well we could use him for the next live action popeye.
Posted on 02/20/2008 1:39:43 AM PST by Jet Jaguar
BAGHDAD (AP) - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift by the end of the week a six-month cease-fire widely credited with helping reduce violence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday.
Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended "then that means the freeze is over."
The cease fire was declared in August and due to expire at this month's end.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq. The crux of the message being sent by the organization was that al-Sadr followers would be free to resume their activities if no message was sent by the cleric on Feb. 23.
According to al-Obeidi, this "has been conveyed to all Mahdi Army members nationwide."
The threat was confirmed by another al-Sadr official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The U.S. military has welcomed the cease-fire, saying it is a major factor in the estimated 60 percent decline in violence in the country in the second half of 2007.
But the military has insisted on continuing to stage raids against what it calls Iranian-backed breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army militia, and anger among the cleric's followers has been building.
Influential members of al-Sadr's movement said recently that they had urged the anti-U.S. cleric to call off the cease-fire when it expires.
Al-Sadr's followers claim the U.S.-Iraqi raids, particularly in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala, are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement.
The maverick cleric announced earlier this month that he would not renew the order unless the Iraqi government purges "criminal gangs" operating within security forces he claims are targeting his followers.
That was a reference to rival Shiite militiamen from the Badr Brigade who have infiltrated security forces participating in the ongoing crackdown. The Badr Brigade and the Mahdi Army also are involved in a violent power struggle for control of the oil-rich south.
Hmmm...Dead man talking or time for the lock up?
Either way...Al-Sadr wins today’s STUCK ON STUPID award.
Well put.
Thank you Jet Jaguar.
Would someone please rid Iraq of this evil man?
Sadr’s head should be on a pike. One of our biggest failures in Iraq.
At least if violence kicks back up again the Iraqi people will know why and he’ll be an even more widely hated.
If this assclown and his crazy suicidal minions decide to once again start killing will we finally have the moxie to kill his sorry butt? Or will we play politics still?
Killing him would just make a martyr out of him.
I think it's time.
(Cut off the head, you kill the entire snake....)
Thin line between martyr and horrible example. Either works with me.Still think he looks like a little boy didler.
His folks killed my Nephew. I don’t give a damn about this fat turds martyrdom
Certainly not Sir Bush.
Doing it now would be a waste of the potential.
No more Mr. Niceguy.
New leaders in town.
Oh goodie....
well we could use him for the next live action popeye.
I wonder what He wants, Maybe its not that much
Way past time , he assumed room temperature.
hell our unit had him in our sector in oifII , I can only speculate higher-ups didnt want us to engage him. We will back in area around the time this cease-fire is lifed.
Why isn’t this guy room temperature yet?
19 Feb. PM
A U.S. Army major who calls KSFO (San Francisco) regularly from Iraq has just called in to the Brian Sussman show (6:00PM to 8:00PM weekdays) to report that he just returned from a mission on the Turkey-Iraq border.
U.S. Army forces "took out the trash" so Turkey would not have to do it.
One-hundred-and-forty-four PKK terrorist were killed or captured. Many, according to the Major, were Iranians. Based upon what he said it sounded like that it was a two-week mission but he did not say if U.S. forces are still there.
Other comments by the major strongly indicated that the U.S. does not want Turkey to enter Iraq even though the incursion would be there at the border and the Turk mission would be to get the PKK terrorists.
Just in case someone doesn't know the PKK terrorists (and named as such by our State Dept.) are Marxist revolutionaries and have been active in Turkey for almost thirty years. They've occupied mountainous areas right on the border for years. In recent weeks they have killed numerous Turks after crossing into Turkey and escaping back into Iraq.
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