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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. Please include a full reference to the source of the article. Today's Topics: 1. Iraqi people shouldn't pay Saddam's bills (ppg) 2. Allawi Spends To Win Influence In Washington (ppg) 3. Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim (bluepilgrim) 4. U.S. Forced Allawi On U.N., Iraqis: NY Times (bluepilgrim) 5. Allawi: Ex-Baathist exile turned PM (bluepilgrim) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com> To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk> Subject: Iraqi people shouldn't pay Saddam's bills Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 08:27:03 -0400 Saddam=92s Debts (latest estimates) Debts Today | Reparations | Origins of Debt | Odious Debt Even G7 finance ministers differ over the level of Saddam's debts. The tabl= e below gives various estimates of the loans. It is being updated daily with the latest reports of debt values. http://www.jubileeiraq.org/debt_today.htm --__--__-- Message: 2 From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com> To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk> Subject: Allawi Spends To Win Influence In Washington Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 08:34:51 -0400 24 Jan 2004 Dow Jones Newswire Council Member Spends To Win Influence In Washington http://tinyurl.com/287r7 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. 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 --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 00:00:27 -0500 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: bluepilgrim <bluepilgrim@DELETETHISgrics.net> Subject: Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526008 Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim By Patrick Cockburn 29 May 2004 The choice of Iyad Allawi, closely linked to the CIA and formerly to MI6, as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 30 June will make it difficult for the US and Britain to persuade the rest of the world that he is capable of leading an independent government. He is the person through whom the controversial claim was channelled that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes. Dr Allawi, aged 59, who trained as a neurologist, is a Shia Muslim who was a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in Iraq and in Britain, where he was a student leader with links to Iraqi intelligence. He later moved into opposition to the Iraqi leader and reportedly established a connection with the British security services. His change of allegiance led to Dr Allawi being targeted by Iraqi intelligence. In 1978 their agents armed with knives and axes badly wounded him when they attacked him as he lay asleep in bed in his house in Kingston-upon-Thames. Dr Allawi became a businessman with contacts in Saudi Arabia. He was charming, intelligent and had a gift for impressing Western intelligence agencies. After the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraq National Accord (INA) party, which he helped to found, became one of the building blocks for the Iraqi opposition in exile. The organisation attracted former Iraqi army officers and Baath party officials, particularly Sunni Arabs, fleeing Iraq. In the mid-1990s the INA claimed to have extensive contacts in the Iraqi officer corps. Dr Allawi began to move from the orbit of MI6 to the CIA. He persuaded his new masters that he was in a position to organise a military coup in Baghdad. With American, British and Saudi support, he opened a headquarters and a radio station in Amman in Jordan in 1996, declaring it was "a historic moment for the Iraqi opposition". After a failed coup attempt that year there were mass arrests in Baghdad. Abdul-Karim al-Kabariti, the Jordanian prime minister of the day, said that INA's networks were "all penetrated by the Iraqi security services". Dr Allawi and the INA returned to Iraq after the fall of Saddam and set up offices in Baghdad and in old Baath party offices throughout Iraq. There were few signs that they had any popular support. During an uprising in the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, last year, crowds immediately set fire to the INA office. Dr Allawi was head of the security committee of the Iraqi Governing Council and was opposed to the dissolution of the army by Paul Bremer, the US viceroy in Iraq. He stepped down in protest as head of the committee during the US assault on Fallujah. But his reputation among Iraqis for working first with Saddam's intelligence agents and then with MI6 and the CIA may make it impossible for them to accept him as leader of an independent Iraq. --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 00:03:10 -0500 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: bluepilgrim <bluepilgrim@DELETETHISgrics.net> Subject: U.S. Forced Allawi On U.N., Iraqis: NY Times http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-05/29/article03.shtml U.S. Forced Allawi On U.N., Iraqis: NY Times [photo of Brahimi] Brahimi is said to have been taken off-guard by Allawi=92s nomination (AFP) WASHINGTON , May 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) =96 The choice of Iya= d Allawi as the prime minister of the upcoming Iraqi provisional government was forced by the United States as a fait accompli on the United Nations and the Iraqi people, a mass-circulation U.S. paper said Saturday, May 29. "The United States ended up Friday with a choice for prime minister certain to be seen more as an American candidate than one of the United Nations or the Iraqis themselves," The New York Times said. A senior State Department official told the daily, on condition of anonymity, that the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi body had merely <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-05/28/article07.shtml>ratifie= d the U.S. selection in order to make it seem that the council had the final saying. The Times said Allawi=92s choice and his close ties with the United States came "in a country where public opinion has grown almost universally hostile to the Americans". Allawi is the secretary general of the Iraqi National Accord, an exile group that has received funds from the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) to topple former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The 25-member body opened last July <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-07/13/article04.shtml>its inaugural session by declaring April 9, the day U.S.