Sadr's first public appearance since May via video from an undisclosed location. Must be with Cheney

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_al_sadr

Al-Sadr: I am in control of militia

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 29, 5:54 PM ET

BAGHDAD - A feisty Muqtada al-Sadr, making his first public appearance since May, said in a TV interview aired Saturday that he was in almost total control of the Mahdi Army and that the "liberation" of Iraq was his militia's chief goal.

The radical Shiite cleric also said the impact of the U.S. presence on Iraq was more negative than that of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Al-Sadr alleged that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, was as "distant" from the people of Iraq as Saddam's Sunni-led regime. The government, he said, was "looking after its own interests, not those of the people."

Al-Sadr's interview with Al-Jazeera, conducted in an undisclosed location, came as violence was on the rise as part of a nationwide backlash by the Mahdi Army to the government's attempt to crush Shiite militias and criminal gangs in the southern port of Basra.

In the interview, the 34-year-old al-Sadr appeared to have lost a great deal of weight but none of his hallmark confrontational style, frequently interrupting or correcting the interviewer.

Here is a link to some of the Al-Jazeera interview:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3049450541543977781&q=Al-Sadr&total=492&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5

[seriousstan]

1. I have a feeling old Mooky is short for this world.

[Muttocracy]

2. wow, he's only 34? nt

[wtmusic]

3. AP can't run a piece on MAS without the word "radical"

but somehow they managed to avoid "firebrand".

I don't know why they have "liberation" in quotes though.

[Elidor]

4. You know, if I wanted to install a radical cleric in power

I'd disband the army, terrorize the citizens with house-to-house searches, allow basic utilities to be cut off most of the time, allow the structures of government to break down, play incompetent favorites on the local political scene, and then give lots and lots of money to local militiamen so they can buy more weapons.

Mission accomplished, George!