Word: sadr
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...calling for the group to be allowed to remain in Iraq, or at least to not be turned over to Iran, for political reasons. "We have to deal with this issue very delicately," says Ayad Jamal al-Deen, an Iraqi parliamentarian aligned with Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "I'm not here to defend this organization. I have no interest in them. But I am looking out for the Iraqi national interest." Al-Deen and other Iraqi political figures see the group essentially as a bargaining chip with Iran, one of the few Iraq holds against its powerful neighbor...
Until then, most Iraqis had never heard of him, and didn't know what to expect from this phlegmatic figure in ill-fitting suits. Maliki didn't help matters by constantly shifting his position on key issues. One moment he supported the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr; the next, he was ordering Iraqi forces to smash Sadr's militia. One minute he was being described by President Bush as "my man"; the next, he was fulminating against U.S. interference in Iraqi politics. "It's like every six months there's a new Maliki," says a Western official...
...With the vehicle ban, suicide bombers on foot and rocket or mortar fire pose the biggest threats. But so far there has been little sign that Iraq's militants are organizing a bloody show of force. The largest Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is essentially dormant these days. And Sunni insurgent elements in previously volatile areas such as Anbar and Diyala provinces appear to be, by and large, staying their hand in the expectation that sympathetic Sunni politicians - who boycotted the last provincial election, in 2005 - will take a number of seats from Kurdish...
...Sadrists seem to have taken a cue from their lack of popularity and decided not to field candidates officially in the provincial elections. Instead, the Sadrists are quietly backing some candidates who maintain an association with the movement. Rumored to be undergoing religious studies in Iran, al-Sadr has stayed out of view and said little about the elections. "Our main goal is to increase the numbers of independents and technocrats so they will be busy rebuilding the country, not their party's political agenda," says Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, al-Sadr's chief spokesman. "Our strategy is to fight...
Sadrist parliamentarian Ahmad Hassan Ali al-Masiodi said the movement will retain its stature regardless of the elections. Al-Masiodi pointed to al-Sadr's previous ability to call up mass street protests with a word as a sign of the movement's clout and relevance. "The movement is very strong now, even better than before," says al-Masiodi. "You can notice this when we call for demonstrations in the number of people who come to join." But al-Sadr has not tested his strength with street marches lately. And that power, too, may go the way of his waning...