Can WE Do This Here? NYT: Muqtada al-Sadr creating 'parallel government'

[kpete]

NYT: Muqtada al-Sadr creating 'parallel government' in Iraq RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday July 18, 2007


Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has begun to reassert himself in Iraq, the New York Times will report RAW STORY has learned.

"After months of lying low, the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has re-emerged with a shrewd two-tiered strategy that reaches out to Iraqis on the street and distances him from the increasingly unpopular government," writes Alissa Rubin.

al-Sadr has begun a grassroots campaign that appears to be modeled after Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza to provide services to Iraqi citizens that the government is not providing. Rubin reports that this is in effect creating a "parallel government" in Iraq.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/NYT_Muqtada_alSadr_creating_parallel_government_0718.html

[rpannier]

1. The story is true

Muqtada al-Sadr or the "Mook-man" as we, his friends call him, phoned me this morning and asked me if I wanted to be his Minister of Purity and Vigilance.

I told my scantily-clad secretary would get back to his head-to-toe draped secretary in the morning.

[applegrove]

2. I'm going to bed now. I've officially heard enough for one day. Ouch!

[Kagemusha]

3. Why would you want to create a parallel government?

Does the Confederacy count?

Having said that, I question why this approach by al-Sadr is being called new. I thought this method was the long-term strategy of his movement. Except that they were doing it from within the government when they were part of it.

[riderinthestorm]

4. Unfortunately, I believe we already have a theocratic shadow govt

working behind the scenes, partnered with the corporatocracy.