Word: satterfield
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Though American officials recognize the importance of Sadr's inactivity, they are now saying that the cleric's political influence in Iraq has diminished. On Thursday, the senior diplomat overseeing U.S. policy in Iraq, David Satterfield, told a roomful of foreign policy experts at the Middle East Institute that the 34-year-old cleric was a "deeply troubled young man" who is spending most of his time in Iran watching events in Iraq move "beyond his ability to influence." Those are strong words about the surviving scion of a revered religious family who has proven time and again...
...Satterfield said Sadr's political influence has waned since November 2006, when the cleric "made a political gamble and lost." That was when Sadr withdrew his party's ministers from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet after Maliki refused to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. When the government did not collapse, Satterfield argued, the limits of al-Sadr's political power were exposed. That's when Maliki no longer felt the need to protect his biggest constituent in Parliament and gave U.S. forces the green light to enter Sadr City, the cleric's popular stronghold in north...
...Satterfield is underrating the Mahdi Army's boss. I met Moqtada al-Sadr in November 2003 at his office down a narrow alleyway in Najaf. We sat on pillows on the floor and he answered my questions with short, perfunctory statements. Barely 30, he had a round face, broad shoulders and a habit of glaring at guests beneath his thick, black eyebrows. He came across as menacing yet dull. At the time, he was holding massive Friday-afternoon prayer rallies that he populated with poor workers bused in from the slums of Sadr City in Baghdad 100 miles...
...underestimated. And now it seems, the folks that matter in the Administration are making the same mistake again - pointing out his shortcomings and his inability to influence events. "That's a very optimistic way of looking at it," says Vali Nasr, author of The Shi'a Revival, of Satterfield's comments, "Moqtada al-Sadr still commands the largest social and political movement in southern Iraq." Nasr and others believe the Mahdi Army's leader is biding his time out to develop stronger religious credentials and strengthen his control over a militia. Sadr's game plan, it appears, extends far beyond...
...Among the uncomfortable questions that Waxman addresses to Secretary of State Rice is: "When did you, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Griffin, Ambassador David Satterfield [senior advisor on Iraq], and Ambassador [to Iraq] Ryan Crocker learn of the grant of immunity?" and "What consultation, if any, was conducted with the Justice Department prior to the offers of immunity?" Waxman also seeks to determine whether the State Department has conferred immunity during any other investigations of contractors in Iraq...