How Al-Sadr Became the Most Powerful Man in Iraq,
and other stuff that happened a long time ago, elsewhere
Jules Crittenden
have to think this Foreign Policy article by the NYT’s Dexter Filkins on Moqtada al-Sadr’s rise power and how he is now waiting in the wings, with no mention of how far into the wings he has now retreated, suffers greatly from a 20th-century production schedule, not to mention superficiality that renders the headline overhype. But because Filkins is a good reporter who was been around the block several times in Iraq,* I wouldn’t mind reading a more thorough update:
How a radical Shiite cleric became the most powerful man in Iraq
[...]
* Filkins was the one the media ethics handwringers were clucking about because he started carrying a gun after an ugly crowd incident early on in the occupation, late 2003 or early 2004. Not normal behavior for an NYT scribbler.
I missed Filkins by a week in Muzzafarabad, Azad Kashmir, in 1998, but heard all about him and his amazing satellite phone from Tariq, the Kashmiri freelancer we both hired as a translator. Tariq described a James Bondian suitcase phone with a little dish antenna that Filkins set up on his balcony at the Sangum Hotel, overlooking the horrific torrent of the Neelam River.
“With this he spoke direct to Los Angeles,” Tariq explained. He had never seen anything like it.
Back then, neither had I. ...
