This religios leader is the guy who convinced the shiites to vote against a islamic government. Sistani is hard to read and leaving Mookie alive seems to have stripped him (sistani) of a lot of his power.
Sistanis previous appearances as a "moderate secular" regarding the Govt-to-be was just Taqqiya type posturing so as to allow the shia in Iraq to consolidate their power and logistics.....Bremer and Senor et all got chumped and got out while the gittin' was good.