Pub lobbying firm with close WH ties is working to undermine Maliki's government

[BrainGlutton]

Story here. What the fuck?! :eek:

Who’s behind this (really), and why?

[Mr.Moto]

Simplest answer probably is the right one. Allawi has the resources to buy support, and what better firm to hire than one with ties to the Administration.

[elucidator]

Well, gee, what about Ahmed “Chubby” Chalabi? You remember him, up there in the honored seats at the State of the Union Address? The brave Iraqi patriot? Who better to personify our committment to vigorous entrepreneurship than a guy with an eye to the main chance? Who best typifies our effort?

OK, he has a few problems, image wise, but a little soap, a little judicious slander…whats not to love?

[Mr.Moto]

[QUOTE=elucidator]
Well, gee, what about Ahmed “Chubby” Chalabi? You remember him, up there in the honored seats at the State of the Union Address? The brave Iraqi patriot? Who better to personify our committment to vigorous entrepreneurship than a guy with an eye to the main chance? Who best typifies our effort?

OK, he has a few problems, image wise, but a little soap, a little judicious slander…whats not to love?
[/QUOTE]

I doubt that. The two men are actually related, but their relationship isn’t particularly close. They are rivals, and ally at times only out of convenience.

[BrainGlutton]

Maliki responds. (To Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin; Barbour, Griffith & Rogers is not mentioned.)

[BrainGlutton]

Interesting analysis from Time:

Some analysts have begun to talk about the “Musharraf option” — a Pakistan-style military dictatorship under a strongman willing to pursue U.S. interests. Sunni politicians have openly said they would prefer this to a Prime Minister from the Shi’ite Islamist parties. But none of Iraq’s military commanders has looked a likely candidate, and the U.S. is unlikely to back a coup.

But if not a coup, then what? Another election? Can another election be run under current circumstances?

[BrainGlutton]

Relevant article from Harper’s.

[tagos]

[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Interesting analysis from Time:

But if not a coup, then what? Another election? Can another election be run under current circumstances?
[/QUOTE]

Elections only matter if all parties agree on the legitimacy of the outcome and the winners don’t have a ‘winner takes all’ attitude. Neither condition applies in Iraq.

Edit - by ‘parties’ I mean not just the political parties but the factions the population is split into. There is no chance the Kurd will accept the outcome of the Kirkuk referendum if they haven’t managed to ethnically cleanse enough Arabs to ensure victory IMHO.

[BrainGlutton]

Not that Maliki deserves to keep his job. He’s been directly implicated in blocking efforts to fight the endemic corruption in the government:

Part of the problem, according to the report, is Maliki’s office: “The Prime Minister’s Office has demonstrated an open hostility” to independent corruption investigations. His government has withheld resources from the CPI, the report says, and “there have been a number of identified cases where government and political pressure has been applied to change the outcome of investigations and prosecutions in favor of members of the Shia Alliance”–which includes Maliki’s Dawa party.

The report’s authors note that the man Maliki appointed as his anticorruption adviser–Adel Muhsien Abdulla al-Quza’alee–has said that independent agencies, like the CPI, should be under the control of Maliki. According to the report, “Adel has in the presence of American advisors pressed the Commissioner of CPI to withdraw cases referred to court.” These cases involved defendants who were members of the Shia Alliance. (Adel has also, according to the report, “steadfastly refused to submit his financial disclosure form.”) And Maliki’s office, the report says, has tried to “force out the entire leadership of CPI to replace them with political appointees”–which would be tantamount to a death sentence for the CPI officials. They now live in the Green Zone. Were they to lose their CPI jobs, they would have to move out of the protected zone and would be at the mercy of the insurgents, militias, and crime gangs “who are [the] subjects of their investigations.”

Maliki has also protected corrupt officials by reinstating a law that prevents the prosecution of a government official without the permission of the minister of the relevant agency. According to a memo drafted in March by the U.S. embassy’s anticorruption working group–a memo first disclosed by The Washington Post–between September 2006 and February 2007, ministers used this law to block the prosecutions of 48 corruption cases involving a total of $35 million. Many other cases at this time were in the process of being stalled in the same manner. The stonewalled probes included one case in which Oil Ministry employees rigged bids for $2.5 million in equipment and another in which ministry personnel stole 33 trucks of petroleum.

And in another memo obtained by The Nation–marked “Secret and Confidential”–Maliki’s office earlier this year ordered the Commission on Public Integrity not to forward any case to the courts involving the president of Iraq, the prime minister of Iraq, or any current or past ministers without first obtaining Maliki’s consent. According to the U.S. embassy report on the anticorruption efforts, the government’s hostility to the CPI has gone so far that for a time the CPI link on the official Iraqi government web site directed visitors to a pornographic site.

But what makes anyone think Chalabi or Allawi would be any better?