This was totally out of character for the moderate Shiite cleric who has been very supportive of the democratic process in Iraq since the fall of the Hussein regime.
Sure enough, the Iraqi media later announced that the AP report was not accurate:
"The reports of issuing fatwa by the Shiite cleric Sistani permiting taking up arms to drive foreign troops out of Iraq were baseless."Iraqi-American Nibras Kazimi suspected that the Iranian PSY-OPS teams were behind the AP's story.
Today the radical Iranian Regime came out with another report against Ayatollah Sistani.
Iran Press TV reported:
Iraq's most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a 'security accord' between the US and Iraq.Keep in mind, that report comes from the regime in Iran.
The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with "the US occupiers" as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said.
The source added the Grand Ayatollah had voiced his strong objection to the deal during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday.
The remarks were made amid reports that the Iraqi government might sign a long-term framework agreement with the United States, under which Washington would be allowed to set up permanent military bases in the country and US citizens would be granted immunity from legal prosecution in the country.
While the mainstream media keep mum about the accord, critics say the agreement would virtually put Iraq under the US tutelage and violate the country's sovereignty.
The source added Ayatollah Sistani, however, backed PM al-Maliki's government and its efforts and that of the nation to establish security in the country.
The article in the Iraqi Press about the Sistani and Maliki meeting did not include the information that Sistani rejected a US-Iraq security accord.
What was reported at Aswat Aliraq was that US Ambassador Crocker is in negotiations with the Iraqi government on long term strategic plans:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. President George W. Bush signed in early November 2007 an agreement on strategic partnership between the two countries, sanctioning a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq to protect it from "foreign threats" and maintain its internal stability.TIME Magazine also did not report on the Maliki-Sistani meeting this way (and you know they would have if they could have):
Talabani and Crocker also discussed recent developments on the return of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front ministers to the government and re-formation of a national unity government.
"Sistani emphasized that everything should be done to get back total sovereignty on all levels," said Sheik Abdul Mehdi al-Karbala'e, who summed up Sistani's meeting with Maliki in a speech to Shi'ite follower attending Friday prayers in Karbala.The news that Ayatollah Sistani would not allow an accord between the US and Iraq did not make the Iraqi news.
The comment was a not-so-subtle warning by Sistani to Maliki and American leaders as they negotiate a long-term bilateral agreement that will spell out conditions for a U.S. presence in Iraq beyond next year, when the current U.N. mandate ends. A number of contentious issues, such as the presence of permanent U.S. military bases and the ability of U.S. forces to arrest and detain Iraqis, remain unresolved.
Iranian websites insist it is true.
(The Iranian regime can hope that it is true, anyway.)
But, most likely it is just the Iranian regime again trying to meddle with the democracy of Iraq.
Jihad Watch has more thoughts.
Previously:
Busted!!... Iraqi Press Denies AP Report On Ayatollah Sistani
It Was a Bogus Story 2 Days Ago... But, Who Cares?... TIME Mag Throws It Out There Anyway
Previously on Ayatollah Sistani:
Iraq's Spiritual Leader Calls for Unity & the Disarming of Militias
Real Developments in Iraq
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Expresses Solidarity with Pope!
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Calls For Peace & Unity in Iraq
Largest Iraqi Shiite Party Splits With Iran
Ayatollah Ali Sistani Blasts Foreign Media For Bogus Reporting!!
Sistani urges Shiites to protect Sunni Iraqis
Leave it to AP to carry water for the Iranians.
ReplyDeleteSamples of the BS @ Iranian PressTV, http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=56287§ionid=3510303 Disgusting Holocaust Denial. Wall Street Czars depopulating the World, "
ReplyDeletehttp://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=28469§ionid=3510302
w/quotes from Leuren Moret, a popular speaker on Depleted Uranium who makes outlandish claims. >...Q. What are the human costs of the depleted uranium?
