The Iraq thread 4

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]Whatever the US Army has done, it doesn't even come close to what the Nazis have done.

That makes me feel so better.

[Bernadotte 0]

Quote[/b] ]Whatever the US Army has done, it doesn't even come close to what the Nazis have done.

That makes me feel so better.

Indeed.  Saying that an army is not as bad as the SS ain't saying much.  

[ralphwiggum 6]

i see bernadotte and billybob going pedantic...maybe i should bring out "good olde ass-whooping".......

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]If I just follow your posts, I would be lead to believe that the americans troops are the modern day SS.

If you think so, you are not reading my posts and have a tendency to be extremely narrow minded and stupid.

Quote[/b] ]If you do look at a lot his posts are: torture by americans; massacre by americans; innocent civilians killed by americans soldiers; calling the insurgents "freedom fighters" (what does that make the US military and the coalition); "no witnesses" and etc.

I'm saying that if you only follow his post and not various news sources, you will be lead to believe that they are the modern day SS. I'm not saying he purposely saying that the US military=SS but he is not painting them in a good light what so ever (in this thread).

You are talking bullshit as I only post news with adequate links.

It´s not my fault if your goddamn military wastes more stuff then we can count. It´s a fact that they fail in Iraq big time. It´s not me making up the storys. It´s the troops and administration of the US who are the main actors.

You better watch your butt billybob. Maybe you check out the storys before you go on the SS line, I have never mentioned. I am german and I know what the SS was.

To put me into context with SS is just wrong.

Show me proof or shut up.

The only thing you can do is post a story about a little girl , while there´s a war going on. A war that has been started with false reasons, a war that has killed a bunch of civillians and a war wich has failed it´s holy purposes miserably.

Or do you think that everything is running smooth right now ?

Yeah sure, if you can´t argue someones posts, go personel, that´s your style. Thx for showing that again.

And only a little reminder:

Quote[/b] ]torture by americans

:

Confirmed all over Iraq, Afghanistan and dubious methods at Guantanamo. Or am I ill informed ? Or is it you ?

Quote[/b] ]massacre by americans

Highway of death, Iraq bombings, possible bystander participation in Afhanistan,

All myth ? Yeah sure. Want some links ?

Quote[/b] ]innocent civilians killed by americans soldiers

Nah, not that that happens....never...

Quote[/b] ]calling the insurgents "freedom fighters"

From their point of view they are freedom fighters. And they are certainly not all terrorists like you labelled them.

Quote[/b] ]"no witnesses"

Sure ! What other reasons do you see when you don´t allow journalists to go somewhere ? Are they concerned about their health ? Haha, you´re naiv. Or you pretend to be naiv.

The US military in Iraq isn´t that happy about independant journalists, nor did they try to protect them in a special way. In fact they try to isolate independant journalists and Wolfowitz told them very clearly what he thinks about them.

No ? Not true ?

You better have some content to show next time. Not only SS bobbeling...

[denoir 0]

Inside war-torn Najaf [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

The truce in the Iraqi city of Najaf came to an end on Sunday and fighting has resumed in earnest around the Shrine of Imam Ali. The BBC's Matthew Price was one of the few western reporters in Najaf before journalists were banned from entering the city by Iraqi police.

Najaf was quiet when we visited. We set off from Baghdad at 0630, speeding down the main highway, through bandit country and on to Kufa outside Najaf. There we came across our first militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada Sadr. Teenagers, most of them with headscarves wrapped around their heads, holding - and pointing - AK47s rifles and grenade launchers.

There were a load of them on the roof of a building next to us, aiming their weapons at us. But when they saw our accreditation (a letter from a cleric in the city) they let us through, and we drove up deserted streets.

Most of the residents stayed inside all day. We drove round the outskirts, past road blocks and rubbish strewn across the road, and to the local hotel where reporters are staying. This was as far as we could go.

We couldn't get to the shrine where the worst fighting has been concentrated.

Fight to the death

A car came down the road with a white cloth tied to its aerial. It was one of Moqtada Sadr's deputies.

He told us the cleric had been injured, but was fine. And that they would fight to the death. A group of ambulances followed him out. We went with them to the city's hospital - and there they brought out fighters, bandaged and needing treatment.

