NESA Fellow Addresses Academic Conference

On 22 January 2010, NESA Distinguished Research Fellow Najim Abed Al-Jabourey, a retired Iraqi Major General, and NESA Research Associate Sterling Jensen presented a paper on the Iraqi and al-Qaeda roles in the Sunni Awakening at a conference sponsored by the Center for New American Security and the College of William and Mary. Key U.S. government officers, both civilian and military, attended the conference in Tampa, Florida. MG Al-Jabourey represented the Iraqi point of view and shared some of his experiences as mayor of Tal Afar in Northern Iraq, during the rise of the Sunni Awakening, when the new counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq was first introduced.

MG. al-Jabourey known as Mayor Najim since President Bush so referred to him in a speech in March 20, 2006, when he said that the United States was "proud to have allies like Mayor Najim," served as police chief in the city of Tal Afar in Nineveh province before becoming its mayor, from 2005 through 2008. In 2005 and 2006 he and BG (then-Col.) H.R. McMaster initiated a counterinsurgency campaign that became the strategy that was employed throughout Iraq in 2007 and 2008.