Theodore's World

Beccy Cole is from Australia and in this video she is singing Beccy Cole who is singing “Poster Girl”.
She went to Iraq to entertain the troops and some of her fans did not like it so she wrote this song for them.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Everone please listen to her song. You don’t have to be an Aussie to appreciate the patriotism
God bless the Diggers. And God bless Australia. And God bless Beccy.
The Aussies are great and it was also wonderful to get to meet a few of them in Saigon.

* Sondra at SondraK
* Beth at MVRWC

Saturday October 21, 2006

Please scroll down for update
to this post.

CNN aired a terrorist sniper killing a US soldier. They blacked out the screen when the bullet hit, but that did not stop the sound or description that they went on to share.
According to CNN, “The graphic video of 10 sniper attacks was obtained by CNN — through intermediaries –from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq.”

Video on CNN shows snipers’ chilling work in Iraq

(CNN) — Chilling scenes from a videotape made by insurgents show the work of snipers in Iraq, targeting and killing American troops, taking them down with a single bullet from a high-powered rifle.
The graphic video of 10 sniper attacks was obtained by CNN — through intermediaries — from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq.
In one scene, U.S. soldiers mingle among Iraqi civilians on a city street as a U.S. Humvee with a gunner in its turret stands guard nearby.
From a distance, possibly hundreds of yards away, a sniper watches for his opportunity to strike as a fellow insurgent operates a camera to capture the video for propaganda purposes.
In the video, street sounds mix with male Arabic voices as the sniper and his spotter talk off-camera.

“People are around them,” warns the spotter, who seems to be operating the video camera. “Want me to find another place?”

“No, no,” comes the reply, “give me a moment.”

And then, the crack of gunfire is heard and the soldier in the turret slumps forward.

“Allahu Akbar (God is Great)!” is the exclamation as the sniper’s vehicle starts and they slip away.

The deadly tactic is one the U.S. military also uses to take out insurgents.
Retired Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin was one of the top U.S. Marine Corps snipers in Iraq and has written a book about his experiences — “Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper.”
“I have over 60 kills,” he told CNN’s Gary Tuchman. “We seek out the enemy and eliminate them with precision fire.”
Tuchman used Coughlin’s critical eye to analyze the Islamic Army of Iraq video.
Coughlin said the time lapse between the sound of the shot and the man getting hit indicates the gunfire is coming from about 300 to 500 yards away and probably from a higher angle.
But Couglin said he’s sure this team of at least three people has been trained well because they’re so calm.

“They have their stuff wired,” he said. “They know what they’re doing.” (Watch the ex-Marine describe snipers’ deadly work — 2:46)

The 20-year Marine veteran said the kind of body armor worn by troops in combat can be effective against a sniper’s bullet, and he added that there are other ways to defend against the horrifying attacks.

“The worst enemy of a sniper is another sniper,” Coughlin said. “Our snipers are hunting these guys — I guarantee you this is happening as we speak.”

Coughlin added that, in many cases, the best defense is a good offense.

UPDATE:
Lawmaker Outraged by Sniper Footage on CNN
SAN DIEGO — CNN has become “the publicist for an enemy propaganda film” by broadcasting a video showing an insurgent sniper in Iraq apparently killing an American soldier, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said here Friday.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) called for the Pentagon to oust any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq.

“I think Americans like to think we’re all in this together,” Hunter said. “The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side.”

Another UPDATE:
Armed Services Committee Chairman Calls For Removal of CNN’s Embedded Reporters
CNN recently aired videos supplied by terrorists inside Iraq showing snipers attacking American soldiers. As a result of this outrageous behavior, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has asked for all of CNN’s reporters currently embedded with U.S. military units be removed.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee asked the Pentagon on Friday to remove CNN reporters embedded with U.S. combat troops, saying the network’s broadcast of a video showing insurgent snipers targeting U.S. soldiers was tantamount to airing an enemy propaganda film.
The tape, which came to the network through contact with an insurgent leader, was aired Wednesday night on “Anderson Cooper 360” and repeated Thursday.

The article continued:

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote: “CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier.”
The letter was also signed by San Diego-area Republican congressmen Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray.
“This is nothing short of a terrorist snuff film,” Bilbray said at a press conference held in San Diego.