One of them, freshly bloodied from the fighting, was a huge bearded man. A doctor told us we couldn't go in. He said he was treating gunmen and civilians alike.

We went to the Kufa mosque on the outskirts of Najaf. There the gunmen on the road block let us film them. They were chatty and polite.

Once they had got to know us they smiled and relaxed. Friendly faces on teenagers holding guns and grenades. One took a grenade out of his pocket and grinned. A crowd gathered nearby.

Funerals and protest

Two coffins were borne aloft, they were chanting for Moqtada Sadr, and against the Americans. A cleric came near to see who we were. Our translator explained. The cleric was cautious at first, but slowly warmed to us as we stayed with him, chatting and asking questions.

The people were angry he said, and that was obvious. He told us the two coffins were for people who had been killed the night before by American forces. There was no way of checking this. He offered to lead us into the area where the coffins were being taken. The crowd started chanting as we went in; slapping their hands on their chests, punching the air, children among them shouting as loud as anyone there.

A man dressed all in black with a green bandana wound around his head stepped forward saying he was part of Sadr's militia. He recited a few verses from the Koran, and said the fighters are strong enough, with God's support, to win. As we left, I shook the cleric's hand.

"There is no difference between us," he said. "We are both human beings"

"It was never like this under Saddam. We never had people dying like this."

The cleric is a Shia Muslim and the Shia were persecuted under Saddam. We sped back north to Baghdad. All along the road, we saw people heading south - thousands of them, walking or in cars and on trucks. Some were holding Sadr's picture, some with their headscarves wrapped round their faces. It looked like a mass movement headed for Najaf in support of Sadr.

[Balschoiw 0]

Human shields pour into holy city

Prepare for a major desaster:

Quote[/b] ]17.08.2004

1.30pm - By DONALD MACINTYRE in Najaf

Around 2000 self-styled "human shields" poured into Najaf yesterday to join Shiite insurgents holed up in the gold-domed mosque, as fresh battles in the holy city prevented a quick victory by US and Iraqi forces.

US forces backed by tanks exchanged fire with the followers of Moqtada al Sadr, the rebel Shiite cleric whose supporters barricaded inside the Imam Ali shrine were joined by the unarmed but defiant "human shields."

But as the crackle of machine gun fire echoed through the old city, armed Iraqi police turned their ire against journalists in the city.

Last night they fired warning shots at and over the Sea of Najaf hotel after arresting a correspondent from Al Arabiya in what appeared to be a continued campaign of harassment against journalists in Najaf.

As journalists protested during the arrest, a police lieutenant said above the hubbub: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. We are going to smash it up. I will kill you all. You did this all to yourselves."

In a threat which did not immediately appear to have been carried out, he said that four snipers would be positioned on the roof of the police station to fire at any journalists who left the hotel.

The police contingent drove to the hotel in two marked police Landcruisers at around 6.30pm and demanded to know the whereabouts of correspondents from Al Arabyia and the international news agencies Reuters and AP.

The visit to the hotel, the fourth by police in just over 24 hours, followed a threat earlier in the day by the chief of Najaf police Ghalab al-Jazaari personally to arrest the correspondent from al Arabyia, Ahmed al-Saleh.

The police chief, who on Sunday had ordered all journalists to leave Najaf, however added in response to questions that reporters were free to stay at the hotel but at their own risk.

"We are not responsible [for you]" he added.

Scuffling broke out as a hotel employee angrily remonstrated with the policemen saying: "Are you Iraqis? You are police but you have no right to do this."

The police then drove off, stopping 300 metres down a road directly opposite the police station and fired warning shots in the direction of the hotel. Journalists were threatened with shooting if they left the building. The al Arabiya correspondent was later released.

Read this carefully billybob ! This is silencing the press.

No ?

Quote[/b] ]

But the fighting in Najaf -which has killed at least two US soldiers since the collapse of peace talks on Saturday- yesterday overshadowed and divided the second day of the Iraqi National Conference as it attempted to elect a new interim national assembly.

The conference yesterday decided to dispatch a delegation to Najaf, in the apparently slender hope of persuading al Sadr to disband his insurgent Mehdi Army and turn it into a political party.

Sheikh Ahmed Shaibani, a Sadr spokesman, warned in response to the proposal, approved on a show of hands at the conference, that the issue of disarming the militia could only be solved by "negotiations and not a unilateral decision".

The enthusiastic supporters of Sadr came from across Iraq-including hundreds of demonstrators who came on solidarity marches to the city at the end of last week-and are now based in the compound around the Imam Ali shrine.

Mr Shaibani, who is also a Mehdi Army commander, said the presence of the civilians was intended to deter American forces.

Their presence maximises the loss of human life that could result from any attempt to storm the holy sites, a course already fraught with danger because of the outrage that serious physical damage to the shrine itself would provoke across Iraq and well beyond. The human shield supporters also appear ready to take up arms left by insurgents killed or wounded in the fighting.

The battle continued yesterday as insurgents used their extensive local knowledge of the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery, a section of which remains within the area under the Mehdi Army's control to play what one US officer called a "cat and mouse game" with US forces.

Insurgents inside the Imam Ali shrine in alleyways and on rooftops with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades sporadically fired at US troops in the cemetery.

Meanwhile the conflict reignited in the main Baghdad battleground of Sadr City where insurgents attacked an American tank, setting it on fire. The crew were rescued and evacuated with minor wounds, according to a spokesman for the US 1st Cavalry Division.

While witnesses were reported as saying the tank was hit by a Mehdi Army rocket-propelled grenade, US forces said that the insurgents had planted a roadside bomb.

The proposal for a delegation to Najaf was put forward by a distant relative-and opponent-- of Sadr, Baghdad cleric Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr, who told the conference

"There are inviolable conditions in civilised countries, particularly that there is no place for armed militias."

But Falah Hassan Shanshal of the Shiite Political Council, a grouping of Shiite politicians, said the proposal was all "smoke and mirrors" and threatened to walk out of the conference partly in protest at the method of voting.

He said it was merely reiterating the demands made by Iyad Allawi's government on Sunday which warned the militia that they have a "small window of opportunity" to leave the shrine, lay down their weapons and enter the political process.

Jawad al-Maliky, a senior member of the Dawa party, the Shiite religious faction of the interim Vice President Ibrahim Jafaari, and one of three senior delegates to have met with the Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Sunday said: "We told the prime minister that the matter (Najaf) is really threatening the whole political transition process and everything we do would be meaningless if our holy cities were attacked."

[bn880 5]

Fix your quote there Bals. Anyway, this is really shocking, i am glad it made it across the borders so we have news like this. We already know the press is an was supressed on purpuse, not for their protection. This is just more evident now.

What does it mean when you don't want any reporters filming a battle? or should I say reporters who you do not directly control.

I can tell you one thing, treating reporters like this is the first step to a lost campaign in terms of public support. The ball will be rolling.

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]You are talking bullshit as I only post news with adequate links.

It´s not my fault if your goddamn military wastes more stuff then we can count. It´s a fact that they fail in Iraq big time. It´s not me making up the storys. It´s the troops and administration of the US who are the main actors.

You better watch your butt billybob. Maybe you check out the storys before you go on the SS line, I have never mentioned. I am german and I know what the SS was.

To put me into context with SS is just wrong.

Show me proof or shut up.

The only thing you can do is post a story about a little girl , while there´s a war going on. A war that has been started with false reasons, a war that has killed a bunch of civillians and a war wich has failed it´s holy purposes miserably.

Or do you think that everything is running smooth right now ?

Yeah sure, if you can´t argue someones posts, go personel, that´s your style. Thx for showing that again.

Did you understand my post? I did not say you called them SS but the picture you paint makes them look like it (indirectly is the word). You are the one trying to make it personal not me, buddy.

Quote[/b] ]From their point of view they are freedom fighters. And they are certainly not all terrorists like you labelled them.

I call them insurgents a lot of times. There are a few real terrorist mixed with them.

[denoir 0]

I find it interesting how the media is losing interest in Iraq. I looked around a bit and it seems like only BBC leads with the Najaf situation.

BBC (UK): Has it as usual as first news

CNN (US) seems more interested in the terrorist suspects arrested in the UK.

FOXNews (US): Similar to CNN but with some more local news:

Le Monde (France): Seems more interested in the Google stocks that will be hitting the market.

Dagens Nyheter (Sweden): Mainly interested in the flooding that has hit the south of England.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany) is completely skipping Iraq in favrour of reporting on the economic reforms in Germany.

[Akira 0]

But as the crackle of machine gun fire echoed through the old city, armed Iraqi police turned their ire against journalists in the city.

Last night they fired warning shots at and over the Sea of Najaf hotel after arresting a correspondent from Al Arabiya in what appeared to be a continued campaign of harassment against journalists in Najaf.

As journalists protested during the arrest, a police lieutenant said above the hubbub: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. We are going to smash it up. I will kill you all. You did this all to yourselves."

In a threat which did not immediately appear to have been carried out, he said that four snipers would be positioned on the roof of the police station to fire at any journalists who left the hotel.

The police contingent drove to the hotel in two marked police Landcruisers at around 6.30pm and demanded to know the whereabouts of correspondents from Al Arabyia and the international news agencies Reuters and AP.

The visit to the hotel, the fourth by police in just over 24 hours, followed a threat earlier in the day by the chief of Najaf police Ghalab al-Jazaari personally to arrest the correspondent from al Arabyia, Ahmed al-Saleh.

The police chief, who on Sunday had ordered all journalists to leave Najaf, however added in response to questions that reporters were free to stay at the hotel but at their own risk.

"We are not responsible [for you]" he added.

Scuffling broke out as a hotel employee angrily remonstrated with the policemen saying: "Are you Iraqis? You are police but you have no right to do this."

The police then drove off, stopping 300 metres down a road directly opposite the police station and fired warning shots in the direction of the hotel. Journalists were threatened with shooting if they left the building. The al Arabiya correspondent was later released.

To be fair, that is the Iraqi police, not the US military. If you want to show proof that the US told them to do then that is fine.

[Bernadotte 0]

I did not say you called them SS...

No you didn't and Balschoiw isn't saying you did.

However, you DID accuse Balschoiw of the following:

If I just follow your posts, I would be lead to believe that the americans troops are the modern day SS.

Nothing personal, buddy, but your comment is quite insensitive, disgusting and completely idiotic.

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]No you didn't and Balschoiw isn't saying you did.

Bals:

Quote[/b] ]Maybe you check out the storys before you go on the SS line, I have never mentioned.

......

Quote[/b] ]Nothing personal, buddy, but your comment is quite insensitive, disgusting and completely idiotic.

How is it insensitive and disgusting? If you knew jackshit about what has happened in Iraq and the wot and used bals's post has a guide, you would be lead to think the US and the coalition are some bad people (bad=SS).

Edit: Let me use an example that will clear the air (I hope):

F 9/11. Michael Moore intended his movie to bash TBA but, indirectly, he is making America look bad in various parts of the world.  Bals is trying to show another side of Iraq and etc. with "good" intentions but, indirectly, he is casting a very bad light on the military (and the coalition) and proves to some of the nutballs that US military=SS. I guess you did not see that crappy photoshopped time mag. that made the US military=SS.

[Bernadotte 0]

Quote[/b] ]Nothing personal, buddy, but your comment is quite insensitive, disgusting and completely idiotic.

How is it insensitive and disgusting?

Well at least you agree that it's completely idiotic.

Look, I'm not here to be your Mom or Dad.  If they didn't teach ya right from wrong, far be it for me to try.

Quote[/b] ]...he is casting a very bad light on the military (and the coalition) and proves to some of the nutballs that US military=SS.  I guess you did not see that crappy photoshopped time mag. that made the US military=SS.

The only nutball I've seen comparing the US military to the SS around here is you.

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]The only nutball I've seen comparing the US military to the SS around here is you.

Why you got to make it personal?  I just used the SS because they were bad and to use some context and others have called the US military before (which was/is horrible).

[Bernadotte 0]

Quote[/b] ]The only nutball I've seen comparing the US military to the SS around here is you.

Why you got to make it personal?  I just used the SS because they were bad and to use some context and others have called the US military before (which was/is horrible).

Who started getting personal with their choice of comparisons?

Or are you trying to tell me that you did not know Balschoiw was German?

[Akira 0]

Quote[/b] ]The only nutball I've seen comparing the US military to the SS around here is you.

Why you got to make it personal? I just used the SS because they were bad and to use some context and others have called the US military before (which was/is horrible).

Who started getting personal with their choice of comparisons?

Or are you trying to tell me that you did not know Balschoiw was German?

