@ ralphieboy, I thought it was just “untidy”.

Posted by: beq | Apr 7 2006 19:31 utc | 4

Juan Cole said this today:
Sunni Arab guerrillas continue to attack Shiite targets in hopes of provoking Sunni-Shiite civil war. They believe that the eruption of large-scale ethnic fighting will force the US out of the country and pave the way to a neo-Baath or Salafi coup. Shiites have largely refused to take the bait, but their patience is clearly wearing thin. After the Golden Shrine was blown up in Sammara in late February, angered Shiites attacked over 100 Sunni mosques, and mobs and death squads have probably killed well over 1,000 Sunnis in reprisals.
………………………………
Curious comment, I always thought it was the Zaquawi elements trying to foment civil war, and the Sunni insurgency , when it attacked civilian targets it was in reprisal for (Shiite) collaboration with the occupation. This particular mosque bombing was the pulpit of Shiite cleric and (anti-Jaafari/al-Sadr) SCIRI parliamentry member Jalal al-Din Saghir. In 2004 Sighir, in one of his many denounciations of the Sunni (resistance), also accusedAlJazeera news of trying to “incite a civil war” in Iraq (because of their precieved bias) and urged the US appointed Iraqi Governing Council to permanently shut down the the Baghdad bureau — which they promptly did.
So I’m not sure why Juan Cole would take this moment to shift the Sunni resistance from being anti-occupation to being pro-civil war, its not like this Imam is innocent of sectarianism, splitting the UIA alliance, or being complicit with the occupaton, or its desires, himself.
maybe it was just a typo.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 8 2006 3:13 utc | 6

A good roundup of the Jaafari vs USA mess by Jim Lobe at antiwar, selecyed excerpts:
Efforts by the United States to split the Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) and deny interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari his claim to head the next government could well prove counter-productive to long-term U.S. objectives in both Iraq and the larger region, according to some specialists here.
Not only has heavy-handed U.S. intervention in negotiations to create a new government deepened divisions among the various factions, they say, but efforts to marginalize Jaafari – epitomized by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s snub during her trip with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw to Baghdad earlier this week – risk empowering groups that are much more closely tied to neighboring Iran.
Those groups – notably the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – are also the two that are most opposed to amending the constitution to accommodate the demands of the Sunni minority for a stronger federal government that would assure an equitable distribution of the country’s oil revenues.
Both groups favor a weak federal system in which the Kurdish north and the Shi’ite south, the two centres of Iraq’s oil wealth, would enjoy maximum autonomy.
If they come to dominate a new government, current trends moving the country toward outright civil war are likely to intensify, as could conflict among the Shi’ite militias themselves, according to these experts.
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Indeed, a related Journal editorial, published Wednesday, noted that PUK leader and Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, appears “to have struck a deal with SCIRI to acquiesce in a Kurdish takeover of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk” – a move that Iraq experts have long warned would plunge the country into civil war.
………………………….
Helena Cobban, an independent Middle East specialist and columnist for the Christian Science Monitor who (…) strongly opposed the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation, also believes that Washington’s eagerness to oust Jaafari by splitting the UIA undermines its professed interests in averting civil war, preserving Iraq’s unity, and, most of all, keeping Iran at bay.
“SCIRI and Talabani are both really tight with the mullahs in Tehran – much more so than Jaafari and (his) Da’wa (party) and Moqtada,” Cobban told IPS. “My view is that (U.S. ambassador Zalmay) Khalilzad has been spun for an absolute sucker by Talabani and the Iranians.”
Moreover, she said, Washington also bears heavy responsibility for the ongoing impasse in forming the government, an impasse that has not only exacerbated sectarian conflict throughout the country, but one the administration has tried to blame on Jaafari, as a way of pressing him to step aside.
Its campaign against him began almost as soon as he won the UIA’s nomination and has intensified in recent weeks, culminating in Rice’s visit, according to Cobban.
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Washington opposes Jaafari less for his perceived ineffectiveness as interim prime minister than for his close ties with – indeed, growing dependence on – Sadr, whose 15,000-man Mahdi Army militia dominates Sadr City in Baghdad, battled U.S. troops in 2004, and was responsible for many of the attacks on Sunnis that followed the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra six weeks ago.
Sadr’s spokesman, Fatah al-Sheikh, told Newsweek that, in exchange for Sadr’s support within the UIA, Jaafari promised to demand a clear timetable for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces if he succeeded in becoming prime minister.
In order to prevent this from happening, Khalilzad has forged a de facto alliance with Talabani and SCIRI which, according to some experts, made clear to Khalilzad from the outset that, despite its commitment to UAI unity, it wanted the premiership for itself.
Their candidate is Mehdi, whose support for free-market economics and Western mien and education have made him a favorite in Washington for some time.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 8 2006 8:30 utc | 8

