The recent takeover reported this month, of a formerly US run Iraqi prison, by Moqtada al Sadr supporters, who have just been brought into the Maliki government, combined with the reading of a dispatch from Ambassador Hill from December, 2009, leads one to surmise that Iran is moving to consolidate its influence in Iraq, including the widespread use of death squads:

In recent months, Maliki's government has freed hundreds of controversial members of the Shiite Muslim cleric's Mahdi Army and handed security positions to veteran commanders of the militia, which was blamed for some of the most disturbing violence in the country's civil war and insurgency against U.S. forces.

The Mahdi Army has also in effect seized control of cellblocks at one of Iraq's largest detention facilities, Taji prison. Within months of the U.S. hand-over of the prison in March, Mahdi Army detainees were giving orders to guards who were either loyal to or intimidated by them, Iraqi and U.S. officials say.

It marks a remarkable return to prominence for Sadr, an Iranian-backed Shiite cleric who stunned his followers in September when he delivered pivotal parliamentary votes to Maliki that helped him stay in power.

LA Times Nov. 25, 2010

The UK Guardian has a redacted document from the former US Ambassador to Iraq stating that Sadr death squads had, as of December, 2009, continued to target former members of the Iraqi military and government, including former Iraqi Air Force pilots of whom 180 had been assassinated on orders from Tehran.

With the recent appointment of Sadr Army militia leaders into key Iraqi government 'security' posts and the mass release of Sadr militia members from prison, it appears Ambassador Hill's concerns about Iran and its agents gaining lethal influence over Iraq are well founded.

Hill, in his December, 2009 dispatch seemed hopeful Maliki would not give Moqtada al Sadr and his gangs, militias and death squads power in his government. Maliki has now done so, bringing the Sadr organization into his government. Moqtada al Sadr has resided in Iran for the last few years for safety reasons, and many US sevice members died fighting his militias, including Casey Sheehan, Cindy's son, who died fighting s Sadr militia in Najaf.  Living in Iran as he does now, Sadr can more closely develop his and Iran's future plans for domination of Iraq.

Another State Department cable from Hill at the Guardian, before the March, 2010 election, stated that Iran's worst fear was a takeover of Iraq by elements of the former Baath regime. George W. Bush's appointed transition leader, Paul Bremer, banned Baathists from participation in government within 24 hours of his arrival in Baghdad in late spring, 2003, a step that must have been cheered in Tehran.

It is also noted by the Guardian,  that Gulf states, like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain embraced the idea of a US war on Iran to destroy or set back its nuclear program, while other State Department documents report the same nations and region are major sources of funding for al Qaeda groups the US is fighting in Afghanistan.

Moqtada al Sadr supporters in Iraq, below.