News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terroriraqcolonize — Viewing Item


Iraq tribes { January 5 2003 }

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/international/middleeast/05TRIB.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/international/middleeast/05TRIB.html

January 5, 2003
In Iraq's Tribes, U.S. Faces a Wild Card
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR


MOSUL, Iraq — Sheik Talal Salim al-Khalidi, the portly chieftain of the Bani Khalid tribe, stomped through a farming hamlet in his fief on the broad, flat Mosul plains, gloating that the mud oozing underfoot heralded an auspicious sign in the face of a possible American attack.

"God is fair," proclaimed the sheik, wearing a headdress, a gray suit and a flowing gray wool cloak edged in gold that sweeps the ground. "Whenever we face some kind of oppression, he compensates us with something else."

Three men armed with Kalashnikovs and one with a machine gun dogged his every footstep. "The same thing happened in December 1998," he said, recalling a season of bountiful harvest. "When the Americans were bombing us, we had heavy rains that year."

Intensely devout, armed and nationalistic, the storied tribes of Iraq have played a pivotal role in controlling the country under the Ottomans, the British, the monarchy and especially Saddam Hussein. They have remained the ultimate swing voters in the brutal politics of the Middle East, where in legendary wars across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, they were known to switch allegiances in the heat of battle.

Iraq's tribes are under increased scrutiny as the Bush administration casts about for some credible force that can help it oust Mr. Hussein. The country is home to about 150 major tribes, which break down into about 2,000 smaller clans. The largest number more than one million people, the smallest a few thousand. Of the larger groups, roughly 30 to 35 are believed to have a significant role in controlling Iraq.

The tribal formula worked in Afghanistan in 2001. Cash payments persuaded chieftains to abandon the Taliban. There has been talk of similar payments in Iraq, but few expect it to be quite so simple here.

Mr. Hussein has worked diligently in recent years to woo the tribes, dispensing cash, cars, arms, schools and other bounty to assure their loyalty. At the same time, those who failed to kowtow, or worse, plotted rebellions, have been brutally suppressed, their chiefs killed, replaced or driven into exile, their houses destroyed, their crops burned.

Opposition figures in London report that Mr. Hussein summoned the chiefs of the southern tribes to Baghdad three months ago and demanded that they vow not to repeat the 1991 uprisings against him.

The question hanging over the tribes now is how deep their professed loyalty runs. They could become a nightmare for any American force penetrating Iraq, a patriotic guerrilla army spread throughout the country.

Sheik Talal, echoing other tribal chiefs, said he had placed a request with the local Baath Party leader in Mosul for heavier arms, like rocket-propelled grenades, antiaircraft guns and antitank weapons, to help fight the Americans, but he has yet to receive a response.

The tribes could also be waiting for the right moment to rise up against the Baghdad government, though if they are, they are understandably not advertising it. They slice across the society along a different axis than the traditional divisions between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, with some tribes including Sunni, Shiite and even Christian members.

"You cannot ignore them because they are an important element of the government," said one Western envoy in Baghdad. "But you cannot expect the tribes alone to change the regime in Iraq."

Pride of place naturally goes to Saddam Hussein's tribe, the Tikritis, whose members fill many senior government positions, as well as important posts in security organizations and the presidential guard. All such groups draw heavily on the tribes, although occasional rebellions among major tribes have been put down with tanks and artillery.

Iraqi opposition figures interviewed in London contend that one crucial element delaying American military action is the lack of clearly identified support in Iraq. One said the Americans were working hard to forge some sort of tribal link, meeting with chieftains in neighboring countries to see if they can influence their Iraqi cousins. All major tribes in Iraq have related branches in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the other gulf states and Turkey, although under Koranic prescriptions loyalty to the national leader trumps relations across borders.

The British experience during World War I is a cautionary history cited often in Iraq these days. Expecting a warm tribal welcome when they marched into Iraq to toss out the Ottomans, the British instead were met with hostility from the tribes, which united to massacre tens of thousands of British soldiers.

"The graveyards of the British are still in Iraq," Sheik Talal said.

The Baath Party, which came to power in 1968 with Mr. Hussein as a vice president, painted the tribes as outdated, with loyalty instead owed to the state and the president. Even the use of tribal names was banned. (Another explanation for the policy was that it was to disguise the predominance of Mr. Hussein's clan in the government.)

Things began changing in the 1980's, when the government needed soldiers for the fight against Iran, and the tribes obliged. But it was after Baghdad lost control of large swaths of the country in the years following the Persian Gulf war in 1991 that Mr. Hussein resurrected the role of the tribes. He reached out to the leaders, allocating them areas to supervise in exchange for more autonomy over tribal affairs.

Sheik Talal, who says his tribe has about 100,000 armed men all over Iraq, is proud of the tribe's various roles in the 1990's. They were assigned a 72-mile section of the highway to protect at night between Al Diwaniya in Nasiriya in southern Iraq, for example. "It became a duty to prove our loyalty to the president," said the sheik, who has been a member of the rubber-stamp Iraqi Parliament for the past three years.

Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University, said: "The tribal leaders were very happy that their old role was to be returned. They were good at protecting roads, delivering water and sorting out the problems the government can't. I don't think they have the strength they did in the early days of Iraq, though, when they outgunned and outnumbered the Iraqi Army."

