American journalist released at Al Sadr's request

Micah Garen was released today by the Martyrs Brigade who threatened to kill him if the U.S. didn't pull all of it's forces from Najaf. Fox news reported that Al Sadr himself made the call to the group to delegate his release. Is Al Sadr trying to gain support from the world in this move, or does anybody think he could be a compassionate religious leader who feels mandated by his faith to stand against what he sees as an aggressive occupying force?

[edit on 22-8-2004 by 27jd]

He's not doing this purely to be faithful to his religion, IMO i believe he's trying to 'score points' with the outside world by releasing hostages so he comes across as being compassionate.

If he was a compassionate man he would've done this from the start, it's strange though how these journalists are being abducted, then by Muqtadr Al Sadr's (not sure if i got it right) request they are released. I'm not saying this is a fact, but it is possible that the abductions are deliberately staged by him personally, so after a while he let's them go in order to try and come across as someone who's a 'true compassionate muslim'.

You have to remember that there isn't a 'media' blackout under Saddam anymore, which is what's happening in North Korea. That the people there will be able to watch satellite television and especially channels such as CNN and any other western news service/channel. So because of a wider accessibility to foreign media, and the fact he knows that anything that happens in Iraq will always get printed in Western newspapers or reported in Western News Services.

He may also be aware that the war in Iraq was very unpopular among Western countries and especially it's people. So he'll be more sensitive to how he's being perceived in the West, so really my opinion's that these recents acts of 'compassion' are not more than PR stunts just to try and alter our view of him and to gain popularity among other countries.

Yeah, probably so, also he probably knows that if they were to behead or kill that man, public support would be in favor of really bringing the hammer down on him and his supporters, mosque or no mosque.