Sistani

[VetScratch]

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani: the man who Saddam Hussein couldn't break, and now the man that Bush can't seem to bend.

Here is the web site of Sistani, the most powerful man in Iraq:
http://www.sistani.org/html/eng/

Sistani spearheads Iraqi rejection of the U.S. plan to install a government elected by special-interest caucuses intended to represent and balance the various regional, religious, and ethnic groups. A Shiite theocracy like that in Iran would be the obvious result of his demands for a popular election. Sistani's unwavering resistance to American plans has now caused the U.S. to re-evaluate the situation and call in the United Nations.

Sistani has an international Shiite following, and is very influential in Iran as well as Iraq. He was just as hard to handle for Saddam Hussein as he has been for the United States. Saddam occasionally dared to put him under house arrest and murdered Sistani's relatives, but Sistani's leadership of the huge Najaf sect made him too formidable for Saddam to exterminate.

Millions of Shiites in Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere take Sistani's word as law, fund his Najaf activities, and revere him as him the marja al-taqlid, their prime "object for emulation."

Sistani and Iran's Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini were Najaf schoolmates long before Khomeini established Iran's Shiite theocracy.

If a united Iraq/Iran Shiite theocracy arises to become the regional superpower among Arab nations, more trouble down the road may ensure that Bush is remembered as the fool who followed his father's footsteps.

The world is thankful that Saddam is captured toast, but jailing or killing this Shiite religious leader, who opposed Hussein, will be impossible to justify, even if Bush personally reads the intelligence reports to the United Nations! If we want to WIN, someone with a plan to endear this crusty old veteran of Middle East turmoil had better stand up and be heard!

[so.cal.fan]

News flash at 10:00 am pst.


Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani has just survived an assaination attempt.

[VetScratch]

I turned on CNN... waiting for them to cycle back to the story... assuming they are probably covering it.

Sistani has been targeted before, and the U.S. has spent a fortune trying to protect him, but he has not exactly been the most cooperative target for security forces to guard.

He is a prime target of al Qaeda, Hesbollah, and other terrorist factions that would love to see a civil/religious war erupt in Iraq. As usual, we run the risk of being blamed if they get him.

[so.cal.fan]

I've only seen it on Fox News, they said gunman opened up on a car he was in, but they missed him.

[Steve 'StatMan']

The AP has a story that there was no assasination attempt:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040205/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_al_sistani_2

[Amazin]

If anyone assasinates him I'd put my money on the CIA. In the wake of 9/11,Bush quietly lifted a 25-year ban on CIA assasinations..This order will serve to destroy oppostion to US economic policies abroad. For all the disbeliever's,here's the link on the move:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1029-04.htm

Past targets of the CIA included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Salvador Allende. Add Osama to today's hit list.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally posted by Amazin
In the wake of 9/11,Bush quietly lifted a 25-year ban on CIA assasinations..

I guess it wasn't all that quietly lifted....eh? How'd you find out? :p

[Amazin]

For starters,I'm not a Lefty or a Tom :p

[Tom]

Originally posted by Amazin

Past targets of the CIA included Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Salvador Allende. Add Osama to today's hit list.

Yes! Ride 'em cowboy.
Just another Texan taking care of business.
Go, W!
HeeeeeYaaaaaaaaa!

[Suff]

Originally posted by PaceAdvantage
I guess it wasn't all that quietly lifted....eh? How'd you find out? :p

His influence is predominately in Southern Iraq. His followers believe his words are the same as if from Allah.

Southern Iraq is quiet. They don't want this guy dead yet. Because Southern Iraq will make the LA riots look like a Peace Rally if this guy goes...

Its simple to follow the trouble...its where the Oil is flowing. Kirkuk.

S. Iraq "was" stablizied. Today might change that. And its not crazy to think its an insurgent attempt to just MUCK the whole thing up...

Not in our interest to drop this guy yet. After the USA mails the checks... and everybody gets paid. Different story.

[VetScratch]

Originally posted by Amazin
If anyone assasinates him I'd put my money on the CIA. In the wake of 9/11,Bush quietly lifted a 25-year ban on CIA assasinations.Are you saying Bush is that stupid?

Sistani's integrity as an incorruptible Islamic cleric has never been questioned. He has actually been the most stabilizing force in Iraq, and is about the furthest thing removed from a terrorist that you can find among Iraqi leaders who resisted Saddam Hussein.

If Bush got caught assassinating him, it would be viewed just like a hit on the Pope or the Dali Lama. What a field day our enemies would have when a chorus of United Nations members called for Bush's prosecution along with Milosevic and Hussein.

The key to peace in Iraq is avoiding the emergence of thugs or a despot to lead the Shiite majority.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Amazin
For starters,I'm not a Lefty or a Tom :p



And the free world is thankful for that!

[Secretariat]

Originally posted by VetScratch
Are you saying Bush is that stupid?



Is that a rhetorical question?

[Amazin]

"Vet asks "Are you saying Bush is that stupid? "

He invaded Iraq on the basis of phantom wmd's,didn't he? What could have been stupider and more embarassing than finding out there were none after all the death and destruction?

Furthermore,they would never trace it back to Bush even if Bush gives the order. We still haven't found the truth behind the JFK assasination, have we? The CIA is not as inept as Bush is trying to potray them with intelligence.It's very easy for the CIA to smokescreen Bush if he orders an assasination. And Cowboy Bush doesn't care what anyone else thinks about it .

So to answer your question,yes, he's proven over and over again, he is that stupid.

[VetScratch]

Have we got that routine "down pat," or should we run through it again? :D

[Amazin]

What routine? :eek:

[VetScratch]

Amazin,
About Bush Ordering Sistani's Assassination:
Furthermore, they would never trace it back to Bush even if Bush gives the order. We still haven't found the truth behind the JFK assasination, have we?Secrets are much harder to keep today than they were forty years ago.

I would reveal the truth about JFK's assassination, but I won't since PA would demand substantiation, and the last living link who could provide first-hand testimony to identify any of the plotters died in March 1999. :(

[Tom]

Originally posted by Amazin
"Vet asks "Are you saying Bush is that stupid? "

..... We still haven't found the truth behind the JFK assasination, have we?



Well, yeah, we have. Oswald was the lone shooter. The single bullet theory was proven by forensics to be true, and the grassy knoll shot that supposedly blew his head off could not possibly have come from the grassy know because of the angle at the time of the fatal hit. Recent studies of the Zabruder film using modern technology have pretty much put that one to bed.
Michael Baden, reknowned (sp?) Forenic Scientist has given all the truth, not the Hollywood spin version by that Stone guy.
And I believed it was a conspiracy for 40 years myself. But someone presents me with REAL facts, not their interpretation of reality, I am willing to listen and change my mind.
There may have been others involved, forensics can't look at that, but Oswald fired all the shots that hit K. Anyone else shooting that day missed.

[Secretariat]

Tom make a good point VS. (See I can agree with a conservative).

Hinting at something and then holding back revealing that information is a ploy that only encourages others to know that information. In other words, put up or shut up.

[VetScratch]

I was alluding to the History Channel presentation in November that has been the subject of renewed speculation because it made explicit allegations that LBJ was involved in JFK's death. Controversy will persist so long as the majority of Americans do not believe Oswald was a lone crackpot.

[Tom]

I know of only one lone crackpot.
It ain't Oswald. :D