Did you know Sadr's office quickly denounced the thugs who chanted "Muqtada" at the hanging?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA06Ak06.html

Page 1 of 2
A hanging, and a political bombshell
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - On the tombstone of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein are the words: "This is the gravesite of the martyr Saddam Hussein, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and president of the Iraqi Republic. May God have mercy on him. He was born in 1937 and was martyred in 2006. The cavalier descended his horse. Rest in peace O hero." snip

In the weeks before Saddam's death it seemed as if some sort of rapprochement could be reached between Sunnis and Shi'ite cleric Muqtada. Although the two parties had been fighting since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra last February, they accepted that they had much in common.

Both are opposed to the Americans. Both want a timetable for their withdrawal and both were enraged by a proposed meeting in Jordan between Maliki and US President George W Bush. They also resent Iranian influence in Iraqi affairs and oppose Iran-backed politicians like Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, who is Iran's No 1 man in Iraq and the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). And finally, both oppose the portioning of Iraq and the creation of an autonomous Shi'ite district.

Indicators since 2003 hinted that an unorthodox alliance between Sunnis and Sadrists could be possible. In April 2004, for example, during the US attack on Fallujah, Muqtada sent humanitarian aid (as well as weapons) to the besieged Sunnis. In 2005, the Association of Muslim Scholars accused the Shi'ite-led Ministry of Interior of using the Iraqi police to settle old scores with Sunnis. Muqtada mediated between the parties. snip

Muqtada's office quickly denounced the people who chanted "Muqtada" at the hanging, saying they were individuals acting on private instinct and in no way on command from Muqtada. (Muqtada's father was killed on Saddam's orders in 1999.)

[4dsc]

1. This "surge" is for you Mugtada..

According to the latest reports, the surge being planned by Bush is to attack Mugtada and eliminate his miltia.. Do you suppose he got word of it and is now trying to make nice??