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Religious leaders tell al-Sadr to keep militia intact
CNN ^

Posted on 04/07/2008 7:08:37 PM PDT by james500

Iraq's top Shiite religious leaders have told anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr not to disband his Mehdi Army, an al-Sadr spokesman said Monday amid fresh fighting in the militia's Baghdad strongholds.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded Sunday that the cleric disband his militia, which waged two uprisings against U.S. troops in 2004, or see his supporters barred from public office.

But al-Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi said al-Sadr has consulted with Iraq's Shiite clerical leadership "and they refused that." He did not provide details of the talks.

The Mehdi Army has borne the brunt of an Iraqi government crackdown on what Iraqi and U.S. officials call "outlaw" militias in the past two weeks. The government's effort to reclaim control of the southern city of Basra in late March sparked clashes across southern Iraq and into Baghdad, leaving more than 700 dead, according to U.N. agencies.

Al-Sadr's followers have accused the government, which is dominated by al-Sadr's leading rivals, of trying to cripple their movement before provincial elections in October.

The Sadrists hold about 30 seats in Iraq's 275-member parliament and were part of al-Maliki's ruling coalition until August. The cleric withdrew his support over al-Maliki's refusal to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alsadr; iran; iraq; sadr
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To: rockinqsranch; james500; TWohlford; homeguard; avacado; ShoreMark; LiberConservative; ...
This is an example of how the Bad Guys use our Media to peddle false stories....turned this up from LWJ:

Sadr did not refer dissolving al-Mahdi army to top Shiite clerics

***********************

Reporting was done by Local Iraqi news,....Roggio found it but CNN did NOT!!!

21 posted on 04/08/2008 10:46:13 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: VanShuyten
See this:

Iranian Agents Directed Operations in Basra

Included is background on the Iranina organized structure they are using in Iraq.....

22 posted on 04/08/2008 10:49:32 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (No Burkas for my Grandaughters!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Yeah I saw that one. CNN trying to pull a fast one right before General Petraeus testifies.


23 posted on 04/08/2008 10:49:50 AM PDT by avacado (Thomas Sowell: "Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.")
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Well, My reply to this,when I hrad about it was:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Religious leaders tell al-Sadr to keep militia intact
Monday, April 07, 2008 11:21:54 PM · 15 of 23
DGHoodini to james500

Two points of interest to me:

1. When this first came up, Sadrs people said he would consult Sistani “and Top clerics in Qom” instead of saying Khamenei.

2. Now he says “top Iraqi clerics” instead of Sistani. when saying that disbanding was “denied”.

This smells like rotting fish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


24 posted on 04/08/2008 11:34:40 AM PDT by DGHoodini (Tin eared zeroes and Hollypukes comin...)
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To: freema
"The cleric withdrew his support over al-Maliki's refusal to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops."

This sounds vaguely familiar /sarc

Who's signature is on this reporter's check?

Maybe the same lib's who is signing checks for the "clerics?"

25 posted on 04/08/2008 3:01:29 PM PDT by Allegra (Tehran delenda est)
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To: Allegra

If al-Maliki ‘decides’ to re-deploy his followers to Okinawa, we’ll know fer sure ; )


26 posted on 04/08/2008 3:38:52 PM PDT by freema (Proud Marine Niece, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Sister, Cousin, Mom and FRiend)
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To: RedRover; Girlene; Brian Rooney; Chickenhawk Warmonger; Cannoneer No. 4

PropagandaPing to Post #21, this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998637/posts,
and this:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/08/sadrist-spokesman-why-we-never-said-anything-about-letting-clerics-decide-the-fate-of-the-mahdi-army/


27 posted on 04/08/2008 7:39:00 PM PDT by freema (Proud Marine Niece, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Sister, Cousin, Mom and FRiend)
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