I had a sense that I was on to something in my last post about how The Party was shifting against Iraqi elected Prime Minister al-Maliki and in favor of previously appointed prime minister Allawi (advocating a tougher stance against Syria and Iran), but I had no idea how right I was.
Turns out I was sent this morning in my official capacity as a foreign affairs advisor to a Member of Congress, a copy of Allawi's op-ed in the Washington Post along with, conveniently, a copy of the article outlining Senator Levin's determination to unseat the current elected Prime Minister of Iraq by -- wait for it -- a public relations firm called "Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC." Hmmm, Barbour: didn't he have something to do with the RNC? And I see my old friend Stephen Rademaker formerly of the House International Relations Committee is now a vice president in this firm as is -- whoa! -- Philip D. Zelikow, Ph.D., who was "Counselor to the U.S. Department of State in December 2006 after serving in that position since February 2005. Before that appointment, Dr. Zelikow served as the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission... He has been a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board."
This is serious semi-Inner Party stuff!
There are other interesting little stars in the Barbour Griffith constellation, but the main point is a lesson for my gentle readers on how foreign policy works in the United States Government. To very crudely simplify it for my dear LRC readers who have little time for the arcane:
The word went out that al-Maliki was toast because he has met not once but more times with Ahmadinejad (among other things, ask Kucinich about the pending oil revenue legislation) so whoever was behind a change of system in Iraq (three guesses) decides to send tons of cash to a spooky public-private PR firm to spam my mailbox and the mailboxes of my colleagues in the Legislative Branch of the US Government with very important information about how on the outs is al-Maliki and how very important and au courant is the new hardliner Allawi.
Who paid for this very expensive public relations firm to send me e-mail from the personal account of former Iraqi prime minister? Ask him: DrAyadAllawi@allawi-for-iraq.com. He sent me two messages today. And he also sent them to all my colleagues, who are much less questioning of origins of foreign policy legislation impetus. I am not being arrogant, only reporting from the kitchen that I smell foreign policy brewing on the burner. I have seen this many times before. This is how it works. (Hi Tom Lantos!)
These people do not waste their money sending e-mails to Congress to shape opinion. This is the beginning of an official push and you are reading it here first, on LRC.
Buckle up.
