Iraq: Al-Sadr orders his 6 Cabinet ministers to withdraw from government

[bemildred]

Source: IHT

BAGHDAD: Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Cabinet ministers to withdraw from the government to protest arrests of Mahdi Army leaders in the ongoing Baghdad security crackdown and the prime minister's failure to back calls for a timetable for U.S. troops to leave the country, two officials in the organization said Sunday.

The six ministers will officially withdraw from the government Monday, said Saleh al-Aujaili and Hassan al-Rubaie, both members in al-Sadr's bloc in parliament. They said al-Sadr's 30 legislators will continue their participation in parliament as usual.

The men said the order came in a statement from al-Sadr to his ministers asking them to "announce your withdrawal from the government." Al-Sadr's followers hold six positions in the 37-member Cabinet.

Such a pullout by the very bloc that put Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in office could collapse his already perilously weak government. The threat comes two months into a U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad in order to give al-Maliki's government room to function.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/15/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Radical-Cleric.php

[Kagemusha]

1. If you believe some generals, not all the 6 are loyal to Sadr anymore

and they've come to like the food in Maliki's hand too much to do Sadr's bidding.

Guess we'll see.

[bemildred]

4. That was one of my thoughts, let's see how much he gets listened too. nt

[youngdem]

20. Perhaps the bomb in the Green Zone was a reminder of one's reach

[bemildred]

22. Given the general bullshit level, one can never tell.

But I tend to favor it being a general F**K YOU to the Green Zone rather than an internal matter in one of the political groups, and if it was a particular group, the Sunni or al Qaeda in Iraq fellows. Most of the news reports run that way, anyhow, and I would expect them to jump right on any suggestion of dissent in al Sadr's faction.

[wakeme2008]

13. Good food and being killed or

do what Sadr says.... I would bet all do what Sadr says.

[Kagemusha]

15. I'd bet that way too.

We'll be seeing either way, for better or (likely) worse.

[NMDemDist2]

2. K&N this ain't good folks n/t

[alfredo]

8. He's been saying he would.

[aquart]

9. Maybe. Maybe not.

We're there to support a government that doesn't exist? How?

The rug just got pulled out from under us. Is there ANYTHING Bush can do now that will be the right thing to do?

It is possible that this will help Republicans who have been willing to give the surge a chance to start asking for a definite pull-out time.

BushCo NEVER imagines the other guy's next move. Never.

[saigon68]

19. The Chimp will merely appoint NEW PUPPETS

This frequently happens when they get caught in their own strings

LOL

[aquart]

3. Slap! Hope George can feel it.

[maddezmom]

5. it was only a mtter of time

[MyNameGoesHere]

6. Well this is the final

criteria these idiots have been using to say that there is no civil war. If it collapses that's it. Too bad for the Iraqis and "soldiers" that will pay for the criminality of this admin.

[leftchick]

7. "Radical"??

they are still using that description for someone who wants the occupiers out? Failure all the way around for the US.

[bemildred]

10. I think it's some sort of reflex.

Like when then the doctor taps your knee or something. They see "shiite cleric" and "radical" just pops out in front.

[bluerum]

11. Civil war? Religious disturbance? Political unrest? All of the above?

Additional quote from the article,,,,

"There might be a possibility of a military confrontation," the official said without elaborating. "We know that the price for al-Maliki to stay in power was to strike at the Sadrist movement."

On Wednesday, al-Sadr's political committee issued a statement warning its Cabinet members might quit, a day after al-Maliki rejected an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal.

U.S. authorities say that al-Sadr is in Iran, but his followers insist he is in seclusion somewhere in Iraq.

If this is not the definition of civil war, I am not sure what is. Admittedly there are religious overtones, but this is factional fighting between major population groups in Iraq.

And I note the attempt by the US to drag Iran into this fight.

[msongs]

12. the dobson/robertson/falwell thugs must be green with envy...

if they could only order their own stooges to do the same. oh oh.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[jmc247]

14. Sadr leaving parliment is completely a sign it is a civil war in Iraq

How could it not be.

[Straight Shooter]

17. The perilous foundation of *cough* democracy in Iraq is crumbling at a rapid rate.

Welcome to DU. :thumbsup:

[Zhade]

21. Hard to believe there are people ignorant enough to think that government was a democracy.

I mean, sure, if you ignore the whole based-on-Sharia-law thing, and puppets, and...

[Kagemusha]

23. Incidentally, so far, technically it's leaving cabinet, not parliament

They did withdraw from parliament at one point. So, their people participated in the 'defiant session' after that Green Zone bombing, etc. They are getting their people out of cabinet before the door slams them on the rear end at the US' behest (though Maliki had been dragging his feet). It's attempting to wrest back the initiative, not just from Maliki and Bush but from the foot soldiers who are very frustrated with Sadr's order to lay low.

