Iraq: Moqtada Sadr Calls for Mobilization Against Any Iraq-U.S. Agreement

The Shiite Iraqi leader Moqtada Sadr called on the Iraqis to mobilize themselves and to protest every week against the future agreement concerning the American presence in Iraq, which is currently in negotiation

In a communication signed by his own hand and transmitted Wednesday on AFP, Moqtada Sadr, fierce adversary of American presence in Iraq and virulent opponent of the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, warns against such an agreement that “would not be in the interest of the Iraqi.” He calls on “all Iraq to protest every week, from the conclusion of the Friday prayer “up until further notice or until the agreement is revoked.” Since the beginning of March, Iraq and the United States have been negotiating an agreement of “cooperation and friendship in the long term” that should establish future relations between the two countries, in particular the delicate question of the American military presence. The future agreement, christened the “Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), is destined to gives legal foundation to the presence of American troops on Iraqi soil beyond December 31st, to the expiration of the time limit governing their presence fixed by a United Nations resolution. It is supposed be signed by July 31st. The Shiite leader “demands a referendum on any final accord and a petition to collect more than a million signatures.” He asks “all political men, parties” and media to mobilize themselves, demanding once again “the departure of American troops or a calendar of retreat.” Tuesday, the Iraqi government recalled “the importance of the Iraqi-American agreement” which “should not harm the interests of the Iraqis” and recommended the continuaning course of negotiations.

To stay in Iraq “helps Al-Qaeda,” affirms an ex-head of U.S. anti-terrorism.

The maintenance of American combat troops in Iraq “helps Al-Qaeda” and the Pentagon should withdraw them if it wants to progress in the “war against terrorism,” indicated the ex-head of the anti-terrorist struggle at the White House, Richard Clarke, on Tuesday. “I think that the best thing that we could do to harm the attraction that Al-Qaeda enjoys in the Muslim world would, in fact, be to get out of Iraq in an orderly manner over the course of the next two or three years,” this former presidential anti-terrorist adviser, now a virulent critic of the Bush administration declared on CNN. “Our presence in Iraq helps Al-Qaeda,” added Mr. Clarke, nick-named the “Tsar of Anti-terrorism” by the American press. “We must beat them in the ideological war. Getting out of Iraq would help this,” continued Richard Clarke, adviser to the last three presidents of the United States, who resigned in the course of Bush’s first term. The question of the war in Iraq is one of the major themes in the American presidential campaign. The Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have both committed to a quick withdrawal from Iraq, while Republican John McCain, supportive of this war, said to hope to see the bulk of soldiers return in 2013. In 2006, Mr. Clark had affirmed that security in the United States could be easily outsmarted and the country was still vulnerable to an attack–an opinion that he reiterated Tuesday affirming that despite “hundreds of billions of dollars” spent to secure the borders, “no serious weakness of national security has been eliminated.”