Moqtada Al-Sadr Incendiary Message To Iraqis

"Great Evil, America, Wants To Eliminate Islam From The World"


Sunnis dig through a truckload of corpses searching for friends and relatives, after attacks in Mosul.

On March 25, influential Iraq Shia cleric, and American nightmare, Moqtada Al-Sadr delivered a statement during prayers in Najaf. The comprehensive and indispensable Iraqslogger obtained a copy of the statement and got it translated.

Al-Sadr has called for mass demonstrations on April 9, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, urging both Shia and Sunni Iraqis to march against the American Occupation of their lands. There are many, many nervous people in the American military in Iraq, and the Iraqi government, likewise, is not pleased by the plans for what is expected to be the largest rally in Iraq since the war began.

Here's the words of al-Sadr, which have been reproduced in dozens of Iraqi newspapers, reaching millions of people.

Iraqslogger notes that translators remarks appear in parentheses.

Moqtada al-Sadr :

"Four years have passed since the occupation of our beloved country on the part of the great evil, America, and its followers who have assigned to themselves the elimination of Islam and of peace from the world, in order that they may live in peace.

"And the words of the great evil, Bush, continue to ring in the ears of the oppressed when he says “America has become more secure,” unaware of the blood that was shed in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Palestine, and Lebanon, and many other places. Yet, how I wish peace for the people of peace! As the Most High has said (in the Qur'an), “Grant the unbelievers a short respite.”

"Four years have passed and Iraq is still languishing under the yoke of oppression and tyranny. So where are their claims of spreading freedom, from the prison of Abu Ghraib and the rest of the Iraqi prisons, as the prisons are still full of women and men? Is this (imprisonment) due to the misdeeds (of the prisoners)? Is this due to courts that are just? Bombs and explosions continue to resound in the skies and land of Iraq, shedding the blood of the innocent and the honorable, yet leaving the occupier and its partisans in our holy land. Yet how I wish that these humiliations be a call for resistance!

"Four years, and still many struggle for jobs, but these have not and will not save them from the retribution of an awful day (i.e. God’s judgment, a Qur’anic reference), but rather from the suffering of this world and its tribulations, and from the pressures of the occupier that continues to interfere with the political, military, security, social, and religious affairs of Iraq.

"Four years, and Iraq continues without water, without electricity, without fuel, and without security, without tranquility, and is rather in the abyss of strife, which may not strike the ones who oppress (a Qur’anic reference) but rather, as they say, “it wears down the grass and the ground.”

"Years of wasting away have passed in Iraq because of this oppressive occupation, which claims to be removing the specter of ruin and instead brings the specter of “fictitious democracy” and “globalization,” (and because of the occupation that claims) to move away from secret mass graves, (and) to move to openness, and (claims) to remove banned weapons, and (instead) comes with the most murderous and ugly of weapons: terrorism; and terrorism only follows terrorism!

"Years have passed, and rather than hanging in the homes of Iraqis, the picture of Bush remains trampled so that the armies of oppression do not trample the land of Iraq, and do not preside over the Iraqis. And rather than empty the terrorist Saddamist Iraqi prisons, they have built (more) prisons, and have filled Iraq with prisons; this mother cries over her son, and another cries over his situation, as unemployment has filled Iraq, and ruin increases, rather than development.

"But the occupier has not been content with this. he has (also) estranged Iraq from the Islamic and Arab world, and all the (Arab and Muslim) countries still do not care about Iraq as it heads for destruction, as though it were not an Arab or Muslim country in need of defense by whatever they were able to do.

"And how could this be except by the occupation, as it has been able to sow sectarian and ethnic strife between the Arabs and others, and between the Muslims and others; yet how I wish they all would remain brothers!

"But the awakening of the Arab peoples and of their consciousness and conscience calls them, saying: This humiliation is unacceptable to us, and, just as their prophet’s grandson (Husayn) said, this separation is unacceptable to us. Thus we call out to our Muslim Arab bothers in all places to give assistance to Iraq. By their voice and their demonstrations for the sake of Iraq, Iraq will be their protective armor and their great pillar; then the presence of the occupation in Iraq would be the presence (of the occupation) in their own countries and land, and absolutely no one would accept this.

