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Allawi Lobby Contract Just One Among Many
It's not just Barbour Griffith & Rogers, and it's not just Ayad Allawi. Ten different U.S. firms are registered through the Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Registration Act database as having active contracts with various Iraqi factions.
BGR isn't even making most of its Iraq-related money off Allawi: for the six-month period between January 1 and May 31, the Kurdistan Regional Government -- the political entity ruling the three Kurdish provinces of Iraq -- paid the firm $381,487.71 for its various services, which, from its mandatory reporting, includes a lot of phone calls to BRG President Bob Blackwill's old friend at the National Security Council, Meghan O'Sullivan.
A BGR lobbyist described as the point person on the Iraq contract, Loren Monroe, did not return TPMmuckraker's phone calls.
BGR is by a large margin the powerhouse firm representing Iraqi clients. Holding a contract that will be worth $100,000 come September 9 is the much smaller Focus on Advocacy and Advancement of International Relations, run by a certain Muthanna al-Hanooti out of Dearborn and Washington D.C. Since September 13, 2006, Hanooti has represented the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest constituent part of the larger Sunni parliamentary bloc, known as the Tawafuq. In its filing, the IIP lists its "suggestions for how to make Iraq a success story for democracy" -- which include not arbitrarily detaining Sunnis and negotiating with "the Iraqi Armed Resistance (not foreign fighters)" -- but the IIP is further away from power than ever. Last week, Nouri al-Maliki unveiled a new governing coalition that left the IIP, the rest of the Tawafuq and another Sunni faction in the cold. Attempts to contact Hanooti were unsuccessful.
By far the strangest arrangement is the Tawafuq's. The Tawafuq reached out to an organization in Michigan called Zenith Consulting in Michigan, run by Mohammed Alomary. (The first reporting period for the arrangement has yet to end.) Alomary, reached on his cellphone, said that he "never got a dime for anything," and that he dispensed informal advice on a "volunteer basis" regarding U.S.-Iraqi relations. "But I'm not doing anything actively," he says. "Basically I have to close off the file." Among the hassles: the reporting requirements. Consider the out-of-power Tawafuq a long way from a white-shoe law firm.
The other contracts -- mostly to represent Kurdish interests -- include:
* The energy-consulting firm FWH & Associates, which represents on a "pro bono" basis the former Iraqi foreign minister and Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi* Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, recipient of over $2 million in the past six months to advise the Iraqi Finance Ministry on restructuring its debt
* Virginia-based firm Slocum & Boddie, holder of another contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government (we'll get the amount for you in a future post)
* The KRG's Washington liaison office, unsurprisingly, holds a contract to represent the KRG
* The Washington-based American Business Development Group has a KRG advocacy contract as well, but hasn't reached the six-month financial disclosure mark yet
* The Herald Group has been a subcontractor for BGR on the Kurdistan contract from May to September 2006, for which it earned $12,000; it resigned with BGR on August 3
Invaluable research assistance provided by Tanvir Vahora.
Comments (22)
delatron wrote on August 24, 2007 8:07 PM:So, what are us poor slobs out here supposed to comment on, just more of the same crap. Everyone and his uncle has his hand in the cookie jar while precious young lives are being killed and injured for life every day while they discuss bringing them home.
Anon wrote on August 24, 2007 8:13 PM:I for one will only comment again when Bush is impeached!!!
It's all about the benjamins for Barbour.
Tony Foresta wrote on August 24, 2007 8:26 PM:All these PR firms, (and add the Rendon Group, and Baker Botts to the list) are agents in the Bush government disinformation warfare campaign (perception management, information domination, propaganda, disinformation, and slime operations) upon and against the American people.
The fascists in the Bush government are bent on SELLING the bloody, costly, noendinsight, horrorshow, and excuse for wanton profiteering in Iraq and manipulating enough of the populations hearts and minds to support this failing effort and crime scene, - in order to continue by whatever scurrilous means to perpetuate the Bush governments machinations and wanton profiteering.
