vlad share the same tactical morality, i.e., say what must be said, kill whom must be killed, be very nice, bear any boredom, to insure the success of the Comintern.

Or to succeed with the intern.

Then there's that unresolved myth of the Money Plane.

Snakes, oil, and snake oil--yes, all that follows a Rod-'em regime change.

47 posted on 12/07/2006 9:06:37 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: Parrot_was_devastating


48 posted on 12/07/2006 9:12:56 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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bttt


49 posted on 12/07/2006 9:13:32 PM PST by eureka! (May the voters see the light next time.....)
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To: PhilDragoo
Dispelling Disinformation by William F. Jasper
excerpts:

Golitsyn is probably the most important Soviet defector ever to have reached the West. The reason for this is that he revealed the details of a long-range deception strategy of which the West previously had no knowledge. When debriefed, he emphasized, as he has done ever since, that because of his background of working within the "inner KGB" — a super-secret strategic planning department of which not even ordinary KGB officers were aware — he was uniquely qualified to inform the West about Soviet strategy. One of the superficial criticisms frequently made about Golitsyn is that he has been "out of the loop" since defecting to Finland with his wife and daughter in 1961, so how could he possibly know what was going on? People who say this reveal a failure to understand Golitsyn's significance, and what he has to offer the West.
In summary, Golitsyn's importance is that, unlike all other defectors, Golitsyn discusses and elaborates upon Soviet strategy. By contrast, defectors like Oleg Gordievsky discuss mundane matters concerning the manner of their "escape" from the Soviet Union, perhaps revealing valuable operational information in order to gain the confidence of (in Gordievsky's case) Britain's MI6, before inserting strategic disinformation in their output. Golitsyn is different. He has spent his years in the West explaining patiently that the Soviets follow Leninist strategic principles, and are engaged in a deadly long-term war against the West. The Soviet revolutionaries have followed Lenin's advice to "work by other means."
At a superficial but easily explained level, Golitsyn's public fame derives from the fact that in 1980, he completed a work called New Lies for Old, which was in fact published in 1984. This book contained explicit predictions concerning the future course of Soviet strategy, which events subsequently proved to have been correct. In his recent book, published in 1994, entitled Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA, Mark Riebling explained that after carrying out a careful analysis of Golitsyn's predictions in New Lies for Old, he had found that out of a total of 148 falsifiable predictions, 139 had been verified by 1993 — "an accuracy rating of 94%." This achievement places Golitsyn in a league of his own, putting most other observers to shame.

In his first letter to me, Golitsyn also wrote that "I think of sending you through my lawyer more extracts from my memos to CIA for possible publication in Soviet Analyst after this year's US presidential elections." I spent the summer and fall of 1992 wondering why he had made his decision to send me further Memoranda, dependent upon the outcome of the 1992 presidential election. After Clinton was elected, sure enough, we received a huge parcel (in early December 1992) containing well over 100 pages of his Memoranda to the CIA. It became apparent that Golitsyn felt that Clinton's election necessitated the publication of these Memoranda; and in his cover letter dated December 1992, he authorized me to quote from these documents in Soviet Analyst. In March 1993, it was agreed that I would edit the complete file of Memoranda to the CIA for publication. The Perestroika Deception is the consequence of our collaboration.

