Sheik Ahmed Fateh Khan al-Rishawi at his home near Camp Ramadi on April 14, 2007. Graphic source: Louie Favorite/AJC
Iraqi Sheik Ahmed Fateh Khan al-Rishawi offered to fight Bin Laden and as the hero of Anbar promised he would stir a revolt in Afghanistan. According to a story in The New York Sun the Sheik prepared a 47-page study on Afghanistan and its tribes for the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Kabul, Christopher Dell. If asked for military assistance to assist the Americans the Sheik stated: "I have no problem with this; if they ask me, I will do it."
"Al Qaeda is an ideology," Sheik Ahmad said, "We can defeat them inside Iraq and we can defeat them in any country." Ahmad continued: "We have to rebuild a national Iraqi army, not built on sects, but the same way they built up the Anbar police," he said. "They must be well-armed, so they will be able to protect the country and all the American interests in the area. We also have to make a friendship treaty based on mutual respect between the two parties, and then the United States will be able to withdraw from Iraq, if they wish, and we will succeed in Iraq the same way America succeeded in Japan and Germany."
The sheik favored a status-of-forces agreement, something currently being discussed now beteen the two nations. Ahmad stated: "With a diplomatic understanding we will be able to solve all the problems. We fully trust the Americans. We know the United States never in its history occupied a country. On the contrary, they were occupied and they were able to fight the occupier," referring to the American rebellion against the British in 1776.
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