Word: badr
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...before his assassination, with only an unarmed guard to watch over him, al-Zubaidi, 61, sat in the cafeteria of the Iraqi Bar Association and told TIME that he believed the Badr Corps, the military wing of Iraq's largest Shi'ite political party, was out to get him and his fellow attorneys--and using the police to do it. Al-Zubaidi said he had been told by reliable witnesses that Ministry of Interior vehicles were used in the kidnap and execution of his fellow defense attorney Saadoun al-Janabi on Oct. 20. The Iraqi government and the Badr Corps...
...showed signs of torture or starvation. It has only increased the public perception that the Interior Ministry, which runs the police, is under the sway of a powerful Shi'ite faction. The head of the Interior Ministry is Bayan Jabr, a man reportedly with ties to the pro-Iranian Badr Corps, the military wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Although al-Jaafari berated him after the discovery was made public, Jabr was apportioned his ministry by political agreement, and al-Jaafari, who is also Shi'ite but of another party, can do nothing...
...There's no question the Americans have less influence than they had before. The Shi'ite parties in the negotiations - Dawa, SCIRI and Badr Organization - dug in their heels so much that President George W. Bush called SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim to ask him for more flexibility. The president failed to convince the cleric. Other accounts say the Americans in the embassy gave up trying to broker deals two days before the parliament accepted the draft...
...Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of millions of poor Shi'ites in Sadr City in Baghdad and across the south, appears to be leaning against the constitution and his followers have demonstrated alongside Sunnis over the issue of federalism. SCIRI, Badr and Dawa all support the constitution. Significantly, they all have support from Iran while al-Sadr's relationship with Iraq's Persian neighbor has been stormy. His opposition to the constitution is more about limiting the influence of Iran rather than hard opposition to the principle of Iraqi federalism, while SCIRI and Badr are packed with Iranian sympathizers...
...than offensively. An encouraging sign is that even Shi'ite beneficiaries of Tehran exhibit strains of Iraqi and Arab nationalism; and many have strong familial and tribal ties with the Sunnis. "We are sons of Iraq. The circumstances that forced me to leave did not change my identity," says Badr leader al-Amri. He's proud of his cooperation with the Revolutionary Guard to battle Saddam but says it extended only "to the limit of our interests." An informed Western observer thinks that while those groups maintain a "shared world view" with Tehran, much as Brits and Americans share each...