Democracy Denied – Obama failure to withdraw, US meddling in Iraq internal affairs an impediment to Iraqi Freedom

Muqtada al-Sadr: Iraq Is Being Driven to Ruin
By: Ahmad al-Moussawiv – 25 October, 2012 – Al Akhbar

The Sadrist leader tells Al-Akhbar that the US still wields too much influence in the country, Maliki is a threat to democracy, and there is no way of resolving the political crisis.

Baghdad – The Ahrar Bloc affiliated to the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr is one of the biggest players on the Iraqi political stage, with 39 members of parliament and five ministers in the government as part of the Shia Iraqi National Alliance (INA) coalition.

The movement began taking shape as a political current in the 1990s under Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, who was killed along with his sons Mustafa and Mumal in Najaf in 1999 by agents of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Sadr accused the US of continuing to meddle in Iraqi affairs, despite the withdrawal of most of its troops from the country, with damaging consequences for Iraqi politics.

After the 2003 US invasion in 2003, Muqtada, Sadr’s fourth son, emerged as the movement’s leader, delivering a now-famous speech after Friday prayers at the Koufa mosque in which he declared his opposition to the American presence and announced the formation of the movement’s paramilitary wing, the Mahdi Army.

The Sadrist movement has been engaged in the political process since the first post-invasion parliamentary elections in 2005. Sadr himself moved to Iran last year to complete his theological studies at the seminary of Qom, but continues to follow political development in Iraq from his base there.

In an interview with Al-Akhbar, Sadr accused the US of continuing to meddle in Iraqi affairs, despite the withdrawal of most of its troops from the country, with damaging consequences for Iraqi politics.

“The American occupation of the sacred land of Iraq had a big and negative impact on the land and the people. It took lives and plundered resources, and it continues to do so,” he said. “But perhaps the most important of these negative results is the consolidation of the occupation’s influence over the land that tormented it for years. This influence amounts to imposing military and political control and continuing its unacceptable interference with the political parties.”

Sadr charged that a number of Iraqi institutions remain under US control. “There are still many files which it continues to control, as well as some bases and detention centers, in addition to its intelligence and other influence,” he said.

“This interference will prevent Iraq from being independent and making its own regional and international decisions,” Sadr added. “America wants this in order to increase its hegemony and power internally and externally.”

Sadr was also strongly critical of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, saying his autocratic behavior was endangering the country’s democracy and making a resolution to the long-running political crisis in the country “impossible.”

Sadr concurred with the growing chorus of charges by Iraqi political groups that Maliki monopolizes the decision-making, and warned: “ I’ve said it in the past and will continue to say it. I do not fear for myself personally in this regard, but this behavior will ultimately result in taking Iraq away from the path of democracy and freedom, and even that of clean elections.” …more