Sistani and His Constitution

I neglected to mention that the LA Times had a profile on Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Among the revelations he has a high speed internet connection to communicate with his vast network of supporters, he's read about the American and French Revolutions and the elections in East Timor. Sistani is also "knowledgeable about the American, French, German constitutions and the unwritten British constitution." The story also notes that Sistani has explicitly distanced himself from Iran and does not support a theocracy similar to Iran's. The New York Times also has a positive Sistani spin quoting a source as saying that Sistani's top priority in the writing of the constitution was "the preservation of the rights of all citizens, majority or minority, so they are all equal in the eyes of the law."