Iraq's Allawi: A U.S. Friend in the Highest Place

Iyad Allawi's appointment as prime minister of Iraq's interim government confirms that the United States still plans on handling Iraq via the same group of Iraqi elites that includes the recently ostracized Ahmed Chalabi. This group of intellectuals and exiles — the most pro-U.S. group in Iraq — also is most pliable to U.S. interests in the country. STRATFOR has obtained inside information about Allawi that offers insight into the former Baathist and into Washington's strategy for Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is the wild card in all of this.