Webloggin » Al-Sadr Reportedly Flees To Iran While Democrats Debate Ways To Woo Him Back

Anti-American Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is reported to have joined other elite Shiites by fleeing to Iran for sanctuary in advance of the plan that Democrats are currently trying to undermine with a no-confidence vote in Congress.

Meanwhile the AP does another one of it’s feed swaps as they pull the original report and replace it with an updated version that backpedals on the al-Sadr claim. Here is how the story was originally reported by the Associated Press last night.

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 1 hour, 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled Iraq for Iran ahead of a security crackdown in Baghdad and the arrival of 21,500 U.S. troops sent by President Bush to quell sectarian violence, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.

Al-Sadr left his Baghdad stronghold some weeks ago, the official said, and is believed to be in Tehran, where he has family. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. monitoring activities, said fractures in al-Sadr’s political and militia operations may be part of the reason for his departure. The move is not believed to be permanent, the official said.

Word of al-Sadr’s departure coincides with an announcement that Iraq will close its borders with Iran and Syria for 72 hours as part of the drive to end the violence that has threatened to divide the capital along sectarian lines.

WASHINGTON – Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fled Iraq for Iran ahead of a security crackdown in Baghdad and the arrival of 21,500 U.S. troops sent by President Bush to quell sectarian violence, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.

This morning’s version complete with typos can be found at the same URL on yahoo and is a slight bit different than the original as it now includes adamant denials of al-Sadr’s departure to Iran by his spokespeople.

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 2 hours, 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Associates of the anti-American cleric whose militia has twice fought U.S. forces in Iraq insist that he has not left the country in advance of a security crackdown, responding to a U.S. report that he has fled Baghdad and is belived (SIC) to be in Iran.

I completely understand that this is the way the AP operates. They often swap out news stories with updates. But that is generally done with feeds that exist on generic links and I think it is a bit underhanded in any event. There is no technical reason for updates in this manner. If they can swap out one version with another they can note that the story has been updated in the story itself. I also can’t recall the same kind of preference being given to the U.S. military or spokespeople for the Bush administration. But that is just me.

Democrats Rally Around Failure

Despite the reports by their own troops that anti-American elements are fleeing ahead of the President’s troop surge Democrats continued the debate in Congress aimed at undermining the effort by calling it a failure before it even started.

The Democratic leadership set aside most of the week for the historic debate, expected to culminate in a vote on Friday on a bare-bones, nonbinding resolution that “disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush … to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.”

The 95-word measure adds that “Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States armed forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq.”- AP News

Note that the footnote is added to the Democrat resolution in an effort to deflect criticism but we can not deny the fact that the little footnote is basically a lie. Very few Democrats in Congress ever supported the mission of the troops and now they want to condemn the latest plan before it even begins. We can do without this kind of “support”; especially when it echoes anti-American sentiments.

Whether or not the measure passes the Democrats have further eroded Iraqi confidence in the American leadership’s will to win. I say let them have their vote so that history can record the whole group as modern day Neville Chamberlains.

I also note that nobody in the press is asking the one tough question that Democrats need to answer. What happens to Iraq and the world if American troops precipitously pull out at the behest of the cut and run appeasers in Congress? How does that make the world a better place?

Perhaps Diane Sawyer can get an interview with Pelosi and Reid to ask them these pertinent questions; I’m not holding my breath though. It is more likely that she would ask them what is loaded on their IPods. If I had to guess I would imagine that they are loaded with the complete collection of protest songs from the Vietnam War era.

In another move that displays the unbelievably dishonorable efforts of Democrats in Congress it is being reported that they have joined efforts with various anti-war groups to slowly tie the hands of the troops efforts in a “slow bleed” that will eventually pull all support out of the effort to win.

Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration’s options.

Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition’s goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.

The legislative strategy will be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP incumbents into breaking with President Bush and forcing the administration to admit that the war is politically unsustainable.

This is what Democrats mean when they say they support the troops.

Senator Christopher Dodd Lobbying For Terrorist Rights From The Floor of the U.S. Senate

Finally, in a move that would all but give foreign terror suspects the same legal rights as Americans, Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd introduced the “Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007″. The bill is designed to undo the Military Commissions Act and give Habeas Corpus rights to enemy combatants as well as other legal avenues that were never intended to be afforded foreign enemies of the country.

Sen. Dodd was joined by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), in introducing the measure. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently sent an email to their 40,000 person email list voicing support for Sen. Dodd’s bill and asking their supporters to do the same. The bill is also supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, The Center for Victims of Torture, Open Society Institute, and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International.

If Democrats have their way people like Muqtada al-Sadr would be best off fleeing to the United States. They will have all the rights of illegal immigrants, enemy combatants and native Americans all wrapped up in one neat little package. The enemies of this country couldn’t have elected a more sympathetic Congress if they had come here and cast the votes themselves.

Update: Even though the AP was quick to placate Sadr’s spokespeople we are now seeing that the debate about his whereabouts is nothing more than a manufactured distraction that is meant to a.) confuse people about the potential effectiveness of the troop surge, and b.) Obscure the fact that Iran has willingly accepted many of Sadr’s Madhi Army leaders and command structure.

The following is being reported in the Guardian UK.

Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the Guardian yesterday.

On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Mr Sadr, the official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into Iran to regroup and retrain.

“Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army,” he said. The aim of the Iranians was to “prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia militias” in the Iraqi capital – one of the chief aims of the US-backed security drive.

“The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return and fill the vacuum,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Tehran authorities were “playing a waiting game” until the commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. “All indications are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point,” he added.

While I am not quite sure what point is being alluded to by the official we can surmise that one of them must be that Iran is still sticking their fingers into the pie. Those who side step the issue of Iranian complicity and even that of Sadr’s whereabouts are doing us a great disservice because Sadr is but one person in an army of jihadists who act with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s backing. The other point is that American politicians are sitting back while Iran does the dirty work for Democrats who want to break the will of the American people. This all comes at a cost of American lives. That Democrats are playing politics while such events are unfolding should cause everyone to shake their heads in disgust. Just for once I’d like to see them stand up for what is right and get behind the troops with support that doesn’t include the knife in the back.

Hat Tip on Update – Captains Quarters

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