"So, you people of Islam and of peace in all places, call out for assistance to the people, whose blood has flowed, and whose freedom and beliefs of living in the care of Islam and of peace, and freedom, and harmony, have been rent asunder. For here is the fourth anniversary that passes upon us of the greatest sadness and sorrow, leaving behind thousands of killed and injured of your Iraqi brothers and sisters, adults and children. And raise your voices in support of (the Iraqi people) and the resistance from the south of Iraq to its north, from its west to its east, so that Iraq might remain united, independent, stable, secure, and completely soverign, free from the interference of the occupier and others and a refuge from treason and unbelief.

"You oppressed people of Iraq, I hear your captive cry to the world, (saying) that you have rejected the occupation, and the destruction, and the terrorism, for you love Islam, and peace, and freedom. In order that the honor of beloved Iraq and its people remain high, and that you cut out the tongues of lying and deceit that want to take possession of Iraq and its people, come out to a united demonstration on the ninth of April of this year in Najaf, accepting the call of freedom and peace.

"And may you raise the Iraqi flag above your houses, buildings, and public residences, to show the sovereignty of Iraq and its independence, refusing the presence of American flags, and other (flags) from the countries of the occupation in our beloved Iraq, until they depart from our land.

"Finally, I renew my demand for the departure of the occupier from our land, even if the instigator of terrorism -- the American Congress -- decides to stay in our beloved country, because this is not their right, but rather the matter belongs to Iraq and its people. It is not anyone’s right to renew the period (of the occupation), nor to demand that it stay, for the departure of the occupier is the stability of Iraq, and the victory of peace and of Islam, and the abandonment of terrorism and of the unbelievers."

Iraq War Correspondent Shred's US Presidential Hopeful's Claim It Is Safe To Walk The Streets Of Baghdad

500 Iraqis Killed In Seven Days, Seven American Troops Killed In 48 Hours

A Close Look At The Fascinating Relationship Between Al-Sadr And Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani

IraqSlogger's Iraq Week In Review - March 26 To March 30

Tal Afar Bombing : The Single Deadliest Attack In The Iraq War To Date : 152 Dead, Hundreds Wounded, Truck Carried 4000kg Of Explosives

Kissinger : Military Victory In Iraq Is Not Possible - "One Needs To Be Prepared To Negotiate With Adversaries"

Sala Al Bor : The Iraqi Town That Lost 90% Of Its Population

Parents Of The Dead, The Veterans Back Home Again, Struggle To Deal With The Reality Of The Iraq War

Key Madhi Army Leaders Targeted By US & Iraqi Crackdown Flee Baghdad

A string of market bombings, 100 or so dead Iraqis and a few Americans, seems to have become a daily average of the carnage in Baghdad, and across Iraq. Even in the midst of the mega-hyped 'security crackdown'.

The pressure to get results in the Iraq War and to first lower the number of US troops, and then begin bringing them home, is causing havoc for the Bush administration, with votes of opposition raised in Congress (a rare war time rebuke for any president), threats to limit further war funding by key Democrat and Republican senators, and more calls from President Bush and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, explaining to the Iraqi government that American "patience" is limited.

The US/Iraqi joint crackdown on the suburbs of Baghdad was hailed a success by the Iraqi president, only hours before another market bombing and an insurgent attack on a US outpost in the city's north, which left two American soldiers dead.

So where's the supposed Iraqi bogeyman Moqtada al-Sadr? Those who know aren't telling. But it does appear now that the leader of the Iraqi Shias most powerful militia forces did cross the border into Iran, ahead of the Baghdad security clamp-down. He wasn't alone.

This report from Iraqslogger quotes Iraqi newspapers saying that numerous key militia leaders and fighters have fled Iraq to lay low during the city wide sweeps by US and Iraqi troops. Not exactly an unexpected strategy when this very crackdown was sign-posted by Bush and senior US officials for weeks ago.

The Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, confirmed the rumors claiming that the Mahdi Army commanders have left the country to take refuge in Iran.

