Iraq ex-PM (still CIA) Allawi eyes old job

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6307243&cKey=1134312638000

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iyad Allawi reckons he could be Iraq's prime minister again after Thursday's election -- and this time, he says, it won't be Americans who put him there but, possibly, old enemies whose rebel towns he once ordered bombed.

"They know I wasn't after them," he said in an interview, chuckling at the popularity his strongman image has lately won him in a town where a year ago he gave U.S. troops the go-ahead to crush a revolt by minority Sunni Arab guerrillas.

Now, running on a broad, non-sectarian slate, the secular Shi'ite said late on Saturday he is talking to representatives of the insurgents and winning them over with promises to address their grievances and pump money into battered towns like Falluja.

"The others, of course, if they get me, they'll cut me into little pieces," he added, referring to the al Qaeda Islamists he vows to "fight from room to room" if his hopes are realised of returning to power at the head of a coalition government.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Blair is supporting him

A former senior British adviser was quoted as saying that Tony Blair was convinced Mr Allawi "is the best hope" for Iraq. He added that Mr Blair had sent a small team of operatives to give political help to Mr Allawi. In background briefings, British officials have heavily supported the former prime minister despite evidence that government corruption was rife under his administration.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article331947.ece

ie Blair is spending British taxpayers' money to help the man responsible for the bogus "45 minutes to launch WMD" claim.