CNN officials defended their decision to air the footage. ( GRRRRRRRRRRRRR)

“Our responsibility is to report the news,” said Laurie Goldberg, a CNN spokeswoman. “As an organization we stand by our decision and respect the rights of others to disagree with it.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Oust them is the least they should do, charge them with aiding and abetting the enemy with use of known propaganda, they have always been the terrorist sympathizer. In WW2 if if there had been a cable news services like CNN we might all be speaking German today.
Democrat mind set…….Americans too sensitive to see videos of 911 but not to see Muslims pigs shoots soldiers. These cowards were afraid to show the Danish cartoons, even though it was the biggest story in that news cycle. Even though the story was HUGE!
The terrorists went and created that video for the whole purpose of propagandizing their viewpoint. So what do the total dopes at CNN do, they BROADCAST it! One of CNN’s analysts called the sniper attacks the most effective thing they have seen. “The deadly tactic is one the U.S. military also uses to take out insurgents”, according to CNN. They seem be telling them how good they are at using our strategies to kill our men.
I haven’t been this angry in a very long time. An American soldier died for these bastards’ “news value.” What “value” is that, precisely? What does CNN “value” that can excuse this utter moral degeneracy? Is it the sort of moral equivalency that sees no difference between the son of a bitch driving a car bomb into a crowd and the Marine who dies to try to stop him? Is it “all the same thing” when looked at from the lofty heights of an editorial desk in Atlanta? What sort of a sordid, miserable excuse for a human being could manage to justify this outrageous glorification of murder and have the spit-shined brass balls to try to pass it off as “news value”?
This is from one of the soldiers that is in country right now regarding the CNN embedded reporters…….

“I hated those weasly little bastards. They were a huge hindrence on patrol. One more unarmed idiot to have to look out for. They would do incredibly stupid stuff to get footage in a firefight. I finally told my guys not to provide covering fire for then any more. Just let the f***er get his ass shot. One of them had an AK round go clean through his camera. He could not stop shaking for about an hour. Inside, we were lauging our asses off at him.”

Update: October 24, 2006

Legendary snipers became the role models.
Snipers such as Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock,
a Marine sniper in Vietnam with 98 confirmed kills,
Sgt. 1st Class. Randy Shugart and
Master Sgt. Gary Gordon,
two Delta Force snipers, who died in Somalia in 1993
trying to rescue a downed crew of a MH-60 Black Hawk
during the battle of Mogadishu.

As you know I am a big supporter of our military and when I started this blog one of the links I wanted to make sure I had in my sidebar was a place online called Americansnipers.org. It has been there since this blog began on September 21, 2005.
I am so pleased to see others supporting the efforts of the Americansnipers.org especially now after what CNN has done in their aiding the enemy with their showing of the video snuff film sent to them by the enemy. They just had to show it and not once but over and over again. We all wrote letters to CNN, phoned CNN (404-827-2600) and showed our disgust for what they have done and the stand they have taken to side with the enemy.
Here are some places at their site:
About
Items needed
Letters and photos from our snipers
Donations
Two years ago I ordered this dog tag from Americansnipers.org. I keep it on my key chain. I loved it so much I ordered more to give as gifts to the troops in their care packages. I have ordered other things and donated, this is just one of the items they have.

Those also suggesting to check out Americansnipers.org

* Blackfive
* Michelle Malkin

NJ Muslim group tracking airport run-ins
NEWARK, N.J.–
A New Jersey Muslim group is launching a nationwide effort to record complaints about Muslims being wrongfully detained or questioned at airports to determine where the worst problem areas are.
The goal is not to file lawsuits, but to get to the source of problems and correct it, said Sohail Mohammed, a lawyer for the American Muslim Union.
The group is sending out forms via e-mail networks and to mosques around the country asking travelers to record as much information as they can about where, when and why they are questioned by authorities.

“It seems like people don’t know whether they are interacting with the INS, the FBI, Homeland Security or whoever they just know someone stopped them,” he said.

The group has received several complaints from Muslims using airports in New Jersey and New York that they were detained and questioned for hours when attempting to return to the country from abroad.
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan drawing to an end this weekend, many travelers will want to make a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, known as the “hajj,” that is required of all Muslims at least once in their lives.

