Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis Form Anti-Occupation Body

Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis Form Anti-Occupation Body
Additional Reporting By Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, May 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites formed Saturday, May 8, a pan-religious body to stream efforts for ending the occupation.

The United Iraqi Scholars Group -- which appointed a 16-strong leadership panel -- has vowed to boycott any political group set up by the United States and called for a stronger army than the small force envisioned by the US-led occupation authority, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

After a five-hour conference, attended by 500 Iraqis from across the political spectrum, the group said its agenda was based on "legitimate resistance to end the occupation" and keeping Iraq united.

It deemed all laws passed or to be enacted under the yoke of occupation "illegal" and demanded an end of occupation as soon as possible.

The new body, grouping Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, pressed for sidelining the U.S.-appointed Governing Council and called for a meeting with U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

(more)

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-05/08/article08.shtml

I hope they do form an active coalition and turf the bush puppets! I would define this union as a REAL coalition versus bush's faux one.

What a comment "Bush really IS a uniter". LOVED it!

Can't wait to see how the Compassionate One (*cough cough*) deals with this.

till the Iraqis demand we vacate and leave their country?

I hope they accept it.

and they are ready to work with the UN. I wish them luck.

Nevertheless, it would be a lot more sovereign than anything that Bush would approve or of what Chalabi would be a part. It is far more likely to be a legitimate government than a colonial occupation force or puppets taking order from Ambassador Negroponte.

sentation....little short of specifics (especially on Kurdish participation).

Anything w/out Chalabi is a move in the right direction for Iraq, imho from here. He's a con to con the cons...

...they've treated everyone else.

As for the Kurds, they will understand. Ain't the first time a Bush has jammed them. They should be used to it by now.

Don

I have hoped for a while that an unintended consequence of the mishandling of Iraq might unite the Iraqi's against their common foe.

If this alliance leads to a peaceful Iraq, I can't wait to start hearing the r-wingers and hate radio idiots proclaim it as having been the administration's secret plan all along.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a peaceful and US-free Iraq.

HALLO AMURIKKKA! Now I'm gonna say this in real PLAIN LANGUAGE for y'all, jes like your *dimwit pretzeldent, and so's not to be misunderfastood.

Somehow y'all allowed your *MIC to UNILATERALLY go into Iraq and run amok a-rapin' and a-pillagin'. Das ist NICHT IN ORDNUNG. You refused to grok it and now you got some prurient interest pix (what seems ta be the ONLY THING what gets y'all's attention). ALL THAT BULLSHIT ABOUT WHY YOU HAD TO BRUTALIZE DEM BROWN FOLKS HAS BEEN LONG SINCE PROVEN TO BE LIES...LIES...LIES.

Can you do yourselves and the rest of the world a teensy-tinsy favor and ESCORT YOUR FUCKING HOMEGROWN RAPIST OUT OF THE ROOM? I knew you could.

.
.
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We must not take our eye off the ball

It's for the oil,

The BFEE needs that oil to keep their WarMachine fueled up.

Remember, Rummy said in his "performances" that the US has forces in 120, actually I believe he once said 130 countries.

They NEED that oil, so they ain't leaving.

Was never about WMD's

Was never about "freedom"

Was never about "democracy"

It's about OIL

Gee, I thought everyone knew that by now . . .

...all about oil, oil for food, oil for cars, oil for SUV's, oil for profit. Oil and only oil. The oil, the whole oil and nothing but the oil!

:shrug:

the only face saving way out of this is for a regime change right here at home. Kerry's not perfect, but he isn't bush and that will go a long way in putting together a real coalition force to allow us to vacate Iraq. With bush there, we've lost. The problem is he won't let that happen and the war will rage on.

Now we will see if it really was about "bringing Democracy, yadayadayada..", or was it about the delicious, sweet crude oil flowing under the sand.

The United Iraqi Scholars Group, with the help of Brahimi, could force Bushler's hand--this war is failing, and if the group get the endorsement of Brahimi, maybe we could get out of this mess whether the neocons like it or not. A ray of hope.

is to release the innocent detainees, close the prison, RAZE IT TO THE GROUND, load your brainwashed kids onto planes and FLY THEM OUT OF THERE. Then the Iraqis themselves can identify your economic RAPISTS and FORCE THEM OUT OF THE ROOM, before parading them on the world stage and INDICTING THEM.

First, I agree we should get out, leave, hand over all control of prisons, government, etc to (hopefully) this group in the article opposed to the occupation. Give Iraq back to the Iraqis.
But, I disagree that the prison should be razed to the ground. I think it should be turned into a monument, much like the concentration camps in Germany so future generations can learn.

Much more satisfying for the Iraqi's then when we staged the toppling of Saddam's statute. Haven't the Iraqi's already attempted to mortar bomb it twice in the last month?