For those reading allong....as I know you are well aware of this Phil

Date: Thu, 15 Feb 96 16:13:40 EDT SUBJECT: IPS -COMMUNIST TIES
Hi All, I have a copy of the declassified FBI documents that tie the Clintons and many of their administration to a communist organization called the Institute For Policy Studies. In all there are more than 50 pages to this document file, so I'll do a summary.
It may take a few notes:
The Institute For Policy Studies was formed in 1963 by Peter Weiss and Cora Rubin, daughter of Samuel Rubin. The organization is funded by the Samuel Rubin Foundation. Samuel Rubin was a member of the Comintern of the Communist Party, which was the inner circle of Lenin, and helped foment the Russian peasants into revolt in 1917. He left Russia at some point during the revolution, and came to the U.S., where he made a fortune using the name, "Faberge", for his cosmetic company. The Faberge family, who were "White Russian" (non-communist), and who also fled Russia, sued Rubin for using their name for a company whose profits supported the spread of communism, and won a settlement. Rubin was assisted in his financial endeavors by billionaire Armand Hammer. Hammer has long been suspected of being a member of the Communist Party. After the downfall of the USSR, the KGB files were opened and Hammer's membership in the Communist Party was proven.
The Soviet publication, Izvestia, confirms that Armand Hammer was a Soviet agent, who personally carried the money from Lenin to the United States to establish the Communist Party USA. Back to the Institute For Policy Studies (IPS). The FBI has compiled 2705 pages of documents on this organization, 1743 of which are available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI has withheld 962 pages of documents, and one of the reasons given is, "specifically authorized by an Executive (Presidential) Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense." Another reason for withholding the 962 documents was given as follows.... "Records or information were compiled for law enforcement purposes and could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source." "The IPS is described as a Washinton-based "Think Factory", which helped train extremist who incite violence in the United States and whose educational research serves as a cover for intrigue and political agitation" (FBI file 175-398).
Another description given is that the "IPS apparently exercises considerable influence in the New Left Movement and may have as its goal the destruction of the United States Government/" Mainstream media, usually very liberal, has described the IPS as follows: Wall Street Journal... "A funnel for disinformation", Forbes.... "A radical Washington propaganda mill", National Review... "The perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if they were to originate openly from the KGB." DEREK SHEARER, a member of IPS, has been described as one of Bill Clinton's closest friends. Roger Altman (former Sec. of Treasury) stated, "Derek is a very old and close friend of Bill Clinton's, and among the advisors he is probably the oldest and closest friend." George Stephanopolis describes Shearer as both "a friend and advisor". Derek Shearer is the step-brother of Strobe Talbott, who was the former editor of TIME magazine, and Bill Clinton's roommate at Oxford. Derek's sister, Brooke Shearer, is a very close friend of Hillary Clinton, and is her frequent travelling companion. Prior to the 1992 election, Clinton appointed Shearer as his top economic advisor (Wall Street Journal - Sept. 11, 1992).
In 1980, Shearer wrote a book titled, "Economic Democracy: The Challange of the 1980's", in which he explained, "Socialism has a bad name in America and no amount of wishful thinking is going to change that... the words, economic democracy are an adequate replacement." Shearer proposed the economic dismantling of American's free enterprise system and that all businesses be controlled by government socialist planners. Shearer states that his 'economic democracy' is fashioned in part according to the teachings of Antonio Gramsci, founder of the Italian Communist Party, and one of this century's formost Marxist theoreticians (from Shearer's book). In the 1970's Derek Shearer created and ran the platform of Tom Hayden in Santa Monica, California. The platform was called the Campaign for Economic Democracy. Shearer's wife was elected mayor of Santa Monica, and she appointed Derek and fellow activists to the City Commission. Shearer's anti-business edicts crippled Santa Monica's economy and earned that city the nickname of the "Peoples Republic of Santa Monica." Shearer has spoken of a plan to elect a socialist minded President who would help advance his Economic Democracy program (National Review, Sept. 14, 1992). STROBE TALBOTT, as mentioned above, is the step-brother of Derek Shearer, and formerly an editor of TIME magazine, and earlier a roommate of Bill Clinton's at Oxford. Talbott is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Since it's founding in 1921, the CFR has been dedicated to forming a socialist world government under the auspices of the U.N. Other members of the CFR, include IPS co-founder, Richard Barnet, and Cora Rubin (dau. of Samuel Rubin), Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and most of Clinton's cabinet. LEON PANETTA, LES ASPIN, and ANTHONY LAKE are all members of the IPS, with Anthony Lake serving in the capacity of instructor at the Washington-based school. All three are CFR members as well. MORTON HALPRIN, a member of IPS, was considered (but rejected) as Assistant Secretary of Defense under Aspin. Halprin has been one of the foremost supporters of turning U.S. troops over to the U.N. command. Halprin was a friend and assistant of Frank Donner, a member of the Communist Party USA, who advocated the dissolution of all U.S. intelligence agencies. EDWARD F. FEIGHAN (D-Ohio, retired) was Bill Clinton's campaign Communications Director. Feighan has worked closely with both the IPS and the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), which was co- founded by Jahn Gerassi and Michael Locker of Castro's Venceremos Brigade (FBI File SF 100-66966 AIRTEL & FBI file NYFO #105-86160). NACLA recieved major funding from IPS, and has become a direct support group for Marxist insurgencies worldwide. JOHNETTA COLE is closely associated with IPS and other anti-American groups. Cole was in a leadership role in the Pro-Castro Vencenemos Brigade, which was controlled by the Communist Party USA in conjunction with Havana. She was a founding sponsor of the U.S. Peace Council, a Communist Party USA front organization. HILLARY CLINTON first had contact with the IPS while at Yale. She served on the board of editors of the quarterly, Yale Review of Law and Social Action. The Spring 1970 issue featured and aricle by IPS director Robert Borosage. While serving as Director and Chair of the Board of the New World Foundation in 1987/1988 Hillary Clinton gave money to several far left groups including IPS. In addition, Hillary Clinton gave money money to pro-communist groups, who were closely associated with IPS. Hillary gave $5000.00 to the Committee in Support of the People of El Salvador (CISPES - a supporter of Marxist Salavadoran guerillas), and which has been classified as a communist front organization. Hillary gave $15,000.00 to the National Lawyers Guild, an official adjunct of the Communist Party USA. Committee on Un-American Activities, House Report 3123 on National Lawyers Guild - 1950: "NLG is the foremost legal bulwark of the Communist Party (and) it's front organizations (which) since its inception has never failed to rally to the legal defense of the Communist Party and individual members thereof, including known espionage agents." IPS Chairman, Peter Weiss, served on the Board of Trustees of the National Lawyers Guild.

