60 Minutes story on the Shia religious leader

[JPhillips]

Did anyone else see this story? It was fascinating. Apparently this ayatollah has ben hunted by Saddam for his refusal to stop criticizing him. Saddam has tried to kill him at least eight times, and he has killed something like thirty family members still in Iraq.

This Ayatollah has an Iranian trained and equipped army of fifteen thousand waiting in Iran. He has enormous popularity with the Shia not just as a religous leader, but also as the most persecuted by Saddam. He sees himself as the future leader of an Islamic Iraq.

There was also some background on the failed rebellion in 1991 and the US role in that. According to one Shia, the US didn't support the rebellion in part because the Shia were looking to put the Ayatollah at the head of the state. This source said he was told that the US would prefer Sadam, the devil we know, to the Ayatollah, the devil we don't know.

There was one really funny part to the story as well. Bob Simon was interviewing an aide to the Ayatollah and asked him if the Ayatollah was pro-democracy. The aide went on and on about the Ayatollah's credentials. Simon then asked, "Is there any Islamic state that is a democracy?" to which the aide smiled and said, "Well, nobody's perfect."