Thread: Iraq/Dinar News until 5PM CST May 10,2007

WASHINGTON, May 8 (KUNA) -- White House spokesman Tony Snow on Tuesday said a proposal by Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives to fund the Iraq war through July, then give Congress the option of cutting off money afterward if conditions in Iraq do not improve, was "bad management." House leaders were briefing members of their party on the latest Iraq funding legislation on Tuesday. If its members agree to back the plan as expected, House Democratic leaders could schedule a vote on the new war spending bill later this week.

"We think it is appropriate to be able to give commanders what they are going to need, and also forces in the field, so that you can make long-term decisions in trying to build the mission," Snow said during a regular White House briefing.

Congressional Republicans, who continue to largely support fellow Republican President George W. Bush in his approach to the Iraq war, said the latest Democratic proposal would unfairly ration funds needed in combat.

The latest Democratic plan comes on the heels of the Bush veto last week of a 124.2-billion-dollar package that would have funded the war, but with a timetable that U.S. troops begin leaving Iraq by October 1. Democrats were unable to muster anywhere close to the two-thirds majority vote they needed to override the veto, so this week have begun considering their next move in the war funding standoff.

The new plan was expected to encounter resistance in the U.S. Senate, where even some Democrats said they oppose such short-term funding because it raises the question of whether troops will get the resources they need after July.

House Democrats are considering a plan to fund the war through September but withhold more than half of the money until July, when Bush would have to report on Iraqi government progress toward benchmarks such as quelling sectarian violence, disarming militias, sharing oil revenue equitably, revising the deBaathification law and scheduling provincial elections. Under the plan, Congress would then vote in late July on whether to release the remaining war funds. (end) rm.

Kuna site|Story page|US House Democrats'' plan to fund Iraq war through...5/8/2007

Iraqi parliament accuses Al-Jazeera


By HAMZA HENDAWI
Last updated: May 9th, 2007 01:53 PM (PDT)

Parliament overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to start legal proceedings against Al-Jazeera television over perceived insults by the Arabic news channel against Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
It was not immediately clear what the legal action would amount to. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, said only that the matter would be decided by parliament's legal department.

The move by the 275-seat house followed protests Friday in the southern cities of Basra and Najaf by hundreds of Shiites angered by an Al-Jazeera talk show in which the host questioned al-Sistani's leadership credentials and appeared to cast doubt on whether he personally authored his edicts.

The controversy has received extensive coverage by the Iraqi media, with some Shiite television channels devoting hours of air time to politicians and clerics expressing indignation. And in Shiite Iran, al-Sistani's birthplace, parliament on Sunday decided to ban Al-Jazeera reporters from its building in protest.

"We regret the Iraqi decision," Al-Jazeera's editor in chief Ahmed al-Sheik said from Doha, the Qatari capital. "This is an Iraqi decision. There is nothing that we can do. We have no problem with the Iraqi government and we deal with it like any other government," he said in a telephone interview.

Debating the issue before the vote, which was taken by a show of hands, several deputies suggested that the Qatar-based network be sued before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for what they said was its role in stoking sectarian strife in Iraq, a charge routinely leveled by Shiite politicians against the station.

Shiite lawmakers took turns Wednesday condemning Al-Jazeera, with some saying its coverage of Iraq made it akin to the media arm of al-Qaida.

"It's a channel that stirs sectarian strife in Iraq and causes blood to be shed as a result," charged senior Shiite lawmaker Waiel Abdul-Lateef.

Criticism by Sunni and Kurdish legislators, however, was muted, with some suggesting that the best defense against Al-Jazeera was for Iraqis to put their own house in order.

Responding to calls by some deputies for a boycott of Al-Jazeera by Iraqi politicians, Sunni Arab lawmaker Mahdi Hafez said the station's allegations should be countered by Iraqis appearing on its programs.

In unusually candid comments, lawmaker Safiyah al-Suheil said the root cause of the latest furor over Al-Jazeera was that al-Sistani has been brought into politics.

"(His) council and wisdom are important, but to constantly drag him into our issues is totally objectionable," said al-Suheil who, like Hafez, is a member of a secular bloc in parliament.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Shiite politicians have accused Al-Jazeera of championing the former leader's rule and the Sunni insurgency. The channel has been banned from operating in Iraq since 2004.

Security situation in Iraq not so dramatic, defence minister says
Posted on : 2007-05-09 | Author : DPA News Category : Middle East


Berlin- Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Obeidi said Wednesday that the security situation in his country was not as bad as it was often made out to be abroad. There was terrorist activity in only four of Iraq's 18 provinces, Obeidi said after talks with German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung at a military base in Berlin.

Jung pledged to increase Germany's contribution to combatting the violence in Iraq, where at least 19 people were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomb in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region.