And no, that's not a good sign, any way you slice it.

[pampango]

27. I don't understand why they would leave the cabinet but not

withdraw support for Maliki in parliament. If they withdraw Parliamentary support, it is my understanding that the Maliki government would collapse. Do they think that Maliki could pick up support from other parties, if they left the coalition that supports him?

[bemildred]

28. Al Sadr does not really want the government to fail.

He wants it to call for a pullout of US troops. This is a sort of "I really mean it!!!!" warning. He is doing some butt-covering too, I think. His large anti-occupation demo a few days back was a big win for him, but his "army" is not doing so good at protecting the Shiites, and he is getting a lot of flack from people more militant than he wants to be.

[Nimrod2005]

16. OMG........Not good news.

[roamer65]

18. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Iran better get their troops ready to go in.

Last one in is a "rotten egg". The house of cards is beginning to fall.

[SoCalDem]

24. alSadr, wants the whole ball of wax..

he's waiting out the surge, and bringing down al Maliki, and he'll step in to fill the void .

he's the new Saddam..same as the old saddam :(

[maddezmom]

25. Shi'ite cleric's bloc pulls out of govt

Shi'ite cleric's bloc pulls out of govt
16 Apr 2007 08:41:18 GMT
Source: Reuters
Alert Me | Printable view | Email this article | RSS <-> Text <+>

Background
Iraq in turmoil
More By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD, April 16 (Reuters) - Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his ministers to quit Iraq's government on Monday in protest at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Sadr's populist movement, which draws its support mainly from Iraq's Shi'ite poor, holds six ministries and a quarter of the parliamentary seats in Maliki's fractious Shi'ite Alliance, a coalition of Shi'ite Islamist parties.

"The prime minister has to express the will of the Iraqi people. They went out in a demonstration in their millions asking for a timetable for withdrawal. We noticed the prime minister's response did not express the will of the people, " the head of the bloc in parliament, Nassar al-Rubaie told a news conference, reading a statement on Sadr's behalf.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis answered a call by Sadr to rally in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf last week to protest against the presence of some 140,000 U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Sadr himself did not appear -- U.S. officials say he is in hiding in Iran, but his aides insist he is still in Iraq.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL629949.htm

[truthisfreedom]

26. I don't like that guy.

He'll be causing trouble long after we're gone.

[bemildred]

29. Iraqi Papers Monday: Trouble in Basra

---

The other big event today was the withdrawal of the Sadrist bloc from the government, which will no doubt have grave implications on the political process in Iraq. The withdrawal of the Sadrist bloc was reported as a possibility in the Sunday issue of al-Hayat, which quoted a Sadrist deputy as saying that “the withdrawal (plan) has entered its final stages, and is currently discussed within the decision-making circles, represented by Muqada al-Sadr, the political bureau and the Sadrist bloc.” The deputy added that the withdrawal decision was postponed due to the bombing in the parliament last week.

The news was finally confirmed by Az-Zaman and AlJazeera.net later on Sunday, with Sadrist leaders affirming that the official withdrawal will be pronounced on Monday.

The withdrawal of the six Sadrist ministers, a major pillar of the ruling Shi'a coalition, does not amount to an attempt to topple the government; as Sadrists have indicated that they will not be withdrawing from the parliament and will remain in the Shi'a bloc, hence preserving al-Maliki’s majority in the Assembly.

But the Sadrist withdrawal from the government could be a prelude for a more radical posture towards the “political process” as a whole. Especially as several top Sadrist leaders had expressed the possibility of abandoning the “political process” after al-Maliki announced his opposition to an American withdrawal plan from Iraq.

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2371/Iraqi_Papers_Mon_Trouble_in_Basra

[bemildred]

30. The nightmare Bush dreads most

---

This indeed was the case with the demonstration on April 9 in Najaf. Over a million Iraqis, holding aloft thousands of national flags, marched, chanting, "Yes, yes, Iraq/No, no, America" and "No, no, American/Leave, leave occupier."

---

Both the size of the demonstration and its composition were unprecedented. "There are people here from all different parties and sects," Hadhim al-Araji, Muqtada's representative in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, told reporters. "We are all carrying the national flag, a symbol of unity. And we are all united in calling for the withdrawal of the Americans."

The presence of many senior Sunni clerics at the head of the march, which started from Muqtada's mosque in Kufa, a nearby town, and the absence of any sectarian flags or images in the parade, underlined the ecumenical nature of the protest.

Crucially, the mammoth demonstration reflected the view prevalent among Iraqi lawmakers. Last autumn, 170 of them in a 275-member Parliament, signed a motion demanding to know the date of an American withdrawal. The discomfited government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki played a procedural trick by referring the subject to a parliamentary committee, thereby buying time.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID17Ak05.html

[Massachusetts]

31. FUBAR