“This is a huge travel time for Muslims and we don’t want them to run into the same problems,” Mohammed said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights office, which deals with such complaints, did not return a call Friday seeking statistics on how many Muslims have filed complaints alleging wrongful detention at airports.
Abdin Aly, a Little Falls accountant, said he was detained and questioned for two hours at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2005 after returning from a trip to Egypt with his wife. He had briefly left the Frankfurt, Germany, airport to have dinner with a relative during a stopover there. He said authorities did not say whether his name appeared on a watch list.

“They wouldn’t let me use the bathroom or use the telephone to call my son, who was waiting for me for two hours, wondering where I was and what was going on,” he said. “It was ugly. At least this will bring awareness to officials about what’s going on.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
I just don’t get it, they are working overtime to make enemies when they could try to get along, try to fit in and appreciate living in the best country in the world. But nooooooooo, that would ease tensions, that would show that I might be wrong about them. Come on Muslims I dare you to prove me wrong when I say there are NO moderate Muslims.
It just never ends with these Muslims they want to have trouble, they want to complain and moan and whine. How about an organization FOR Muslims where they can send letters, make phone calls and get their outrage known of their being upset at the attacks on 9-11, the USS Cole and all the other attacks.
Oh nooooooooooo you mean they don’t want to do that? You mean they don’t have any outrage??? Wow, and I guess waiting for the fat lady to sing and ice to form in hell is out of the question too. Well double darn anyway.

U.S. Marines from the ammunition detachment, Combat Logistics Regiment 15, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward) prepare ordnance for detonation as part of emergency destruction training in Al Anbar province. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ryan B. Busse.

U.S. Army Sgt. Chris Walsh checks his weapon’s scope while performing overwatch security in Sekeik. Walsh is from 1st Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 300th Field Artillery Regiment, Wyoming National Guard Police Training Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Billy Brothers.

Written by Eric Danis:
Frontpage Magazine
I moved from Andover, Massachusetts to Israel over five years ago, so the day-to-day happenings in my hometown are largely off my radar screen. However, Andover High School (AHS) physics teacher Ron Francis, a former teacher of mine, first caught my attention when I saw an article he wrote in February of 2006. The article was entitled “Media Bias Against Hamas,”and was written in an attempt to support the Palestinian terror group Hamas and to demonize Israel.
Francis never once condemned Hamas’ terror tactics or its anti-Semitic ideology, and he even discussed the “silver lining” of Hamas’ victory. Francis challenged Israel’s right to exist in the article by complaining that “the question of the validity of a Jewish-priviledge state is never raised.” (It is interesting that a public school teacher apparently does not know how to correctly spell “privilege”).
Francis’ article was posted on the Website of the “Somerville Divestment Project” (SDP), a group he founded in Somerville, Massachusetts several years ago (Francis teaches in Andover but lives in Somerville). The SDP has been trying unsuccessfully for years to convince the city of Somerville to divest “from Israel bonds and military companies tied to Israel’s occupation.” Needless to say, the SDP advocates boycott and divestment of one country in the entire world – the Jewish country of Israel.
The SDP’s Website is filled with hateful propaganda against Israel, and contains articles suggesting that the recent war in Iraq was fought because a cabal of powerful Jews manipulated the U.S. government.
One section of the SDP’s Website is entitled, “Iraq: A War for Israel?” This section contains the following quotation from Pat Buchanan:

“We charge them [neo-cons] with colluding with Israel to ignite those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords… (They) harbor a ‘passionate attachment’ to a nation not our own that causes them to subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption that, somehow, what’s good for Israel is good for America.”

Francis is not content to merely provide quotations of others bashing Israel and Jews. He has also perpetuated the anti-Semitic stereotype that Jews manipulate political process in America and control the media (although he is very careful to always write “zionists” – with a lowercase “z” to show his lack of respect – instead of “Jews”):
Despite always claiming to be a human rights activist, Francis was also quoted in the Andover Townsman newspaper as supporting Palestinian suicide bombers:

“I do not condemn the Palestinian people because the actions they are taking, given the circumstances they face, (are) completely understandable and within the bounds of normal human behavior. I have to ask myself, would I be any different?”

