Where Did Allawi Get $300,000?

by- Suzie-Q @ 12:00 PM MST

Following up on an item from yesterday, it may seem like inside poll that former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has hired a powerhouse Republican lobbying firm with close ties to the White House, but the more details that emerge, the more interesting this story gets.

Christina Davidson reports today that Robert Blackwill, president of the Barbour, Griffith, & Rogers firm (BGR) and the former Iraq coordinator at the Bush White House, signed a contract with Allawi for $300,000. This will cover six months of “strategic counsel” for the former interim P.M., which will also apparently include Allawi’s “moderate Iraqi colleagues.”

So, how can Allawi afford $300,000 for six months of DC lobbying services?

Experts said Allawi does not have the resources to pay $50,000 a month plus expenses for Washington representation.

“He doesn’t have that kind of money,” said Bruce Reidel, who spent 25 years with the CIA and the National Security Council, covering the Middle East. “Somebody’s paying for it, and it’s not him.”

A former U.S. intelligence community Middle East expert who left the government in 2005 said that while the agency backed Allawi financially for many years, he doubted BGR’s bills would be paid with agency money.

“Obviously, if there were any trace of [CIA] funds into this sort of thing it would be illegal,” said Paul Pillar, the national intelligence officer for Near East and South Asia from 2002 until his retirement in 2005. “But I’d be extremely surprised if that had happened.”

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