|
Behind
Allawi's Bid for Power
The former Iraqi prime minister speaks out on how he hired a
well-connected Washington lobbying firm to help pave his
attempt to oust the current government. Who’s footing the
bill?
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
08/31/07 "Newsweek"
-- -- Aug. 29, 2007 - The powerhouse Washington lobbying
firm hired by former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi is
talking to the Justice Department about how to amend its
foreign-agent filings after department lawyers questioned
whether the firm had adequately disclosed who was paying the
firm’s tab.
The talks came as Allawi told NEWSWEEK that two Iraqi
supporters of his were footing the $300,000 bill for the
contract he recently signed with Barbour Griffith & Rogers—a
firm with close connections to the Bush administration and
the Republican Party.
But Allawi—who in the past was supported by the CIA—refused
to identify his financial backers, citing “security
reasons.” Asked whether he would name the people who are
underwriting his lobbying campaign in Washington, Allawi
replied, “Of course not. They may be killed by the Iranians,
they may be killed by the sectarian people … These are
details I am not interested in answering.”
While acknowledging the need to amend their filing with
Justice, however, Barbour Griffith officials may not shed
much additional light on a lobbying blitz that has injected
new elements of controversy into the Washington debate over
Iraq policy.
One change being considered by Barbour Griffith is to simply
list Allawi’s political party, the Iraqi National Accord,
rather than Allawi himself, as its client. That move may
bring it into compliance with the Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA), the firm’s lawyers believe. Under
the law, lobbying firms are usually permitted to list
foreign political parties as their clients without
identifying the financial sponsors of those parties.
The firm’s original filing a week and a half ago listed
Allawi himself as the client. But that filing drew scrutiny
from lawyers in the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents
Registration Unit after Allawi told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last
Sunday that an unidentified Iraqi financial supporter was
paying the cost of his lobbying efforts. “When you think
about the purpose of the law, who’s paying the tab is what
it’s all about,” said Mark MacDougall, a Washington lawyer
who is a specialist in foreign-agents registration law.
After firm officials met with Justice Department lawyers
Wednesday to discuss the disclosure issue, the firm made its
first public comment on the filing dispute. "We are working
with the Department of Justice to ensure we are meeting the
requirements of the statute," said Walker Roberts, a
spokesman for Barbour Griffith.
The retention of Barbour Griffith was first disclosed last
week by Christina Davidson, who writes a blog called
Iraqslogger. To many Capitol Hill staffers and Iraq war
pundits, the hiring of the firm appeared to be an
extraordinary development, part of an attempt by Allawi and
his backers to undermine and ultimately topple the Iraqi
government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the corridors
of Washington, rather than through the political process in
Baghdad.
No sooner did Allawi hire Barbour Griffith two weeks ago
than congressional staffers said they began to be bombarded
with e-mails from Allawi (from an Internet domain registered
by the lobbying firm) featuring news stories that depict the
Maliki government as hopelessly deadlocked and riddled by
sectarian militias. “All the e-mails make the Iraqi
government look bad,” said one congressional staffer who
asked not to be publicly identified talking about the Iraq
issues.
The e-mails included an Allawi-drafted "Six Point Plan for
Iraq," which outlines various steps the former Iraqi leader
would pursue if he were returned to power in Baghdad. Among
the more controversial recommendations in the plan are
suggestions that a "State of Emergency" be declared for up
to 2-3 years "until security is restored." The plan flatly
recommends that the current Iraqi government be removed
"through Parliamentary means" because the "sectarian
politics of the Maliki Government ... are destroying Iraq."
Adding further intrigue to the lobbying campaign was the
disclosure that the Barbour Griffith principal overseeing
the firm’s Allawi account was former ambassador Robert D.
Blackwill—the former Bush White House deputy
national-security adviser in charge of Iraq policy, who
later served as U.S. special envoy to that country.
