1000's of Shiites heading to Najaf (Fox News)

[DoYouEverWonder]

1000's of Shiites Muslims are heading to Najaf to mourn for three days for Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

(I will post a link when one comes over the wires)



In the meantime, Iran has declared three days of mourning for Hakim.


Yahoo News

<snip>

"The Islamic Republic condemns this blind action and places direct responsibility on the occupation forces that, under international law, are responsible for the maintenance of security in Iraq," said a government statement carried by the student news agency ISNA.

<snip>

"This martyr is new proof of the insecurity and instability spread by the occupiers in Iraq," he said, in a statement read on public television.

"The only way to for the Iraqi people to protect themselves from the plans of the Zionists and oppressors is to unite under the banner of Islam," he added.



This could get ugly.


edit: Pushed post too soon

edit: oop said Sunnis, meant Shiites

[Robin Hood]

1. Let the games begin.

Get ugly is right. Will it ever end?

[Barrett808]

2. It's all over

Put a fork in this adventure, it's done.

[Cha]

3. Oh dear! This is the first I 've heard of a "car bombing that

killed 81 People in Iraq"! This is getting Real Bad!

I say.. Fuck bush~!

[NNN0LHI]

5. Just one hospital has reported over 100 deaths. There are many more n/t

[TolstoyAndy]

35. Shades of Lebanon

My first thought this AM when I heard: this is a US action all the way. Isn't that screwy - W* has to prove himself not guilty before I will believe this is anything but US tax dollars at their evil work.

Frontline: CIA in the 80s planted a bomb outside a mosque, on a Friday, which they intended to use to kill s/o who was preaching anti-US. But they missed him and killed ~80 innocents.

---

And thanks to PBS archives, I can prove I aint makin it up:
President Reagan and the CIA called off covert operations when Lebanese intelligence operatives -- some allegedly trained by the U.S. -- set off a car bomb on March 8, 1985, in an attempted murder of Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the Shiite Muslim cleric who some believed to be the spiritual leader of Hezbollah. Over 80 people were killed in the attack near a Beirut mosque. Fadlallah survived.

---

wait a sec' (said Andy) - they got the guy they were looking for - so this level of competence indicates it couldn't have been the CIA!
:-(

"Rogue operatives", my shiny metal ass!

(Yes, I did hear that Mr. Bakr was allegedly working with the US, acc to Natl Petro Radio)

[UpInArms]

4. so now for the Friday evening news cycle

you will get all the bad news that no one else will hear.

this entire * escapade is dooming our country for the next millenium.

[seventhson]

16. LIHOP/MIHOP AND IRAQ/UN POP!!!

IMHO -

The UN bombing and this attack are due to the fact that the people in the US will not fall for another LIHOP/MIHOP in the US of A.

So the BFEE is pulling out all the stops to exacerbate the crisis to justify whatever the F$$$ it wants to do over there.

In Vietnam we has two sides: the South Vietnamese Government (our puppet) and the VC/North Vietnamese.

In Iraq, basically, it has been us agaionst ALL of them.

So they need to create a side for us to be on.

Via this bombing there can be a crafted conflict to which we (the BFEE as power executives from here) can "justify" taking sides.

Whose to say we (the BFEE) did not manufacture these events to galvanize world opinion (and US opinion) to "justify" whatever Bush/Rumsfeld et al want?

But they are so stupid. It won't work.

And opur soldiers will keep dying in bigger and bigger numbers.

Just like Vietnam.

I pray the UN can get what thay are seeking and the US gets the Hell out of there before we start running our casualties and deaths up into the thousands and tens of thousands (not to mention the poor F---ed over Iraqis.

[madrchsod]

6. sounds like there

is going to be a civil war and our troops are in the middle. i went to a website where the sunni`s and shiites were posting..wow do these guys hate each other,they had the most creative insults i`ve ever heard. they also were very creative in the way they wished death upon each other...
so now bush is responsible for a holy war that will blow up the middle east and could spread thru out the world...nice job georgie boy

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Who knew that Georgie Boy

would become such an overachiever. I bet the fundies are foaming at the mouth right now, waiting for the kick off of Armagedon.

[sujan]

9. website?

can you give me a link?

[osaMABUSh]

22. what's the web site?

[Divernan]

25. OR , , "all Iraqis uniting under the banner of Islam" in jihad

against the occupation forces. Our soldiers won't be in the middle, they will be surrounded.

[MaineDem]

7. Whistle Ass is back in DC tomorrow

I expected an announcement on something to be made today so it would get buried over the weekend. This wasn't what I expected.

This, frankly, scares me! It reminds me of the time prior to our Embassy in Teheran being taken over. This doesn't feel good.

[LeftCoast]

10. I'm confused. Sunni's are coming to mourne a Shiite leader?

This is certainly not my area of expertise, but this was a Shiite leader killed at a Shiite holy site.

If Sunni's go there to mourne, that would be odd...maybe they are going in solidarity?

[aquart]

11. Sunnis? I thought he was Shia?

Can somebody tell me who's on which team here?

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Oops, Shites

thanks for pointing that out. I've edited my post to reflect the correction.

[seventhson]

12. LIHOP. MIHOP AND IRAQ POP!!!

IMHO -

The UN bombing and this attack are due to the fact that the people in the US will not fall for another LIHOP/MIHOP in the US of A.

So the BFEE is pulling out all the stops to exacerbate the crisis to justify whatever the F$$$ it wants to do over there.

In Vietnam we has two sides: the South Vietnamese Government (our puppet) and the VC/North Vietnamese.

