Sadr fears for life in security crackdown

Guardian Unlimited Moqtada al-Sadr has moved his family to a secure location because of fears he will become the target of a security sweep of Baghdad, it was reported today.

Just tell him to surrender to the American forces; they will protect him.

News of the radical cleric's decision came as the US military said it had detained a suspected death squad leader.

That is one of Sadr's forces; not a death squad leader looking for Sadr.

Aides to Mr Sadr described the arrest of the man, named as Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, as a "provocation", saying he was a spokesman for their movement.

Maybe they want to see what the spokesman will say.

"We are angry," Abdul-Mehdi al-Matiri told Reuters. "This is a kind of revenge. Sheikh Darraji deals with the media. He is not a military man."

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Radicals vs. moderates: British Muslims at crossroads

CNN reported At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is: "I come to slaughter all of you."

He is right. That is what Mohammed said and did. The question is whether Muslims want to act as if it is the 7th Century, and be in a state of war with the West, and have the West wipe them out, or do they prefer following the Five Pillars of Islam, and living in peace in the 21st century.

"We are the Muslims," said Omar Brooks, an extremist also known as Abu Izzadeen. "We drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."

7th Century Jihad is like that; 21st Century Jihad for most Muslims is an internal struggle to do as Allah wants you to do.

Anjem Choudary, the public face of Islamist extremism in Britain, added that Muslims have no choice but to take the fight to the West.

Then the West should fight back.

"What are Muslims supposed to do when they are being killed in the streets in Afghanistan and Baghdad and Palestine? Do they not have the same rights to defend themselves? In war, people die. People don't make love; they kill each other," he said. But in the same debate, held on the prestigious grounds of Dublin's Trinity College in October, many people in the crowd objected. "These people, ladies and gentleman, have a good look at them. They actually believe if you kill women and children, you will go to heaven," said one young Muslim who waved his finger at the radicals. "This is not ideology. It's a mental illness."

Well put.

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Maliki Stresses Urgency In Arming Iraqi Forces

WaPo reported The Iraqi government's need for American troops would "dramatically go down" in three to six months if the United States accelerated the process of equipping and arming Iraq's security forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday.

Disarm the militias. They seem to have plenty of weapons.

The head of Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government defended his country's independence and sovereignty and called on U.S. leaders to show faith in his ability to lead.

Why don't you show us you are able to lead. Order the Madi Army to disarm and turn their weapons over to the government.

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Mahdi Army lowers its profile

McClatchy Washington Bureau reported Mahdi Army militia members have stopped wearing their black uniforms, hidden their weapons and abandoned their checkpoints in an apparent effort to lower their profile in Baghdad in advance of the arrival of U.S. reinforcements.

It is one thing to intimidate Sunnis; tangling with the US Army and Marines is another thing entirely.

"We have explicit directions to keep a low profile . . . not to confront, not to be dragged into a fight and to calm things down," said one official who received the orders from the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr heads the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest Shiite militia, headquartered in Najaf.

I bet he is still wearing that Black Turban. Can we at least shoot him, or arrest him like he should have been arrested years ago.

The official asked not to be named because he was not authorized to reveal the militia's plans. Militia members say al-Sadr ordered them to stand down shortly after President George Bush's announcement that the U.S. would send 17,500 more American troops to Baghdad to work alongside the Iraqi security forces. The decision by al-Sadr to lower his force's profile in Baghdad will likely cut violence in the city and allow American forces to show quick results from their beefed up presence. But it is also unlikely in the long term to change the balance of power here. Mahdi Army militiamen say that while they remain undercover now, they are simply waiting for the security plan to end.

Maybe if Congress delays Bush sending the reinforcements they will make the mistake of putting their black uniforms on again, and setting up their checkpoints, and we can shoot them then with the forces we have there.

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