I don't think his comparison, whether intentional or not, was intended as a slur on Bals being German. It was meant more as a visualization "adjective" , ie evil.

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]I don't think his comparison, whether intentional or not, was intended as a slur on Bals being German. It was meant more as a visualization "adjective" , ie evil.

It was not intended to be a slur about Bals being german but a visual thing. Thank you, Akira.

[Bernadotte 0]

Even if the US Army never intends to kill innocent civilians does that make it alright when they do?

It's disgusting under any circumstances as well as insensitive and idiotic if they then don't even apologise.

Edit:  Good night all.  I promise not to discuss this further tomorrow.

[Balschoiw 0]

The only thing I do is to post news from Iraq. That´s what the thread is for. If you don´t go conform with this news complain at your next army office or at the white house but not at me.

It´s no secret that things in Iraq are wasted big time. I don´t need to call anyone anything. Facts speak for themselves.

You, billybob, try to put me into a line of america-haters, wich I am not. If there would be news about flouring gardens, all running well and happy crowds cheering on the streets I would post them. But unfortunally there are NO such news.

Yes, the situation is bad, Yes, the US military isn´t doing especially good and yes the iraqi people obviously are NOT happy with the work US troops and employees do down there. That´s no myth, but a fact. A fact that can be counterchecked with the links and news and reports I posted.

You don´t like reality ? Not my problem.

You try to put a funny light on me ? My problem and you will have to lay open your accusations or just shut up.

Post´s like yours are nothing more than Monty Pythons : "I´m gonna fart into your general direction"

Discuss, yes. Debate, for sure. Insult, no way.

[quicksand 0]

Iraqi police threaten to kill reporters

Quote[/b] ]IRAQI police have threatened to kill every journalist working in the holy city of Najaf, where US forces are locked in a tense stand-off with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

After a series of veiled warnings to leave on Sunday, two marked police cars pulled up at dusk outside the Sea of Najaf hotel on the outskirts of town, where Arab and Western journalists are staying.

Ten uniformed policemen walked into the hotel and demanded that the al-Arabiya, Reuters and AP correspondents go with them.

Journalists told them they were not there, but the policemen found and arrested Ahmed al-Salahih, the al-Arabiya correspondent, who the day before had been given a special exemption from the earlier eviction orders.

A uniformed lieutenant then told the assembled journalists and hotel staff: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. I'm going to smash it all, kill you all, and I'm going to put four snipers to target anybody who goes out of the hotel. You have brought it upon yourselves."

After pushing and shoving in the foyer, another policeman pointed his gun towards a member of the staff, but was disarmed by an Arab television journalist.

The police left, taking the al-Arabiya correspondent with them, drove 300m and fired warning shots.

The attempt to drive journalists from Najaf came as US marines - supported by the nascent Iraqi army - step up the pressure on Sadr, whose forces remain in control of Najaf's old city and sacred shrine to Imam Ali.

The Government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is acutely sensitive to the maelstrom that would erupt if the shrine were to be damaged, and the media crackdown may be an attempt to limit the negative publicity should it be hit during any military operation.

After US marine commanders last week issued a hawkish threat "to finish this fight that the Moqtada militia started", Mr Allawi moved swiftly to defuse alarm even among his own senior government officials, reassuring Iraqis: "The holy shrine will remain safe from all attacks that could possibly harm its sacredness."

Any military operation will be hampered by the fact that Sadr's hundreds of fighters inside the old city and cemetery have grown by about 2000, swelled by volunteers who marched through US lines at the weekend to act as human shields. Yesterday they paraded around the marble white-tiled courtyard inside the golden-domed mosque, effectively turning it into a giant stadium for rallies to the renegade Shia cleric.

All were unarmed but insisted they would pick up the guns of any Mehdi fighters killed in renewed clashes.

In the streets outside the shrine, terrified Iraqis hid inside their homes, with intermittent fire between the US tanks and Mehdi Army guerillas, who have planted huge booby traps on almost every street. Few ordinary Najafis will now stray beyond their doorsteps.

- From The Times

Saddam is gone,long live Saddam!

[denoir 0]

US suspends Halliburton decision [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

The US army has said it has suspended for now a decision to withhold some payments to Halliburton, its biggest contractor in Iraq.

