Sheik head of the "Anbar Awakening" killed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aga4B5iocRhM

Iraq Bomb Kills U.S.-Backed Sheik Who Fought Al-Qaeda (Update1)

By Robin Stringer

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A bomb attack killed the leader of a U.S.-backed Sunni Muslim alliance that was praised by President George W. Bush for trying to drive al-Qaeda out of Iraq.

Sheik Sattar Abu Reesha was head of the ``Anbar Awakening,'' a tribal council that fought al-Qaeda in the western province of al-Anbar. He was killed today by a bomb as he left his home in the city of Ramadi, state television said.

Bush addressed Abu Reesha and other Sunni tribal leaders during a Sept. 3 visit to the al-Asad Air Base, telling them, ``When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq can look like.''

The U.S. has portrayed al-Anbar, once a heartland for Sunni insurgents opposed to foreign forces, as a success story of efforts in Iraq to win over local leaders and reduce violence.

The lessening of violence in Anbar has been ``greater than any of us might have predicted six months ago,'' the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said in a letter to his troops on Sept. 7.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robin Stringer in London at

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"We are Really kicking ass."

the one where Bush was depicted as wearing a "shit eating grin" while the sheiks around him seemed to ignore him? Anyone have that photo?

and he's gone before the crap speech tonight. This is a better talking point that Betrayus.

time to die.........

Last I checked CNN's Barbara Starr was doing "Iran Responsible for Rockets killing US Troops." Maybe they've updated since then and reported this...but somehow I doubt it.

Iran. CNN is leading the march. Add that to the Shrubloving Repukes (including Lieberman) were baiting the Bobbsey Twins (Patraeus and Crocker) into talking about Iran's meddling in Iraq. Mind you, not a single utterance about Saudi money pouring in to help the Sunni insurgents. I kept waiting for a Democrat to bring that up, but no, silence on that.

As an aside, Last night on Tweetie's show, Joe Klein of Time Magazine said he was perplexed about Crocker talking about the Iran President not being receptive in regard to Iran's involvement in Iraq. Klein then went on to comment about that the President of Iran only deals with Domestic Policy and he is more of a figure head than anything else and that Crocker knows that. IMHO, Klein was hinting about Crocker's comments amounted to lying. Now why would Crocker lie about Iran? Would it have anything to do with Iran being next on this sociopath administrations hit list ala PNAC????

You may think opposing them is the right thing to do for some reason, but you had better be prepared to pay the price. And let's just say that you should know that the "price" is not paid in cash, but in blood. I assume he knew the chance he was taking. It will be interesting to see if the other sheiks take this killing as an acceptable and not surprising cost of opposing Al Queda or decide that discretion is the better part of valor.

It's kind of like breaking with the Mafia in days gone by. You try to break with them or double cross them and you know what is going to happen.