Word: sheiking
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...Both sides can play the opportunism game, of course. A week later, in Ramadi, I saw tribal sheiks gather to support Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Status of Forces Agreement he has negotiated with the U.S. A couple of years ago, many of the sheiks were backing the Sunni insurgency and refusing to recognize Maliki's Shi'ite-dominated government. Now, Sheik Mohammed al-Hais told me, "We are closer to Maliki than any Shi'ite group...
...make the wait more bearable, the hosts, Sheik Mohammed al-Hais and his brother Hamid, have laid on some traditional entertainment. A small group of line dancers (all men, naturally) sing paeans to the might and valor of the tribes of Anbar. "Throw us on the enemy, and watch them flee," they chant, to the accompaniment of drums. In centuries past, this is how tribal armies psyched themselves up for battle. (See pictures of Anbar sheiks coming together...
Messing with the al-Hais brothers is not a good idea. Local lore has it that when al-Qaeda kidnapped Sheik Mohammed a couple of years ago, it demanded $120,000 for his release and added one other demand: that his home, the centerpiece of the al-Hais compound, be leveled. The family complied. But as soon as he was free, Sheik Mohammed ordered the house to be rebuilt exactly as before. To underscore his defiance, he named the new building al-Tahadi, or the Challenge...
...would say, 'What can I do for my brother? What can I give the children?' " Rwaramba said. She also testified that she was "flabbergasted" when the sheik wired her $35,000 because Jackson was so broke that he did not even have a bank account. She claims the sheik apologized for what he considered a paltry sum of money and said that "next time it would be more." Jackson reportedly used the money to pay his utility bills at Neverland...
...Abdallah won't tell me how he slipped through the screen or how he, a city dweller, got a tribal sheik to speak on his behalf. He hints that some money changed hands. "Everything is possible with dollars," he says with a laugh. He claims that at least five of the men in his SOI group had been foot soldiers for al-Qaeda. The U.S. soldiers with whom they have regular contact "don't know anything about us," he said...