Word: tribalized
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...scene rarely witnessed by foreign eyes: a meeting of the great sheiks of Iraq's Anbar province, at the heavily guarded compound of the powerful chieftains of the al-Hais family, on the outskirts of the provincial capital. Some 300 tribal elders have gathered here, most of them in traditional garb, and much of the morning has been taken up with the elaborate Arab rituals of salutation. Every newcomer must greet every person already present with handshakes, hugs and kisses - on the cheek to show friendship, on the shoulder for respect. Then there are the endless cups...
...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...
...indeed, the sheiks are preparing for hostilities - of the democratic kind. With Iraq-wide provincial elections two months away, these Anbari chieftains have banded together under the banner of the Iraqi Tribal Front, and will field candidates in several provinces. So after the compound has filled up, the chanting turns distinctly political. "We are with Nouri al-Maliki on SOFA," they shout, referring to the status of forces agreement that the Iraqi Prime Minister has signed, amid considerable domestic opposition, with...
...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...
...some cases, he says, the sheiks were simply providing false names in order to extract more money from the U.S. military. (Al-Ameri says there are only 57,000 legitimate SOI; the U.S. military says there are nearly twice that number.) In private, other Iraqi officials worry that some tribal leaders have taken money from both the Americans as well as men like Abdallah...