Pure Sleaze

Maybe you know that Iyad Allawi, former CIA terrorist asset and BushCo's #1 pick for the Iraqi PM job, is trying to topple the Al-Maliki government and re-install himself as a pro-US "strong man" in Baghdad. And maybe you know that he has hired a team of US lobbyists to support his move.

But did you know that:

(a) The lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, is owned by Philip Zelikow?

b) The $300,000 fee paid to the lobbyists appears to have come from Hazem Shaalan, Allawi's former defense minister, who is currently fighting charges that he stole $1 billion from the Iraqi defense budget.

More at Antony Loewenstein.