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Kurds Cultivating Their Own Bonds With
U.S.
23.4.2007
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran |
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April
23, 2007
The 30-second television commercial features
stirring scenes of a young Iraqi boy high-fiving a
U.S. soldier, a Westerner dining alfresco, and men
and women dancing together. "Have you seen the other
Iraq?" the narrator asks. "It's spectacular. It's
joyful."
"Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan!" the narrator
continues. "It's not a dream. It's the other Iraq."
With Sunni and Shiite Arabs locked in a bloody
sectarian war, Iraq's Kurds are promoting their
interests through an influence-buying campaign in
the United States that includes airing nationwide
television advertisements, hiring powerful
Washington lobbyists and playing parts of the U.S.
government against each other. A former car mechanic
who happens to be the son of Iraq's president is at
the center of Kurdish efforts to cultivate support
for their semi-independent enclave, but the cast of
Kurdish proponents also includes evangelical
Christians, Israeli operatives and Republican
political consultants. |
Qubad J. Talabani, representative of the Kurdistan
regional government to the United States, Photo-Wash.Post |
In the past year, the Kurds have spent more than $3
million to retain lobbyists and set up a diplomatic
office in Washington. They are cultivating
grass-roots advocates among supporters of President
Bush's war policy and evangelicals who believe that
many key figures in the Bible lived in Kurdistan.
And they are seeking to build an emotional bond with
ordinary Americans, like those forged by Israel and
Taiwan, by running commercials on national cable
news channels to assert that even as Iraq teeters
toward a full-blown civil war, one corner of the
country, at least, has fulfilled the Bush
administration's ambition of a peaceful, democratic,
pro-Western beachhead in the Middle East.
But elements of the Kurds' campaign run counter to
the policy of a unified Iraq espoused by the U.S.
and Iraqi governments. Some senior U.S. officials
contend that yielding to Kurdish demands for
increased autonomy could break up Iraq and
destabilize Turkey, a NATO ally that is fighting a
guerrilla war with Kurdish separatists -- some of
whom have taken sanctuary in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurdish leaders cast their self-promotion initiative
as a bulwark against attempts to restrict their
federal rights. With only 40,000 or so Kurds living
in the United States, Kurdish officials insist they
have no choice but to pursue the dual strategy of
wooing non-Kurdish constituencies and lobbying in
Washington.
"We have to use all the tools at our disposal to
help ourselves," said Qubad Talabani, the son of
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, sent here as the
Kurdistan Regional Government's representative in
Washington.
Kurds want the sort of "strategic and institutional
relationship" that Israel and Taiwan have with the
United States, Talabani, 29, said. "It doesn't
matter which party is in power in Washington -- the
U.S. government isn't going to abandon either of
those countries," he added. "We are seeking the same
protection."
Talabani, a former Maserati repairman, was raised by
his grandparents in Britain and moved to Washington
in 2000 knowing nothing about power politics. He
soon began dating -- and later married -- a State
Department staffer working on Iraq policy. He wears
French-cuff shirts and Windsor-knotted ties with
pinstripe suits. He lunches at the Bombay Club and
works two blocks from the White House.
He has more clout than any other Iraqi in Washington
because of his ability to call his father directly
and because he represents the collective view of an
influential minority -- one that holds enough seats
in Iraq's parliament to wield effective veto power
over a proposed law to distribute national oil
revenue to Iraqis, as well as other legislation
sought by the United States. By contrast, Baghdad's
ambassador to Washington is a secular Sunni Arab who
has limited sway with his Shiite-dominated
government.
Talabani is in regular contact with senior officials
in the White House. He drops in on members of
Congress, and he has met with four of the
presidential candidates: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
(D -N.Y.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-Kan.) and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-
Del.).
"We've been on the fringes for too long," Talabani
said.
