Iraqis deploying more lobbyists to influence U.S. politics

Iraqis deploying more lobbyists
By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
6/28/07

WASHINGTON ?- By one benchmark, Iraqis are gaining a better understanding of U.S.-style democracy: The number of lobbyists hired to influence U.S. policy has more than tripled since the war began.
Eighteen lobbyists and firms have registered to represent Iraqi clients in the United States since March 2003, federal records show. That's up from five lobbyists between the 1991 Gulf War and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The Iraqi clients have paid representatives more than $16.7 million through January ?- more than 10 times the amount Iraqi opposition groups paid during the 12 years before the invasion. Activities reported include not only Washington lobbying but legal work, advertising and public relations.

Federal law requires all representatives of foreign individuals, governments or political parties to register with the Justice Department and report their income and activities every six months. The department made most of those records available online last month.

Iraqi factions are lobbying in Washington to prepare for an eventual pullout of American troops, says Bruce Riedel, a former National Security Council official under President Bush and Bill Clinton.

"To them, it's terribly important to see if they can develop relationships with influential Americans that might outlast the American presence in Iraq," says Riedel, now an analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank. "Iraqis are not stupid. They know that America's willingness to stay in Iraq is getting shorter and shorter."

Seven politicians or factions within Iraq's government have hired representatives in Washington. They include the Kurdish Regional Government, former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi and a Sunni Muslim coalition called al-Tawafuq.

All of them were seeking support from U.S. officials. The Kurds want backing for their plan to take control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Al-Tawafuq wants to increase Sunni representation in Iraq's security forces. Allawi's lobbyists worked to introduce him to Washington politicians while he headed the interim Iraqi government in 2004.

The biggest Iraqi spender is its government, which has paid more than $13.4 million over the past four years to two law firms involved in negotiations to reduce Iraq's foreign debt and investigations of fraud in the Oil-for-Food Program under Saddam.

The Iraqi government has paid more than $10 million to the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to help negotiate relief from the more than $140 billion in debt incurred by Saddam's regime.

Once the negotiations are complete, Iraq's total debt should be reduced to about $30 billion, said Lee Buchheit, a partner at the law firm. "Commercial lenders wouldn't advance money to a country that had an unresolved debt of $140 billion," Buchheit said.