Az-Zaman today quoted Talabani who said that “many of the top leaders of the Mahdi Army have received orders to leave Iraq in order to facilitate the application of the security plan by the armed forces.” Talabani saw in the decision a sign that “Sadr is concerned about the stability of Iraq and the success of the security plan.”

But sources in the Sadr Current did not take too kindly to Talabani’s claims, especially his reference to the “military leaders” in the ranks of the Mahdi Army.

Nassar al-Rubai`i, the chairman of the Sadr parliamentary bloc, contested Talabani’s statements. A;-Rubai`i told Agence France Press: “I do not know where Talabani got his information from, we have no military leaders (in the Mahdi Army), we only have religious and cultural leaders.”

The Mahdi Army officials have often claimed that the “army” is in fact not a fighting force, but a political arm and an organization for popular mobilization. And with the rise of accusations to the effect that the Mahdi Army is taking part in the violence and sectarian cleansing, Sadrist officials affirmed that all those alleged actions are done by “outside elements” who falsely claim affiliation to the Mahdi Army.

On another front, the Baghdad Security Plan, or “operation rule of law”, as the government refers to it, is proceeding apace. Al-Mada (which is generally pro-government) reported on the status of the operation in its third day. The newspaper said that there has been a noticeable decrease in violent acts, and especially in the number of “anonymous bodies” appearing in the streets, which had become a daily occurrence in Baghdad.

Al-Mada quoted the Iraqi spokesman of the Security Plan who said that, in addition to the decrease in homicides, families that were forced out of their neighborhoods are starting to return to their homes.

Az-Zaman (international edition) explained the decrease in violence by the fact that the death squads have either left Baghdad, or are in hiding, waiting for the storm to pass...

Two Market Bombings Kill 60 Iraqis Amidst Security Crackdown

Why The Iraq War Is Turning Into America's Defeat

New Oil And Gas Deposits Found Under Sunni Lands

Insurgents Launch Fierce Assault On US Baghdad Post, 2 Killed, 17 Wounded

"The American People Want To See Results And Aren't Prepared To Wait Forever"

Severe Water Shortages Drive Iraqis To Drink From Heavily Polluted Rivers

Iraq Erupts On The Eve Of Bush's New War Plan Announcements

The War For Iraq's Oil Has Almost Been Won



Tonight, US President Bush will unveil his new plans for how the Iraq War is to be fought by the United States in the coming 12 to 24 months.

He is expected to announce that some 20,000 more troops will be "surged" into Baghdad, and that the American forces will team up with the Iraqi Army to hammer first the Sunni insurgency, and then the Shiite militias.

Considering that the Maliki government was thrust into power, and remains in power today, due only to the political, social and street fighting powers of the Shiite militias, the crackdown on those aligned with Bush's nemesis, Moqtada al-Sadr, in particular, will be a long time coming.

Shiite-affiliated Army officers will not go after their 'brothers'. So it will be up to the US to hit the Shiite slums to rout the 'terrorists' and 'extremists', while the Iraqi Army slaughters more Sunnis.

That is, if Bush's 'The New New Way Forward Plan' ever sees the cold, hard light of World War 4 reality, that is.

Bush faces an incredible amount of opposition to his plans, before they've ever been announced.

Beset by leaks, Republican dissent, international condemnation and reflections on how his plans are similar to Vietnam War troop surges, President Bush could find himself announcing war plans that will not only be opposed by Congress, but by the very soldiers he intends to send.

And that spells mutiny.

US Congress, now controlled by the Democrats, may even block Bush from getting the funding he needs to go forward with his escalation plans for the Iraq War.

While pro-war Republicans, the blogger armies of anti-Left, and the corporate opionista, will wail and scream about how the Democrats "don't support the troops", relatively few Americans will back them up, or speak out in support of Bush's plans.

In fact, USA Today features a poll and cover story today that spells out a tide of dissent amongst Americans unmatched in the entire war-time history :

Those surveyed oppose the idea of increased troop levels by 61%-36%. Approval of the job Bush is doing in Iraq has sunk to 26%, a record low.

The poll also reveals 80% believe the war has not gone as well as BushCo planned, and more than half directly blame the president for this catastrophjc failure. Only 41%, however, blame the Iraqi government for the increasing level of violence in greater Baghdad.