We can all expect a relentless spew of false and hollow comparisons to America's struggles in WWII, and Viet Nam, where it suits the Bush governments interests, and a ruthless sliming of any question, voice of dissent, and all oppositon as effete, unpatriotic, antiamericans giving aid and comfort to the "evildoer's.
If American are stupid enough to accept this jibberish and these hollow substantless snakeoil pitches and mass marketing campaigns, - then we actually deserve whatever fiery pit and hell the fascists in the Bush government hurl us into.
"Deliver us from evil!"
Roberta wrote on August 24, 2007 9:07 PM:As I read this article, I thought immediately about Ken Silverstein's Harper's article about the sting of two Washington lobbying firms. Pretending he represented a "firm that claimed to have a financial stake in improving Turkmenistan’s public image," he went to APCO Associates and Cassidy & Associates, both of which were eager to get the Turkmenistan account, in spite of (because of?) Turkmenistan's horrible reputation for human rights abuses against its own people.
As Silverstein told Bill Moyers on June 22, 2007, even though he told the firms he was with the fictitious Maldon Group, who had a stake in Turkenistan's natural gas industry, "if you look at the plans they laid out for me, it was clear they knew exactly what they were doing and who they were working for, and what the goal was. And that goal was to improve the image of one of the world's worst dictatorships."
Then I checked on Kurdistan's human rights record, and lo and behold, here's what I found:
"Kurdish forces accused of human rights abuses"
Michael Howard in Irbil
Tuesday July 3, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2117637,00.html
The dreadful irony, of course, is that the Kurds were Saddam Hussein's prime victims during his reign. But now Kurdistan's security forces are demonstrating what psychologists have known for years: the victims of abuse become the abusers.
The Guardian story notes: "Security forces run by the two ruling parties in Iraq's Kurdistan region are holding up to 1,200 detainees without charge or access to lawyers and routinely use physical and psychological torture on them, Human Rights Watch reported today."
So I have two related points: Iraqi factions are using the effective tool of Washington lobbying, with the aim of taking control of Iraq. And they are using lobbying firms that know full well--as all the successful ones do--that it doesn't matter how bad the clients are, it's the perception they create that matters.
Pretty disgusting.
John Wilson wrote on August 24, 2007 9:42 PM:Bloody costly unending horror show
How to stop it? I don't know
I think most here have agreed
We can't count on Pelosi or Reid
Options? A limited selection
Primarily the '08 election
It's important (and here I quote)
To "hold your nose, but be sure to vote."
John Wilson, Founder and Chief Poet
Sully18 wrote on August 25, 2007 2:28 AM:The Church of Variable Liklihood.
While I essentially agree with Roberta that the behavior of these lobbying firms is degenerate and despicable,and the Kurdish detainee policy( along with torture/no habeas corpus)is similar to Our Leader`s,I must take issue with the vast sweeping generalization: "But now Kurdistan's security forces are demonstrating what psychologists have known for years: the victims of abuse become the abusers." My answer is that the victims of abuse do not become perpetrators unless they bond and identify with their abusers.It is very likely that the insanity that Our LEADERS have fostered in an already irrational situation has combined with resentment of the Kurds to result in an even more rageful insanity.That`s why war should be avoided at all costs.
regular lurker wrote on August 25, 2007 3:26 AM:You know, that all really pales in comparison to the $33 MILLION Colin Powell's State Department gave to Ahmed Chalabi and his "INC" in early 2001.
I can't believe actually people believe payments ever stopped.
Jo-Ann wrote on August 25, 2007 9:09 AM:Follow the money...Is that Hailey Barbour and Ed Rogers in the BGR Group? America really needs more Bush Co meddling in Iraqi affairs. They've been so effective so far. Either let them pick their own leader or get out of that country.
Official A wrote on August 25, 2007 10:22 AM:McCarthyism merged with McLuhanism. The lie is the message and the message is reality. And we're electing and paying the messengers.
We, the ordinary taxpaying citizens, are royally fucked.
fuzz wrote on August 25, 2007 10:47 AM:It is Ed Rogers, and he is the primary on the Kurds contract last time I heard. It's Haley Barbour's name, but he sold his interest in the firm.
