Abdul ibn Shareef

Abdul Ibn Shareef, former defense minister of Qumar, is a fictional character played by Al No'mani on the television serial drama "The West Wing".

Character history

Shareef is first mentioned in the third season episode "The Black Vera Wang." His fictional nation of Qumar is an ally of the United States and Shareef is supposed to help the US with intelligence in the Middle East. In attempting to stop a terrorist plot (later revealed to be an attempt to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge), Shareef does not help the US at all and is later shown to have been the mastermind behind the attempt.

President Josiah Bartlet spends the next episode ("We Killed Yamamoto") discussing various methods of removing Shareef from power with his Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, and various other advisors. When all possible legal avenues are eliminated with a revelation that the original line of intelligence leading to Shareef came from a tortured Russian prisoner, Fitzwallace tries to convince Leo that Shareef must be assassinated (comparing the assassination of Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in World War II).

Shareef's final episode, and first and only on-screen appearance comes in the season 3 finale, "Posse Comitatus." In one of many plot lines running through the episode, Bartlet must decide whether or not to order Shareef's assassination. Fitzwallace and others have devised a black ops assassination plan that involves the President ignoring certain Executive Orders (including one of his own, which is legal) on foreign soil (to avoid the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the US Military from taking a police action on US soil). Bartlet meets Shareef quickly (against Leo's wishes, worrying the president would 'put a face' to his enemy), and eventually decides to give the order. Shareef's plane back to Qumar is piloted by an American agent (undercover as "Jamil Bari") who fakes mechanical difficulties, forcing an emergency landing on an RAF landing strip in Bermuda where a few American soldiers assassinate Shareef and his two bodyguards on May 22, 2002.

Shareef's death becomes a major plot piece in the following seasons, eventually leading to the kidnapping of the President's daughter, Bartlet's temporary resignation, an Acting President bombing Qumar, and bad press for the Bartlet White House.

See also

*"The West Wing"
*List of characters on The West Wing
*List of politicians on The West Wing
*List of The West Wing episodes