In the same article in the Townsman, it was noted that Francis was an “informal adviser” for an after-school student group at AHS called Students for Middle East Justice (SMEJ), that the majority of the students in the SMEJ came from Francis’ physics classroom, and that some of these students were paid to canvass for Francis’ SDP in Somerville. Francis paid Andover public school students from his classroom to support his bigoted organization’s attempt to demonize Israel, and yet Andover remained largely silent.
The Townsman, which did not publish a single article or letter regarding Francis’ political activities until it published a letter I wrote last April, still has not published even one editorial condemning Francis’ anti-Semitic comments and his mixing of politics into the classroom. Not a single teacher at AHS has publicly condemned Francis or his views.
In fact, Andover Teachers’ Union President Tommy Meyers wrote a letter to the Townsman praising Francis. Meyers defended the propriety of Francis’ actions as well as his beliefs:

“Francis should be commended as a courageous defender of human rights. He continues to work on behalf of people who have been disfranchised from their rights as well as removed from their land,” wrote Meyers.

Francis has recently started yet another school year at AHS, and his SDP recently embarked upon another attempt to force Somerville to divest from Israel. Will Francis once again involve his physics students in his anti-Semitic efforts? Will he pay them? Will he continue to slander Jews and Israelis? It seems that most people in apathetic Andover do not care about the answers to these questions. I expect more than silence in the face of hatred from my hometown.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
I read this and found it chilling. It is bad enough for this kind of thing to happen, but when they are notified that people know about it and are disgusted by it, don’t agree with it and do nothing. Then it is even worse that this goes on even once and is allowed to continue.
Thank you Jack Hamliton for telling me about this article.

Listening to Imam Asadullah speak Thursday during the dedication of a
new Muslim prayer space at West Point.
West Point opens Islamic worship space as Muslim cadets increase
Newsday
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP)
Muslims at the U.S. Military Academy numbered just two in 2001. This year, there are 32.
Now West Point has opened its first space dedicated to Muslims, a worship hall complete with a pulpit facing Mecca. The space officially opened Thursday.

“I knew the Army had a policy of religious tolerance, but I didn’t know it was to this extent,” said first-year Cadet Ahmed Moomin, 20, from the Maldives.

Until now, Friday prayers were held in an increasingly crowded first-floor office, said Imam Asadullah, the academy’s Muslim cleric. The number of Muslim cadets jumped by 10 from last year.
The new hall is large enough for dozens of followers, he said.
West Point’s Muslim leaders approached administrators last year for help.

“We live in a world where everyone is looking at the United States saying, ‘You’re anti-Islam.’ But here at West Point, that’s not what we do,” West Point Chaplain Col. John Cook said.

Asadullah said the new hall is a strategic move.

“We have cadets here who are going to be the future of tomorrow,” he said. “If we treat them differently from other cadets or other faiths, that will be a cause for future confrontation.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
All the fine soldiers who graduated at West Point are rolling over in their graves. I would not want to be in a foxhole with any of these guys when the lead started flying. Well it cannot be more diverse than training tomorrow’s jihadists.
I have a very bad feeling about this, is this infiltration?? OK so shall we take a minute to imagine one of these Muslim cadets flying fully armed B52s into buildings.
So now, West Point is commanded by politically correct damn fools!!
I am sure that if muslim prayer time arrives during a parade, it will be halted and as non-muslims stand at parade rest, the muslim Cadets will face Mecca with their nose to the ground and their ass in the air as West Point comes to a stand still.
By the time our leaders wake up and realize that Islamites are the problem, they will be in command of our military forces.
Remember the soldier that threw hand grenades into a tent where his superior officers were gathered, during the liberation of Kuwait, an American soldier of the Islamite persuasion!!
And remember THIS story?
Muslim West Point graduate busted for espionage

Captain John Yee, a 1990 graduate of West Point and one of the U.S. Army’s Muslim chaplains, has been arrested and is being held in the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., on charges of sedition, espionage, aiding the enemy, spying and failing to obey a general order.
Military officials yesterday confirmed that a Muslim chaplain who was counseling al-Qaida prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base has been detained since Sept. 10 after being found in possession of classified documents.
Capt. Yee served as “Muslim adviser to the commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo” since reporting there in November, said Capt. Thomas Crosson of the Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the mission at Guantanamo.
He grew up in New Jersey as a Lutheran, but learned enough about Islam while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., that he decided to convert. He later became one of the 17 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. armed forces.
He became interested in Islam while a student and later spent four years studying Arabic and Islam in Damascus, Syria. He serves with the 29th Signal Battalion at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Capt. Yee, 35, a 1990 graduate of West Point, converted to Islam in 1991 and left the Army after completing airborne school at Fort Knox, Ky.
The suspect then went to Damascus to teach English and study Islam. After becoming a Muslim clergyman, he rejoined the Army as a chaplain.
Questions?????
* Why was Yee allowed to leave the Army after airborne training, rather than after completing his five years of obligatory service after receiving $250,000 worth of training at West Point?
* And after spending time studying Islam in Damascus – the site of 12 Muslim terrorist headquarters – why on earth did the U.S. Army Chaplains Corps accept him back into the Army?

