Thread: Iraqi/Dinar News before 3-12-2007 7:45PM CentralTimeZone

Georgia to send more troops to Iraq


Associated Press
Friday March 9, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Georgia is to raise the number of its soldiers serving with the US-led coalition in Iraq to more than 2,000 from its current 850, it announced today.
A statement from the pro-western president, Mikhail Saakashvili, said the country was committing the troops for one year, and that Georgian officials were consulting with their US and Iraqi counterparts about how the troops would be deployed.

"We understand that the next year will be decisive in terms of stabilising the situation in that country," the statement said. "We want to do everything possible to help the Iraqi people and coalition partners bring stability, peace and freedom to Iraq."

Georgia's ambassador to Washington said the former Soviet republic wanted to send a signal to Nato, which it is keen to join.

Originally Posted by Mike5200

Baghdad fisherman bagging more fish and fewer bodies
by Bryan Pearson

BAGHDAD, March 8, 2007 (AFP) - Fisherman Haider Kamees can tell you that the new Baghdad security plan is starting to work -- he's pulling more fish and fewer bodies out of the Tigris river.

With the city's streets calmer since Iraqi and US forces launched Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing the Law) last month, Kamees said, he can be on the river a little earlier and head home a little later than before.

"I'm able to catch more fish now, and people are less afraid to come to the riverside to buy them," said the 21-year-old Shiite fisherman, whose family was forced to flee its home in the Sunni neighbourhood of Dura a year ago.

Even better, now that many of the death squads which prowled the capital's streets by night are in retreat, he is confronted by fewer bloated corpses as he works his nets from dawn until late afternoon.

"Before I'd find bodies in the river just about every day," the slightly bearded curly-haired fisherman said, speaking from his long, narrow green fishing boat on the banks of the Tigris.

"Now it is better. The last time we found a body was about 10 days ago."

Most of the corpses, he said, were of males in their thirties, whose hands were tied behind their backs. They were blindfolded and had been shot in the head at close range.

By the time the corpses surface from the river bed -- usually after about 10 days but sometimes it takes a month -- they are in an advanced state of decomposition.

Trying to ensure as little flesh as possible falls from the bloated victims, he and his cousin Abbas Najm, 22, carefully pull them from the water into their boat and head for the nearest riverbank police post.

"It is our religious duty to do this," said Kamees, wrinkling his nose even at the thought of the nauseating task. "If the body comes to me it is because Allah wants me to take it out of the water and make sure it is buried."

Kamees, who left school at the age of nine to help his father and grandfather trawl the river for fish, said that despite the slow easing of the violence in the capital, the "time of torture" still prevails in Baghdad.

"My family lives in a small room after they had to leave their house... we have been shot at both by US and Iraqi forces, we can't fish at night because of the curfew, and we still have to be careful when we walk in the street."

Tellingly, he pointed to a distant bridge.

"We dare not fish beyond that bridge or we will be killed. Four other Shiite fishermen were killed there. It is a Sunni area," Kamees said as he and his cousin drift off on the current with the morning catch -- four large carp of about two kilos (four pounds) each.

A ferryman in a blue shirt who said he's 30 but won't give his name -- "I am scared" -- added that he too had noticed fewer corpses floating down the Tigris.

"There used to be so, so many," he said. "So, so many."

"Now there are very few. The last time I saw a body was 15 days ago. This is because of the security plan."

Police manning a riverside post said they too have been fishing fewer corpses from the river.

"Some days we used to find five or six bodies," said a policemen wearing body armour and toting an automatic rifle.

He dated the problem to late last year when, according to the United Nations, almost 100 people a day were being kidnapped and murdered by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen.

"Taking bodies from the river has been our main job for a while," he said. "We bring them to shore, lay them next to the river and cover them until the investigating officer officer arrives.

"Now it's no longer a daily event. This is true for the other 10 posts on the river bank as well," he said.

