Word: sheikhs
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That will take money, but thanks to record oil prices, money is one thing Abu Dhabi does not lack. At the summit's opening conference, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahaya announced that the government would channel an additional $15 billion to the Masdar Initiative. Although the money comes with no time frame, and officials wouldn't say exactly where the funding will go, Masdar also announced that it would join Rio Tinto and British Petroleum to build the world's first hydrogen power plant, a 500-megawatt operation that would cost at least...
...edge of a dirt crater 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep, Lieutenant Shawn Spainhour and Sheikh Dawood Rashid al-Shuhaib stare down in silence at the wreckage. In August 2007, the U.S. military bombed the sheikh's house, obliterating it with a 500-lb. JDAM "bunker buster." The rest of the village was flattened by artillery. Spainhour, in full battle gear - flak jacket, helmet, knife, guns, boots, camouflage and radio - turns to the grief-stricken, 60-year-old sheikh, who is wearing resplendent traditional Arab dress, and asks his translator to tell him that "I sincerely apologize for everything...
That's why the sheikh and Spainhour stroll through this former war zone together: to survey the extent of the damage. Spainhour and his commanding officer are trying to help the sheikh rebuild his village as part of the larger strategy to bring peace and reconciliation to their corner of Baghdad. It illustrates the paradigm shift that has been taking place for the U.S. military across Iraq - trying to win over both former enemies and stave off potential new ones with the use of large sums of cash...
...trouble is that there is only so much cash available. The sheikh says his house will cost about 200 million Iraqi dinars, or about $150,000, to rebuild. Lt. Spainhour explains that big money is very hard to get, but that supplies and humanitarian assistance might be available. Spainhour's superior, Captain Douglas Willig, says the U.S. military can offer about $1,000 per family for claims money; he can offer them micro-grants to start small businesses; and he has two construction packs for a school and a marketplace each worth about $20,000. "I want to help...
...problem was the Administration's increasingly mixed message, amplified by the intense media coverage of his trip. For example, in Dubai he gave what the White House billed as a landmark speech calling for "democratic freedom in the Middle East." But during his last stop in Sharm el-Sheikh Wednesday, he lauded President Hosni Mubarak as an experienced, valued strategic partner for regional peace and security and made no mention of Cairo's ongoing crackdown on opponents and critics - and the continuing imprisonment of Mubarak's main opponent in the 2005 presidential election. "He is saying he supports the presidents...