Documents filed by Barbour Griffith with Justice show that
Blackwill personally signed the firm’s contract with Allawi
on Aug. 20, stating that he will “lead the team” that will
assist “Dr. Allawi and his moderate Iraqi colleagues as they
undertake this work.”
In light of Blackwill’s close ties to Bush White House
policymakers, his role has lead to speculation that the
retention of Barbour Griffith was a move at least implicitly
endorsed, if not encouraged, by some elements of the
administration that are fed up with Maliki. While the White
House has been critical of Maliki, they maintain official
support for his government and have had no comment on
Allawi’s campaign.
But as described by Allawi, the arrangement may also have
been part of an aggressive campaign by Barbour Griffith to
solicit lucrative foreign business.
Blackwill himself has not returned phone calls since news of
the contract surfaced. Allawi, in an interview Wednesday
with NEWSWEEK conducted by telephone from Amman, indicated
that Blackwill—whom he described as a “dear friend”—was the
one who actually raised the idea that the former Iraqi prime
minister hire the firm during a recent lunch the two of them
had in Europe.
“He contacted me,” Allawi said. “We were having lunch … He
spoke to me and he said … there is a vacuum in Washington,
and we will be able to help and assist. We know your views.
We know the views of your people and we are ready to help in
getting your message across to the United States.”
Allawi initially said the lobbying campaign was intended to
prod the Bush administration to put “pressure” on the Iraqi
government to “stabilize the country” and take more
aggressive steps to achieve “reconciliation” between rival
Shiites and Sunni factions. But his comments left little
doubt that he did not believe Maliki’s government was
interested or even capable of performing such a task. “As
you know, the militias now are controlling the government,”
said Allawi. “I don’t think the government is capable or
willing or wanting to achieve proper reconciliation … We
don’t have a country. The country is in chaos and it’s in
the middle of a civil war … [Maliki] has been ruling for a
year and a half … The government has not been able to do
anything.”
A secular Shiite and former Baath Party member, Allawi left
Iraq in the 1970s and became a prominent exile leader
opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein. He set up the Iraqi
National Accord, a London-based exile group, which received
financial support from both the British Secret Intelligence
Service (colloquially known as M.I.6) and the CIA. Over
time, CIA officials pushed Allawi as a more acceptable and
reliable potential successor to Saddam than Ahmed Chalabi, a
rival Iraqi exile (and Allawi relative) whose ambitions to
succeed Saddam were heavily promoted by neoconservative
intellectuals and civilian Pentagon aides to former Defense
secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
But Allawi, like Chalabi, was also linked to bogus pre-war
intelligence about Saddam’s purported weapons of mass
destruction and ties to terrorism. As NEWSWEEK reported, one
of Allawi's previous Washington lobbyists once acknowledged
that an associate of his group may have been responsible for
feeding officials in the government of British Prime
Minister Tony Blair information—subsequently
discredited—claiming that Saddam could launch WMD attacks on
British troops in 45 minutes. The former lobbyist also
confirmed that Allawi's group was also responsible for
feeding the British media a document purporting to show that
Muhammad Atta had undergone terrorist training in Baghdad a
few months before he led the 9/11 attacks—a claim that was
instantly ridiculed by official sources on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Officials familiar with U.S. and U.K. intelligence
activities denied that either British or American agencies
had any connection to Allawi's recent hiring of Washington
lobbyists or his current campaign to depose the Iraqi
government and replace Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Any
suggestion of CIA support for Allawi's current lobbying
activities is "ludicrous," a U.S. intelligence official
said. A British official said that M.I.6 officials
"distanced themselves" from Allawi several years ago.
© 2007 MSNBC.com
Click
on "comments" below to
read or post comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We
encourage engaging, diverse and
meaningful commentary. Do not
include personal information such
as names, addresses, phone
numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines
– those including personal
attacks and profanity – are
not permitted.
See our complete
Comment
Policy and
use
this link to notify us if you
have concerns about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and
remove any inappropriate
postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
