FARA

Ayad Allawi's representation by Washington lobbying powerhouse Barbour Griffith & Rogers reveals Washington's slimy inner workings, as Glenn Greenwald points out.

To get a taste of the cocktail of services these lobbying firms offer foreign agents, both brutal and benign, check out these excerpts from a BG&R's Foreign Agency Registration Act disclosure forms for their work with the Kurdistan Regional Government. (click for the full documents)

Access to government officials:
Op-ed placement:
Speeches and testimony:News stories:
(notice the use of post-NYT Judith Miller, once the most dangerous lazy journalist in America, to promote the Kurdistan cause...)

As revealing as these documents seem, they provide a carefully cropped and largely incomplete picture. Ken Silverstein's Harpers expose explains:

"no one has been prosecuted for ignoring the act, so there are few risks for non-compliance. Those firms that do register generally reveal little information beyond the names of their clients, the fees they pay, and limited information about whom they contact. Because disclosure requirements are so lax, it is nearly impossible to monitor the activities of foreign lobbyists. What little knowledge we do have of lobbyist-orchestrated diplomacy—including most of the projects discussed above—has been gleaned not from FARA filings but from serendipitous revelations or investigative reporting."

Iraq Slogger got their hands on Allawi's contract with BG&R. Stay tuned for BG&R's six month supplemental filing that ought to disclose their Allawi-related activities and reveal the extent of the cynical anti-Maliki manipulations.