He said Germany would train 350 Iraqi soldiers this year and supply the country with 120 trucks and 30 ambulances. The soldiers, he said, would be trained in vehicle maintenance.

Germany wanted to play a role in establishing a functional logistical network in Iraq and improving the nation's health care system, Jung said.

The minister said a decision had not been taken on whether to train the troops in Germany or in the United Arab Emirates, where the German armed forces have already trained 350 Iraqi soldiers as army instructors.

In Iraq, US-led coalition forces said Wednesday they had detained 18 suspected terrorists in the previous 24 hours. Some 80,000 US and Iraqi troops are currently implementing a two-month-old security crackdown in Baghdad.

Originally Posted by MOM2TWO

WAIT...Vegas doesn't accept dinars?!?!?!?! Oh no, let's hope they do allow gambling with Dong!!...I hear that is pretty much a sure thing!!

And again, as to not get in trouble.....it looks as though the FIL did something important today!!

As to not get in big trouble for chatting in the news thread.....uuuummmm, I see there was NO AUCTION TODAY!!!!!

You are cracking me up.(that's news, isn't it?)

Originally Posted by bob1940

I think You ment You WILL need the RV when You come Home. Vegas can be Brutal on the Pocket book!. ,But oh so much fun! Now thayt I said that , I NEED the RV before I can GO to VEGAS. ----Break a Leg! ----Or Better Yet BREAK the BANK>

WOOOOOOT!!!!

Article 140 looks like a good thing for our investment.......see still okay in the news thread!!

woooOOT

Interview: Iraq Kurd leader on oil law
Posted on : 2007-05-09 | Author : Energy Analysis Editor
News Category : Energy


By BEN LANDO To Iraq's Kurdish leadership, the issue of how to apportion the third-largest pools of oil in the world is "a make-or-break deal" for the country as a whole, a top official told United Press International. "The oil issue for us is a red line. It will signify our participation in Iraq or not," Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Regional Government ' s representative to the United States, said in an interview from his Washington office. The KRG and the central Iraqi government reached a deal in February on the hydrocarbons framework -- though not on other key companion bills -- and a self-imposed deadline of late May seemed possible to meet.

But the Iraqi Oil Ministry, at a meeting it set up last month in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, with other Iraqi oil experts and politicians, unveiled the annexes to the hydrocarbons law -- its list distributing control of oil fields between central and KRG control -- and a law re-establishing the Iraq National Oil Co., which Kurdish leadership automatically rejected.

"This sets us back to square one, a point that's unacceptable to us. We are trying to modernize Iraq, build a new Iraq, built on new foundations, new policies. The symbol of this new Iraq will be how it manages its oil infrastructure," Talabani said. "And if people want to revert back to Saddam-era policies of a state-controlled oil sector with no accountability, with no accountability to the Parliament or the people of the country, with no oversight except from by one or two, then I'm sorry, that is not the Iraq that the Kurds bought into. That is not the Iraq that the Kurds would want to be part of." "If a centralized oil regime is imposed on us, we will not participate in the state of Iraq," Talabani said. "And we have to make it absolutely clear to our friends in Washington, to our brothers in Baghdad, this is a make-or-break deal for Iraq." He said Iraq needs to embrace the free market and break free from the nationalized mindset. Numerous oil and Iraqi experts as well as key Iraq oil union leaders have told UPI that Iraqis see nationalized oil with pride. And opponents of the oil law also say it gives too much to foreign companies.

The Kurds, however, have little to show from the Saddam Hussein era, aside from persecution, death and little investment in its economy or oil sector. They gained autonomy in 1991 and, governing an autonomous three-province region now, are prospering. Airplanes fly internationally from the airport in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan's capital. Violence in the region is relatively nil compared with the rest of the country, though the first major attack in more than four years killed 14 people in Irbil Wednesday. Despite lacking the law, the KRG has signed multiple deals with foreign companies to develop its oil and natural-gas sector.

Iraq only produces about 2 million barrels per day. With investment -- domestic or foreign -- Iraq's 115 billion barrels in reserves could handle much higher output.

Many of the arguments over the law are related to the 2005 constitution. It was written vaguely to garner support. Now there is a dispute as to which oil fields are to be governed by the central government and which by the regions.

Tariq Shafiq, an Iraq oil expert now living in Amman, Jordan, and drafter of the original law last summer, said the Iraq National Oil Co. should be independent of the Oil Ministry, and regions could choose the company's board of directors. (Shafiq has since come out against the law, saying it has been altered too much in negotiations.) He said Iraq needs a central strategy for the best management of the country's oil.