That Americans roundly blame BushCo. for the bloodbath growing bigger by the day across most of Iraq spells disaster for the Republicans PR campaign of trying to convince Americans that the Iraqis are now responsible for the violence in their country, not America. Clearly Americans still believe that it is up to BushCo. to stop the bloodshed.

Letters To The Editor of newspapers across the US, talk radio, the comments section of blogs and news sites, are filling up with American dissent, and its getting angrier, and more aggressive.

There is growing talk of American National Guard and Army Reserve forces refusing to follow BushCo. orders to deploy, or redeploy, to Baghdad in the coming months, and some commentators in mainstream media are speculating that their own president might not even "make it" to the end of his second presidential term.


Meanwhile in Iraq, gun battles have raged across Baghdad, and a dozen other cities and major populations centres across Iraq, leaving more than 50 people dead.

The fury that erupted following the very public execution of Saddam Hussein has not abated, and there are reports that Sunni insurgents hung dozens of hooded men from nooses slug over power poles and electricity wires in Baghdad slums.

While the Iraqi Army may go after the Sunni insurgents in BushCo.'s coming war plans, American forces are expected to directly take on the Shiite militias. But they can't even get into the outer streets of the militia enclave Sadr City, without encountering snipers and IED attacks.

Reaching the core of the massive slum, from which mortars and rockets are being launched into Sunni neighbourhoods, and American bases, is expected to cost many American lives.

But even a troop surge is unlikely to bring peace, or even a reduction in violence and unrest to Baghdad, and Iraq in turn, in the coming months.

The new American commander for Iraq thinks it may still be another two or three years before they can talk seriously about a more peaceful, more stable Iraq :

Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who took up the second ranking U.S. military post in Iraq a month ago, told reporters the American public would need patience to see a stable Iraq but also said he hoped Iraqi troops could be in control of Baghdad within months after a new operation mounted with U.S. help.

Speaking ahead of Washington's expected announcement of a new approach in Iraq, Odierno said: "The mission now is to defeat the ... insurgency and to train Iraqi security forces. "Over time we can accomplish the mission. That time I put two or three years from now. The issue becomes are we willing to wait two or three years or do we want to speed it up?"

Although President Bush has recently adopted the line, "We're not winning in Iraq...but we're not losing," he only came to make such a frank admission because the majority view of the American public could no longer be ignored.

Since the insurgency began, shortly after the Coalition of the Willing swept into Baghdad in April 2003, BushCo. has maintained that they are "winning in Iraq". This stance confused and angered many Americans, and the senior ranks of the US military, because only a blind fool couldn't see that the war was not being won. At least, it wasn't being won in the way that we were told it would be won. That is fast and decisively with few American casualties.

But Bush wasn't lying all those long months of bodybags and American flag draped coffins.

The War For Iraq's Oil was being won. And now, victory is close.

Chris Floyd, a truth-teller widely despised by Americans who like to deceive their fellow country men over the realities behind the Iraq War, explains why :

For Bush, victory is indeed at hand. It could come at any moment now, could already have been achieved by the time you read this. And the driving force behind his planned "surge" of American troops is the need to preserve those fruits of victory that are now ripening in his hand.

At any time within the next few days, the Iraqi Council of Ministers is expected to approve a new "hydrocarbon law" essentially drawn up by the Bush Administration and its UK lackey, the Independent on Sunday reports. The new bill will "radically redraw the Iraqi oil industry and throw open the doors to the third-largest oil reserves in the world," say the paper, whose reporters have seen a draft of the new law. "It would allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil companies in the country since the industry was nationalized in 1972." If the government's parliamentary majority prevails, the law should take effect in March.

As the paper notes, the law will give Exxon, BP, Shell and other carbon cronies of the White House unprecedented sweetheart deals, allowing them to pump gargantuan profits from Iraq's nominally state-owned oilfields for decades to come.

