Ayatollah Sistani urges pro-religious/pro-Iranian vote in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/December/focusoniraq_December16.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

NAJAF, Iraq - Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, has told believers to vote in elections on Dec. 15 and urged them to support religious candidates, his office said on Saturday.

A representative in Sistani’s office said he instructed followers to do three things: turn out to vote on the day; avoid voting for any list whose leader is not religious; and avoid voting for “weak” lists so as not to split the Shia vote. snip

The United Iraqi Alliance groups Iraq’s two most powerful religious Shia parties -- the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the Dawa Party, which is headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. snip

But as well as now appearing implicitly to back the Alliance, Sistani’s instructions may also turn Shia voters away from a rival list headed by Allawi, who is secular and has built a coalition of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds.

Sistani’s statement may also damage a list headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, another secular Shia.

[FormerRepublican]

1. Your tax dollars at work. Next thing you know, we'll be paying terrorists

to attack us. Oh wait - did we do that already?

[dkofos]

2. And how soon before the benevolent Iranians provide Iraq

with NUKES.
Just WHAT THE FUCK were * and the neo-cons thinking when they invaded Iraq.

On second thought, they weren't thinking.

Greed is a terrible thing.

[leftchick]

3. who here is surprised?

anyone?