Who knows what the real story is exactly but we can be sure we're not getting it..maybe bits and pieces we can try and tie together is all.  Needless to say the clusterfuck has grown to monumental proportions with no end in sight for the Iraqi people.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence'--Gandhi

However, the quote in no ways contradicts the testimony of Yasser Qassim, a Basra journalist interviewed by Sgrena during the annual peace meeting in Assisi (link in my previous comment above.) The article does discuss the SCIRI and its present role in Iraq, its past dependance on Iran. The Badr militia is the military branch of the SCIRI.

There are constant clashes in and around Basra between the pro-coalition Badr forces and Sadr's al-Mahdi Army. My impression is that it's a mob war over money and territory. Religion and politics is, as most everywhere in the world, a thin veneer for the business of scoundrels.

The British have avoided intervening until the past few days- and then you get what's now happening.

It appears that Sadr's strategy is to win the poor and the workers to his cause, a populist demagogic approach. And he has been very successful at it. It's no secret that many Basra police are Sadr supporters and moonlight for Sadr's brand of summary justice. Sadr's fundamentalist, rightwing terrorism is flourishing in a vacuum. Hell, he considers the Iranians too liberal for his tastes.

As far as Sadr's influence over the Basr workers' unions, that's what Qassim reports. We'll just have to take it as the sort of testimony that filters out of Basr. It appears quite feasible. Sadr has menaced to block oil production in Iraq in the past, and his threats have been taken seriously. So give me a hat tip for mentioning it.

The ferocious execution of reporters in Basra may point to larger scenario. Steve Vincent was reporting cases of vast corruption for the Christian Science Monitor when he was executed. Any faction may have wanted him out of the way.

"Fathela" is the Italian transliteration for "Virtue." It often appears in English as "Fadhila." It wrested power in the provincial council from the once-dominant SCIRI. Although in terms of corruption the two religious parties are indistinguishable despite Fadhila's winning anti-corruption campaign. Qassim implies that Fadhila is a Sadr political front.

As for that crook of beer, I'll have mine room temperature.