(Los Angeles Times) Robert Scheer - The most powerful Iraqi behind the scenes since the occupation began more than two years ago has been Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who was sheltered and nurtured by Tehran's ayatollahs during Saddam Hussein's secular dictatorship. When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "is a person who is very much supportive of the current ayatollahs, who are telling the people of that country how to live their lives," he may as well have been talking about Iraq's religious Shiite leaders, who not only beat the U.S.'s handpicked leader in January's elections, but are already running much of southern Iraq as an Islamic state.
2005-06-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive