This man would be a disaster for the nation if he gets
to the White House.
Tony

Wednesday, Apr. 07, 2004 10:41 AM EDT
Kerry: Terrorist Shiite Al-Sadr 'A Legitimate Voice'

In an interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Moqtada 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, adding, "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 said the newspaper had published false
stories blaming the coalition forces for local acts of terrorism.