Thread: Iraq/Dinar News to April 19, 2007 10PM CST

Hope this works.

New equipment to be used to foil Baghdad car bombs
18 Apr 2007 16:29:54 GMT
Source: Reuters


NUMANIYA, Iraq, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces will start using special equipment to foil car bombs in Baghdad, one of the deadliest weapons insurgents are using to carry out sectarian attacks, a top Iraqi commander said on Wednesday. Speaking before a wave of car bombs in mainly Shi'ite districts of Baghdad killed 170 people and wounded more than 200, Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad, said: "The technical apparatus has arrived in Baghdad... They are the means to uncover those explosives ... and will be used shortly in the combat arena." Qanbar did not elaborate on what was the equipment or its specific capabilities. Wednesday's car bomb attacks were the deadliest in the city since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a security plan in February aimed at halting the country's slide into all-out civil war. While the crackdown has reduced murder rates, U.S. commanders say they have had less success in curbing car and suicide bombings, despite discovering several car bomb factories. Civilian casualties have also increased across Iraq as insurgents turn away from Baghdad. Insurgents have targeted markets and bridges in recent attacks. "If the enemy adopts other measures like bridges and other targets, this proves that terrorism has no morality ... it proves that the (terrorists) are bankrupt and that the plan is succeeding," Qanbar added.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO856865.htm

Originally Posted by zipper

But Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr said in an interview that Russia was holding out on debt forgiveness until talks begin on concessions that Russian oil and gas companies had under Saddam Hussein. Russian Embassy officials in Washington declined to comment late yesterday.


What's with this? I thought that Russia had resolved this awhile ago?!

I tend to believe that Russia will be the last one to give the green light ...they will push it all the way to the end. I am Romanian...I know them. They will squeeze everything they can out of this deal, watch it....

IHS Launches First Detailed Report on Iraq's Oil Reserves and Production Potential Since Start of Iraq Conflict: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Saudi Arabia mulls debt relief for Iraq - Yahoo! News

United Press International - Energy - Briefing

Originally Posted by Wm.Knowles

Hello everyone. Lets see.... More income in.... less currency in circulation.....HCL to go before parliment next week......ISX rumored to open this week......WTO meeting on the 20th of this month......ICI meeting May 3rd and 4th.....GOI operating within budget.......SA relieves debt.....Hopefully Kuwait to follow........More oil reserves than SA......Natural gas coming to the forefront.......expected increase in oil production to 6 MBD in 3 to 4 years........Can anyone think of anything else?
Have a good day!

umm i know i am only a duck but i can think of one more thing ....

Saudi Arabia writes off $18bn Iraq debt
From correspondents in Saudi Arabia
April 19, 2007 02:49am

Saudi Arabia has decided to write off 80 per cent of the more than $US15 billion ($18 billion) it is owed by Iraq, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said.

As part of its efforts to help Iraq rebuild, the Bush administration has been pressing Iraq's creditors to follow Washington's lead and write off debt they are owed by Baghdad.

Asked at a news conference at the Arab League in Cairo whether the kingdom had agreed to write off 80 per cent of Iraq's debt, Prince Saud said: “Yes, yes.”

Asked when the decision was reached, he said: “When we finished the negotiations with Iraq.”

The Washington Post earlier quoted a senior Saudi official as saying Iraq owed between $US15 billion ($18 billion) and $US18 billion ($21.5 billion) to his country.

Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr estimates his country's debt at $US140 billion ($167.67 billion).

Much of that money was borrowed to finance the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran.

Jabr, who was in Washington for World Bank meetings, said he had asked Saudi Arabia to forgive all of Iraq's debt but was rebuffed.

So far, 52 countries have cancelled 80 to 100 per cent of Iraq's debt, Jabr told the Post.

Saudi Arabia writes off $18bn Iraq debt | NEWS.com.au

this isnt going to be a popular article i suspect but i found it funny.

It's time for a 2nd Amendment Iraq Marshall Plan
by John Aravosis (DC) · 4/18/2007 12:42:00 PM ET

Guns don't kill people, evil-doers kill people. That's the theory a lot of Republicans are now promoting about the violence at Virginia Tech. If only those now-dead students had all been armed, the story goes, they'd have been able to start a mass circle of gunfire in the middle of their classroom and kill the shooter (and sure, they'd kill everyone else in the classroom too, but they'd be dead AND exercising their 2nd Amendment rights, so it'd be okay). Anyway, I say the Republicans put their money where their mouths are and establish a 2nd Amendment Marshall Plan (we can call it the LaPierre plan), and ship as many guns and other weapons as possible into the hands of every single Iraqi in order to help them defend themselves (and we could hire Paul Wolfowitz's girlfriend to run it - a two-fer!). First off, we'd be guaranteeing the 2nd Amendment rights of every Iraqi, and after all, that's way more important than winning (or even living). And second, if everyone had more weapons, they'd all be able to join in on keeping the peace that much better. While we're at it, why not give em all WMD? Nothing stops a tuhrerist from driving a chlorine truck into a market like knowing that every grandma in that market has her own chlorine truck ready and waiting to drive back into YOUR market.

Yes, weapons for all. The lessons of Virginia Tech live on.

