Posted on 05/26/2005 10:07:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
BAGHDAD -- When he belches around Baghdad's old quarter on his spotless Harley Davidson, Kadhem Sharif, a power-lifting champion sporting wraparound sunglasses, makes for an unlikely sight.
And the 53-year-old is fully aware that his passion for one of the most recognizable symbols of the American way of life is not to everybody's liking in post-war Iraq.
But his garage is a carbon copy of any Harley aficionado's den in the United States, complete with posters of naked "babes on bikes".
And his collection of 40-plus motorbikes provides a condensed history of 100 years of national turmoil.
"This Norton was built in 1914 and became part of the escort of King Faisal, Iraq's first monarch," says Sharif as he proudly gives a tour of his modest garage.
About half of his motorbikes are Harleys. "I was 12 when I sneaked out on my father's Harley for the first time. I bought my first one eight years later, a 1966 Fatboy," Sharif recalls.
When Saddam Hussein's feared elder son Uday helped himself to one of his favorite Harleys, "it was almost like losing a child".
"Uday came back after the 1996 assassination attempt against him and ordered me to convert the bike into a three-wheeler because he was handicapped ... I started hiding my best Harleys because I was afraid he would take more."
When Saddam's army invaded Kuwait in 1990, it returned to Iraq with the Kuwaiti police's entire fleet of 'King of the Highway' Harleys.
"I bought dozens of them. Throughout the nineties I made a good business. I would take them apart, smuggle them up north to Kurdistan and reassemble them. I would sell them mainly to Dutch expatriates living in Sulaimaniyah," he says.
"It was a bit dangerous though. I was arrested in 1995 and spent four months in prison."
Sharif readily admits that several of his bikes were stolen in neighboring countries and smuggled into Iraq.
But he also discovered some of his collection's most precious pieces by combing the countryside for vintage motorcycles rusting away in the field of an unwitting farmer.
One is a 1947 British-made BSA that he spent months repairing. The fin-like plate on the front fender reads "Anbar province", an area of western Iraq notorious for insurgent violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.
"I found it in a tiny village between Fallujah and Ramadi. But I've had to stop going to this part of the country," he explains.
Despite the intimidating size of his chest and forearms, the former Iraqi bench press champion, known to his friends as 'Mr. Muscle', now risks an icy reception in insurgent strongholds as his face has become one of the symbols of the overthrow of Saddam's regime.
On April 9, 2003, Sharif was one of the first to rush to Baghdad's Fardus Square and pictures of the burly Shia hacking away at the marble plinth of Saddam's giant statue were beamed live around the world in one of the most enduring images of the regime's ouster.
"People in the neighborhood know me. I get on with everybody. US soldiers used to block the road so they could spend some time in my garage," Sharif says.
"They sometimes bring me copies of motorcycling magazines and even bought me leather boots. I'm still in touch with one of them who is saving up all his money to buy my Harley chopper."
What's interesting is that one of the locals who works in my compound probably knows him. He's one of those guys who has lived here all of his life and seems to know everyone and has his finger in all the goings-on.
I'm going to ask him about this. You just might get that picture! LOL
Much better than Babes in Burqas.
Let me tell you...I don't know squat about motorcycles...but even my amateurish eyes can look at that and recognize it is a piece of art. Great post!
Thanks for the ping. Guess this guy is a real angel in hell.
Beat me to it. Mine's a 2002 FLSTF.
Dang! That guy has some nice looking bikes. Cool story.
Mr Muscle ~ Bump!
Sharif for Sheriff?
Right you are Melas. In the Early seventies, when I was in college, I worked for a Harley Dealer in SoCal. We couldn't get enough bikes from the factory so we bought old cop bikes from the local PD and CHP auctions and made bikes very much like the modern factory Fat Boy(tm) out of them. In SoCal they called them Fat Bobs, Bobbers or Fat Boys, In Hawaii they call them Local Boys. the Motor Company didn't invent them or the name either, they just copied what had been going on on the streets for years. Just like they've done with their various permutations of Sportsters, Springers etc.
Did he ever get convicted of any crime?
Is the fellow in jail for the charges of fencing, or did they let him off?
Well, gee, I don't know. I'm not in charge of things like that.
First, you'll have to clue me in as to who "they" are. The past government? The current government that is still is the process of being formed?
Forget the terrorists who are killing innocent citizens every day. They should go after this guy, right?
Thank you for putting the priorities all in perspective for me.
Willie G. isn't quite the design god he's sometimes sold as, IMHO. But the factory Fat Boy is still pretty sharp.
The "they" meaning the stuff that went down in 2004. Obviously that wasn't Saddam's government! I am just curious. He'd have to be free now to do you a courtesy like you proposed. I am not a rooting section for him to get tossed or kept in jail, nor could I be; I don't have any idea if the crime he was accused of even happened.
Tell me about it. Take a pair of H-D's $175 basic chaps, slap on some fringe, an elastic back, and the Willie G name, and sell it for twice as much.
For the better part of 2004, the Coalition Forces were in charge. In late June, the interim government took over and their hands were full. ;-)
FWIW it sounds like the Coalition era (story dated March 19, 2004)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.