Eric Martin  Mar 27 2008 - 5:24pm   

Matt Yglesias performs a kindly public service for those trying to follow the bouncing acronyms:

Just to clarify the nomenclature for anyone who's confused, ISCI (i.e., the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq) is the new SCIRI (i.e., the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) they rebranded themselves a little while ago as non-revolutionary, presumably because they're basically running the show in Iraq.

Actually, the name change was undertaken for more significant reasons - reasons that tie in to the current Shiite in-fighting in Basra and throughout Iraq.  This is what I had to say back in May 2007:

The big news over the weekend in intra-Shiite political intrigue was the roll-out of the new SCIRI product (before Labor Day no less - somewhere Andy Card weeps).  In conjunction with some of the more substantial shifts in tone and platform, SCIRI (the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) announced a name change to something approximating SIIC (the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council) - although some have suggested SICI (Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq). 

While this rearranging of words and letters might appear to be a mere re-branding, there is some significance to the modification.  Namely, the party formerly known as SCIRI is looking to establish a stronger "Iraqi" identity, and thus is shedding a name that itself paid homage to the Iranian "Revolution" - which is no mere accident, as SCIRI itself was formed at the behest of (and with ongoing active support from) Iran's leadership dating back to Khomeini himself. [...]

SCIRI also made noises concerning their allegiance to Sistani over Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei....Thus, SCIRI is trying to establish, or rehabilliate, its image as an "Iraqi" institution distinct from its Iranian roots/ties, and as part of this process SCIRI is publicly acknowledging, and acquiescing to, the dictates of Sistani (even if the media interpretation of this shift has been somewhat overblown).

The reason then-SCIRI felt the need to "Iraqisize" its image was because SCIRI was bleeding support to...Moqtada al-Sadr who espouses a nationalistic,  occasionaly Arab-centric, rhetoric that has broader appeal in Iraq's Shiite and Sunni communities.

Amazingly, this obvious ploy has taken in a lot of studied observers.