And he's buying a STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN...

Shi'ite cult leader among scores of fighters killed: Chicago Tribune

Iraqi officials: Plot against clerics meant to aid imam's return (and you know who that is! Poor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - he got spanked in recent elections, his mullahs are restless and now someone's horning in on his schtick. It's hard out there for a pimp!)

"An apocalyptic Shiite cult leader claiming to be the messenger of a revered 9th Century figure was among more than 200 people killed in the fierce battles that erupted Sunday near the southern Shiite city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said Monday.Ahmed Bin al-Hassani, who headed a previously unknown group called the Soldiers of Heaven, was plotting to sow chaos in Iraq by assassinating top Shiite clerics in order to facilitate the return Tuesday of a messianic Shiite leader who went missing in 874, the officials said." (Hmmm. This assassinating top Shi-ite clerics is a new wrinkle)

(Here's where the stairway to heaven part comes in)

"Najaf residents said Hassani had been driven out of the city after leading attacks against Spanish troops there in 2004 and had recently resurfaced using a new name. He claimed to have descended from the sky and said he had been in direct contact with the Mahdi, who told him he was planning to return Tuesday."

(Oops! Where did they come from?)
"The discovery that Shiite zealots were preparing to assassinate Sistani and other top clerics has come as something of an embarrassment to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has repeatedly identified Al Qaeda and other Sunni militants as the chief threat to Iraq's security."