-led forces rolled into Baghdad , a national holiday. A rotating president of the U.S.-appointed council <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-05/17/article01.shtml>was assassinated on May 17 in a car-bomb attack on his convoy west of Baghdad . In September 2003, Akila Al-Hashimi, a woman member of the council, was <http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-09/20/article03.shtml>shot and died later of her wounds. Washington confirmed Friday that Allawi, a Shiite, would be Iraq 's prime minister in the interim government. "He will be the prime minister when the interim government is set up in the next two or three days," a senior Bush administration official said. "We thought he would be an excellent prime minister. ... I think that this is going to work." Surprised U.N. But the nomination of Allawi took the U.N. off-guard with conflicting statements that reflected the state of perplexity. "When we first heard the news today, we thought that the Iraqi Governing Council had hijacked the process," a senior U.N. official told The Times. In his initial statements, U.N. special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi refused to discuss the selection of Allawi. "I don't want to go back saying who is good and who is bad," he said. But in a hint that the selection process had not gone exactly as planned, Brahimi added: "You know, sometimes people think I am a free agent out here, that I have a free hand to do whatever I want." U.N. officials said any misgivings that Brahimi had about Allawi were all about his past association with the C.I.A. and how it will play with the Iraqi public opinion. Furthermore, statements from the U.N. Confirmed the idea that Brahimi was merely bowing to the wishes of the others. "Mr. Brahimi respects the decision and says he can work with this person," said Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. "This is not the way we expected this to happen, no, but the Iraqis seem to agree on this name, and if they do, Mr. Brahimi is ready to work with him," he said. Asked what Annan's view was, his spokesman said: "The secretary general respects the decision, as I said Mr. Brahimi does. `Respect' is a very carefully chosen word." Finally, Eckhard's office released another statement saying there should be "no misunderstanding" over the U.N. envoy's support for the premier-designa= te. "Mr. Brahimi is perfectly comfortable with how the process is proceeding thus far," the statement said. The U.N. reactions reflected that the world body is wary of appearing toeing the U.S. line. The U.N. Security Council, which this week began negotiating a new U.S.-U.K. draft resolution for post-transition Iraq, expected that Brahimi would make public the names of the new Iraqi government as a group, not in the individual manner that Allawi's name emerged Friday, The Times said. But council member Mahmmoud Othman tried to play down the surprising nomination of Allawi. "We first had a meeting of the Governing Council during which we chose Allawi and then we had another one with Brahimi and ( U.S. overseer Paul) Bremer who agreed," he told Agence France -Presse (AFP) Saturday, May 29. "It will be the same process for the appointment of the cabinet, we cannot go forward without all three parties coming to an agreement," he added. Othman said he hoped the final line-up of the new government would be decided by Sunday, May 30, at the latest and that current Governing Council chairman Ghazi Al-Yawar was favored to take the post of president. --__--__-- Message: 5 Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 00:17:22 -0500 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: bluepilgrim <bluepilgrim@DELETETHISgrics.net> Subject: Allawi: Ex-Baathist exile turned PM http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6C99B500-2F8E-4558-9746-C315C59F1978= .htm Allawi: Ex-Baathist exile turned PM By Odai Sirri and Firas al-Atraqchi Saturday 29 May 2004, 19:22 Makka Time, 16:22 GMT [] [photo of Allawi] An ex-Baathist, Allawi lived in exile for over 30 years [] Once a close aide to Saddam Hussein but now a favourite of the CIA, Iyad Allawi has become the new power broker in Iraq =96 with some other powerful backers hoping to keep him there. Named as Prime Minister designate by the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council on Friday, Allawi has been quietly pushing his way through Washington's political backdoors, gaining much influence along the way. It is an achievement that took many months and a lot of financial backing to secure. In Janurary, the Associated Press (AP) reported Allawi had been paying prominent Washington lobbyists and New York publicists more than $300,000 to help him contact policy-makers and journalists. According to papers filed with the Justice Department, all the money had come from UK citizen Mishal Nawab, described as Allawi's close friend and admirer. 