So he started tipping U.S. officers at a forward operating base in his district about the worst of these killers.
When U.S. troops withdrew, family members of one of these thugs got friends in the Iraqi army to arrest him, along with his two sons. A Shiite army general who was chummy with the killer's mother and sister made sure Salam stayed in prison.
Although U.S. civilian and military officials made inquiries (at my urging) and these may have saved Salam's life, they were unable to expedite his freedom. Finally, after two years, an honest judge - at great risk to his own life - freed Salam (there was no evidence against him).
But his Mahdi army enemies, who had murdered his brother while he was in jail, made death threats against him. And - under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - murderous Mahdi army militiamen who killed Iraqis and U.S. troops are being let out of prison.
So Salam sold his property and his wife's jewelry, packed up his family, including his 1-year-old granddaughter, and fled via Syria to Turkey. From Turkey, smugglers took the family in a small boat on a treacherous sea journey to Turkish Cyprus. The family gave baby Fatima a sleeping pill to keep her quiet.
They walked for hours in the dark to cross the Turkish-Greek Cypriot border, hushing Fatima's cries as they passed Turkish policemen. Then they requested asylum. They are waiting to hear from the Greek Cypriot Interior Ministry whether they will get refugee status that will enable them to stay on the island.
I hope they succeed, because if Salam has to return home, he won't live long. The price that Iraqis pay for having helped Americans has become hideously high.
This became painfully clear in the day and a half I spent with Salam and his family in Cyprus.
