The US continues to show the late Hakim no respect, even as some realize he could have been a powerful ally in Iraq:
In Baghdad, 150 U.N. employees held a somber memorial service on Saturday to remember their colleagues killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of the U.N. office.Meanwhile Saturday, thousands of angry mourners called for vengeance as they gathered outside the Imam Ali shrine, site of the bombing in Najaf.
"Our leader al-Hakim is gone! We want the blood of the killers of al-Hakim!" a crowd of 4,000 men chanted while beating their chests.
The bombing was certain to complicate American efforts to pacify an increasingly violent Iraq. A moderate cleric, al-Hakim was seen as a stabilizing force in Iraq. He repeatedly asked the country's Shiite majority to be patient with the United States.
Al-Hakim was the spiritual leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. In Baghdad Saturday, a member of the group's politburo, Ali al-Ghadban, said the bombing would not deter it from cooperating with the Americans.
"We will continue in our dealing with the Americans, but the Americans should now be more aware of the fact that the Iraqis only are capable of preserving the security in the country," al-Ghadban said.
"They (the Americans) are responsible for the incident because of their failure to provide security in Iraq." He said the group would press the Americans for more powers for Iraqis.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. occupation's coordinator for Iraq, was out of the country on vacation and had no plans to return early because of the bombing.