Allawi's Bloc Quits Iraqi Government

Allawi is making his move to oust Maliki as Iraqi Prime Minister and has today let it be known that his Iraqi National List (INL) are withdrawing their members from the government.

Allawi recently wrote a column for the Washington Post in which he - rather helpfully from the Bush administration's viewpoint - heaped all the blame for the mess in Iraq on to the shoulders of Maliki and went out of his way to exonerate the Americans.

Let me be clear. Responsibility for the current mess in Iraq rests primarily with the Iraqi government, not with the United States.

At this point Bush and his cronies started braying publicly about Maliki and how his time was running out. In a piece entitled, "How our seedy, corrupt Washington establishment operates", Glenn Greenwald yesterday spelt out the entire sleazy process:

In a solid piece of reporting, CNN yesterday disclosed that the most powerful GOP lobbying firm, run founded by former GOP Party Chair and current Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and staffed by key former Bush national security officials, is being paid by Allawi to coordinate these anti-Maliki, pro-Allawi efforts:

A powerhouse Republican lobbying firm with close ties to the White House has begun a public campaign to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, CNN has confirmed. . . .

A senior Bush administration official told CNN the White House is aware of the lobbying campaign by Barbour Griffith & Rogers because the firm is "blasting e-mails all over town" criticizing al-Maliki and promoting the firm's client, former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, as an alternative to the current Iraqi leader. . . .

Allawi hires the most powerful GOP firm in the country, with former top Bush officials as partners, and almost immediately, the key Op-Ed pages of our nation's newspapers open up to him and all of official Washington, beginning with the President, changes course. Suddenly, key figures in both parties begin calling for Maliki to be replaced.

So Allawi has let it be known to Bush that he is his man, he is the guy who will give Washington what they want, including I presume their thieving Iraq Oil Law, and he has hired the most powerful GOP firm in the US to get his message across.

Greenwald points out the deception that is being performed here, with Philip Zelikow, former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, running around Washington, being quoted as an Iraq expert, whilst failing to reveal that he is actually being paid by Allawi to run down Maliki and is concealing this fact from the public.

Reporter Martha Raddatz narrated the story which began (via LEXIS): "today, for the first time, President Bush said Maliki could be replaced." The story then flashed to Michael O'Hanlon, who said: "I think Mr. Bush made a very significant change in his policy today. He made it clear that his support for al-Maliki is on very thin ice."

Shortly thereafter, Raddatz said: "The former counselor to Secretary of State Rice says a plan B is now likely being considered," and then showed Zelikow -- identified on-screen only as a "Former Counselor to the State Department" -- who said:

I can confidently guess that our government is quietly speculating about a lot of different options knowing how much concern Iraqis have about their leadership.

So, Zelikow is claiming that Iraqis are concerned about their leadership, when in actual fact he is being paid to express the "expert" opinion that he is espousing by the man who has just today resigned from the Iraqi government and who is letting it be known to anyone who would listen that the Americans are not to blame for the shambles that is Iraq today.

So that's the backstory to the headline that "Allawi's Bloc Quits Iraqi Government". Only time will tell if Allawi is able to pull off this act of political skulduggery, aided and abetted by former members of the Bush administration, but Maliki just the other day has let it be known that he is not going to back down without a fight.

Maliki has stated that he can find friends elsewhere, by which he is obviously implying Iran, so the stakes between Maliki, Allawi and Bush simply couldn't be higher. Allawi has today rolled the dice....

What comes next promises to be very interesting.

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