Sattar Abu Risha: Former US Contractor, Conman

At least 15,000 Shiite households were forced out of Anbar Province in a fifteen day ethnic cleansing purge some time ago. They now live in a slum near Baghdad.

According to Rick Rowley, independent filmmaker with Big Noise films who visited Anbar and the slums:

"The road home for the Shiite families of Taji is made more difficult by the Americans' new strategy. The refugees say they know exactly who it was that bombed their houses and cleansed the Shia from the region: Sunni tribes American soldiers are working with."

We are told by the Bush propaganda machine that a man named Sattar Abu Risha has unified the Sunni tribes in Anbar. Captain Martin Wohlgemuth, operating on the ground in Anbar calls Sattar Abu Risha, "a living legacy in his own right. He's probably better known as Lawrence of Arabia to the Americans.

According to Sattar Abu Risha, "I am head of the Iraq Awakening Council, leader of all the Iraqi Arab Tribes." Rawly found him in Jordan, where Abu Rissha said, "And to the terrorists, I say that I will be in Anbar in five days, and if they want to see me, I am ready for them."

Someone was ready for Abu Risha. He was assassinated a few days ago. According to Rowley, "Sheikh Ali Hathem from the Dulaimi tribe, the largest and most important tribe in Anbar, ... claims Risha [was] a conman who has received millions of dollars in construction contracts from the Americans who have tried to turn him into a symbol of their success."

Ali Hathem continues, [translated] "This is nothing new for us. The Americans like to create characters, like Disney cartoon heroes." The only difference is these cartoon characters don't walk away when their faces are blackened by a bomb.

Sources:

DemocracyNow, "U.S. Fueling Sectarian Civil War in Anbar by Funding Former Insurgents to Fight Al Qaeda," September 11, 2007.