Our troops deserve a hell of a lot better than to have to watch their backs from a enemy embedded into their ranks by the law of politically correct.
They are going to take us from within without firing a friggin shot. We need to get real and mean business…….THEY DO!!!!!!!!

I wonder what JFK was
thinking?  heh heh

Wild Thing’s comment…….
You know this is a Lie. All the Dems want is to Impeach Bush and every official they can. Dems have no plan for the country only hate and believe me if they gain control of the House Impeachment of Bush is the first order of Business.
So, why is Pelosi all in a sudden worried about re-assuring voters about HER legislative agendas? Could it be that possible, just maybe, the demo’s polls are NOT showing them winning …Not winning because Pelosi is (correctly) being seen as an extremist international liberal socialist?
Lord the thought of Pelosi and company in charge ought to be enough to scare any of us.

After the fall of Saddam, Muqtada al-Sadr, a charismatic Iraqi cleric who comes from a powerful clerical dynasty, emerged as one of the country’s most talked-about Shi’a leaders.
Al-Sadr is one of the most vocal critics of the U.S. troops being in Iraq.
On 18 July 2003 al-Sadr used a Friday sermon in Al-Najaf to denounce as “puppets” the members of Iraq’s new U.S.-appointed Governing Council. He also announced his own plans to form a militia.
Al-Sadr announced his new government during his sermon at Friday prayers in Al-Kufah on 10 October 2003. Muqtada al-Sadr announced his intention to form an Islamic state in Iraq by establishing a shadow government there, complete with ministries.
Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani praised al-Sadr’s recent actions as “heroic” during his Friday prayer sermon in Tehran:

“Contrary to these terrorist groups in Iraq, there are powerful bodies which contribute to the security of that nation…among them is the Mahdi Army, made up of enthusiastic, heroic young people”

By early 2004 Sadr’s followers had elevated him to the rank of hujjat al-Islam (a “Sign of Islam,” or a “Proof of Islam,” the third rank from the top in the Shi’i clerical hierarchy). He wraps himself in a white funeral shroud, showing he is ready for death.
April 7th, 2004……… Iran, Hezbollah support al-Sadr
Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery Iraqi Shi’ite cleric who ordered his fanatical militia to attack coalition troops, is being supported by Iran and its terror surrogate Hezbollah, according to military sources with access to recent intelligence reports.
On 05 August 2004 Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers in Iraq to rise up and fight US troops. The message comes as clashes broke out in at least three cities between his supporters and US and Iraqi security forces. Moqtada al-Sadr’s representatives said the truce between his followers and the US military was over. By 06 August the US military estimated it has killed 300 militants in the city of Najaf in two days of fighting. Heavy fighting has also been raging in the streets of Sadr City in Baghdad, where at least 19 people have been killed over the same period. Sadr’s spokesmen sent mixed messages, with one saying al-Sadr wanted to reinstate the truce, and another saying he had declared America the enemy and urged his followers to fight on.
In late June 2005, however, Muqtada al-Sadr called for a nationwide cease-fire and announced that he would join the political process in the following days. The announcement followed discussions between al-Sadr and the Iraqi government as well as coalition officials.
The peace deal lasted until August 5, when Sadr supporters attacked a Najaf police station, setting off intense clashes between Mehdi Army fighters and U.S. forces. Sadr’s supporters used the city’s revered sites, primarily the Imam Ali shrine and its adjacent ancient cemetery, to launch their attacks. Some 3,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqi security forces were deployed to Najaf to try to crush the uprising.
Sadr spokesman, told Al Jazeera August 30 that Sadr was calling on his forces to stop fighting and wait for an upcoming “political project.” Sadr supporters have said they will field candidates for the January elections and campaign on a platform calling for U.S. forces to withdraw. But many experts are deeply skeptical about Sadr’s intentions, noting that he has promised to stop fighting and join the political process more than once in the past, only to resort to violence.

