[A-List] FW: Iyad Allawi: DJ Iraq Council Member Spends To Win Influence In Washington

["Stan Goff" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Heidi for this fast update on the latest US pick to head the
Quisling Council of Iraq.

-----Original Message-----
From: Heide Kober [mailto:Hkober@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 2:49 PM
To: bon moun
Subject: Iyad Allawi: DJ Iraq Council Member Spends To Win Influence In
Washington

24 Jan 2004 00:04 GMT DJ Iraq Council Member Spends To Win Influence In
Washington
http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2004
012400040000&Take=1
Copyright C 2004, Dow Jones Newswires

WASHINGTON (AP)--A member of Iraq's interim council with long ties to
the CIA is undertaking an expensive, carefully crafted strategy to
spread his views to influential Americans, an example of how those
seeking power in Iraq continue to curry favor in the U.S.

In his years in exile from Iraq, Iyad Allawi was a little-known favorite
of CIA officers who were wary of dealing with the flashier, better known
exile leader Ahmad Chalabi. Now a member of the U.S.-appointed interim
council with a key security position, Allawi has paid prominent
Washington lobbyists and New York publicists more than $300,000 in
recent months to help him contact policy-makers and journalists.

According to papers filed with the Justice Department, all the money
comes from a U.K. citizen, Mashal Nawab, described as Allawi's close
friend and admirer.

An Allawi consultant, Nick Theros, said Allawi recognizes the importance
of conveying his message to U.S. leaders while the U.S. remains the
occupying power in Iraq. Iraqis also pay close attention to what is
being said about their country in the U.S., he said.

"It's not enough to just work behind closed doors in Baghdad," he said.

The U.S. plans to turn over political power to Iraqis by July 1. But
before then, U.S. officials will appoint many of the people who, in
regional caucuses this May, will help choose a transitional legislature.
That legislature will name a provisional government. The U.S. has said
it might alter the process somewhat, under pressure from other Iraqis
demanding direct elections.

Some analysts have suggested that Allawi's publicity and lobbying
campaign might have been encouraged as a counterweight to Chalabi's
influence. But Theros said, "There is no official support of any sort,
not in any areas of the U.S. government."

Allawi is a neurologist and businessman who, while living in London in
1978, survived an assassination attempt believed to have been ordered by
Saddam. He founded the Iraqi National Accord opposition group with a
number of former Iraqi military officers.

The group advocated a coup against Saddam. An attempt failed in 1996,
but Allawi, with his connections to Iraq's military and intelligence and
to Saddam's Baathist party, continued to have strong support within the
State Department, CIA and the U.K.'s MI-6 intelligence service.

Allawi "had a much better track record for being forthcoming, upright.
Allawi was somebody who made a lot more sense than Chalabi," his
longtime rival, said Robert Baer, a former CIA operations officer.
Chalabi had been convicted of fraud in absentia in Jordan in 1992.

But Laura Mylroie, a critic of the CIA's handling of Iraq, said, "I
think that confidence was entirely misplaced." Mylroie, author of "Bush
vs the Beltway," blamed Allawi for what she said was faulty intelligence
that endangered U.S. troops at the end of the 1990 Gulf War.

Allawi, like Chalabi, was appointed by the U.S. to the Governing
Council. He heads the council's Supreme Security Committee.

Late in October, when Allawi held the council's rotating presidency,
three U.S. firms that had done work for him submitted their reports to
the Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration. They were:

-Brown Lloyd James Ltd, a New York-based public relations firm, $12,000
a month.

-The Washington law office of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP,
lobbying at $100,000 a month. Theros said that after two months that was
changed to an hourly rate that should result in $50,000 monthly
payments.

-Theros & Theros LLP, the consulting business of Theros and his father,
Patrick, a former ambassador, $10,000 a month.

Theros, whose firm hired the other two, said the money spent by Allawi
was "the going rate here in Washington."

"It doesn't really happen for less," he said.

No other governing council member has reported spending nearly as much
over the last year, according to filings with the Foreign Agent
Registration Unit. The only recent filing related to Chalabi's Iraqi
National Congress was by a Washington law firm, Shea & Gardner, that
reported receiving $52,000 over six months for services for the
affiliated Iraqi National Congress Support Foundation.

Another firm, Burson-Marsteller, has provided services to the foundation
under a State Department contract and didn't file with the Justice unit.

Since October, Allawi has had a somewhat higher public profile. On Dec.
28, he had an op-ed column published in the Washington Post opposing the
purging of members of Saddam's Baath party from government positions.
Chalabi has advocated such a policy.

Allawi received worldwide attention the next day when two London-based
Arab newspapers quoted him as saying that Saddam had acknowledged
depositing billions of dollars abroad and had given interrogators the
names of people who knew where the money was.

But Chalabi continues to have a much higher profile in Washington, most
recently attending the State of the Union address as a guest in the box
of first lady Laura Bush, along with three other Iraqi officials. During
Chalabi's exile years, he, too, worked the Washington establishment to
gain influence at the Pentagon and White House.

Baer said Allawi probably learned from his rival's successes that he
needed lobbyists and publicists to try to influence the U.S. policies
that would set the course for Iraq's future.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2004 19:04 ET (00:04 GMT)