My question is who's brain-dead idea was it to use that place to begin with? One of the general's excuse was space was limited...yeah, space get's pretty limited when you bomb the F* out of a country.

All detainees need to be processed and either cleared and released or transferred to a detainment center run by maybe the Poles or the Hungarians or Australians. They seem to have the best trained troops as far as being able to recognize the rights of detainees and civilians.

Maybe we should let the Iraqi people decide what to do with the prison. Based on what's been done there by Saddam's regime and Bush's, they might enjoy tearing it apart brick by brick.

As far as flying our brainwashed kids home, I all for it. I've been sick of this war before it began and want it to end sooner then later.

:toast: This is more ridiculous than the pre-psychedelic "duck and cover" nightmares I had as a kid.

And then you grow up and find out that 'duck and cover' wouldn't have done a whole of a lot of good if an H bomb really did go off anywhere near you.

I think growing up in the cold war is one reason why the 'imminent threat' bullshit of Saddam was f'in laughable to me personally. Give me a break...When you grow up with the mantra that the USSR has hundreds of nuclear weapons poised to launch at the first international 'incident', it's hard to get upset about a tin-pot despot 'possibly' have nuclear capabilities.

That's why anyone who says the admin 'mislead' them into thinking Iraq was a DIRECT threat to the US is full of cow dung, in my opinion. Especially considering that as an adult I found out that for every nuclear missle the USSR had pointed at us, we had something like 25. (Don't quote me on that as I don't have exact numbers, but I know we had them vastly outnumbered in missiles.)

My point is that the US of A is the owner of more WMD's then ANY other nation and it's time we act responsibily. We do not need to bully the world. We need to use our vast resources to help the world. That is the only way to wage war on 'terrorism'.

Perhaps justice would be better served if we ran out with our tails between our legs and our heads hung in shame.

Not a good time in history to be an American.

What are they going to do about these guys?

kill them.

Then they will (try to) kill them.

I'm torn between agreeing with Kerry that we should at least try to reopen that avenue and simply cutting and running. neither plan is exactly going to yield terrific results; the damage has gone too far. But we can't go on like this.

In some ways I kind of don't blame Kerry for not taking a big stand one way or the other *at this point*--because frankly, who the hell knows what we're going to be looking at by the time he actually gets into office? (assuming he does get into office). god only knows what other shit will hit the fan in eight months.

Then again, that's talking about him as a candidate. As a senator he still as at least some very little clout to deal with the situation *right now.* It'd be nice to see some specific ideas...

oh, well.

I don't really know that much about the different Islamic sects, but I was under the impression that the Shi'ites and Sunnis have been feuding for centuries, pretty much back to the time of Mohammed.

Amazing what a common cause can do for folks.

linda

..

In light of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, this new group of moderates against the occupation will force Sistani to totally reject the Coalition or else risk looking like a puppet of the Coalition.
Mark my words. As the days ahead progress, Sistani will gradually move to support this new group and reject Bremer's policies. Sistani has no choice.

:kick:

Maybe that is because the UN guy who is putting together this ramshackle group did the same thing in Afghanistan? I say give these honest folks the real acid test. Turn them loose and let them walk the streets of Baghdad and let them interact with the local populace without the "contractors" to protect them and lets see how well they are accepted. What do you think?

Don

the shit out of them.

Whatta ya say, 'rakis

Very powerful.

The speakers, including representatives of the Association of Muslim Scholars and the office of Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, underlined the importance of acting in solidarity to end the seal-off of cities by occupation forces.

They were referring to the Sunni town of Fallujah, that had come under a crippling U.S. siege for more than three weeks.

"Occupation troops should also end the siege of the two Shiite holy cities of An-Najaf and Karaba," Shiite scholar Abdel-Gabar Al-Maamuri told IOL, citing the final communique."

Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani is now in ivolved and the Kurds have joined forces.

(CBS/AP) A senior general and a Republican senator say the United States could lose in Iraq, and are pointing the finger at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

“I think we are right on the edge in Iraq right now,” says Sen. Chuck Hagel.

Rumsfeld and his staff didn’t listen to military planners, and now the United States is “in a mess,” the Nebraska Republican said on CBS News’ Face The Nation.

“What is our policy? What are we doing? What is the possibility of us winning? That's all still in question,” said Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I think it's still in question whether Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and, quite frankly, General Myers can command the respect and the trust and the confidence of the military of the American people to lead this country.”

A senior general at the Pentagon tells the Washington Post he believes the United States is on the path to defeat – and Rumsfeld and his advisers are to blame. The Post reports great anger is building at Rumsfeld and his top advisers among career Army officers.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/09/iraq/main616398.shtml