http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040119/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sistani_s_power&cid=540&ncid=1480<snip>NAJAF, Iraq - From a modest home in this holy city, Iraq (news - web sites)'s top Shiite cleric is projecting increasing political influence that has jeopardized Washington's plan for transferring power to Iraqis.
The rapid rise of the 75-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani as a dominant voice in politics reflects the emergence of the Shiite majority after decades of suppression by a Sunni Arab minority.
The United States already has dropped one political plan for Iraq after al-Sistani's insistence that elected rather than appointed representatives draft the new constitution prompted the Americans to speed the timetable for handing over sovereignty and to delay the drafting of a new national charter.
U.S. officials now say a substitute formula announced Nov. 15 also may have to be modified to accommodate al-Sistani's demands that an interim legislature be elected, and not selected from regional caucuses as called for in the latest plan.
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