Where is Al-Sadr?

Where is Muqtada al-Sadr? The US thinks he's in Iran but they are not sure anymore. His supporters say he is still in Iraq. The Iranians say he is not in Iran. Muqtada Al-Sadr has not appeared in public and has issued no statements. He is in hiding. He is fearful that he has become a target for the Americans to hunt down and capture or kill. Many of his top advisers have been captured or killed. The Mahdi Army has gone underground. Is this the beginning of the end of the sectarian violence in Iraq?

Mohammad Ali Hoseini, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry denied reports that Al-Sadr is in Iran and accused the US of waging "psychological warfare":
“Basically, the report is baseless and a kind of psychological warfare against Iran by the US to put more pressure on Iran,” Hoseini said in the first Iranian comment on US and Iraqi statements last week.

White House Spokesman Tony Snow backed away from statements by the Bush Administration that Al-Sadr was in Iran:
"It is unclear," Snow told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." "It's pretty clear he's not holding press conferences and making his whereabouts known."The most important thing about Muqtada al-Sadr, or for that matter anybody involved in the Mehdi Army, they have to make some choices."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was not sure where Al-Sadr is, but he said members of al-Sadr's Mehdi militia had been told to leave the country.
"I think that there are many senior members of the Mehdi army (that) had received orders to leave Iraq to ease the security forces' mission to implement their plan," the Iraqi president said.

It is unclear whether the US would go after Al-Sadr. He has had a rocky relationship with the Americans. Since Sept. 2003 there have been hostilities between the two. In 2004 Al-Sadr battled the US army but was eventually cornered in Najaf. He survived the confrontation thanks to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. A truce was brokered and Al-Sadr eventually went on to participate in the Iraqi national elections. His Mahdi army has been blamed for causing much of the sectarian violence rocking Iraq and he is still a "wanted man" by the US because of outstanding warrants for his arrest.

However it looks like Al-Sadr is taking no chances with the US. A prominent member of the Iraqi parliament thinks that Al-Sadr "feels his life is in danger":

Al-Bayena al-Jadida newspaper quoted MP Haydar al-Obaidy and a prominent Dawa Islamic Party leader as saying, 'Al-Sadr has a feeling he might be chased by the Americans and that there is no problem for him leaving Iraq.' 'It's a justifiable feeling as the US side had conducted similar operations before.'

Al-Obaidy believes the US want to overthrow al-Sadr and 'if he doesn't appear, they will tell the public al-Sadr escaped because he was afraid.'

Syria visits Iran

The influence of Iran in the Middle East seems to be growing proportionately to the vilification by the Bush Administration. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, The Palestinians and now Syria have all made high level diplomatic contacts with Iran. Even though some of these countries have philosophical and religious differences with the Iranians there seems to be a renewed spirit of cooperation amongst them.

The latest visit by the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, the fifth visit in 7 years, was aimed at showing the unity between the two countries amid rumors of a rift. Syria has always been a supporter of Iran and was the only Arab country to support the Iranians in their war with Saddam's Iraq in the 1980's. The two countries, according to reports, also cooperated on supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories. The detente between these two countries is in itself remarkable because they are religious antagonist. Iran is a majority Shiite country while Syria is predominately Sunni. However both Syria and Iran have come under criticism by the US for "not doing enough" to quell the sectarian violence in Iraq, a charge that both countries deny. In fact both Iran and Syria have been the target of US ire for a host of different reasons, which in itself may be the impetus for the spirit of camaraderie between the two.

Bashar al-Assad met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on his latest visit to that country. President Ahmadinejad described the visit as "fruitful" and said:
“Current situations in the region, especially in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan, have doubled the need for co-operation and co-ordination between Iran and Syria, particularly to confront plots by enemies”

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke of the ties between Syria and Iran as being "the oldest and deepest of the countries in the region." and said "the aims of the United States in Iraq have not been realized and there is no sign that they will be realized."

Assad warned that:
The US and Israel were seeking to sow division of the region's different ethnic and religious groups, particularly in Iraq and Lebanon.

