{"id":269,"date":"2007-04-02T17:51:35","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T22:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=269"},"modified":"2007-04-04T14:49:21","modified_gmt":"2007-04-04T19:49:21","slug":"sistanis-smack-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=269","title":{"rendered":"Sistani’s Smack Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Shiite Cleric Opposes Return of Baathists in Iraq<\/a>”<\/p>\n

It could be a whole new ball game, friends.<\/p>\n

The most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq has rejected an American-backed \tproposal to allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baath \tParty to return to government service, an aide to the cleric said today…<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The office of Grand Ayatollah Sistani is deeply concerned about the new \tlaw,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the aide said…<\/p>\n

The comments from the ayatollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office came a day after Ahmad Chalabi, the \tformer Pentagon favorite and head of the de-Baathification commission, met \twith the cleric in Najaf. Mr. Chalabi has opposed any serious attempt to \troll back the purging of former Baathists from government. After the meeting \ton Sunday, Mr. Chalabi said at a news conference that Ayatollah Sistani was \taware of the law and had told Mr. Chalabi that it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153would not be the final \tone and there would be other drafts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some critics of the Bush administration will celebrate Sistani’s smack down. Here is the thing to remember: among those “critics” will be most of the Neo-cons\/Right Zionists<\/em> who championed de-Baathification<\/a> in the first place.<\/p>\n

Every time the Right Zionists look like they are down for the count in Washington, Sistani gives them a new lease on life in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

It happened in 2004 when he demanded elections, overruling the Scowcroft crowd of Right Arabists in Washington that warned against elections, pressed for re-Baathification, and championed ex-Baathist Iyad Allawi.<\/p>\n

David Wurmser<\/a>, Gerecht<\/a>, Perle, and others<\/a> (Cheney!?) put their faith in Sistani. Can he be said to have disappointed them?<\/p>\n

Right Zionists have had their disappointments (and plenty of enemies, to be sure!), but almost all of the disappointments have originated in Washington.\u00c2\u00a0 In Iraq, Right Zionists have enemies (i.e., the entire Sunni insurgency, elements of a Sadrist Shiite insurgency, etc.), but few disappointments.<\/p>\n

The first “Cutler’s Blog” reader to link to a Right Zionist celebrating Sistani’s proclamation wins…<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Sunni Arab political elite is already in full revolt. More from the New York Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

News of the rejection today drew harsh criticism from Sunni Arab leaders.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In my opinion, our country is now one led by the clerics, and the new \tpolitical process in Iraq is made to allow those clerics and religious \tparties to govern Iraq,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Salim Abdullah, a legislator from the main \tSunni Arab bloc in Parliament. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Iraqis will feel the consequences of \tthat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Iraqi government is using wilayat al-faqih,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, angrily \tinvoking the term that refers to the style of clerical governance \tpopularized by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran.<\/p>\n

Officials from the secular party of Ayad Allawi, the former prime \tminister, also expressed profound disappointment. Mr. Allawi said in an \tinterview last month that the religious Shiites were using the de-Baathification \tprocess to unjustly purge members of his party from public office. Mr. \tAllawi, a Shiite who is a former Baathist, has said that the Sunni-led \tinsurgency will continue as long as former members of the Baath Party are \tshut out of significant positions in the government.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim al-Janabi, a legislator and senior aide to Mr. Allawi, said today \tthat the lobbying of Ayatollah Sistani by Shiites like Mr. Chalabi \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is the \tweapon of losers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do not envy poor Ryan Crocker<\/a>, the newly arrived Arabist US ambassador to Iraq. He was all set to inherit Zalmay Khalilzad’s re-Baathification policy. Now, he may inherit the wind.<\/p>\n

[Update: Reuters<\/a> reports that a Beirut-based “spokesman” for Sistani has cast doubt on the veracity of Sistani’s rejection of the de-Baathification bill:<\/p>\n

“What some news agencies said quoting who they described as an aide to \tSayyed Sistani about his position on the de-Baathification Law was not \ttrue,” Hamed al-Khafaf, who is based in Beirut, said in a statement…<\/p>\n

“We are surprised by attempts trying to get (the Shi’ite clerical \testablishment) involved in a case which is the speciality of constitutional \torganisations,” Khafaf said, without saying what Sistani’s position was on \tthe law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ed Wong’s New York Times<\/em> article quoted “an aide” and reported on “comments from the ayatollah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office,” but offered no names.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the whole affair was nothing more than a Chalabi-inspired fabrication.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll see.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Shiite Cleric Opposes Return of Baathists in Iraq” It could be a whole new ball game, friends. The most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq has rejected an American-backed proposal to allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Baath Party to return to government service, an aide to the cleric said today… \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The office of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}