Making friends in the United States is crucial for
Iraq's 5 million ethnic Kurds, most of whom live in
three mountainous northern provinces that are
administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government,
effectively a state within a state. The regional
government has the power to pass its own laws,
maintain its own internal security force and even
bar the entry of the Iraqi army. Iraq's national
flag is nonexistent in Kurdistan -- every government
building is adorned with the red, white and green
Kurdish flag -- and foreign visitors who fly into
Irbil, the regional capital, receive a visa to
Kurdistan, not Iraq.
Although the regional government was enshrined by
Iraq's constitution in 2005, it remains a point of
tension with Arab Iraqis, both Sunni and Shiite, who
live to the south. Sunni Arabs have argued that
national reconciliation is impossible without
revoking many of the concessions given to the Kurds,
particularly a promise to hold a referendum this
year on whether the oil-rich city of Kirkuk -- home
to Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds -- will become part of
Kurdistan.
The three nations that border Iraqi Kurdistan --
Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which have
significant populations of ethnic Kurds -- also
remain deeply vexed by Kurdish autonomy in Iraq.
Most worrisome to Kurdish leaders, however, is their
relationship with Washington. The Kurds believe they
should be recognized as a certifiable success story
in a war that has lasted more than four years:
They're largely secular, no U.S. military personnel
have been killed in Kurdistan since the March 2003
invasion, and business is booming in Irbil and other
Kurdish cities because Kurdish militias, known as
peshmerga, have managed to keep out Sunni Arab
insurgents.
But Kurdish officials contend that the U.S.
government has done little to reward these
achievements. The State Department acknowledges
spending 3 percent of its reconstruction funds on
the Kurds since 2003, even though they make up about
20 percent of Iraq's population. Kurdish leaders
also argue that U.S. diplomats have been pushing
them to make concessions that would weaken the
regional government in an attempt to placate Sunni
Arabs.
"If they think that the Kurds are going to roll over
like lame puppies, and have the power that they have
earned taken away from them and given to those who
have done nothing but kill Americans, then they have
a shocking surprise awaiting them," Talabani said
over a gin and tonic at the Hay- Adams Hotel bar.
"We exist on the map, whether they like it or not."
The Kurds' lobbying activities in the post-Saddam
Hussein era began with a quest for $4 billion.
Kurdish leaders believed they were owed at least
that much from the United Nations' corruption-
tainted oil-for-food program, which regulated the
sale of Iraqi oil from 1995 to 2003. Because the
money was transferred to a trust fund controlled by
the United States shortly after the invasion, the
Kurds set their sights on Washington.
Back then, the two principal Kurdish political
organizations -- Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan
Democratic Party (President of Kurdistan region) and
Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- had
separate representatives in Washington. Talabani's
man was Barham Salih, who now is Iraq's deputy prime
minister and who became Qubad Talabani's mentor.
The task of chasing down the money, however, fell to
Barzani's representative, Farhad Barzani.
Seeking help to navigate Washington, Farhad Barzani
turned to Danny Yatom, a former director of Israel's
spy service, the Mossad, according to senior Kurdish
officials and former U.S. government officials
familiar with the Kurds' efforts. Yatom's business
partner, Shlomi Michaels, who was looking for
investments in Kurdistan, agreed to help the Kurds
find a lobbyist, the officials said. The sources
spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Michaels initially sought out Jack Abramoff, then a
powerful Republican-connected lobbyist, the
officials said. But Abramoff, who was later
convicted of bribery and is now in prison, asked for
more than the Kurds wanted to pay, the officials
said. One American lobbyist said Abramoff wanted the
Kurds to pay him $65,000 a month. Michaels did not
respond to several phone messages.
Russell Wilson, a former Republican congressional
staff member whom Michaels asked for advice,
eventually suggested that the Kurds contact Ed
Rogers, a GOP political operative and former White
House official who runs one of Washington's most
influential lobbying firms. On June 3, 2004, Barbour
Griffith & Rogers agreed to represent the Kurdistan
Democratic Party for $29,000 a month.
Qubad Talabani said the firm lobbied the White House
for the $4 billion.
Twenty days later, on June 23, the U.S. occupation
administration in Iraq gave the Kurds $1.4 billion
in cash. The U.S. military flew the money --
brand-new $100 bills in shrink-wrapped bricks -- to
Irbil on three helicopters.
Although officials with the occupation authority
maintained that the payout was the Kurds' share of
Iraq's 2004 capital budget and was unconnected to
lobbying, Kurdish leaders insist otherwise.
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers's business with the Kurds
has since steadily expanded. The Kurdistan Regional
Government paid the firm $869,333 for work performed
in the first 11 months of last year, according to
lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Justice
Department.
The firm's lobbying was "very helpful in getting us
the oil-for-food money," said Talabani, who now
represents both Kurdish parties. "It was a tangible
victory for the Kurds."
A Friend in Commerce
Next up was an even bigger prize: the $18.4 billion
in U.S. reconstruction funds flowing into Iraq. As
with the oil-for-food money, Kurdish leaders
believed they deserved at least 20 percent -- their
perceived fair share based on Kurds' proportion of
Iraq's population.
The State Department had a different view. Kurdistan
had been protected from Hussein's army since 1991 by
U.S. warplanes enforcing a no-fly zone, and had
enjoyed far greater development in the intervening
years than Arab-dominated parts of Iraq. Despite
Kurdish pleas and vigorous lobbying, the department
decided that the vast majority of the reconstruction
funds would go elsewhere.
By 2005, Kurdish leaders decided to shift their
strategy. Kurdistan was becoming an increasingly
popular destination for businessmen who deemed
Baghdad too dangerous for visiting or for
investment. Rather than argue about aid, the Kurds
proposed that the U.S. government encourage American
investment in Kurdistan.
Talabani and Ayal Frank, a former congressional
staffer and legislative analyst for the Israeli
Embassy who was hired as a lobbyist by the Kurdistan
Regional Government, sidestepped the State
Department in favor of the Commerce Department,
which they considered more receptive. "If a door
shuts on you," Talabani said, "you go in through the
window." After several meetings with Commerce's Iraq
task force, Talabani added, "common sense
prevailed."
"In some quarters at State, there's this zero-sum
view: that helping the Kurds means you're hurting
the Arabs," he said. "People at Commerce had a
different view. They started to realize that
developing safer parts of the country is not
detrimental to the rest of the country."
Multiple meetings, phone calls and e-mails paid off
on Feb. 20 of this year, when Franklin L. Lavin, the
undersecretary of commerce for international trade,
traveled to Irbil to promote Kurdistan as a
"gateway" for U.S. business in Iraq. Lavin said his
visit was designed "to encourage companies that are
looking at Iraq . . . to think about particular
locales that might be more fruitful environments for
starting a business."
Talabani said he considers Lavin's trip a "big
success" because it involved a Cabinet agency
"reassessing the way it views doing business in
Iraq."
But for Talabani and other Kurdish officials, a
major barrier to U.S. investment remains: the State
Department's travel warning for Iraq, which cautions
that the country is "very dangerous," without
distinguishing one region from another.
Talabani has urged the department to change the
warning, which he said "tells the potential
businessman that all of Iraq is unsafe, and that's
not true." Although foreign investment is pouring
into Kurdistan, very little is from large U.S.
corporations, he added.
Lavin declined to comment on the matter, but Kurdish
officials said he has also pressed the State
Department to amend the warning.
In an April 3 letter to Talabani, Maura Harty, the
assistant secretary of state for consular affairs,
said the warning "accurately reflects the current
situation" in Iraq.
Talabani said he plans to urge members of Congress
and business executives to petition the State
Department.
"We're going to keep up the pressure," he said.
The Minister and the TV Crew
As the Washington campaign unfolded, the other
component of the Kurds' influence-building strategy
was taking shape three blocks from the beach in
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Bill Garaway, an evangelical Christian minister,
realized that the Kurds had a public-relations
problem when he told his neighbors in the seaside
town that he was performing missionary work in
Kurdistan.
"They said, 'Who are the Kurds?' " recalled Garaway.
"I said, 'There is nobody like them in the Middle
East. They're Muslim, but they hate fundamentalist
Islam. They love America.' "
On a trip to Iraq in late 2004, he pitched the idea
of airing commercials touting Kurdistan in the
United States. The Kurds were intrigued. They told
Garaway to produce a few spots.
He began filming in early 2005, with a camera crew
that captured children waving flags, shoppers
strolling through a new mall and peshmerga soldiers
saluting. By the end of the summer, he had created
three 30-second commercials.
The first, in which a succession of Kurds look into
the camera and thank the United States, aired last
summer on cable news stations. It generated
immediate buzz.
"Seeing Iraqis say 'thank you' was very powerful,"
Garaway said. "It's not something most Americans had
heard before."
Garaway, a rangy 62-year-old with receding silver
hair, became enamored with the Kurds more than a
decade ago, after concluding that many key events
described in the Bible occurred in Kurdistan,
including the stories of Noah's ark and Queen
Esther. He believes not only that the Kurds are
descendants of the ancient Medes people, but also
that the three wise men who the Bible says visited
baby Jesus in Bethlehem came from Kurdistan.
For Garaway, championing the Kurdish cause has been
the latest twist in a life filled with unexpected
turns. As he tells it, he protested the Vietnam War
as a college student, burning his draft card at a
UCLA rally in 1967. He subsequently lived in a
commune with 140 others in the hills above Palo
Alto, Calif., where he ran a food cooperative,
taught yoga, befriended members of the Grateful Dead
and hosted poet Allen Ginsberg in his treehouse. One
day, a group of friends who had left the commune
returned and invited Garaway to join their church.
He did, and soon after, he said, "God revealed
himself to me."
He and his wife settled in Santa Cruz in the early
1970s, where they opened a church, started to surf
and began to raise a family. They had six children,
all of whom were home-schooled. Four have become
professional surfers.
Garaway, who has served as the president of a
Christian aid organization operating in Kurdistan
(northern Iraq), said the Kurds should have an
independent homeland -- a view that goes well beyond
the stated positions of Qubad Talabani and other
Kurdish leaders.
"There's more of the best American values in
Kurdistan than anywhere else in the Islamic world,"
he said. "We should be encouraging them, not
standing in their way."
Garaway enlisted Russo Marsh & Rogers, a
Republican-oriented political consulting firm in
Sacramento, to place the commercials. The firm is
closely affiliated with Move America Forward, a
conservative advocacy group that has organized
rallies in support of continuing military operations
in Iraq. Last year, the group invited the director
of the Kurdistan Development Corporation, which
coordinated payment for the commercials, to speak at
a luncheon in San Francisco featuring parents of
military personnel who had died in Iraq.
Move America Forward also organized a trip for the
parents to visit Kurdistan, where they met with
Massoud Barzani and other prominent Kurds. Garaway
said he and Salvatore Russo, the chief strategist of
Russo Marsh & Rogers, arranged to be there at the
same time.
The parents are now "some of the strongest
supporters of the Kurds," Russo said. "For them,
it's a validation that their child didn't die in
vain."
After the trip, Move America Forward and the parents
issued a report calling for "developing and
maintaining a major U.S. military presence in Iraqi
Kurdistan" -- a key goal of Kurdish leaders.
Now Garaway hopes to take his national campaign on
behalf of Kurdistan to "the next level" with an
influential Washington partner: the
mechanic-turned-lobbyist Qubad Talabani. Garaway has
encouraged Talabani and other Kurdish leaders to
spend several million dollars this year to run all
three commercials on prime-time network television.
"If more of the American public sees these spots, we
can have a more rational approach to dealing with
the war," he said.
Getting Americans "to understand our story,"
Talabani agreed, is essential for the Kurds.
"We have a real story of the resilience of the
underdog, that shares the values of America, that is
succeeding," he added. "It's not unlike the American
dream."
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