'Importance of lobbying' Nick Theros, an advisor to Allawi, told AP in January Allawi recognised the importance of conveying his message to US leaders, especially while they remain the occupying power in Iraq. "It's not enough to just work behind closed doors in Baghdad," he said. Theros described the money spent by Allawi for lobbyists as, "the gowing rate here in Washington=94. "Iraqis are asking who is Allawi, and is he just another one of these keen exiles coming back to Iraq for his own interests?" Dr Fawaz Girgis, Professor, Sarah Lawrence College "It doesn't really happen for less," he said. Some analysts argued Allawi's publicity and lobbying campaign might have been encouraged as a counterweight to the now disgraced Ahmad Chalabi. But Theros rejected those suggestions. "There is no official support of any sort, not in any areas of the US government," he added. Nevertheless, there are striking similarities in how Chalabi and Allawi both paid vast sums of money to lobbyists and publicists in Washington. Like Chalabi, Allawi too was appointed to the Governing Council. He has been responsible for overseeing the council's security committee. Despite the similarities, however, Allawi and Chalabi differed on a number of issues - namely the de-Baathification programme. Allawi became more vocal with his criticism of Washington's purging of Baathists from positions in an editorial in the Washington Post last December. A former Baathist Born in 1945 to a prominent Shia family, Allawi trained as a neurologist and joined the Baath Party in the 1961. But he went into exile after a falling out with Saddam Hussein in the early 1970s. [photo of Allawi] He survived an attempt on his life while in London in 1978 In 1978, Allawi survived an attempt on his life in London. The attack was believed to have been ordered by Saddam Hussein, but no evidence has emerged to support this claim. He formed the Iraqi National Accord (INA) in 1991 with the backing of the CIA and the UK's MI6. The party became known for attracting disillusioned former Baathists who wanted to orchestrate a coup from within the Iraqi arm= y. But the INA will likely be most remembered in Britain for passing on to MI6 a report from an Iraqi officer who made the now-infamous claim that Saddam could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. The London-based The Times quoted an Allawi spokesperson in New York who asserted in January 2004 that the 45-minute claim was essentially a "crock of s**t" indicating that the claim was indeed defunct and baseless. Credibility problem Allawi's credibility may continue to be an issue, say analysts, as Iraqis have become weary of exiles who are jockeying for power in the new Iraq. "The big question is how do Iraqis see Allawi?" says Dr Fawaz Girgis, a political science professor at Sarah Lawrence University and senior analyst with ABC News. "Iraqis are asking who is Allawi, and is he just another one of these keen exiles coming back to Iraq for his own interests?" Girgis told Aljazeera.ne= t. "The appointment of Iyad Allawi is a continuation of US plans to appoint only those connected to the US strategy in Iraq" Mustafa Bakri, Editor, Al-Osboa newspaper Mustafa Bakri, editor of al-Osboa newspaper (The Week) was more critical of Allawi's appointment and the Iraqi's ties with the CIA. "This is not a transfer of sovereignty, but a change in the faces chosen by Paul Bremer. The Iraqi people are more than capable of resisting this agenda," he said. Bakri told Aljazeera.net Allawi's appointment would further marginalise Iraqi voices within the country and lead to more frustration and anger, thereby making the resistance, "a legitimate alternative." 'Good qualities' But Leith Kuba, an independent Iraqi politician residing in Washington DC downplayed Allawi's strong links to the CIA and praised what he called, "Allawi's good qualities." "His links with the CIA could have been a critical factor for Iraqis 10 years ago, but not anymore," Kuba told Aljazeera.net in a telephone intervi= ew. "He does not have an ethnic or dividing agenda. Allawi has long had a nationalistic Iraqi agenda, and the country is in need of his agenda," he added. [photo of Chalibi] Ahmad Chalabi disagreed with Allawi on de-Baathification If Allawi is to succeed, however, he will have to find ways to appease the varying political forces in Iraq, not to mention the relentless criticism levelled against him from diverse groups of Iraqis. Dr Haifa al-Azawi, a California-based gyneacologist and US citizen who went to school with Allawi, wrote a column on 12 February in the London-based al-Arab newspaper in which she questioned Allawi's moral authority as an Iraqi leader. "The Baath party union leader, who carried a gun on his belt and frequently brandished it terrorising the medical students, was a poor student and chose to spend his time standing in the school courtyard or chasing female students to their homes," she wrote. According to al-Azawi, while in England studying, Allawi " spent his time dealing with assassins, doing the dirty work for the Iraqi government, until his time was up and he became their target." But scepticism over Allawi permeates throughout the Arab world as much of the public feels that he has been handpicked to lead Iraq, according to Washington's rules. "The appointment of Iyad Allawi is a continuation of US plans to appoint only those connected to the US strategy in Iraq," said al-Osboa's Bakri. "This reveals the untruths of what the Bush administration says about wanting to implement full democracy in Iraq," Bakri added. End of casi-news Digest _______________________________________ Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk