Aide To Muqtada al-Sadr Arrested By American And Iraqi Forces, But Will This Just Be Another Revolving Door Example?

American and Iraqi forces have arrested a top aide to radical antiAmerican cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. And 400 members of the Mahdi militia group have also been arrested recently. However in most recent cases, this has proven to be little more than a "catch and release" effort as pressure from cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has nearly always resulted in these murderous Shiite militia members being freed within a few hours or days. Very few members of this Shiite militia have ever really been held accountable for their crimes such as abducting and torturing and killing Sunni citizens off the streets of Baghdad.

This is the type of double standard of justice in the new Iraq. "Catch and release" of murderous Shiite militia group members and death squad members by the Shiite dominated government. Jails and prisons in Iraq are filled with Sunni prisoners. The Iraqi government Interior Ministry is filled with Shiite militia members who operate torture chambers for Sunni citizens suspected of insurgent activity or support. Some Iraqi police starions in Iraq are used as little more than fronts for Shiite militia organization crimes against civilians. In the British controlled area of Southern Iraq, British forces had to raid a police station used by a Shiite militia as a torture chamber and rescue the prisoners and destroy the station.

This double standard of "justice" in the new Iraq, where the Shiite dominated government is taking on all the qualities of a Shiite theocracy stands as a major roadblock to healing the problems of sectarian violence in Iraq, as is in fact a major cause of the sectarian violence.