Talabani said the KRG favors an INOC limited in scope and open to foreign investment, and says the current law gives INOC control over 93 percent of Iraq's oil. "This will hamper needed investment," he said. "It's only by bringing in the biggest and the best from the international community, to partner with, not to steal, but to partner with the Iraqi government, can we develop Iraq's oil accordingly," Talabani said. "And there's a worrying unwillingness to act under a free-market-style concept here. It won't go through. It won't go through the Parliament this way. There will be too many people opposed to it." Other bills needing to be passed include a reorganization of the Oil Ministry and the revenue-sharing law. Talabani said there were lingering fears Kurds will again be deprived of funds and investment.

"We want to create an automatic payment mechanism where it doesn't rely on the goodwill of the finance minister or the oil minister for the regions to get their fair share," he said. "Trust is lacking in Iraq, and unfortunately it's been Iraq's miserable history that has created this system, this society that mistrusts each other, which is why something as critical as oil can be a trust-building measure," Talabani said. "By putting in place mechanisms and institutions that can ensure that I will not get robbed again, that my resources will not be used against me again, will eventually over time build my trust." (e-mail: [email protected])

Iraq workers stall strike for Oil Ministry
Posted on : 2007-05-09 | Author : Energy News Editor
News Category : Energy


BASRA, Iraq, May 9 (UPI) Iraq's government will respond to oil workers who have delayed a strike that could take 1.6 million barrels per day from the market.

In a news release Tuesday, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions said it would stop work Thursday in opposition of the proposed hydrocarbons law, as well as other worker conditions.

Michael Eisenscher, national coordinator of U.S. Labor Against the War, said the workers postponed the strike until Monday "because they had a conversation with somebody at the Oil Ministry who said they wanted to respond to workers demands and needed time to prepare a response." USLAW is a coalition of labor unions in regular communication with Iraqi workers, including organizing a tour of the United States for Iraqi labor leaders in June.

The IFOU boasts more than 26,000 members, mostly in the southern region where most of Iraq's 2 million bpd are produced and all of the 1.6 million bpd are exported.

The vast majority of that goes through the port of Basra.

"If the port were to close down, that's one way of bottling it up," Eisenscher said, as well as utilizing "critical workers in the pipeline area or refineries." The unions have struck before, successfully fighting wage decreases and privatization. "It's an issue of such import to them that I can't imagine they wouldn't have tremendous support for workers," Eisenscher said. The unions oppose language that they deem offers too much of Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven reserves to foreign companies.

"Since we are working to make progress in production, we need a real participation in all the laws that are related to the oil policy," IFOU President Hassan Jumaa Awad told United Press International in March. "We are the sons of this sector, and we have the management and technical capability and we have the knowledge on all the oil fields."

381 re-segregated politically service

Oil denies control terrorist elements on the field east of Baghdad

بغداد - طارق الاعرجي

Baghdad-Tariq Al-Araji

The Egyptian Ministry of Oil controlled armed terrorist elements on the field east of Baghdad, confirmed the continuation of work in the field under the supervision of the Ministry of Oil in the 381 ministry decided to function politically segregated after they meet special conditions so in a time in which the review and check the files on this and the remaining tranche to consider the possibility of repatriation of the service.

Assem Jihad, spokesman for the Ministry of Oil to "Assabah" : said that work is continuing Field east of Baghdad, under the supervision of the Ministry of Oil and no control of any armed terrorist elements on any part of the field and Cadres and continuing work on a daily basis. On the other hand, the Oil Ministry has sacked 381 to a political post after satisfied that the conditions necessary for that.

He said jihad : that those who returned to career service has been deployed between companies and the ministry at 111 in the Oil Products Distribution Company and 73 of the South Oil Company and 23 in the North Gas Company and 14 of the North Refineries Company and 29 of the center Refineries Company and 14 oil exploration company.

He added that those who returned to the Oil Projects Company numbered 19 and the number who have returned to the company pipelines 5 and 3 gas company and 11 Iraqi Drilling Company and the Institute of Oil 4 and Gas Filling Company 7 and Company oil tankers Iraqi North Oil Company 32 and the headquarters of the Ministry and the South Refineries Company 16 and marketing company oil and a research and development center there were only two hostile to them. He pointed out that the decision Jihad reappointment referee for the political chapter of the enemy for increment and promotion, retirement and the provisions of Law No. 24 of 2005 and included a decision to return personnel covered political separation and now deceased, who was allowed to serve the purposes of retirement.

He stated that the ministry continues to review and check the files on this and the remaining portion to consider the possibility of repatriating service career, adding that the ministry had returned to serve more than 3600 political dismissed in earlier resolutions.

Translated version of http://www.alsabaah.com/

Originally Posted by cooldolphins

woooOOT

shhhhh, my daughter is trying to sleep!!!

lol, you are a hoot!!! (old news, but still news!!!!)