Webmaster: US Administration success (divide and conquer) stories in Iraq:
1. In Baghdad they play the Shia against Sunni. Baghdad was 65 % Sunni. Now they
are 70% Shia.
2. In Anbar they play Sunni against Shia. Sunni in Anbar are expelling Shia.
They don't care about Sunni or shia. They only care about progress, victory
...!!!!!!
The
Surge and the Al Qaeda Bunny
A special investigative report from inside Iraq
By Greg Palast
09/17/07 "ICH"
-- -- Monday, September 17, 2007- Did you see George all choked up? In his
surreal TV talk on Thursday, he got all emotional over the killing by Al Qaeda
of Sheik Abu Risha, the leader of the new Sunni alliance with the US against the
insurgents in Anbar Province, Iraq.
Bush shook Abu Risha's hand two weeks ago for the cameras. Bush can shake his
hand again, but not the rest of him: Abu Risha was blown away just hours before
Bush was to go on the air to praise his new friend.
Here's what you need to know that NPR won't tell you.
1. Sheik Abu Risha wasn't a sheik.
2. He wasn't killed by Al Qaeda.
3. The new alliance with former insurgents in Anbar is as fake as the sheik -
and a murderous deceit.
How do I know this?
You can see the film - of "Sheik" Abu Risha, of the guys who likely whacked
him and of their other victims.
Just in case you think I've lost my mind and put my butt in insane danger to get
this footage, don't worry. I was safe and dry in Budapest. It was my brilliant
new cameraman,
Rick Rowley, who went to Iraq to get the story on his own.
Rick's "the future of TV news," says BBC. He's also completely out of control.
Despite our pleas, Rick and his partner Dave Enders went to Anbar and filmed
where no cameraman had dared tread.
Why was "sheik" Abu Risha so important? As the New York Times put it this
morning, "Abu Risha had become a charismatic symbol of the security gains in
Sunni areas that have become a cornerstone of American plans to keep large
numbers of troops in Iraq though much of next year."
In other words, Abu Risha was the PR hook used to sell the "success" of the
surge.
The sheik wasn't a sheik. He was a fake. While proclaiming to Rick that he was "the
leader of all the Iraqi tribes," Abu lead no one. But for a reported sum in the
millions in cash for so-called, "reconstruction contracts," Abu Risha was
willing to say he was Napoleon and Julius Caesar and do the hand-shakie thing
with Bush on camera.
Notably, Rowley and his camera caught up with Abu Risha on his way to a "business
trip" to Dubai, money laundering capital of the Middle East.
There are some real sheiks in Anbar, like Ali Hathem of the dominant Dulaimi
tribe, who told Rick Abu Risha was a con man. Where was his tribe, this tribal
leader? "The Americans like to create characters like Disney cartoon heros."
Then Ali Hathem added, "Abu Risha is no longer welcome" in Anbar.
"Not welcome" from a sheik in Anbar is roughly the same as a kiss on both cheeks
from the capo di capi. Within days, when Abu Risha returned from Dubai to
Dulaimi turf in Ramadi, Bush's hand-sheik was whacked.
On Thursday, Bush said Abu Risha was killed, "fighting Al Qaeda" - and the White
House issued a statement that the sheik was "killed by al Qaeda."
Bullshit.
There ain't no Easter Bunny and "Al Qaeda" ain't in Iraq, Mr. Bush. It was very
cute, on the week of the September 11 memorials, to tie the death of your Anbar
toy-boy to bin Laden's Saudi hijackers. But it's a lie. Yes, there is a group of
berserkers who call themselves "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia." But they have as much
to do with the real Qaeda of bin Laden as a Rolling Stones "tribute" band has to
do with Mick Jagger.
Who got Abu Risha? Nothing - NOTHING - moves in Ramadi without the approval of
the REAL tribal sheiks. They were none-too-happy, as Hathem noted, about the
millions the US handed to Risha. The sheiks either ordered the hit - or simply
gave the bomber free passage to do the deed.
So who are these guys, the sheiks who lead the Sunni tribes of Anbar - the
potentates of the Tamimi, Fallaji, Obeidi, Zobal and Jumaili tribes? Think of
them as the Sopranos of Arabia. They are also members of the so-called "Awakening
Council" - getting their slice of the millions handed out - which they had no
interest in sharing with Risha.
But creepy and deadly or not, these capi of the desert were effective in
eliminating "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia." Indeed, as US military so proudly pointed
out to Rick, the moment the sheiks declared their opposition to Al Qaeda - i.e.
got the payments from the US taxpayers - Al Qaeda instantly diappeared.
This miraculous military change, where the enemy just evaporates, has one
explanation: the sheiks ARE al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Just like the Sopranos
extract "protection" payments from New Jersey businesses, the mobsters of Anbar
joined our side when we laid down the loot.
What's wrong with that? After all, I'd rather send a check than send our kids
from Columbus to fight them.
But there's something deeply, horribly wrong with dealing with these killers.
They still kill. With new US protection, weapons and cash, they have turned on
the Shia of Anbar. Fifteen thousand Shia families from a single district were
forced at gunpoint to leave Anbar. Those moving too slowly were shot. Kids and
moms too.
Do the Americans know about the ethnic cleansing of Anbar by our erstwhile "allies"?
Rick's film shows US commanders placing their headquarters in the homes
abandoned by terrorized Shia.
Rick's craziest move was to go and find these Shia refugees from Anbar. They
were dumped, over a hundred thousand of them, in a cinder block slum with no
running water in Baghdad. They are under the "protection" of the Mahdi Army,
another group of cutthroats. But at least these are Shia cutthroats.
So the great "success" of the surge is our arming and providing cover for ethnic
cleansing in Anbar. Nice, Mr. Bush. And with the US press "embedded," we won't
get the real story. Even Democrats are buying into the Anbar "awakening" fairy
tale.
An Iraqi government official frets that giving guns and cover to the Anbar gang
is like adopting a baby crocodile. "A crocodile is not a pet," he told Rick. It
will soon grow to devour you. But what could the puppet do but complain about
his strings?
On his departure from Iraq, Al Jazeera's English language network agreed to
broadcast the Rowley/Enders film. I urge you to see it:
click here. Palast will update the report today on
Air America's Randi Rhodes show.
The 'Ghost of Anbar' - also known as Abu Risha, the
man behind the US success story in Iraq's Anbar province, was brutally murdered
in a roadside bomb this week.
As a result, People & Power revisit 'Anbar’s Ghost' which was shot just
weeks before his death.
The story behind Abu Risha’s so-called success fuels
with controversy. US officials credit him with leading Sunni tribes who killed
Americans in the past into a new alliance with them.
Because of Abu Risha, American political and military
leaders say, Sunni attacks on US forces have dropped dramatically and life is
beginning to return to normal in Anbar, once the heartland of the Sunni
Insurgency.
But was Abu Risha everything he claimed to be?
Filmmakers Rick Rowley and David Enders set off to find out - and to see who is
paying the price.
This episode of People & Power aired from Sunday 9th
September 2007 at the following times:
