Ayad Allawi — phony CIA memo conduit

Joe Conason makes a compelling case for former Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi being the conduit for phony Tahir Jalil Habbush memo the CIA allegedly concocted.

There’s a key timetable element – Allawi was at CIA HQ in Langley the week before the Sunday Telegraph in London “broke” the story about the memo.

Allawi would have plenty of reason to benefit, above all by boosting his name in U.S. political infighting vs. Ahmed Chalabi.

Maliki steals page from Bush

Says criticism of his administration helps the terrorists. Watch for color-coded “terrorist” alerts, based on the degree of U.S., or U.S. surrogate (that’s you, Ayad Allawi) criticism of Iraq, to hit the streets of Baghdad any day now.

Of course, Maliki may be right.

According to Allawi's published program, the parliamentarians would not only appoint a new government but also suspend the new constitution, declare a state of emergency and make the restoration of security its priority.

Given Iraq’s state of disarray, I can’t see how suspending the constitution would do anything but eliminate the final remnants of trust in a central government, thereby fueling people’s allegiance to various insurgencies.