Newsweek is reporting that revered Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Sistani told the anti-American Iranian stooge Moqtada Al-Sadr to man up or get outta Dodge.
Alarmed at the U.S. crackdown, Sadr had an 11 p.m. meeting with Sistani about a month ago, according to an aide to the grand ayatollah, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with practice in the cleric's office. "He asked the sayyid what he should do about the attacks against him, and [Sistani] told him, 'You have two options: bear the consequences, on you and Shias in general, or withdraw into a corner'."
Being a coward, manning up was never in the cards so
The corner Sadr chose was likely somewhere in Iran. U.S. and Iraqi officials say he left for Iran two weeks ago. "As far as I know, he's still there," says Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "He's a secretive man."
You have to be secretive when there is a price on your head and an arrest warrant for murder.
Meanwhile, on the political front, there are reports that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is going to reorganize his Cabinet: and leave al Sadr supporters out
...an adviser to the prime minister said 10 ministers would be replaced. They include five of the six ministers loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
The Sunni bloc would lose two ministries and one deputy prime minister. The secular group led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi would give up two positions, the adviser said.
But the al-Sadr faction would take the biggest hit under the adviser's formula. Shiite ministers from other factions would remain in their jobs.
"We will not give up our share and any of our ministerial posts under any circumstances unless all other blocs are subjected to the same procedure," Saleh al-Ukaili, head of Sadrist faction in parliament, said.
Al-Ukaili said his group was especially keen to retain control of the Ministry of Health and if the others in the coalition didn't like the current management, "then we are ready to discuss another name with the prime Minster."
The Ministry of Health, it will be remembered, was the center of Shi'ite death squads: Sunni patients checked in, but they never checked out.
The problem with all these protestations is that the militant clout that would back up their threats is rapidly disappearing
U.S. and Iraqi troops poured into Baghdad’s main Shiite militia stronghold Sunday, encountering no resistance in the one-time Sadr City combat zones but testing the Shiites’ commitment to the U.S.-promoted campaign to drive militants from the capital.
Outside Baghdad, U.S. soldiers described a raid last week that uncovered a suspected Sunni “torture site” and the rescue of two Iraqi captives, who apparently had been spared immediate execution because the militants’ video camera broke and they wanted to tape the killing.
The quiet but dramatic advance in Sadr City – involving nearly 1,200 U.S. and Iraqi forces who didn’t fire a shot – marked one of the most significant developments in the security clampdown in Baghdad since it took effect nearly three weeks ago.
With any luck, the major insigator of sectarian violence is methodically being emasculated.