He hopes that the Baghdad security plan will halt the violence so that he and his colleagues can get on with the jobs they were originally tasked with -- stopping children from swimming in the river, ensuring fishermen follow the rules and trying to prevent suicidal people leaping from a nearby bridge.

Leafing through this unit's log book, the policeman, who refused to give his name, found an entry marking the last time a body was discovered.

"March 4: man aged 35-40, white T-shirt, black jeans, black shoes. Blindfolded. Hands bound behind back. Shot in back of head."

Fisherman Kamees acknowledged that the carp he is catching may have been feeding on such corpses.

"It is possible," he said. "But there is much other food around for them. I try not to think about it."

bpz/dc/srm/ns AFP 080246 GMT 03 07

Copyright (c) 2007 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 03/07/2007 21:48:11

Remind me to skip the seafood platter at Long John Silver's and Red Lobster my next visit to Iraq.

Row Over New Iraqi Law
Updated: 09:35, Friday March 09, 2007

The Government has denied claims it intervened to influence the shaping of Iraq's oil law.

Critics say the new law will hand over control of the country's oil supply to foreign multi-nationals.

An al-Jazeera English TV documentary report claims Government officials have been reviewing the draft oil law, commenting on it and trying to influence it.

But, speaking on the programme, Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells describes criticism of British involvement in shaping Iraq's oil law as "paranoia gone completely loopy".

The draft oil law aims to share revenues equitably among the country's ethnic groups.

Supporters maintain that foreign oil firms have the billions needed to upgrade the country's decrepit wells, pipelines and port.


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The new bill - allocating oil revenues between Iraq's 18 provinces based on their population levels - has been approved by the Iraqi government's cabinet and is expected to be approved by the Iraqi parliament by May.

Dr Howells tells the programme, to be shown on Sky Channel 514 at 2130, that "it's a shameful lie" to suggest the British government is not interested in the welfare of the Iraqi people.

He says critics are only interested in "grandising their own conspiracy theories".

In the programme, oil campaigner Greg Muttitt claims he has uncovered new evidence under the Freedom of Information Act.

This, he says, shows that "British diplomats and officials in Whitehall have been reviewing drafts of the law, commenting on it and trying to influence it".
.

Minister hints at hike of fuel products



By Wisam Ghali



Azzaman, March 8, 2007



The Oil Ministry will have to hike prices of fuel products which are currently sold at highly subsidized rates, according to the minister Hussein Shahristani.



The minister made the remarks ahead of a meeting with the International Monetary Fund which is coordinating the writing off of Iraqi debts.



Shahristani said Iraq is obliged to honor the pledges it has made to the fund in return for financial assistance.



He did not say when the ministry will introduce the new rates but added the country will eventually have to reduce its huge fuel subsidies.



Despite the subsidies, which are reported to cost hundreds of millions of dollars each month, Iraq still suffers from chronic fuel shortages.



Subsidized fuel is hard to obtain and most Iraqis are forced to buy on the spot market at exorbitant rates.



Iraq currently imports huge volumes of fuel despite its massive oil wealth.



But the selling and distribution of fuel is the type of economic activity where corrupt officials and profiteers are cashing in.



Shahristani said IMF has asked Iraq to raise fuel prices to levels comparable to those in neighboring countries.

Originally Posted by Mike5200

Minister hints at hike of fuel products



By Wisam Ghali



Azzaman, March 8, 2007



The Oil Ministry will have to hike prices of fuel products which are currently sold at highly subsidized rates, according to the minister Hussein Shahristani.



The minister made the remarks ahead of a meeting with the International Monetary Fund which is coordinating the writing off of Iraqi debts.



Shahristani said Iraq is obliged to honor the pledges it has made to the fund in return for financial assistance.



He did not say when the ministry will introduce the new rates but added the country will eventually have to reduce its huge fuel subsidies.



Despite the subsidies, which are reported to cost hundreds of millions of dollars each month, Iraq still suffers from chronic fuel shortages.



