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You wouldn't want to count on it, and as I wrote in my ISIS article,
while al-Sadr began with anti-sectarian solidarity with the Sunni back
in 2004, his army later got into the sectarian action. This time round
he has been fiercely critical of Maliki on precisely the Sunni issue
over the last year or so, but with the threat of ISIS appeared to go
back to "Shiite" mode. His social an ideological position, as Andy puts
it, means we expect this kind of wavering. What his better moments
probably do represent, however, is that his working class base in Sadr
City are not entirely happy with a corrupt and repressive Shiite regime
of "their own" bourgeoisie plunging them into a crisis for them to die
for.
MK
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2014 10:13 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Al-Sadr: No to Maliki, No to US/UK, No to
Syria/Iran, yes to working with Sunni!
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A correction which may have substantive implications:
I received earlier today the email which Michael forwarded here on a
UFPJ
list, sent by Mark Jensen, and with the "Comment" signed by Mark.
If you click on the link at the end of Michael's forward it takes you to
the list of Mark's group and shows the email to have been written by
Henry
Adams.
Either way, the point is that Michael did not write the Comment, which
is a
glowing tribute to Moqtada al-Sadr. Which wouldn't surprise me coming
from
Mark, a dyed in the wool fanatical supporter of Assad.
It's good to know that Michael didn't write it, because my impression is
that al-Sadr has always been more talk than action, and, while I very,
very
much hope that al-Sadr is as interested in nonsectarian unity as the
Commenter believes, I'm not counting on it given al-Sadr's social and
ideological position.
On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Michael Karadjis via Marxism <
[email protected]> wrote:
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Daily Mail interviews Moqtada's commander in Baghdad
Sunday, 29 June 2014 06:58 Henry Adams
On Saturday Barbara Jones published in the London Daily Mail an
account of
her interview with Ibrahim al-Jaberi, the Mahdi Army's militia
commander in
Baghdad.[1] -- COMMENT: Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi
Army,
is a hero to millions of Iraqi Shiites and the only leader who has a
chance
of uniting Iraqis to fight off the fanatical ISIS. -- He represents
genuine Iraqi nationalism and is the only major Shiite leader has
fought to
defend Sunnis and thus has a claim to their allegiance. -- But the
forces
he fought to defend them were American and British, and he represents
the
poorer strata of Iraqi society, to which U.S. policy is indifferent
when it
is not hostile. -- As a result, Moqtada and his Mahdi Army get only
negative press in the West when they get any press at all. -- The
failure
of the U.S. to come to terms with Moqtada is a clear sign that
maintaining
the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq is not the highest
American
priority....
1.
MY PERILOUS VOYAGE INTO BAGHDAD'S DRAGON DEN
By Barbara Jones
** A dramatic dispatch on a saber-rattling encounter with rebel chief
**
Daily Mail (London)
June 28, 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2673472/My-
perilous-voyage-Baghdad-dragons-den-BARBARA-JONESS-
dramatic-dispatch-sabre-rattling-encounter-rebel-chief.html
Shots echo in the street below as my phone rings. It’s just after
dawn in
a Baghdad under curfew. The head of the Mahdi Army -- the fanatical
Shia
force and avowed enemies of the West -- has agreed to see me: but on
his
terms.
I must venture into Sadr City, the slum district of the Iraqi capital
that
defied British and American occupation for a decade.
Now the militants have a new enemy -- the Sunni terror group ISIS, who
have left a trail of blood across Iraq and are fast closing in on
Baghdad
itself.
That has not dimmed the army’s hatred of the West -- and I will be
told in
no uncertain terms that foreign intervention will be ‘unacceptable.’
But first I must get to Sadr City, a volatile place with a
‘fight-to-the-death’ spirit, whose streets have seen terrible
sectarian
bloodshed.
It was named after the father of Moqtada al-Sadr, the army’s founder.