50 posted on 12/07/2006 9:49:26 PM PST by Parrot_was_devastating
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To: PhilDragoo

See.....Baker/Hamilton.....Gates too,....are jealous of Bill,
Seeing that Bill has not had dinner in Tehran [That we know of : )]
They will!

51 posted on 12/07/2006 10:02:15 PM PST by Parrot_was_devastating
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To: Dog Gone

[These ain't elite fighters.]

No, by by golly they're awful good dancers. http://sacredscoop.com


52 posted on 12/07/2006 10:52:47 PM PST by CottShop
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To: jmc1969
Sad in away, hundreds of FReepers two years ago, tried to tell the administration that al Sadr's private army had to go.

Just shows that FReepers were way ahead of the times.
53 posted on 12/07/2006 11:00:01 PM PST by OKIEDOC (Kalifornia now a certified socialist state reporting to Mexico City for further instructions)
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To: adam_smith_76
We should have killed al-Sadr and all of his top "commanders" and put their heads on pikes for all to see. We won't do that because of liberal hand-wringing.

As long as the MSM leads the American public around by the nose and Bush and the GOP are not willing to take them head on and as longs as Arab oil 44 buys so many US political figures we are NOT going to be able to ever again win a war by fighting it properly
54 posted on 12/08/2006 5:14:25 AM PST by uncbob (m first)
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To: jmc1969
The expansion of Al-Sadr's army, in influx of foreign fighters, the Saudi backed Sunni, the Iranian backed Shia's, and the Baker report wanting to cut our troops in half (in Iraq) to flail in the wind. remove major maneuver brigades and let a handful of Special Forces and support personnel stay there?

I don't like what's going on one bit.
55 posted on 12/08/2006 6:31:26 AM PST by corlorde (New Hampshire)
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To: jmc1969

Al Sadr's "army" is the principal proof of the pathetic job the Pentagon Pussies have done in Iraq. He should have been shot in the head on day one. The WWII vets must be disgusted over the P.C. brand of "war" we wage today. In May 1945 we killed 100,000 civilians in Tokyo in a single night without a nuke. In Iraq we send our guys door to door like Avon ladies to avoid the bad press of "collateral damage". It is just disgusting. The armchair faggots who run our military are not wrothy of our brave fighting men and women.


56 posted on 12/08/2006 6:51:42 AM PST by montag813
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To: montag813

BUMP


57 posted on 12/08/2006 1:26:50 PM PST by Palladin ("Open a new window; open a new door; travel a new highway.")
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To: Parrot_was_devastating
B.P. has some of its Iraqi oil signatory back....but that is in Shia south....so how secure is that : )

Something tells me that (assuming you've ever been there) you already know that. But given that Shia's will politically dominate Iraq, they're better off being in the Shia south than in Sunni territory.
58 posted on 12/08/2006 4:47:04 PM PST by dr_who_2
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To: Parrot_was_devastating; potlatch; devolve; ntnychik; Smartass; bitt; dixiechick2000; Grampa Dave
Some light is thrown on the work of Armand Hammer in Edward Jay Epstein, DOSSIER: The Secret History of Armand Hammer, Carroll & Graf, 1996.

Reference to false Perestroika is made by Col. Stanislav Lunev in Christopher Ruddy & Carl Limbacher, Jr., eds., Bitter Legacy: NewsMax.com Reveals The Untold Story Of The Clinton-Gore Years, NewsMax.com Vortex, 2001.

It is a safe assumption that Bill and Hillary the Clinton Janus are wired into the international post-Communist movement, altogether with Talbott et al of their entourage.

59 posted on 12/08/2006 7:15:36 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: potlatch; PhilDragoo; ntnychik; MeekOneGOP; dixiechick2000; Grampa Dave; Interesting Times; ...



60 posted on 12/08/2006 7:43:54 PM PST by devolve ( ....terminate_liberal_media_&_dempols)
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