This law has been in the works since the very beginning of the invasion – indeed, since months before the invasion, when the Bush Administration brought in Phillip Carroll, former CEO of both Shell and Fluor, the politically-wired oil servicing firm, to devise "contingency plans" for divvying up Iraq's oil after the attack. Once the deed was done, Carroll was made head of the American "advisory committee" overseeing the oil industry of the conquered land,

Bush is expected to also announce in his 'My Big Plan For Victory In Iraq' speech to sent benchmarks for the Iraq government, one of which will be finalising the future of Iraq's oil.

You don't need to guess what sort of pressure will be used to get that paperwork signed quick smart.

Expect a good number of the car bombings and assassinations of government ministers, and their families, to draw to a close shortly after the future of Iraq's oil wealth is signed over to the global fuel giants.


New US Commander For Iraq War : "Americans Must Learn To Be Patient..."

Baghdad 2025 : How Future War Fantasists Plan To Deal With Planet Of The Slums - Robots To Kick In Doors, Spidermen To Scale Walls, Dissent Targeting Weapons

Fighting Erupts On Baghdad Streets, Plane Crashes, Iraq Army Checkpoints Attacked

American and Iraqi Armies Launch Ground Forces, Helicopter Gunships Assault On Sunni Haven, 21 Dead : Reports Suggest Sunni Insurgents Were Massive For Huge Attack

On The Doorstep Of Sadr City, American Troops Frustrated As They Wait To "Get The Job Done And Go Home"

Republican Divisions Over Future Of Iraq War Grows

Democrats Launch Bill That Could Force Bush To Allow Congress To Approve His War Plans : Stripping War-Making Powers From The Decider "Who Decides"

Claim : 120 Militia/Militants Killed In Four Days Of Fighting Against US And Iraqi Forces

The War For Iraq's Oil Has Almost Been Won

IRAQ INSURGENCY LEADER GIVES UNITED STATES 30 DAYS TO LEAVE IRAQ

DEMANDS US LEAVE BEHIND "HEAVY WEAPONRY" AND BASES

THE WORLD'S FASTEST GROWING REFUGEE CRISIS

Bush Co. and the American military has been negotiating with insurgency and resistance groups in Iraq since shortly after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

As we know now, the insurgency became a self-fulfilling prophecy when the US sacked hundreds of thousands of Iraqi army and police officers and sent them home with their guns, ammo and looted explosives in May-July, 2006.

It's never been entirely clear from the American side just how successful these negotiations with those Bush-branded "terrorists" have been. They're barely mentioned in the US media.

In the Arab world, Gulf media regularly reports on these meetings, discussions and negotiations. The Americans are portrayed as being hard bargainers who want the resistance to lay down their arms. Something the resistance simply will not do, when there are Army uniformed death squads roaming the cities and villages slaughtering whole families.

In short, the insurgency and resistance groups claim they are fighting the American occupation, but they are also protecting themselves, their families and their communities from the Shiite avengers once kept in check by Saddam Hussein's insanely brutal security forces.

All the while, terrorist attacks by Sunnis, Shia and the always-mysterious 'foreign fighters' result in dozens of dead and injured, most of whom require vengeance on their behalf by their brothers, fathers, uncles, neighbours, co-workers.

And on and on the circles of death and bloodshed turn and twist. The hurricane of violence that never really fades away.

For the Americans, the War On Iraq can barely get any worse.

Millions of Iraqis blame the US not only for occupying their country and letting these forces of death loose amongst them all, but they also blame Americans for actually playing a part in the major terrorist attacks, be it via the CIA, private security forces or the ubiquitous Mossad counter-terror operatives.

The Iraqis were liberated and they were given the chance to vote in democratic elections, but those now in government simply cannot supply the security that Iraqis are demanding, be they Shiite, Sunni, Kurd or Christian. If a government can't protect its own people from dozens of major terrorist attacks each and every week, then what good are they?

Amongst all this terror and horror and paranoia, insurgency leaders have appeared now and then to proclaim an offer of a 'truce' with the Americans.

What makes today's announcement so unusual, then, is that it comes with clear, heavy demands.


From CNN.com :

The leader of an umbrella organization for Iraqi insurgent groups is offering the United States a one-month truce to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq and turn over its military bases "to the mujahedeen of the Islamic state."

...Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council, said that if U.S. forces begin withdrawing from Iraq immediately and leave their heavy weaponry behind, "we will allow your withdrawal to complete without anyone targeting you with any explosive or anything else."

