IRAQ: A sheik’s burden

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By Tina Susman in Baghdad

It’s not always easy being a sheik. Sure, you get to live in a marble mansion with 20-foot-high ceilings, chandeliers, and staff to serve sumptuous meals and pour tea. But you also have to greet an endless stream of visitors, and a true sheik never turns away anyone at the door, no matter what they want.

Consider the situation that Sheik Raad Sabah Alwani found himself in last year.

Like many tribal leaders in the Anbar provincial capital, Ramadi, Alwani was fed up with Islamic insurgents. He gave his support to U.S. and Iraqi security forces, something that angered the men who arrived at his villa one evening at sunset.

Stop supporting the Americans or we will kill you, they warned Alwani. ‘Let’s eat dinner,’ replied Alwani, always a gracious host. They could discuss business later. After dinner, they repeated their threat. The two sides talked through the night, until about 3 a.m. ‘Stay over,’ Alwani said. ‘We’ll talk more tomorrow, after breakfast.’

The next day, talk resumed. Neither side budged, and Alwani sent the men away. Three days later, mortar rounds rained down on the neighborhood, but they missed Alwani, who continues to work with U.S. and Iraqi forces in Ramadi. He also continues to get death threats, the latest arriving last month in the form of a text message on his cellphone.