Kurds Turn To
Capitol Hill To Open Up Travel, Get More Aid
By Kevin Bogardus
September 28, 2007
The Hill
One of America’s most reliable allies in the Iraq war, the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG), has turned to Congress for help in opening up northern Iraq to
more investment and travel.
KRG representatives have been working with lawmakers to soften the State
Department travel advisory for Iraq to acknowledge Kurdistan’s relative safety.
They argue that such a move would recognize the area’s greater stability and
lead to more American involvement.
Qubad Talabani, the KRG’s representative to the U.S., said his government turned
to Congress after receiving a “lukewarm, if not cold reception” from State
Department officials to a formal request to change the travel advisory.
Consequently, a “Dear Colleague” letter advocating the KRG’s position has
circulated Capitol Hill and attracted 11 signatories so far.
“We are working this great democratic system,” said Talabani of the effort. The
travel advisory “is negatively affecting [U.S.] policy in Iraq.”
A number of countries, including Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, have
already toned down their own travel warnings for Kurdistan.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hill, Talabani described what Kurdistan has
undertaken this year with Congress and emphasized Kurdish ties to the U.S.
“We strongly believe that America has a solid partner in the heart of the
Islamic Middle East,” said Talabani, the son of Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani.
“It’s the Kurds.”
The Kurds’ success has led to growing talk of independence from Iraq, but
Talabani emphasized that his office is not an embassy and that the KRG supports
keeping the country intact.
“We remain committed to a federal democracy in Iraq, and ‘federal’ is the key
here,” said Talabani. “But we do have a responsibility to protect the lives of
the 4 million-plus people who live in the Kurdistan region.”
The Kurds got a boost Thursday when the Senate passed a non-binding amendment to
the defense authorization bill that called for a federalist, decentralized Iraq.
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), a longtime advocate of a “soft partition” of the
country, was the author of the measure.
There is also a broader effort to build a Kurdish Congressional Caucus in
Congress, which Talabani is helping to lead.
Along with KRG’s liaison office, much of the government’s outreach to Capitol
Hill is being conducted through lobbying firms, such as the American Business
Development Group and Barbour Griffith & Rogers.
Chief congressional allies so far include Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and
Howard Berman (D-Calif.), who co-authored the travel advisory letter. Berman has
championed Kurdistan since the 1980s and called for sanctions against Saddam
Hussein’s regime after its chemical-weapons attacks on the Kurdish people in
1988.
“My fear is that the [current] travel advisory makes [Kurdistan] look like Basra
and Baghdad. I thought it made sense for the State Department to consider this,”
said Berman.
In the letter, Berman and Shays write that the travel warning does not
“represent the conditions on the ground,” and note that no Westerner has been
harmed by hostile action in the region since the Iraq war began in 2003.
Talabani says changing the travel advisory would also help attract more American
businesses to the region. In addition, the office is working on creating an
American-Kurdish Business Council to help facilitate more U.S. investment.
“We have a lot of foreign companies investing in Kurdistan today. Very few of
them are American,” he said.
Yet one of the KRG’s recent business successes — an oil exploration deal with
Hunt Oil — has attracted the unwarranted attention of Capitol Hill. Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio) has called for an investigation into the agreement because CEO
Ray Hunt, a major Republican campaign donor, is close with Bush administration
officials.
“No rules have been bent to get an American firm in. It has been a very
transparent process,” said Talabani.
Talabani also is trying to secure more reconstruction aid for Kurdistan. Six
hundred forty-seven million dollars in U.S. funds for reconstruction have been
appropriated to the Kurdish region, according to Baghdad’s U.S. Embassy.
Twenty-one billion dollars have been slated for Iraq’s reconstruction overall.
“On the face of it, it seems they are not getting their fair share of the
reconstruction monies,” said Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.). Rothman will propose
language in the House’s war supplemental appropriations bill that calls for more
reconstruction funds to go to Kurdistan.
The KRG has also tried to bring Congress to Kurdistan by ferrying more and more
congressional delegations to the region.
“We didn’t have to wear our helmets or our armor. That’s the only place [in
Iraq] we didn’t, except for the shower,” joked Sen. Ben Nelson. The Nebraska
Democrat, along with three other senators, recently stopped by Erbil after
traveling to Baghdad.
Part of the KRG’s message to Capitol Hill is to consider the region as part of a
redeployment strategy as U.S. soldiers leave Iraq. Calls for a quick withdrawal
are a particular worry for Talabani.
“We need to keep drumming this beat: that’s in your interests to keep forces in
Kurdistan and it is ultimately in our interests for you to do so,” he said.