The army had earlier said it would be withholding 15% of payments on future bills to Halliburton, once run by US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

One of its subsidiaries has featured in auditing disputes with the Pentagon.

It allegedly overcharged on contracts to supply accommodation, meals and fuel to troops in Iraq and Kuwait.

Halliburton is by far the Pentagon's biggest civilian contractor in Iraq but also by far its most controversial.

The US army's Materiel Command had said it was going to withhold 15% of payments on future company invoices after one of its subsidiaries - Kellogg, Brown & Root -became locked in auditing disputes with the US government.

It was estimated the move could cost the company $60m a month but then, within hours, the army said it was suspending the move, at least for now.

No official reason has been given for the change of heart but it is thought US defence officials decided they wanted to have another look at the potential implications of the move.

Good thing you can always depend on the crooks to behave like crooks.

[Bernadotte 0]

And in addition to what Denoir posted about Halliburton there's all this:

Quote[/b] ]Whatever the spin from Cheney and Bush, the issue of Halliburton and government contracts runs a lot longer and deeper than the recent Pentagon contracts.

Let us look at a few figures. In the five years before Cheney joined Halliburton, the company received $100 million in government-backed loans from the Export-Import Bank. Over the same period, the company’s contract business went up from $1.2bn to $2.3bn.

Political questions about Cheney and Halliburton first really began circulating during the 2000 vice- presidential debate between Cheney and Senator Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate. Asked about Halli burton’s financial success during that debate, Cheney said: “I can tell you, Joe, the government had absolutely nothing to do with it.â€

If that is so, why did Halliburton hire a man whose complete experience was in public service, including being defence secretary, deputy White House chief of staff and as a Republican congressman for Wyoming for 10 years? Perhaps, just perhaps, it was because of his contacts in government

Was there abuse at Halliburton because of Cheney’s Washington network? Certainly the numerous investigations that the company is facing would seem to suggest so. And last week the company agreed to shell out a $7.5m fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a probe into accounting practice that appeared to boost revenues while Cheney was its CEO.

Halliburton is facing a an FBI inquiry into whether two of its employees received up to $6.3m in kickbacks. And a federal grand jury in Texas has launched a criminal investigation into whether Halliburton violated US sanctions by doing business in Iran through a Cayman Islands-registered subsidiary.

[xawery 0]

How is it insensitive and disgusting? If you knew jackshit about what has happened in Iraq and the wot and used bals's post has a guide, you would be lead to think the US and the coalition are some bad people (bad=SS).

"Bad people"? I'm sorry Billybob, but you're displaying a striking ignorance about what the (Waffen) Schuetz Staffeln were. They were not "bad people", they were an organisation designed to supplement and eventually replace the 'neutral' military with ideological, indoctrinated nazi soldiers. They were an organisation tasked with the most vile of missions, e.g. running the death camps. They committed disgusting warcrimes while being fully aware of their criminal nature. But hey, those people were inferior right?

As you hopefully are beginning to see now, "bad people" as a description of the SS simply doesn't cut it. Anyone with even a mediocre knowledge of history is bound to have very strong feelings about the SS.

Following this train of thought, accusing someone of comparing the US military to the SS puts that person in a very bad light. By doing so, you question his good judgement and his rationality and simultaneously turn him into a mindless US-basher. A well-known tactic, but a petty and unfair one, especially since Balschoiw has done little more than quote official news sources and voice his opinion.

In my opinion comparing anything to the products of the Third Reich, or even accusing someone of doing so, is nothing but inflammatory and counterproductive.

[turms 0]

Quote[/b] ]BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi delegates to a conference choosing a national assembly said Wednesday that radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had agreed to demands to end an uprising in the holy city of Najaf.

A letter from Sadr's office in Baghdad, read out by delegates, said the cleric had agreed to demands from the government-backed conference which included leaving the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. Spokesmen for Sadr could not be immediately be reached for comment.

Among the other demands were for Sadr's Mehdi militia fighters to lay down their weapons and join the country's political process.

Earlier, Iraq's defense minister gave the militiamen hours to surrender, warning that troops were preparing for a major assault to "teach them a lesson they will never forget."

Lets hope that this is true and will work out well.

[bn880 5]

If he leaves, they will get him. This will not end well, I doubt it anyway. (it's only a matter of time before it goes more sour IMO)