“He’s said it before, many times,” Katzman says. “He’ll likely keep talking, rearm his militia, and build up support in other cities while staying fairly quiet in Najaf.”

How big is the Mehdi Army?
It’s unclear. Sadr supporters claim it numbers 10,000 men, although some reports place the number far lower, between 1,500 and 3,000. Some experts say there are also hundreds of thousands of additional Iraqis who are “passive” Sadr supporters.
January 23, 2006……Muqtada Pledges Defense of Iran from US attack.
Muqtada al-Sadr, visiting Iran, has pledged the support of his militia, the Mahdi Army, to Iran in case that country were attacked by the United States.
How widespread is Sadr’s support among Shiites?
Experts say he commands the loyalty of some 3 million to 5 million very poor Shiites across the country,
April 6th, 2006……..Muqtada al-Sadr is back with a vengeance. Al-Sadr proved a quick study, devising a new approach to his goal of becoming the leader of Iraq’s Shi’ite community. He developed a social-services network that could provide the average Iraqi with the protection, medicine, supplies, assistance and even money and jobs that they so desperately needed.
He has parlayed this popularity into real political power. His followers won 30 of 275 seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections. It has largely been al-Sadr’s recalcitrance that has produced the months of stalemate in forming a government. He doesn’t yet have the power to choose the country’s leaders, but he does have the clout to block those he doesn’t like, and if Iraq’s low-level civil war continues to build, his power seems only likely to rise with it, riding the wave of Shi’ite frustration that he has nurtured from the very beginning.
October 9th, 2006
American and Iraqi troops fight fierce battle with militants in Diwaniya, stronghold of militia members loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr; skirmish is third serious clash between American or Iraqi soldiers against members of Mahdi Army in Diwaniya in less than two months; American officials have increased pressure on Prime Min Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to rein in armed militias like Mahdi Army
October, 12th, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen, some of them in police uniforms, stormed the downtown Baghdad headquarters of a new satellite television station Thursday, killing the board chairman and 10 others in the second attack on an Iraqi station in the capital. The attack was carried out by Shiite militiamen.
I wrote about this attack on Sunday, Oct. 21.
Oct. 20 — Hundreds of militiamen linked to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr battled local police and members of a rival Shiite militia in the southeastern city of Amara today, destroying police stations and seizing control of entire neighborhoods, in apparent retaliation for the arrest of one of their fighters.
BUT look at this………….
Al-Sadr’s considerable leverage was apparent earlier this week, when al-Maliki ordered the release of one of Mr. Sadr’s senior aides. The aide had been arrested a day earlier by American troops on suspicion of participating in kidnappings and killings. sheesh!!!! Our troops had to have been ticked off beyond belief at this happening after the got the jerk and arrested him. SORRY, but WTF???????

Wild Thing’s comment…..
These are only a few of the attacks that this Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army have carried out. He is an extremely dangerous man and his truce meant nothing. We knew that, our troops knew that and I think our government and the Iraqi governement knew that too. I pray we come down hard on Muqtada al-Sadr and his army of killers. They do not need to exist one more breath.
Iran may lend some support to any element working to hasten the departure of the Americans from Iraq. Iran, giving them money and weapons and even men to help in the fight. We have read in the past of how Muqtada al-Sadr visited neighbouring Iran since Saddam Hussein was ousted, meeting senior officials in Tehran.
Muqtada al-Sadr visited Iran to attend events commemorating the fourteenth anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s death on June 4 and spent a week meeting with top Iranian officials, including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the head of the judiciary, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi He was also reported to have met secretly with Qasim Suleimani, the commander of the Qods Brigade (a special external department within IRGC intelligence
And this freaking al-Maliki is a weak kneeded fanny kissse to whatever al-Sadr wants. If not then why the heck did he let the prisoner go and all the other things he has done.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” marched through the streets of Baghdad’s biggest Shiite district. Members of the Shiite Mehdi army militia carry Lebanese Hezbollah flags in the rally.
This was done to show support from Muqtada Al Sadr’s Mahdi Army for the Hezbollah just this year with the fighting when Israel fought back.