It's time for a 2nd Amendment Iraq Marshall Plan - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

this isnt going to be a popular article i suspect but i found it funny.
It's time for a 2nd Amendment Iraq Marshall Plan - AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth

Isnt every Iraqi household allowed to have one weapon, whether it be a pistol or an AK 47, anyway??

Iraq's Kurds Object to Oil Law

Iraq's Kurds Object to Oil Law--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted GMT 4-18-2007 14:32:35
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(Reuters) -- Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will not sign up to details in the emerging oil law that would centralise control of most of the country's reserves, the region's top energy official said on Wednesday.

Disagreement could delay the country's parliament from passing the law, seen as key to attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment needed to overhaul the industry and boost oil output.

Annexes to the draft oil law that aim to wrest oilfields from regional governments and place them in the hands of a newly formed state-oil company are unconstitutional, Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq told Reuters.

Iraqi Kurds Play Hardball on Expanding Territory
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Posted GMT 4-18-2007 14:35:6
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Amman, Jordan (AP) -- Recent political gains by Iraqi Kurds are raising alarms in neighboring Turkey and increasing the risk of greater instability in Iraq's oil-rich north.

The moves - among the most significant involving Kurds since the 2003 invasion of Iraq - have been largely overshadowed by the struggle to curb violence around Baghdad, but they could have a strong impact on Iraq's future, including whether it remains a united country.

Kurdish boldness also comes at a critical time for Turkey, which is facing a growing threat in its own Kurdish region from separatist guerrillas raiding out of northern Iraq and has a presidential election coming up that could aggravate tensions between Islamist and secular Turks.

The fallout already has shaken relations between the United States and Turkey, a longtime ally increasingly frustrated that the overstretched American military in Iraq cannot crack down on Kurdish guerrillas.

That has the United States in a bind - "unwilling to open a new front in northern Iraq. Nor can it afford to lose its support from Iraq's Kurdish population," said Dr. Andrew McGregor, a security analyst and Kurdish expert in Canada, writing on the Web site of the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank.

At the center of the fight are Kurdish aspirations for the ancient city of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oilfields.

The Kurds want to incorporate Kirkuk into their self-governing region in northern Iraq. They won a major concession in March when they pressured the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki into approving plans to move thousands of Arabs out of Kirkuk and resettle them elsewhere.

The program targets Arabs who moved to Kirkuk after July 14, 1968, when Saddam Hussein's party took power. Saddam sent thousands of Arabs, many of them impoverished Shiite Muslims from the south, into Kirkuk to dilute the Kurdish presence there.

The Kurds' aim is to reduce the Arab population of the city before Kirkuk residents vote later this year whether to join the Kurdish self-governing region.

Opponents hope to delay the referendum or cancel it altogether. They fear that gaining control of Kirkuk would lead the Kurds, who make up 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's population, to set up an independent country.

Nevertheless, the opponents within Maliki's administration caved in after the Kurds threatened to resign from the Cabinet - a move that would have spelled the end of the fragile, U.S.-backed governing coalition.

"For the Kurds, Kirkuk is nonnegotiable," said Dr. Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Violence will only continue and spike toward the referendum."

The Kurds used similar hardball tactics in February to win concessions granting them a major say in what companies are granted rights to exploit Iraqi oilfields in Kurdish-controlled areas.

But the March decision on relocation was even bigger, sending shock waves into neighboring Turkey, which has long feared the rising stature of Iraqi Kurds will further embolden Kurdish guerrillas fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

The insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, uses bases in northern Iraq to launch attacks into southern Turkey, and Turkey is growing angry over the failure of U.S. and Iraqi forces to curb the attacks.

After the Iraqi Cabinet's decision to relocate Arabs from Kirkuk, Turkey warned publicly that its interests in the region cannot be ignored.

The hardline head of Turkey's military, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, went further, requesting permission last week to attack Kurdish guerrillas inside Iraq. Turkey's government isn't likely to approve, but the request alone has strained relations between Ankara and Washington.

The president of Iraq's Kurdish self-governing region, Massoud Barzani, further angered Turkish leaders by warning that Kurds "will not let the Turks intervene in Kirkuk."

Some analysts believe Barzani pushed for the Arab relocation plan because he fears the U.S. might block the referendum on Kirkuk's status, both to ease ethnic tensions and placate Turkey.

"He's trying to create a sense of inevitability that would make it impossible for the (U.S.) administration" to stand in the Kurds' way on Kirkuk, said Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Barzani also may have timed his move to exploit political uncertainty in Turkey, as the Islamic-leaning prime minister seeks to be president, raising fears of serious friction with the secular-minded Turkish military.

Barzani also may be using the PKK guerrillas as leverage in exchange for Turkey's acceptance of a Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk.

"The one card (Barzani) has to deal with the Turks is the PKK," Parris said. "He could tell them, 'Don't forget, I'm the only guy who can solve your PKK problem.'"

Robert H. Reid

Iraqi Kurds Play Hardball on Expanding Territory

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

Iraq's Kurds Object to Oil Law

"Disagreement could delay the country's parliament from passing the law, seen as key to attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment needed to overhaul the industry and boost oil output."

Now what's the problem? Can't they all just get along?