http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080419/ts_nm/iraq_dc
'Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened an "open war" against the Iraqi government unless it halted a crackdown by Iraqi and U.S. security forces on his followers....
Sadr issued his warning after Iraqi soldiers swooped on the Mehdi Army's stronghold in Basra. Iraqi officials said they now controlled the bastion, known as the Hayaniya district.'
If this Yahoo News article was edited by someone sane, this would be the first paragraph of the article. But in the actual article, between the two sentances is all kind of fudging, references back to crap articles from the past, and doom-laden warnings like
'A rebellion by Sadr's Mehdi Army militia -- which has tens of thousands of fighters -- could abruptly end a period of lower violence at a time when U.S. forces are starting to leave Iraq.' This statement, which is editorialising by Dean Yates and Wisam Mohammed who wrote the piece, is exactly the message that Moqtada Al-Sadr wants you to hear. Its not true of course- he is already fighting the Iraqi government with everything he's got, and is watching as his fighting strength ebbs quickly away, and his strongholds are wrested away from him by the Iraqi army and Police. He's losing and he's desperate- hence the threats. But for these Yahoo news journos to report the threats straight, as if they represent something real, means they are carrying Moqtada's water for him.
They also repeat another mantra of the Big Media Outlets:
'Sadr's movement accuses other Shi'ite parties of getting their militias into the Iraqi security forces, especially in southern Shi'ite Iraq where various factions are competing for influence in a region home to most of Iraq's oil output.'
They don't want you to see this as the Iraqi government using its armed forces to take back control of its sovereign territory from an illegal armed militia- they want you to see it as a political gambit by one Shia party against another. Of course, if you go to the streets of Basra and ask people who they want to control them (as numerous journos have), they overwhelmingly say the Iraqi government. Wherever the militias control, there is fear, uncertainty and instability. But you won't read that in a Yahoo news article.
'Sadr launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
His movement then entered politics and backed Maliki's rise to power in 2006. But the youthful Sadr split with Maliki, a fellow Shi'ite, a year ago when the prime minister refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
"Do you want a third uprising?" Sadr said, adding that he wanted Iraq's Shi'ite clerical establishment to set a date for the departure of American troops.'
What Messrs Yates and Mohammed don't mention is what happened to those two uprisings- both were bloody defeats for the JAM. They survived to fight another day, but they self-evidently weren't successful (the Americans are still in Iraq). This BBC article also mentioned
'...British commanders say Iraqi security forces have made great progress and are ready to take full over in the province.
They also say militia influence is not as great as claimed.
It is perhaps telling that Moqtada Sadr's supporters in the city say similar things.
"Our power is exaggerated," Ali Saidi, a senior official at the movement's Basra office told the BBC.'
Exaggerating his strength is all the Al-Sadr has left. And Yahoo are determined to help their buddy out until his dying breath, which may not be far away.
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