Religious leaders tell al-Sadr to keep militia intact

CNN ^

[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.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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

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

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this:

Iranian Agents Directed Operations in Basra

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

[avacado]

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

[DGHoodini]

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

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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.

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[Allegra]

"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?"

[freema]

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

[freema]

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/