Today's Financial Times has an interesting piece on Moqtada al-Sadr, who Powell advised dealing with long ago, and the Mahdi militia:
Mr Sadr's movement probably began to splinter in late 2004, when he called off an insurrection against US and British troops. It appears to have disintegrated even further after February 2006, when his followers embarked on a campaign of sectarian killing in response to the demolition of a Shia shrine. Mr Sadr's ideology has long emphasised Sunni-Shia unity against the Americans and he is reportedly dismayed by the violence, not least because it delays the withdrawal of US troops. He has called on his followers not to shed Iraqi blood without permission. He may however have to gauge how much political capital he is willing to spend to rein in a militant movement that now considers Sunni radicals, rather than Americans, to be their primary enemy. Mr Sadr has reportedly tried with varying degrees of success to replace insubordinate commanders in cities in the south. He has been surprisingly quiet about US-Iraqi raids targeting Mahdi Army cells that have allegedly involved themselves in death squad killings. US commanders however complain that other Mahdi Army commanders still enjoy political protection, and are forced to release detained militiamen at the request of government officials including Mr Maliki himself. However dangerous Mr Sadr's followers may be, the Iraqi leadership may be betting that it best to bolster the one man who still has some authority over them.