Say, What Else do You Suppose BGR Lobbies For?

Spencer Ackerman has been doing yeoman's work on the Allawi issue (here, here, here and here), but here's an interesting note from Nibras Kazimi on BGR lobbyist Robert Blackwill:

Wait a minute? Wasn’t this self-same Blackwill the one who instated Allawi as Prime Minister in the first place when the CPA was terminated in mid-2004?

Why! Yes it is!

So Blackwill is now being paid by Ayad Allawi. It’s not a pretty picture, is it? Is Blackwill being paid for his services on Allawi’s behalf the first time around, or is he being paid to try again? It's dizzying!

Blackwill was also U.S. ambassador to India, a good ambassador according to many. I guess he made many friends there, as one would, and it seems that within his Indian circle of friends is a corporation called Reliance Industries, Ltd—he’s now their lobbyist in DC through BGR.

Reliance Industries was heavily implicated in the UN’s Oil-for-Food scandal, yet they still managed to land the largest oil deal in post-Saddam Iraq, signed in the spring of 2006. Coincidence? No, since Blackwill’s BGR also represents Nechirvan Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government; Barzani signed the deal with Reliance.

(emphasis in the original)

And this is coming from someone who didn't like the chances of an Allawi power grab earlier in August.

And now a couple of random scattered thoughts:

*** I've been trying to go back and see when Allawi started to tinker with retaking the Prime Ministry (a phrase I sure as hell have never seen, but am going to run with anyway) and right now it appears as if this campaign started in earnest in March.

*** A few bloggers are making hasty comparisons to Ngo Dinh Diem.