In Iraq, basically, it has been us agaionst ALL of them.

So they need to create a side for us to be on.

Via this bombing there can be a crafted conflict to which we (the BFEE as power executives from here) can "justify" taking sides.

Whose to say we (the BFEE) did not manufacture these events to galvanize world opinion (and US opinion) to "justify" whatever Bush/Rumsfeld et al want?

But they are so stupid. It won't work.

And opur soldiers will keep dying in bigger and bigger numbers.

Just like Vietnam.

I pray the UN can get what thay are seeking and the US gets the Hell out of there before we start running our casualties and deaths up into the thousands and tens of thousands (not to mention the poor F---ed over Iraqis.

[seventhson]

13. LIHOP. MIHOP AND IRAQ POP!!!

IMHO -

The UN bombing and this attack are due to the fact that the people in the US will not fall for another LIHOP/MIHOP in the US of A.

So the BFEE is pulling out all the stops to exacerbate the crisis to justify whatever the F$$$ it wants to do over there.

In Vietnam we has two sides: the South Vietnamese Government (our puppet) and the VC/North Vietnamese.

In Iraq, basically, it has been us agaionst ALL of them.

So they need to create a side for us to be on.

Via this bombing there can be a crafted conflict to which we (the BFEE as power executives from here) can "justify" taking sides.

Whose to say we (the BFEE) did not manufacture these events to galvanize world opinion (and US opinion) to "justify" whatever Bush/Rumsfeld et al want?

But they are so stupid. It won't work.

And opur soldiers will keep dying in bigger and bigger numbers.

Just like Vietnam.

I pray the UN can get what thay are seeking and the US gets the Hell out of there before we start running our casualties and deaths up into the thousands and tens of thousands (not to mention the poor F---ed over Iraqis.

[seventhson]

18. SORRY FOR DUPES

DAMN THING SAID ERROR WHEN i POSTED

[pansypoo53219]

29. do you really think

the UN and our former allies want ANY part of our clusterfuck?

[pansypoo53219]

30. do you really think

our former allies and the UN want anything to do with OUR clusterfuck?

[xchrom]

14. and it gets uglier,

imagine that. this is so nuts.
and article is correct -- it's bush's fault. yet more dead because of bush.

[TacticalPeek]

15. Shoulda known.

Shrub can screw up ending a war even worse than his wimp daddy did.

[fizzana]

19. Will Iraq go the way of Yugoslavia?

Remember what happend there when the strong central authority was dissolved.

IMO, the people who pulled of this bombing are the same who bombed the U.N. I think their objective is to starve the U.S. forces of help and allies and they'll be able to zero in on the U.S. forces because everyone will be too scared to even tacitly side with them.

[Birthmark]

20. You've got it.

I agree with your assessment completely.

[BadGimp]

27. the best acessment I've heard so far

The whole mess stinks to high heaven.

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. Strike call (new details)

BBC News


One of Ayatollah Hakim's younger rivals in Najaf, Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, denounced the attack and called a three-day strike.

"We are calling for the people ... to demonstrate to condemn this crime," he told the Arab news channel al-Jazeera.

Thousands of Shias waving banners and pictures of Ayatollah Hakim marched through Baghdad, many beating themselves in grief at the cleric's death.

In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced three days of mourning.

more...


Well gee W, you've really gotten us into a fine mess this time.

[oneighty]

23. The only

way to for the Iraqi people to protect themselves from the plans of

the Zionists and opressors is to unite under the banner of Islam"

Bush* the "Uniter" is again a success.

Bring em on.

180

[karlschneider]

28. I was thinking the same thing. W's Not-excellent Adventure could well

result in an anti-schism in the Islamic community. If we get the Shias and the Sunnis both pissed off at us, everything up to this point will have truly been a 'cakewalk.'
:eyes:

[SOS]

36. That is what happened in the 1920s

The Shia, Sunni and Kurds, who historically did not get along, all united to drive out the British occupiers. Recently, Time magazine reported that in January 2003 Bush was surprised to learn that there were two different types of Islam in Iraq.

[TacticalPeek]

37. Reminds me of the Rovemeister patiently explaining the difference

between Medicare and Medicaid to his ward, in prep for the first gov race.

[Zhade]

40. WHAT??

Are you serious? He didn't know there were Shia and Sunni?

CHRIST!

[0007]

24. I'm watching it now on PBS

'Tis not a pretty picture & the future is starting to look dim for the U.S.

Who knows whats gonna happen now, we can only guess.

[slackmaster]

31. Are they carrying weapons?

Pitchforks or Kalashnikovs?

[amberdisc]

26. Evil empire

Not every culture values mere selfishness as the basis for society.
An evil county, indeed the "blessed land of freedom" which now utterly has lost its credentials as a bastion of freedom and fairness, is now the ogre and most despicable power in 2003.

[TacticalPeek]

32. They wanted oil . . . they got an oil slick.

n/t

[mhr]

33. Great Line!

I'll have to remember that one!

[sistersofmercy]

34. Here's the thing, these knitwits running our country should have...

seen this coming. La politique du pire! Also the fact that at the beginning of the war they so stupidly place an exiled cleric who was living in london, into najaf in an attempt to gain support for US, the poor soul was hacked to death along with I think his cousin or nepphew. It's now being cited with articles about latest disaster but was in foreign press months ago. Daffy Dumsfeld should resign immediately!

[dansolo]

38. Is this the after-Labor Day product release?

I don't think this is exactly what Andrew Card meant.

[Sweetpea]

39. Yikes!!!

[0007]

41. btt

^