Sadr City. It is a vast slum in the east of Baghdad; a year ago, the people of Sadr City had welcomed the U.S. invasion; today, it is a center of militant Shiite opposition to the U.S. occupation. We quickly found a man who could take us to the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad and make the necessary introductions. Our new friend, a clean-cut young man, works as a security guard in a hotel complex where many foreigners stay. The three of us drove to Sadr City and stopped in front of the recently rocketed headquarters, while the contact made sure it was OK for us to enter the building. I was searched and then ushered in to see a young man in a large black turban sitting behind a desk. The room was bare except for the desk, and piled on the desk were posters of a threatening al-Sadr with the caption, "Our followers will go to paradise, your followers will go to hell." The al-Sadr people were ready to talk to the press and had been talking to reporters for quite a while. They were all perfectly polite; it seemed they wanted to make an international impression. A boy with a rifle darted in and out of the office. Other poor young men hid behind the building and ducked out of view when foreigners appeared.

"We expect the Americans to come any minute," one of the bodyguards said. It was not unreasonable. An arrest warrant for Muqtada al-Sadr has been in force for more than a week and senior U.S. officials have said that they will capture or kill him. Al-Sadr was in Najaf, which his militia controlled, raising the possibility of an American assault on a Shiite holy city.

Amir al-Husseini, chief of al-Sadr's organization in Baghdad, had the unnerving habit of staring at his desk and sighing when he answered questions. If there was an intimation of tragedy, the sighs became audible. I asked him what he thought about the American demand that Muqtada al-Sadr surrender or leave Iraq. "We don't care about their demands because we are fully prepared to give our blood to defend Muqtada al-Sadr. They demand his exile because they don't want to confront him, but it will not happen because we will redeem him with our blood." He drifted in and out of religious language, but he was well-spoken and clear in denouncing the wave of kidnappings in Iraq. "We denounce any kidnappings. It is against our religion."

I asked him if we could go to Najaf with a safe-passage letter from his office, and al-Husseini wrote it out for me in a careful neat script. They are young, earnest men, but I left with the feeling that they are in over their heads. It did not seem that they were nervous, but instead happy and proud to be taking a stand. Al-Husseini, who stood next to Muqtada al-Sadr in one of the posters, wanted me to know that they were not afraid of death, and for a moment in that office, I believed him.

Driving out of Sadr City, we came on a small lake that had formed when a sewer pipe burst. Children with bare feet were playing in the foul water, splashing and kicking in it. The smell was terrible. At that moment, I looked up and saw the local Iraqi police station crouched next to an American military base. Up on a mast above the station, where the Iraqi flag should have been, was a portrait of Muqtada al-Sadr, his hand in front of his face, threatening all enemies.

Late Monday night we learned that the followers of al-Sadr have left the government buildings in Najaf, but I do not believe they have gone far.

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