Is Ignatius on the Allawi payroll?
I don't normally talk about editorials, but this one by David Ignatius is jawdropping. It's core allegation is that everything was going just fine in Iraq until the 2005 elections when Condi Rice and Nancy Pelosi refused to let the CIA interfere in the Iraqi elections to counter Iranian involvement.
(Because the US was just "hands off" back then, what with writing the constitution, designing and implementing the elections, advising the political parties, and actually, you know, running the government at the time.)
According to Ignatius' sources, it was the $11 million the Iranians spent (vs. the US $5 billion a month at the time) that swung the election to the Shia in 60% majority Shia Iraq.
This is the Allawi line, the PR angle through which Allawi is trying to persuade the US to put him back in power, and Ignatius is carrying his water. (Notice how this argument also advocates the US interfering in elections - the only way Allawi would ever come to power in Iraq.)
How much do you want to bet that the "former US officials" from whom Ignatius sourced this narrative includes primarily Robert Blackwill, the former White House envoy in Iraq, who has been hired by Allawi as part of the BGR lobbying deal.
(And don't miss the use of "villain" Pelosi's name being tied to the fiasco. Plays very well with his target audience for this piece.)
Also, just for a laugh, take a look back to how Ignatius greeted the Maliki Prime Ministership right after the election.
I guess it's just a matter of Ignatius finding the right unethical sourcing to suit the pro-Bush needs of the time.
Later: Newsweek has a pretty long piece on Allawi and the BGR lobying contract. The biggest surprise to me is that the contract was initiated by Blackwill of BGR.
So, either Blackwill is an opportunistic businessman, or somebody sent him to start up the pro-Allawi campaign.
(Because the US was just "hands off" back then, what with writing the constitution, designing and implementing the elections, advising the political parties, and actually, you know, running the government at the time.)
According to Ignatius' sources, it was the $11 million the Iranians spent (vs. the US $5 billion a month at the time) that swung the election to the Shia in 60% majority Shia Iraq.
This is the Allawi line, the PR angle through which Allawi is trying to persuade the US to put him back in power, and Ignatius is carrying his water. (Notice how this argument also advocates the US interfering in elections - the only way Allawi would ever come to power in Iraq.)
How much do you want to bet that the "former US officials" from whom Ignatius sourced this narrative includes primarily Robert Blackwill, the former White House envoy in Iraq, who has been hired by Allawi as part of the BGR lobbying deal.
(And don't miss the use of "villain" Pelosi's name being tied to the fiasco. Plays very well with his target audience for this piece.)
Also, just for a laugh, take a look back to how Ignatius greeted the Maliki Prime Ministership right after the election.
The most important fact about Maliki's election is that it's a modest declaration of independence from Iran. The Iranians waged a tough behind-the-scenes campaign to keep Jafari in office.
I guess it's just a matter of Ignatius finding the right unethical sourcing to suit the pro-Bush needs of the time.
Later: Newsweek has a pretty long piece on Allawi and the BGR lobying contract. The biggest surprise to me is that the contract was initiated by Blackwill of BGR.
So, either Blackwill is an opportunistic businessman, or somebody sent him to start up the pro-Allawi campaign.
posted by mikevotes at
8:32 AM
2 Comments:
Why do major publications keep people on the payroll who say such patently stupid things? This isn't about Ignatius supporting a viewpoint that I personally oppose... It's about being intellectually dishonest, factually disinterested and just plain absurd.
By
-epm, at 10:08 AM
This is why I don't normally talk about editorials. There's no vetting.
By
mikevotes, at 10:59 AM
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