A. We are facing a global mass extinction of 2-4 billion people, and a war against the genetic future of all species.
If the Bush Administration and the US Navy are really stupid enough to bomb Iran with their [nuclear] friend Israel, well then they deserve what they get if they knock over that beehive. Iran is not Iraq… Iraq was a 'cakewalk' compared to what a mess they will have with Iran.
I want the people of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and the people of the world to know that I love and respect them. Americans are not bad people, I am not a bad person because I am American, it is our government that has hijacked and stolen our country and our soul from us.
But this nightmare they are creating is not over yet, and like Iraq, it will not turn out the way they think it is going to… Bush is not the only sociopath in power who likes to blow things up. Other countries may retaliate…
And there are many ways to punish the Zionist Anglo-American economic empire. Its future is fading…. You never create wealth by destroying things.
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ReplyDeletere: Jihad Watch
re: "foodstuff"
i have seen numerous videos of Iraqi vendors & merchants offering troops food & drink (it's impolite to refuse), not tot mention them purchasing snacks etc at local shops en route.. that's not to say there isn't some sort of silly fatwa from who knows where or when, and/but if so, then it's sure as heck being violate by many..
oh yes, also not to mention this:
Iraqis Deny Bogus AP Report On Ayatollah Sistani
excerpt:
[Haider also notes that Sistani has never said the American presence was an "occupation" before although he has called the Al-Qaeda presence in Al-Anbar an occupation force. Sistani stated previously that since the Americans were asked by the elected Iraqi government to assist in security that they are not considered an occupation force.]
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ReplyDeleteAnon @ 5:33 PM..
your mind is obviously depleted as well..
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Diane West has excellent analysis about Sistani's statements over at Jihad Watch.
ReplyDeleteConsiderably better than your analysis.
Sistani meanwhile is a Jew-hating, Christian-loathing Sharia-Law wanting bigot whose fatwas are responsible for a number of gays and lesbians being killed in Iraq.
He is not America's friend, never has been, and it's laughable that Bush once sent him a letter, likely still unopened to this day - perhaps if Bush had read Sistani's list of Najis (ritual uncleanliness) at his website, and spotted the one about the infidels.
Ayatollah Scarecrow as Ladybird calls him. Never a more apt name.
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ReplyDeleteAyatollah Sistani on the Mahdi Army: “the
law is the only authority in the country”
excerpt:
["Sistani has a clear opinion in this regard; the law is the only authority in the country," Saghier told Voices of Iraq, indicating Sistani supports Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the government in the effort to sideline the Mahdi Army. "Sistani asked the Mahdi army to give in weapons to the government."
Sadr did not consult with Sistani on the issue of disbanding the Mahdi Army, disputing a claim from Sadrist spokesmen who intimated Iraqi’s top cleric told Sadr to maintain his militia.]
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I read in various places that the Iraqis, especially young Iraqis, have become disillusioned with the clerics, just as they have in Iran. If it is true that Sistani is winking and nodding at the perpetrators of violence, it may simply end up hastening the day that the entire region loses its religious fervor for good.
ReplyDeleteOur enemies are not the infallible superhuman schemers and plotters we imagine them to be in our darkest nightmares. In the end, their worst enemies are themselves.
Mister Ghost- If Sistani wanted Sharia he would have asked for it by now. What he has said is that he believes in a more secularist democracy than what the more radical Shiites in Iran have pressed on Iranians. Sistani has also spoken out in support of the pope when the rest of the Muslim world was having fits.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you get your facts straight.
First, it is important to note that the ratio of Persians in Iran is 51 percent and declining. Persian birth rates are low, Arab, Kurdish, and Azerbajani birthrates are high. Iran is another moribund Soviet empire on the way out. Their nuclear ambitions are at least as much to cow the indigenous Kurds, Arabs and Ajerbajanis as it is for foreigners. Of course Shia Arabs in Iraq have much in common with Shia Arabs in Iran, and keeping them separate is a major goal of Shia Iran.
ReplyDelete