He
was a Grand Ayatollah who stood up to Saddam Hussein and was shot dead
by
the dictator’s Sunni supporters.
I had encountered the Mahdi Army before. In 2005, when I was with a
British Army patrol in Basra, we were attacked by their fighters
aiming
rocket-propelled grenades at us. Yet now I am speaking to them;
agreeing
to the instructions for this meeting: I am to drive to the Habibi
Hospital, call a number, and wait for Al-Sadr’s men.
The militant leader knows no compromise, and only last week warned
America
and her allies to ‘take their hands off Iraq.’ He claims to have
re-invented his fighting force as a ‘peace brigade’ to defend Baghdad.
Driving through empty early-morning streets, the dashboard shows a
temperature of 41 C. (106 F.), another day of suffocating heat.
Inside
our car, flak jackets are flattened against the doors, protection
against
roadside bombs that kill four people a day here.
This is a city in a state of siege, nervously awaiting, fearing, an
attack
by the Sunni forces or a return of the Americans. Checkpoints, car
searches and blast walls are all a way of life.
We arrive at the hospital, a sad run-down structure surrounded by
rolls of
barbed wire. Seven Mahdi Army men soon pull up, all in black police
uniforms and bristling with weapons.
They check our papers and signal for us to follow them through the
rubbish-strewn streets. Low-key is not their style.
Their Ford pick-up careers through busy markets with much hooting of
horns
and screeching of brakes. Any vehicles getting in the way end up at
the
dangerous end of a rifle barrel.
Residents live their lives, opening pavement kiosks, servicing rundown
cars, and recycling tires. Two sheep are led into a butcher’s shop to
meet
their fate. Cans of petrol are lined up at the roadside, a symbol of
poverty in an oil-rich country. But no one looks up as we speed past.
People here are trained to see only what they need to see.
Eventually we skid around a corner between broken buildings. White
gates
swing open on to a courtyard.
A striking figure in a turban comes out to greet us -- the man we
have
come to meet, cleric-cum-warlord Ibrahim al-Jaberi, Al-Sadr’s
commander in
Baghdad. Our escort excitedly surround him, scrambling for photos.
Once in his reception room, with its garish red velvet furniture and
an
excerpt from the Koran engraved on a goat-skin, it is clear Al-Jaberi
is
playing games with us. All of his pronouncements carry an underlying
menace.
Fingering prayer beads, he says: ‘We have changed. We are warriors
for
peace now, we don’t want war. We want the people of Iraq to unite
against
our new enemy [ISIS]. In the past our enemies were America and
Britain,
invading our country. Our duty then was to get them out.’
All the rockets, the heavy artillery, the cans of Semtex, the ammo
vests
of the suicide bombers we saw in a big parade of peace brigade force
last
weekend -- they are all for defense, he insists. ‘We will use those
weapons if ISIS comes to Baghdad. And we will not work alongside the
Iraqi
military. We will not take orders from them.’
He flinches as I take something from my rucksack and I realize: the
armed
escort, the secrecy, it was all for his security, not ours. I smile
reassuringly at him. We are both aware of the danger we represent to
each
other.
Al-Jaberi has a warning: ‘We reject Nouri al-Maliki, the prime
minister,
and Usama al-Nujaifi, speaker of parliament.
'They are thieves and bad leaders. We want them to go, we have
nothing
but contempt for them. We also reject outside interference. We will
not
accept America or Britain interfering again. We don’t want Syria or
Iran
or any other foreign forces here.
‘What would Britain do if foreign forces invaded? That would lead to
violence for you, would it not?’ The veiled threat hangs in the air.
This
was a man delivering his master’s message.
Leaving Al-Jaberi’s lair, we found ourselves on the streets without an
escort. Now we were on our own.
A phone call brings us a security guard on a motor-scooter who leads
us
out of the slum. Sadr City is behind us now, but what happens here
next
could seal the future of Iraq, and beyond
http://ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/11973/
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