Subsidized fuel is hard to obtain and most Iraqis are forced to buy on the spot market at exorbitant rates.



Iraq currently imports huge volumes of fuel despite its massive oil wealth.



But the selling and distribution of fuel is the type of economic activity where corrupt officials and profiteers are cashing in.



Shahristani said IMF has asked Iraq to raise fuel prices to levels comparable to those in neighboring countries.

It's been discussed with IMF and they agreed NOT to raise the prices a couple of days ago .

(MENAFN) A Spokesman at the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that the government will construct new pipelines in Iraq's north to protect its oil industry from destruction acts, Iraq Directory reported.

The official said that also aims to expand Iraq's export pipelines and thrive the northern region as well, explained he.

The new pipelines will run through the northern areas of Kirkuk, Irbil and Zakho.

The meeting of the neighboring countries of Iraq held in Istanbul

A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry Levent Bilman that all parties concerned agreed to hold the meeting on Iraq in Istanbul.

Bellman said in a press conference that Iraq's neighboring countries, in addition to representatives of the five permanent members of UN Security Council representatives of the G-8 will be attending the meeting.

He added that the first meeting would be held in Iraq on the 10th of this month, then will hold a meeting in Cairo at the level foreign ministers and after the Istanbul meeting will be, pointing out that the Istanbul meeting date has yet been set, to be precise.

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Originally Posted by Jola

It's been discussed with IMF and they agreed NOT to raise the prices a couple of days ago .

How many times have we seen over the last three months or so that if you wait a couple of days , a story will come out completely contradicting what you read earlier. We have seen this over and over again and its hard to tell if it is deliberate misinformation or just a reflection of the diversity of the Iraqi press offering different points of view from different factions and interests.Hopefully we don't have too much longer in trying to decipher what is what.

We should have an answer following Monday's 3rd and 4th review of the SBA, either it will be a benchmark that IMF has understandably allowed Iraq to put aside or one that IMF will complain of.

Originally Posted by Mike5200

How many times have we seen over the last three months or so that if you wait a couple of days , a story will come out completely contradicting what you read earlier. We have seen this over and over again and its hard to tell if it is deliberate misinformation or just a reflection of the diversity of the Iraqi press offering different points of view from different factions and interests.Hopefully we don't have too much longer in trying to decipher what is what.

The emergence of a group of visitors between al-Sadr in Karbala

09/03/2007
Iraqi Shiite sources confirmed today that the young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has emerged today between the crowds in the city of Karbala the number of members of the 2 million Iraqi Shiite ceremony commemorated the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, after the disappearance of more than a month of which he said he went to Iran.

He said a Shiite source close to the Sadri trend led by Muqtada al-Sadr said that the young cleric has emerged today, Friday, in the city of Karbala (110 km south of Baghdad), he saw hundreds of visitors to the city to participate in the ceremony, a Shiite Hussein "and started chanting slogans for his life The Power and condemning terrorists and the Baathists and Altkverein Alnwasab. " It began more than two million visitors tight security measures involving ground troops and air strength of ten thousand military this funeral ceremonies in a Shiite shrine encroached to the city from different parts of Iraq on foot for about two weeks in the ritual creates Shiites every year of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, despite killing about 150 people in suicide bombings and a shooting attack in a few days three years. The relocation of the "Nehrit Net" on the Internet in a report to the "Ilaf" Karbala police officer as saying that he had been taken aback by the emergence of Al-Sadr among the hundreds of supporters, while an eyewitness said he saw the chest at the beginning Street amid fact Karbala are surrounded by escorts workshops protection.

The Sadr disappeared appearing for more than a month amid confirmations of Iraqi and American to leave Iran following the commencement of American forces a military campaign against supporters in the Sadr City in Baghdad and some southern provinces where arrested more than 600 elements of Al-Mahdi Army group and accused of carrying out the killing and abduction of the year against the relocation. But his aides denied by these reports and insisted that he did not leave Iraq did not speak after the appearance in Karbala .

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