And unless he's an idiot in 2007 he already knows what you are doing, because your previous units would have engaged him already since he is a very influential sheik.
Oh, I should wish that would be true! Want to know how many LTCs we can even get to finish their RIPTOA AAs before going on leave?
Your first point is that you are there to protect him. He is a node in a networked culture that has existed in many different iterations that is ages older than ours.
He won't tell you this directly (look for his third answer), but you must know whom he fears. It won't be phrased in that way, but for now, your Ali Babas are his Ali Babas. They most probably won't be foreign salafi nutjobs. They will be organic salafi nutjobs seeking to usurp traditional authority, and they are being helped by certain others in that culture (mosques are a common way to militarize a local insurgency -- within an Islamic framework, but not exactly Islamic).
Who wants to usurp his traditional way of leadership? His is a form of leadership that makes kinship and clan affiliation important, but also relies on his ability to protect his people, to dispense favors, and to extend his influence against other kinship-based networks.
In my little corner of Anbar, we had sheikhs who wished to return to an older pattern of leadership, one that returned civil society to pre-war norms, one that realized that criminal syndicates were ultimately the same as insurgent networks, and that foremost we had to protect them so that they could protect us.
Never lie. Be upfront with him. Never promise him anything you can't deliver. Tell him that any dispute with previous US officers has been an honorable dispute, but that you want to make him realize that you work for him. You protect him. You want to make him remain an important symbol to his people.
Ask HIM how you do that. Don't be afraid to concede that previous units might have employed an escalation of force/ROE that did NOT protect innocent people. Listen to his complaints. Don't be afraid about him taking credit for operations you accomplish.
Pledge to change what you can, and make sure if he really is important that he spends far more time talking to your bosses (and NOT at the company level). You can't change his culture. You might make only a small dint on yours. But your leaders at bn and above should be talking to this man. Often.
If you are young, ask that he allow you to work with his sons more directly. They have an interest in protecting him, and you can learn a lot from them.
2. During your meeting an explosion happens up the street. In route you are intercepted by a journalist. He asks you about the explosion. How do you respond?
There are many different journalists addressing many different news consumers in many different cultures. You're PAO is far too incompetent (by lack of training, not lack of intelligence) to understand these animals.
Having been a journalist before returning to become a strategic corporal (and having to translate Arabic for asshats before they shot the wrong people), any advice I would give you would be wasted because the question posed to you is an idiotic one, and one that involves a spelling error anyway.
In general, if it is an American embedded reporter, he wants something from you that is true. If he's been spending much time around a PAO, he might not be getting anything false, but he's getting it slant. If he's a combat correspondent by training and temperament, he is used to covering a wide range of chaotic events around the world. He understands if you say, "I don't know."
Stay in your lane, tell him only what you know. Don't speculate. If you can safely bring him with you, then do so. Explain to him limits of what you can say involving operations security (OPSEC). As an American, he values the lives of your Soldiers, too. If he's an experienced combat correspondent, he probably was a combatant once, too.
If he's an Iraqi stringer, you need to see his press credentials. If he accompanied? Is he on the scene covering the explosion, and you're the first figure of authority to arrive?
How much Arabic do you know? How much English does he know?
The rules are the same. You can either become the story by lying, slanting the truth, or hedging. Or you can be a strategic LT and tell him that his profession is vital to making Iraq a democracy, that any reporter who tells the truth is a friend, and that although you can't tell him everything because you don't know, you won't lie to him. You will tell him what you do know.
This, by the way, should NOT be accomplished until your mission is completed. If you're there to meet with a Sheikh and your foremost goal is to protect him, perhaps you should first find out about his condition. Ask him what he thinks of this journalist you found.
Remember, if this is a bonafide Iraqi journalist, he is an amazingly brave man. He has made enemies, is hunted them, and represents a hope for a readership that craves honest, straight-forward answers. All you can do is tell the truth. What he does with it after that isn't your fault.
And if he's a journalist operating in that area, he's far more connected than you ever will be! Pump him for information, too!
If you think about it, your role in COIN is the same as his. You want to find something out. You want to create a narrative that makes sense to your bosses. You do this by asking people (sources, some of whom are confidential) what they can tell you. You analyze the information, judging the veracity of it, and produce a version of the truth you believe is most accurate. You want to know the key nodes in a network of people: Some of these are insurgents, some criminals, some the very same thing, some important leaders, some followers who might be swayed one way or the other.
His job is to determine the same things. You can learn from each other if you establish a relationship. Don't give away opsec. But also don't ruin a relationship that could be of very great benefit to you.
Frankly, if all your team leaders were journalists; all your squad leaders were anthropologists; your SFC Plt Sgt a cop; and a few of your PVTs spoke Arabic, you would have the makings of the best taskforce ever assembled. All of these people routinely deal with cultures alien to their bureaucracies; they are tasked with solving problems using tools they take for granted; and they can report what they learn to you in a format easily understood.
Obviously, we can't expect this to naturally form in a rifle platoon or a company of MPs. But you can notice traits in the teams of Soldiers or Marines who are uniquely gifted at certain things they obviously learned outside the military.
They are your friends. They will be more of your friend than any of your bosses. Learn from them. Orchestrate their activities on the battlefield, and they will learn from you, too.
What would you do/say?
Originally Posted by Strategic LT
"A Sherman can give you a very nice... edge."- Oddball, 
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