NYT: For Some in Iraq's Sunni Minority, a Growing Sense of Alienation

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 6 - Fakhri al-Qaisi, a rumpled, 51-year-old dentist, is an unlikely statesman - and just the kind of person both Iraqi leaders and Americans say they need to enlist to bring Iraq's recalcitrant Sunni minority out of the armed resistance and into mainstream politics.

Mr. Qaisi has the street credibility that most of Iraq's more secular political figures lack. A hard-line Islamist, he helped form a political council of fellow Sunni Arabs - including tribal chiefs, clerics and former Baathists - that has the ear of both insurgent fighters and members of Iraq's new government. (He also has some enemies: he has been sleeping in his car for months, out of fear that the police will raid his home or kill him.)

Many Shiites view them as closet insurgents, and last week police officers - who are overwhelmingly Shiite - raided the Baghdad offices of Mr. Qaisi's political council, smashing furniture and stealing files.

"Zarqawi wants me, the U.S. troops want me, the police want me," Mr. Qaisi said wearily.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/international/middleeast/08sunnis.html

[geek tragedy]

1. Oops! Shouldn't have boycotted those elections.

Can't say that I have much sympathy for the Sunnis after what the way they treated the Kurds and Shiites.