Cole is a professor with lots of knowledge about Iraq. If you don't read his blog, I highly recommend it.
the following is his take on Wolfowitz's comments about Abdul Aziz al-Hakim as a believer in democracy for Iraq, and a potential leader.
this is from nov. 3rd or so.
http://www.juancole.com/first wolfie-
"....with leaders like that, particularly coming from the Shia clerical community, which so many people have told us we have so much to fear from, I think in fact there is strong reason to be hopeful."
This picture of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its leaders is not just rosey but frankly bizarre. They did lead what was essentially a terrorist organization from Tehran, hitting Iraqi government targets from across the border, for 20 years. They were close to Ayatollah Khomeini (did they speak out about his mistreatment of religious minorities, including Jews and Baha'is?) and then to hardliner Ali Khamenei.
I wrote of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim for Le Monde Diplomatique last summer that on April 18 "he gave an interview from Kut with Iranian television in which he laid out his party's two-stage plan for Iraq. He said, "We will first opt for a national political system," in which all parties and sects were represented. He continued, "but eventually the Iraqi people will seek an Islamic republic system." He added that in a democratic system, the will of the Shiites for an Islamic government would prevail, since they are 60 percent of the population. That is, SCIRI plans to begin with a representative government but ultimately to move to a tyranny of the Shiite majority, whether the Sunnis and secularists like it or not."
Abdul Aziz has also called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Although Wolfowitz keeps talking about women's rights in Iraq, he seems blithely unaware that Baath secularism was much better on that particular issue than the positions of people like Abdul Aziz al-Hakim will ever be, and that his friends the hardline Shiite clerics will do everything they can to withdraw rights from women.