Man of the cloth - Shia style

This is a report on what the US forces found in Najaf after Al-Sadr and his "followers" left, free to go.

"Inside the court building, Iraqi police found approximately 200 mutilated bodies taken by the Moqtada militia for speaking out against Moqtada al Sadr," said the intelligence report sent to the Pentagon and stamped "secret."

"Some of the prisoners had eyes and ears drilled out and others had their limbs and heads cut off. Some males had genitals cut off and shoved in their mouths. There was evidence of rape to men, women and children," according to the report.

So who is this Al-sadr? Where did he come from? Who are his "followers"?

Sheik al-Sadr has led several deadly uprisings in southern Iraq, unleashing his rifle-toting, ragtag army on coalition forces and innocent civilians. U.S. Army and Marine units have responded by attacking and killing scores of the fighters.

Sheik al-Sadr holed up in Najaf's main mosque for days before Iraq's leading Shi'ite, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, returned from Britain and helped negotiate a cease-fire on Thursday.

The sheik's aides say that he now may choose to enter politics. But if his Mahdi's Army is tied to the massacre of innocent Iraqis, he could face a criminal investigation.

"The commander of the Sadr movement, leader Muqtada Sadr, announced today in Najaf the end of all fighting in the whole of Iraq and the integration of his movement in the political process," Sheik Naim al-Qaabi said last week.

U.S. military sources have told The Times that Iranian money helped Sheik al-Sadr rise from an obscure cleric during Saddam's rule to an influential rebel who paid a large army, provided social services and opened a rabble-rousing newspaper.

Iran. The major puppetmaster. Scaring even the Saudi's (well, that doesn't take too much, but with such extremist Muslim views... Just a different kind of extremism I guess).
Iran. Striving to obtain nuclear weapons. Scheming for a Shia majority rule in Iraq. Financing Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran. Way, WAY overdue for an uninterrupted week-long carpet-bombing. Or maybe Allah can organize a few more earthquakes like the last one. Although that lesson failed to sink in. No surprise there.