We can only guess what really happens in Iraq and what US plans are.
This WaPo megaphone piece today has some hints:
Threat of Shiite Militias Now Seen As Iraq’s Most Critical Challenge

Shiite Muslim militias pose the greatest threat to security in many parts of Iraq, having killed more people in recent months than the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, and will likely present the most daunting and critical challenge for Iraq’s new government, U.S. military and diplomatic officials say.
…
Dressed in a suit and seated at a large wooden desk, the commander of a company of some 200 men looked little like a fighter during an interview one recent morning at an office in the southern city of Najaf. He said he expected another confrontation between U.S. forces and the Mahdi Army, which has won a fierce following not only by battling foreign troops but by providing such social services as cleaning streets and feeding the poor.
“It is like fire and ice. We will never get together and we consider the occupation our worst enemies,” he said. “We are expecting martyrdom at any moment. When the order comes to defend ourselves, God willing, we will fight bravely.”
…
Some U.S. officials and military commanders argue that the groups must be confronted. “There’s a law on the books that these things are illegal, and it has to be enforced,” said the U.S. official who worked on the militia issue.
Col. Jeffrey Snow, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division in restive western Baghdad, said he had taken an aggressive stance toward militias, particularly the Mahdi Army, which he blames for a February roadside bomb attack that killed two U.S. soldiers.
…

The Mossad disinformation service Debka writes

The US military command in Iraq dispatched large-scale Marine forces with armor, tank and helicopter support to the two Shiite shrine cities south of Baghdad before dawn Friday, April 7. DEBKAfile’s military sources report the action followed a threat by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to overrun the Shiite cities and Baghdad’s Shiite suburb, if the Americans force the Iran-backed interim prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari to step down.
Armed Shiite tribesman have smuggled senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his staff out of the city and harm’s way, amid fears the Mehdi Army may take him hostage. The tribes have taken him under their protection.
While US forces took control of central Najef, they are keeping to Karbala’s western suburbs; Sadr’s men occupy the center and are building military positions.
In the summer of 2004, US and Iraqi forces crushed a rebellion staged by Sadr at the head of his militia. DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that since this defeat, the Mehdi Army has developed into the strongest and best equipped armed force in Iraq, outgunning its two Shiite rivals, the Badr Force and Wolves Brigades. The buildup is entirely the work of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and undercover agents.
Saturday, April 8, formal talks aimed at breaking Iraq’s political stalemate begin in Baghdad between a US delegation headed by ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and an Iranian delegation. Jaafari’s refusal to stand aside is the main hurdle in the way of a unity government.

I somehow doubt the Iran support for Sadr Debka claims. As Lobe says, he is less on an Iranian side than SCIRI and Badr.

In a way this all could be part of a sellout of Iraq by the US to Iran. Jaafari and Sadr as nationalists would not go with such a deal which for the US is about the only wy to get away from the mess.
It wouldn´t be the first bad smelling deal between the US and Iran and look who the actors were at that time and where they are now.

Posted by: b | Apr 8 2006 9:59 utc | 10

I also noted on the bbc link:
Meanwhile al-Sharqiya TV is showing a lottery programme called Ration Card. The presenter, a young red-haired woman, pulls a ball out of rolling drum to select the winning ration card number. The winner is then contacted and told the good news – they have won US $1,000.
Bisarre is only the beginning…

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Apr 8 2006 14:57 utc | 12