Wednesday, April 7, 2004 10:41 a.m. EDT
Kerry: Terrorist Shiite Al-Sadr 'a Legitimate Voice'

In an interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Muqtada al-Sadr as a
"legitimate voice" in Iraq, despite that fact that he's led an uprising that
has killed nearly 20 American GIs in the last two days.

Speaking of al-Sadr's newspaper, which was shut down by coalition forces
last week after it urged violence against U.S. troops, Kerry complained to
National Public Radio, "They shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate
voice in Iraq."

In the next breath, however, the White House hopeful caught himself and
quickly changed direction. "Well, let me ... change the term 'legitimate.'
It belongs to a voice — because he has clearly taken on a far more radical
tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which
is a sort of terrorist alignment."

But Kerry again seemed to voice sympathy for the Shiite terrorist when asked
whether he supported al-Sadr's arrest. "Not if it’s an isolated act without
the other kinds of steps necessary to change the dynamics on the ground in
Iraq," Kerry told NPR, in quotes first reported by the New York Sun.

"If all we do is make war against the Iraqi people and continue an American
occupation, fundamentally, without a clarity as to who and how sovereignty
is being turned over, we have a very serious problem for the long run here,"
Kerry added. "And I think this administration is just walking dead center
down into that trap."

On March 28, the U.S.-led coalition authorities closed al-Sadr's newspaper,
al-Hawza, for 60 days, the Sun reported. L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S.
administrator in Iraq, charged that the newspaper had published false
stories blaming the coalition forces for local acts of terrorism.


Progressives are mere Socialists who plan on being
"In Charge" after they make everyone else "equal".

Yaketyak