A bit of trivia: Ed named his son Haley--he's "Little Haley" and Barbour is "Big Haley".
doug r wrote on August 25, 2007 12:23 PM:Can you say money laundering?
Security code: bent
Jake D. wrote on August 25, 2007 6:43 PM:Has the BGR Group broken any laws?
ahem wrote on August 25, 2007 10:23 PM:Gosh, I wonder if Alabama bastard Ed Rogers will be asked how much he's making from the war, next time he's on Hardball?
He's one of the unelected fuckers who actually runs the United States.
Dusty wrote on August 26, 2007 3:06 PM:Where are these inside Iraq groups getting their money? This smells soooooo bad.
They don't even have clean water or fulltime electricity in Baghdad but Kurdish groups can pay for a PR firm?
bg124c41 wrote on August 26, 2007 3:49 PM:" for the six-month period between January 1 and May 31,"
Just checked my calendar regarding this, and it keeps netting out at 5 months. Is this a lobbyist gimmick for overcharging?
/bg
KYJurisDoctor wrote on August 27, 2007 2:29 AM:As for Al-maliki: If he wants to lash out at anyone, ... he needs to look in the mirror and at his countrymen and women who refuse to work with him to find a political solution for their country's dilemma!
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/iraq-pm-al-maliki-lashes-out-at-us-his.html#links
Dee Illuminati wrote on August 27, 2007 7:31 AM:I think that the article illustrates something that is not being questioned, first why are these groups correctly registered as foreign agents by the DOJ and other groups not? What gets me is that AIPAC has escaped the scrutiny of this legislation. It also galls me that there are dual citizenship exceptions to clearances that are extended to Israel but not say, Canada, Australia, and the UK.
No just to be a real muckster, suppose the group was formed to support the US leaving Iraq? Would that be aiding and supporting terrorism? As it opposed the current political winds?
And that was my problem all along with this so called war on terror, this political persecution of ideas really targeting internal public consumption news, and a damn witch-hunt, paid for by US tax dollars doing NOTHING in respect to actual security.
And before you start the anti-jew slurs, or start the bigot baiting, remember these facts have nothing to do with anti-semitism, in fact the opposite is true, Israel should have recursed themselves from that circumstance if they were indeed concerned about our relationships, and genuine national security would have teeth in the investigations of these monies well beyond a NGO check or vetting.
But then that suggestion UNDERSCORES why this war on terror has been nothing but political Bullsh1t from get go.
God help those who drank the koolaid and have blow-back on their lips...
Jim wrote on August 28, 2007 2:05 PM:I agree with Dusty, where is the money coming from? Are U.S. aid dollars paying for these Iraqi factions to buy American lobyists???? Why isn't this a front page story in the media? The absurity of Iraqi political factions buying American lobyists time is beyond comprehension.
connski wrote on August 28, 2007 2:18 PM:Jim
Date: August 28, 2007 1:00 PM
I'm sure no-one associated (even without their knowldege) with any of these partisan groups that are clients of powerful Republican lobbying firms has any connection with any person or group carrying arms against American forces in Iraq or elsewhere.
Or do they?
Hasn't there been an executive order?
connski wrote on August 28, 2007 2:18 PM:I'm sure no-one associated (even without their knowldege) with any of these partisan groups that are clients of powerful Republican lobbying firms has any connection with any person or group carrying arms against American forces in Iraq or elsewhere.
Or do they?
Hasn't there been an executive order?
connski wrote on August 28, 2007 2:19 PM:I'm sure no-one associated (even without their knowldege) with any of these partisan groups that are clients of powerful Republican lobbying firms has any connection with any person or group carrying arms against American forces in Iraq or elsewhere.
Or do they?
Hasn't there been an executive order?
shamal wrote on September 6, 2007 12:33 PM:the qustion is that wethere the KRG are represent the majority of kurdish people in kurdistan or not? in point of my view they lost crediblity after the civil war and related issue.