[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1700
        WE MOURN THE PASSING OF SHEIK SATTAR BUZAIGH AL RISHAWI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, scripture tells us to mourn with those who 
mourn and to grieve with those who grieve. I rise today to join our 
allies and his family and neighbors and friends to grieve the passing 
by assassination last week of a courageous Iraqi in Anbar province, 
Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al Rishawi, a man 37 years of age that I had 
the privilege of meeting this last April when I visited Falluja in 
Ramadi.
  It was there that I learned from General Odierno, as well, in our 
nearly 1-hour meeting with Sheik Sattar about how what has come to be 
known, Mr. Speaker, globally as the Anbar Awakening was born. You see, 
it was this Iraqi sheik, whose father had been killed by al Qaeda in 
Iraq, his three brothers had been murdered by al Qaeda, who said 
sometime in late 2006, ``I have had enough.'' What the general told me, 
and the Sheik affirmed, as he came across the river in Ramadi, sat down 
with the Marines perhaps in the same room where we are pictured here, 
and said, ``How can we, as Sunni sheik leaders, work with you, American 
forces, and the Maliki government to rid Ramadi, to rid al Anbar of al 
Qaeda?''
  It was the end of a bloody year in 2006, just a few months earlier 
that Ramadi was at the very center of what was called the Triangle of 
Death. According to National Intelligence Estimates, Ramadi was so far 
gone that it could not be reclaimed militarily. But Sheik Sattar 
stepped forward. He had a vision for driving terrorists from his 
community. As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker reported to 
Congress last week and independent organizations, like the Brookings 
Institution, a left-leaning think tank, have confirmed, because of the 
leadership of Sheik Sattar and over 42 other Iraqi sheiks that he 
recruited, Anbar province is transformed. The city of Ramadi is 
transformed. It has truly been a miraculous turnaround with the virtual 
elimination of al Qaeda in western Iraq being the result.
  Iraqi military leaders say to the world media, ``We considered the 
sheik our first line of defense.'' President Bush just 10 days ago met 
with Sheik Sattar in Ramadi to celebrate the first anniversary of the 
Anbar Awakening. Of his passing, the interior ministry named a national 
police brigade after him. The leader of that ministry said, ``We will 
be building a great statue for Sheik Sattar Buzaigh al Rishawi at the 
entrance of Anbar province so it will be a witness to his great 
accomplishments and those of the people of Iraq.''
  Amidst the thousands who gathered for his funeral on Friday in 
Ramadi, his brother would say, ``All of Anbar is Abu Risha, so Abu 
Risha has not been killed.'' He went on to say, ``I pledge to you, my 
father, my brother, my cousins, we will follow the road taken by Sheik 
Abdul Risha. We will follow it until we kill the last terrorist in 
Iraq.'' I was pleased to see that even this Sunday U.S. military forces 
took into custody a man believed to have been involved in his 
assassination.
  We mourn with those who mourn. In my meeting with Sheik Sattar, he 
said a few things to me I will never forget. He said, ``Congressman 
Pence, when you go home, tell your people that we in Anbar believe that 
an attack on an American is an attack on an Iraqi.'' He said, ``Anyone 
who points a weapon at an American is pointing a weapon at an Iraqi.'' 
He also looked at me, at age 37, wearing those flowing robes with a 
pinstripe suit underneath them, he looked at me, and he said through 
those warm brown eyes, he said, ``Anyone who tells you that Iraqis 
don't like Americans is lying to you.'' He said, ``Iraqis love 
Americans.'' And then he asked me, sitting at Camp Falluja and Ramadi, 
why we would even discuss permanently leaving Iraq.
  He was a man of hope, a man of courage, a man of conviction. I mourn 
his loss as should every American and every freedom-loving citizen of 
the world mourn the passing of Sheik Sattar.

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