Shiite Ayatollah Ignores Letter From Bush

[ECH1969]

A letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shiite spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key al-Sistani aide told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The aide _ who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing al-Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself _ said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing "unhappiness" over what senior Shiite leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government.

The aide said the person who delivered the Bush letter _ he would not identify the messenger by name or nationality _ said it carried Bush's thanks to al-Sistani for calling for calm among his followers in preventing the outbreak of civil war after a Shiite shrine was bombed late last month.

Al-Sadr, who is staunchly anti-American, met with al-Sistani in Najaf on Thursday but emerged without making a statement.

http://www.wral.com/apworldnews/8367753/detail.html

[xchrom]

1. Ignored, Baby!

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Ow!

Way to go George.

[xchrom]

9. it really is all that -- and a bag of chips.

[Tempest]

2. In the Arab culture this is the ultimate insult

Not responding to a message or request is considered the ultimate insult.

[Teaser]

4. actually...

the ultimate insult would probably involve tying you to a dog while slapping you with the bottom of a shoe.

But this is pretty insulting too...

[Tempest]

10. I should have been more specific

It's the ultimate social insult.

[Teaser]

11. I was just teasing anyway

You are quite right about how insulting it is.

Still, I wonder how bad someone would feel tied to a dog and slapped with shoe bottoms.

It'd probably feel like being a Phillies fan here...

[Teaser]

5. pwned!

completely pwned!

[rzemanfl]

6. If you got a letter from *, wouldn't you? n/t

[0007]

7. That's very American of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

No one here pays attention to junior

[cliss]

8. This ranks pretty high in the "amazing department".

I'm sure Bush knows by now that he's being ignored.

Let's look at the implications. Ayatollah Al-Sistani is considered the most revered cleric in Iraq. He was the one who pushed for elections last year. Whatever he requests, the people do.

In fact, it's because of the Ayatollah's good graces that the U.S. is still in Iraq. If he had given the word, we would have been out.

So if the Ayatollah is ignoring Bush, that means that he doesn't care about the message inside. Maybe he's already been told that it's a "begging letter", basically groveling and begging the Ayatollah to help.

at this point, the Ayatollah is holding 4 Aces.....and 4 Kings. He's succeeded in everything he wanted.....getting Saddam kicked out, a new Theocracy, a close relationship with Iran.....

A shrewd man.

[badgervan]

14. A Show of "respect" for the boy king.....

Perfect.... this tells the world how georgie is thought of by Iraq's real leaders, the ayatollahs. The boy king has managed, in 5 short years, to completely destroy our nation's reputation of being one of the "good guys". The good word of the U.S. has been damaged, and that pisses me off. Man, I despise these fools.

[VegasWolf]

12. Now Chimpy will write a letter asking why he didn't respond to his

to his first letter. Sincerely, Your Imperial Majesty, King of The World, Leader of the US, etc.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. However, it was extremely useful during the morning constitutional.

That's what the left hand is for.

[Moderator]

15. Kick

[quaoar]

16. Shiite Ayatollah Ignores Letter From Bush

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5722740,00.html

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shiite spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key al-Sistani aide told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The aide - who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing al-Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself - said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing ``unhappiness'' over what senior Shiite leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government.

[niceypoo]

17. Can you imagine what it says?

Same old "Staying the course" canned crap. "Can't just up and run", "Bring it on"....."Freedom is on the march"...."War is peace"...."What about the good news?"

[quaoar]

19. The letter probably asked a question

"Is your job hard work like mine?"

[saltpoint]

18. It could be that the Bush letter was so badly written and riddled with

spelling and grammatical errors that the poor man was unable to render it in the Ayatollah's home tongue.