An arrest warrant
has been issued for Moqtada al-Sadr.
An Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant for radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in connection with the murder of another cleric last year, a senior spokesman for the U.S.-led authorities in Iraq said Monday.
Dan Senor said the arrest warrant had been issued several months ago. U.S. officials have accused Sadr of inciting violence, and shut down his newspaper in Baghdad last week.
Asked when Sadr would be arrested, Senor said: "There will be no advance warning." One of his senior aides was detained on Saturday in relation to the same assassination.
You don't arrest the spiritual and political leader of millions of radicalized Muslims without repercussions. This will get ugly. Juan Cole
says:
The bit about going into a retreat (i`tis.am) and hoping to join his followers later so that they could ascend to the heavens shows an apocalyptic imagination at work. The US is facing another Waco, and what we know is that military sorts of force are the worst way to deal with apocalyptic groups like the Branch Dravidians and the Sadrists. That approach only confirms their conviction that the forces of this world are attempting to prevent them from attaining paradise.
A martyred Sadr is the last thing the occupation needs. A jailed Sadr is the second-last thing the US needs. A renegade Sadr is the third-last thing the US needs.
Again, there is no good option. But we already knew that before Bush went in. It took the chickenhawks a little longer to figure it out. You don't hear the Neocons talk about a pro-Israel Iraqi democracy any more.
Steve Gilliard has more.
Billmon has more. Specifically, an incident of allied militamen turning on our Marines.