A MAN WITH WHOM WE CAN DO BUSINESS:

Sadrists Deny Negotiating with US (Rahmat al-Salaam, 6/29/09, Asharq Alawasat)

The Sadrist trend that is led by the Islamic cleric Moqtada al-Sadr denied that the Iraqi government played any part in the release of former Sadrist national spokesman Abdul Hadi al-Darraji who was released by US forces on Friday night.

Salman al-Fraji, head of the Sadr office in Baghdad informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "the occupying forces [US forces] are the ones that released him and that he was handed over to a government official by the Americans."

Iraqi MP Sami al-Askari of the Untied Iraqi Alliance party informed Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Darraji's release was part of a deal to release kidnapped British hostages captured in Iraq in 2007 by Asaib Ahl al-Haq [League of the People of Righteousness] a splinter group of the Mahdi army. However last week the British government confirmed that it had received the bodies of two of these hostages.

Always a pleasure, Mook.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 29, 2009 12:11 PM