"They want to push the peoples and the governments to make use of ethnicities and create divisions in the Islamic world. It is this final card that they are trying to play," Assad declared before leaving Tehran.

"If they succeed in this, they will succeed in all their plans," he said.

Assad's visit comes at a time when Iran is under pressure from the UN to halt it's uranium enrichment program or face further sanctions. Also Iraq closed its borders for three days to both Iran and Syria in an effort to stop the flow of arms into Iraq and quell the sectarian violence that has left Iraq in shambles.

The War Tapes

Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. It is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty and other soldiers.

These soldiers decided to make a film about their tour of duty in Iraq.

The soldiers were not picked by casting agents or movie producers. They selected themselves. One hundred and eighty soldiers in Charlie Company were given the opportunity. Ten chose to take it on, and ultimately 21 soldiers filmed for the project, volunteering to share their eyes with America, not knowing where this experiment would take them.

Here is the movie. It is about 90 minutes long and well worth watching!


[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=4029886691697504559&q=the]

The House votes on the Surge

After 4 days of debate the House of Representatives voted on and passed a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi summed it up this way:

"The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success."
"The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home,"

The vote on the nonbinding measure was 246-182, and within minutes, Democrats said their next move would be to challenge Bush's request for $93 billion in new funds for the Pentagon.

Republican and Vietnam veteran Sam Johnson of Texas pleaded with the House:

"Now it's time to stand up for my friends who did not make it home, and for those who fought and died in Iraq already," he said. "We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them."

The nonbinding resolution that was passed by the House said:

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Supporters of the Resolution: 229 Democrats, 17 Republicans = 246


Opponents of the Resolution: 2 Democrats 180 Republicans = 182

Speaking for the Democrats Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Oh) made the following speech in support of the resolution:
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=3sxLprNmdcA]

Iraq defends Iran

The Bush Administration seems bent on showing the world how disruptive Iran is to creating a stable Iraq. The US has accused Iran of supplying weapons to Iraqi militias who have been using them to kill American forces. There was no mention however of American made weapons getting into the "wrong hands" and being used to kill Americans. Whatever shortages exist in Iraq, weapons are not one of them.

Keith Olbermann looks at the weapons situation in Iraq:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pD6t0Mo-ee4]

In the meantime the Iraqi government has begun to distance itself from the American animosity towards Iran. This was made clear in an interview given by Maryam al-Rayyis:

Maryam al-Rayyis, the Prime Minister's adviser on foreign relations, said the Iraqi Government and people have deep respect for neighboring countries, including them Iran.

"We should separate between the Iraqi Government's stand toward Iran and the American one. The Iraqi Government does not want to be a party in the conflict between this and that country." She added that the Iraqi constitution was clear about this through articles stipulating that Iraq would not be a door or an arena to conflicts between other countries.

Even the Kurds do not appear to be as anti-Iran as the Americans:

Kurdish Deputy Mahmud Uthman did not rule out Iran's support for the Shiite militias in Iraq and said: "There is no doubt that Iran is backing the Shiite militias. They are bound together by old ties." He explained however in a telephone contact with Asharq al-Awsat that the United States has its reasons for these statements, is in dispute with Iran, and "is pinning the reasons of its failure in Iraq on Iran, Syria, and the Iraqi Government."

He was not very impressed with the display of Iranian weapons by the Americans:

Regarding the presence of sophisticated weapons that the armed groups have started to use in their fight against the American forces in Iraq, the Kurdish deputy said that these did not necessarily come from Iran since the gunmen "can bring them from any other sources like Syria or the former Iraqi army."

Washington seems at odds with most of the countries surrounding Iraq in its attempt to isolate Iran. Even Saudi Arabia which rivals Iran for domination in the region, has held talks with top Iranian officials about ways to cooperate in many areas of common interest in the Middle East, including Iraq.

It certainly appears as if the Bush Administration is not only ignoring the voices of other Americans who would like to see more diplomacy and less saber rattling, but also the efforts of the other countries in the Middle East to try to involve rather than isolate Iran. Maybe the Bush Administration is trying to make a case for the invasion of Iran. I hope this is not the case.