Newspaper ties Iraqi PM to Revolutionary Guards

Newspaper ties Iraqi PM
to Revolutionary Guards
Report also reveals al-Maliki's
deal with Mahdi Army's al-Sadr

A new report claims to reveal documents confirming Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held telephone conversations with anti-coalition leader Muqtada al-Sadr and then ordered Iranian commanders to areas where they would not be "arrested or killed" by American troops.

The report comes from investigative journalist Mahdi Mustafa and was published March 31 in the Egyptian government weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi. It showed photographs of documents supporting those indications.

The report was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a nonprofit that monitors Middle East publications and broadcasts.

A key point in the article was al-Maliki wrote a letter in January ordering commanders of the "Mahdi Army," who also have ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, be moved from Iraqi front lines where American and coalition troops were active, the MEMRI report said.

The "Mahdi Army" is the group of terrorists and fighters assembled by al-Sadr, who has preached Islam's "Madhi" soon is to return, and American forces invaded Iraq in order to capture and kill him. Al-Sadr has refused to disband the estimated 5,000-8,000 in his group because he claims it is the "Madhi's Army" and he cannot disband it, as other fighting factions in Iraq have been required to do.

MEMRI said the first document published was a letter labeled "secret, personal, and urgent" and was from al-Maliki's office to the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, with copies to the presidency of the Shi'ite Party's Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and to the Al-ubgone19 Al-Sadr organization, a foundation run by al-Sadr.

The document, translated by MEMRI, said:

"Based on a phone conversation with Sayyid Muqtada Al-Sadr and [after] consulting with [Iraq’s National Security Advisor] Dr. Muwafaq Al-Rubai’i, in order to preserve our great achievements and in light of what the present circumstances demand, we ask to temporarily conceal the commanders of the Mahdi Army, who are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, [and to remove them] from the front line [of battle] in order to protect them from being arrested or killed by the American forces. [The names of the commanders] are listed below. It would be best to send them to Iran for the time being, until the crisis passes.

"In addition, [we ask] to send the commanders from the second line [of battle] to the southern regions, since we know that intensive efforts are underway to persuade the Americans to leave the situation [there] as it is. All administrative and security arrangements for the transportation of these commanders have [already] been made.

"We ask you to implement [these orders] and report to us.

"[Signed,] Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minster (sic) [of Iraq]"

The report from MEMRI said two other documents presented in the article reveal al-Maliki ordered the release from jail those Iranians who entered Iraq illegally. The first document is a letter from al-Maliki to the presidency of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, with copies to several Iraqi offices, including the foreign ministry, "which was asked to inform the Iranian embassy," the report said.

In the first document, al-Maliki lists those Iranians and orders them released with a decision that authorities "suspend all judicial [proceedings] … except for those who have already been sentenced," MEMRI said.

The second document is a confirmation from Supreme Judicial Council President Madhat Al-Mahmoud that 442 of the Iranians on the list were released.

MEMRI explores the Middle East through the region's media, and provides translations of Arabic, Persian and Turkish media, as well as analysis of political, social, cultural, intellectual and religious trends there.

Al-Maliki runs a Shiite-led government, and has pledged to institute changes to boost participation by opposition Sunni Arabs in Iraq's political process.

Al-Maliki, who visited President George Bush in the White House in 2006, said then those who advocate violence were being addressed.

"I would like to assure the political and religious leaders and civil societies that the Iraqi parties, politicans, religious leaders are rising to their responsibility and are condemning those who are cooperating with al-Qaida and those who are trying to start a civil war," he said.

Al-Sadr has been described as a fiercely anti-U.S. cleric who commands the Madhi Army, blamed with multiple bloody battles against U.S.-led troops in recent months.