Summaries here and here and here.

Hmm. Retrenchment?

Muqtada al Sadr, the firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric whose Mahdi Army is arguably Iraq’s most powerful armed group, has ordered his followers to put down their weapons temporarily, three of his aides told McClatchy Newspapers on Friday.

Analysts differed on the significance of the directive, which Sadr delivered in secret to his commanders two weeks ago in the southern city of Kufa. Some saw it as Sadr’s way of distancing himself from rising sectarian violence, most of which has been blamed on his followers.

[snip]

“The American and the Iraqi governments are starting to feel how powerful he is getting. It’s obvious that both of them are fed up,” said Mithal Alusi, a secular Shiite member of parliament. “That’s why the Sadrists are playing a tactical game: to quiet the attacks and buy time.”

[snip]

Regaining control may be one reason that Sadr issued his four-point mandate orally to his commanders. According to three top Sadr aides, who agreed to discuss the meeting only if they weren’t identified because it had been secret, Sadr told the commanders to:

-Reduce the size of units to 75 fighters from as many as 400, to make the units more manageable.

-Issue new identification cards to Mahdi Army members to replace IDs that have been forged.

-Send every member to an orientation course that would outline the group’s mission.

-Lay down weapons temporarily. Article

A neighborhood named Liberty; a reality called chaos.

Hurriya, Arabic for “liberty,” is a working-class area known for its inexpensive food markets, tailors and electronics stores, and as the birthplace of famous ballad singers Basil Aziz and Kadhim Saher. Both men now live abroad, and Hurriya’s shops are closed.

The neighborhood has 17 offices for rival political groups, including three linked to Sadr. All 17 are guarded by gunmen.

Residents are divided about who started the recent bout of violence, but most interviewed for this article agreed that Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia now has the upper hand.

“Shiites are threatening Sunni families and forcing them to leave Hurriya,” said Mohammed, the Shiite. “Anyone who doesn’t obey will be killed. There used to be a lot of Sunnis in east Hurriya – now there are none.”

Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front, a leading Sunni party that has offices in Hurriya, said 60% of the Sunni families that used to live in the neighborhood have fled.

Dulaimi said Shiite militiamen, some of them dressed in Iraqi army uniforms, attacked one of his party’s offices less than two weeks ago. Several residents described a brutal firefight that ended when mortar rounds pounded the party building into ruins and killed two women living nearby. Article

The occupation’s clarion call for putting the entire blame on the Iraqis is becoming louder and more shrill.

The United States may cut off funding for Iraq’s police because of its failure to punish people responsible for torture, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said in an interview published on Saturday.

Zalmay Khalilzad told the New York Times that Washington has yet to formally notify Baghdad that funding may be cut, but officials are reviewing programmes because of a U.S. law that forbids funding armies or police that violate human rights.

[snip]

The United Nations said in a report earlier this month that torture was rampant in Iraqi detention centres and in the widespread sectarian killings seen across the country, based on the signs of abuse on victims’ bodies.

The world body has demanded punishment of police responsible for abuse in Iraq after U.S. and Iraqi inspectors uncovered evidence in May of systematic torture at a prison known as Site 4, run by the Interior Ministry’s national police.

Some 1,400 inmates were kept at the site. No Iraqi officials have been arrested. Khalilzad said Bolani was waiting for written assurances that indictments had been handed down. Article