"We say to Bush not to waste this historic opportunity that will guarantee you a safe withdrawal," al-Baghdadi said on the audiotape.

The United States was given two weeks to respond to the offer.

The Mujahideen Shura Council is an umbrella group formed in late 2005 that includes several terrorist and insurgent groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq.

Obviously, the United States is not going to agree to such a truce, or withdrawal, but it shows just how powerful the forces of the resistance and the insurgency now view themselves. They know they may be the last chance the United States has of stopping Iraq from being consumed by Iran's Shia.

And then, inside this sectarian war, the superhuman savagery of the revenge attacks and death-inducing torture, Sunnis and Shia are talking to each other, about how they are going to get rid of the Americans once and for all from their lands.


From Dahr Jamail :

The displacement of Iraqis from Iraq is currently the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis, according to the Washington-based group Refugees International which works towards providing humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people.

The United Nations estimates that at least 2.3 million Iraqis have fled the growing violence in their country. They estimate that 1.8 million Iraqis have fled to surrounding countries, while another half million have vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq. An estimated 40,000 people are leaving Iraq every month for Syria alone, according to the UN.

Dahr Jamail was one of the only Western reporters inside Fallujah during the US devastating assault in 2004 that killed dozens of American troops and thousands of Iraqis.

He provides a concise explanation for the growth of sectarian violence in Iraq during the past twelve months :

Sectarian violence increased in Iraq after the bombing last February of an important Shia shrine located in Samarra, 60 km north of Baghdad. Shia death squads started appearing in massive numbers afterwards to carry out mass killings of Sunnis, and setting fire to their mosques.

U.S. forces failed to provide protection for civilians on either side. Meanwhile, armed Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation increased rapidly during 2006.

"Resistance fighters are Iraqis who are trying to put an end to this vicious occupation," a senior political analyst at Baghdad University told IPS on condition of anonymity. "The Americans ignited sectarian war so that they reduce the action of national resistance, but the result came to be the opposite, and they are being hit harder and more often."

The Sunni-dominated areas of Baghdad and western Iraq faced the worst U.S. military operations during 2006. The policy of siege, raids and large-scale detentions led to massive killing of civilians in cities like Haditha, Karma and Ramadi. "Those Americans take us all for terrorists," the manager of a human rights NGO in Ramadi to the west of Baghdad told IPS.

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

"We cannot go to work, cannot go to pray in our mosques, and cannot send our children to schools," young mother Um Rheem from the Shaab quarter in Baghdad told IPS.

"Many Sunni men have been killed by Shia death squads who have the full support of the government and Americans." Such fears are common in many areas in Baghdad where the Sunnis are a minority.

Other areas have other problems to live with. "In areas where Sunnis are a majority, death squads attack in hundreds, taking advantage of curfews and using government police cars," Mahmood Abdulla from the predominantly Sunni Jihad quarter of Baghdad told IPS.

"When we defend ourselves and our homes, they shell us with mortars and Kaytousha missiles. All of this takes place under the eyes of Americans and Iraqi government officials."

Shia Iraqis complain that they cannot go to Sunni dominated areas for work, and they cannot travel on the highway that leads to Syria and Jordan for fear of Sunni militias looking for revenge.

"Sunnis who lost family members would kill any Shia they find, and so we cannot go through their areas," Sa'arat Hassan, a vegetable merchant at the Jameela wholesale vegetable market in Baghdad told IPS.

250 Political Assassinations In One Week : Five Tribal Chiefs Taken Out, Hundreds Of Prominent Iraqs Shot, Stabbed, Tortured To Death, Blown Up In Bombings

Another US Plan For Iraqi Peace Dashed : Shiite Leadership Refuse To Isolate Or Cut Ties With Shiite Powerhouse Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr

Iraqis Suffer Through The Worst Year Yet Of American Occupation - Millions Have Fled Their Homeland, Millions More Face Starvation

US Tries To Force Isolation On Moqtada al-Sadr, But Fails

US Spends $120 Billion On Iraq War In 2006, Projections For 2007 Hit $170 Billion