On the visit to Naharat Nimrud, a tribal hamlet some 12 miles down the road from the famous Assyrian ruins, Sheik Talal listed the benefits accrued from the president. Right off the main road sits the Saddam Mosque, then a new school and an infirmary, all paid for by Mr. Hussein. In those years when the rains do not come and crops fail, the president regularly forgives government loans for seeds and fertilizer.

Various sheiks scoff at the idea that American money might persuade crucial tribes to switch sides.

Sheik Ahmed Mohiedin Zangana, the leader of a small Kurdish tribe opposed to his American-allied brethren in the north, noted that he had already assigned members of his tribe positions to take up around the city of Mosul and elsewhere in event of an attack, although he too, awaits heavier weapons.

"I have my specific plans to distribute members of the tribe if paratroopers land," he said. "Each sniper knows his special assignment."

Sheik Talal described the likely resistance in religious terms. "We protect the nation's land and we would consider killing Americans a jihad in the service of God if they come here as aggressors," he said. "The Koran says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, so when anybody kills us, we will kill them."



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy



aristrocracy
banks-currency
corporations
military-presence
Annan seeks to internationalize efforts in iraq { May 2 2004 }
Bechtel awarded infrastructure contract { April 17 2003 }
Bechtel wins first contrat { April 18 2003 }
Billions of revenue from oil missing { June 28 2004 }
Blair says whole world will be involved { May 2004 }
Brits move from military to economic role in basra { November 2007 }
Bush considers un force in iraq
Bush gives canada iraq reconstruction contracts { January 13 2004 }
Bush says we risk lives we get contracts { December 11 2003 }
Bush wants NATO in iraq
Cash buys iraqi tribes { December 15 2002 }
Cfr suggests three state solution
Closure of iraq paper spurs opposition { April 3 2004 }
Company exploited blacks south africa { April 6 2003 }
Concerns over US transfer plan for iraq { May 25 2004 }
Control over iraq worldbank { October 20 2003 }
Delegates agree secret talks { April 29 2003 }
Democratic iraq { January 6 2003 }
Details on halliburton contract { April 11 2003 }
Dod statedep fight over iraq control { April 10 2003 }
Established central bank new currency { October 11 2003 }
Evangelicals plan to minister iraqis spiritual healing
Exiles plot { January 13 2003 }
Fears of postwar strife { March 11 2003 }
France germany oppose us plan { September 4 2003 }
France russia germany want rebuilding role { April 4 2003 }
France seeks big role
Full control rebuilding { February 21 2003 }
General preventing privitizing iraq fired { March 18 2004 }
Germany challenges us on nato iraq role
Germany france want more say { July 14 2003 }
Germany not offering troops
Halliburton makes killing { March 23 2003 }
Halliburton rebuilds iraq { March 26 2003 }
Imf worldbank rebuild iraq
Iraq run on dollars { April 18 2003 }
Iraq shifts from dollar to dinar { November 1 2005 }
Iraq tribes { January 5 2003 }
Iraqi candidate shell executive { April 2 2003 }
Iraqi gravy train { April 13 2003 }
Iraqi leader allawi worked for cia in 90s { June 9 2004 }
Iraqs first burger king { October 19 2003 }
Limit action by kurds { February 27 2003 }
Mcdonalds poised for iraq invasion
New administator arrives take over { May 12 2003 }
New army created for iraq { June 24 2003 }
New leader past { November 25 2002 }
New leaders protested no occupation { April 16 2003 }
New regime { September 22 2002 }
Northrop gets 48m deal train iraq army { June 30 2004 }
Occupation plan { October 11 2002 }
Oil wont finance reconstruction { October 5 2003 }
Paramilitary battalion us legitimising militias { December 4 2003 }
Pentagon 4 bases longterm { April 20 2003 }
Pentagon rebuilding with exiles
Pipeline to israel just rumor
Possibility pumping oil israel { August 25 2003 }
Pro israeli hawk to govern iraq { April 4 2003 }
Pro western dictator
Reagan treasury official run iraq { April 17 2003 }
Rebuild iraq kuwati trade fair reconstruction { January 19 2004 }
Regime change while fighting { April 6 2003 }
Rumsfeld resisting powell team { April 3 2003 }
Saddam replacement warcrimes { November 20 2002 }
Secret bids gop donors
Secret plan impose regime { April 1 2003 }
Setting up puppet government { April 15 2003 }
Un resolution welcomed by europe
Un secret blueprint postwar { March 5 2003 }
Us 51st state { May 4 2003 }
US and Britain ask United Nations to take iraq { May 24 2004 }
Us asks nato wider role { December 4 2003 }
Us asks un for wider role { September 2 2003 }
Us backed exiles reinvent nation { May 4 2003 }
Us blocks french german contracts
Us categorizes iraqis { February 26 2003 }
Us chooses saddams successor { February 4 2003 }
Us more ferocious than saddam
Us offer to report to un { September 4 2003 }
US paying iraqi press for favorable stories { November 30 2005 }
Us ready without un { March 25 2003 }
Us sets up trade bank in iraq { July 22 2003 }
Us shuts down iraqi newspaper
Us shuts out france germany for iraq work
US strategy should be to divide iraq
War chest for allies only { April 4 2003 }
World bank limits aid
Worldbank to rebuild

Files Listed: 88



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple