The UIA leaders said the group is not seeking to force Islamic law on Iraq, and insisted that the Bush administration should not worry that the Shia UIA will not include the Sunnis, the Kurds, and the other infidel groups in the new Iraq because the UIA are 'uniters, not dividers.'
Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani is the Grand Ayatollah of the Shia people. He has backed the UIA and is believed to be working closely with their political leaders. Al-Sistani studied under and was a protege of Ayatollah Khomeini, who went on to lead the Islamic revolution in Iran, which overthrew the American-backed Shah and replaced him with a government run by Islamic-fundamentalist clerics. Ayatollah al-Sistani has been described as similar to Ayatollah Khomeini, but without Khomeini's great sense of humor. As the picture above of al-Sistani reveals, if you squint just slightly, al-Sistani bears a remarkable resemblance to Ayatollah Khomeini; actually, you do not need to squint just slightly, whatever way you look at al-Sistani, he looks essentially identical to Ayatollah Khomeini with the exception that Khomeini favored earthtones in his dress. There are further concerns because Ayatollah al-Sistani, according to CIA sources, was on the Ramadan card list of Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden, and Yusuf Islam aka 'Cat Stevens' (apparently Yusuf Islam is on America's terrorist no-fly list; should we really be that afraid of any man who once wrote the following lyrics: 'I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow, Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow')
Many are concerned that the Shia will take this opportunity to get revenge on the Sunnis, who suffered terribly under Saddam's Sunni regime. As the picture above reveals, the Shia people - even in a demonstration outside of the Green Zone - have a trademark almost Gary-Cooper-with-a-turban reserved, thoughtful appearance that bespeaks an open-minded view of the world.
One leading Islamic Shia radical blind cleric has spoken out on this matter and has said that Islam is a religion of peace and besides who has ever heard of someone of Middle Eastern extraction holding a grudge over something that has happened in the past, oi vei. Despite these words of assurance from reliable radical Islamic blind clerics, it is interesting to note that the Shia leadership's first order of business in the assembly is to change the Sunni tribes' official name to 'Other.' Memo to: Sunni leadership, Brilliant strategy boycotting the election.
The Bush administration is concerned that when the dust settles from the election (literally), al-Sistani and hard-line religious clerics will be in effect the new leaders of Iraq and force Islamic law on Iraq. The Bush administration is also concerned with al-Sistani's ties with Iran. Various intelligence agencies believe that not only is Iranian intelligence helping the insurgency in Iraq, but that it is closely working with the al-Sistani-backed UIA. These same agencies suspect that Iran and the al-Sistani-backed UIA are working to get weapons of mass destruction and are perhaps jointly working to disperse these weapons to various terrorist groups. In sum, the Bush administration believes that al-Sistani and the UIA is part of the Axis of Evil along with Iran, Syria, North Korea, and various other X-Men villains: Magneto, Monstermold, Nimrod, etc..
As a result, Dick Cheney has been making the rounds on various news programs letting it be known that the Pentagon is drawing up plans to re-invade Iraq because the al-Sistani-led UIA is a very dangerous group, closely allied with Iran, interested in obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and has links to and supports various terrorist groups [see generally every other country in the Middle East].
When asked in a follow up question whether he would do anything different in this re-invasion of Iraq that was not done in the initial invasion of Iraq, he replied, after some reflection, 'I don't think we will do really anything different, with the exception of this time the armies are going to mapquest their routes for their destination points to avoid some of the confusion that occurred last time and also maybe this time put flashlights in the glove compartments of tanks.'
