Thread: Iraq/Dinar News until 5/23/07 Midnight CST

Originally Posted by Hkp

Here is another edition to it as well:

Armed robbery in the death toll billion dinars

تمت إضافة الخبر بتاريخ 17-5-2007, 17:50

Added news on 5-17-2007 17:50

... Armed robbery in the death toll billion dinars

Baquba-conscious - of Omar Abdel Rahman

A security source from the Iraqi police in Baquba today, Thursday, a broad that the armed Busto armed salaries one of the capital and seized billion Iraqi dinars.
Where the source said the armed group, the armed robbery on the salaries of the Directorate of Social Welfare on Thursday afternoon, where, according to a source formation
A committee of three employees, and (5) protection of personnel to bring the salaries of the people of the death of the Rafidain Bank, received salaries, which are estimated one billion Iraqi dinars after assuming billion!!!

Memorial dinars gunmen ambushed staff in the area Khalil Pasha, and took the staff and guards to an unknown and captured the salary!

..

This source did not give any other details

Translated version of http://www.iraq4allnews.dk/index.php?sec=home

I'd like the English version, not the igpay atinlay ersionvay.

anksthay.

How will Iraq share the oil?
In the US, the demand that Iraq pass an oil law is a 'benchmark' that is becoming a flashpoint.By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Washington
The reason Iraq needs to pass a new oil law, President Bush has said, is to "share oil revenues among all of Iraq's citizens" – Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds – and to help unify the country.

It's a goal broadly supported in the US Congress and by the Iraq Study Group, whose 2006 report said such an oil law was needed, too, to "create a fiscal and legal framework for investment" in the industry.

But now the oil law's status as a US "benchmark" for progress in Iraq is emerging as a flash point in both Baghdad and Washington.

So far, the frustration on Capitol Hill is mainly over the Iraqi government's perceived foot-dragging in finishing the oil law, which US advisers had a hand in crafting. But resistance is also surfacing to the substance of the oil bill, especially whether its main effect will be to ensure international companies a lucrative role in Iraq's rich oil fields. With House and Senate conferees about to put their heads together on a new war-funding bill that includes benchmarks for progress in Iraq, the proposed oil legislation is beginning to come under closer scrutiny.

"While we can't confirm it, there are enough reports out there that appear to indicate that undue, unfair preference and the influence of our oil companies are part of the Iraqi hydrocarbon law, and if that is true, that is not correct," says Rep. Joe Sestak (D) of Pennsylvania, a former admiral and defense adviser to the Clinton administration. "The aim of benchmarks is to help the process along, but we need benchmarks that are appropriate for the Iraqis and the Americans – not just our economy but our ideals."

US firms as the major beneficiary?

Fueling new resistance to the oil benchmark are reports that the draft law in fact says little about sharing oil revenues among Iraqi groups and a lot about setting up a framework for investment that may be disadvantageous to Iraqis over the long term. On the flip side: Iraq's oil industry badly needs new investment, and oil companies are reluctant to go into Iraq without a legal framework that ensures that the contracts they sign will be respected by future Iraqi governments.

Last week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) of Ohio, who is a presidential candidate, led off opposition to the draft law in a letter to Democratic colleagues. On Thursday, a coalition of oil industry watchdog groups and peace activists called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Reid to drop the Iraqi oil law as a benchmark for progress in Iraq.

"If Democrats are perceived to be advocating withdrawal [of US troops] only after access to Iraqi oil has been assured, this will do little to reassure critics," says Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, a watchdog group that drafted the letter.

In an open letter to Democrats in the US Congress last week, Hasan Jum'a Awwad, head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, echoed that view. He urged that lawmakers "not link withdrawal [of US troops] with the oil law, especially since the USA claimed that it came to Iraq as a liberator and not in order to control Iraq's resources."

For most US lawmakers, the delay in passing the oil law shows that Iraq's new leaders aren't making tough political choices about their country's future, such as how to fairly distribute Iraq's oil wealth among all Iraqi groups.

"The Iraqi government remains in a dangerous stalemate: No oil law," Senate majority leader Harry Reid said during a debate on war policy on Wednesday.

Why Iraqis don't want to rush

But in Baghdad, some Iraqi lawmakers say the oil issue is too vast and complex to rush. It should be the last issue – not one of the first – to be resolved, they say.

Moreover, Iraqi critics of the current draft law say it does not address the issues that US lawmakers think it does.

"The actual draft law has nothing to do with sharing the oil revenue," says former Iraqi oil minister Issam Al Chalabi, in a phone interview from Amman, Jordan. The law aims to set a framework for investment by outside oil companies, including favorable production-sharing agreements that are typically used to reward companies for taking on risk, he says.

"We know the oil is there. Geological studies have been made for decades on these oil fields, so why would we let them [international firms] have a share of the oil?" he adds. "Iraqis will say this is solid proof that Americans have staged the war ... because of this law."

On Feb. 26, Iraq's Cabinet approved the draft oil law, which was to be sent to parliament by March 15 – along with four annexes that provide the fine print, draft oil contracts, and a draft oil revenue-sharing law. The Bush administration wanted Iraq's parliament to approve the entire oil package by the end of May. But as of this week, not even the draft oil law has been submitted to parliament.

"The US talks about the sovereignty of Iraq, but why are they getting involved in this oil law?" asks Mohammed al-Dynee, member of parliament representing the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, a Sunni group. He is in Washington to try to persuade Congress to drop calls for the oil law. "Even if this law can pass, which I doubt, it will remain ink on paper and will not be implemented on the ground."

An unofficial English translation of the draft law was first released on the website of the Kurdish Regional Government and has since been carried on oil industry watchdog sites such as Oil Change.

At least one 'red flag'

In New York, oil industry analyst Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. has reviewed both the official Arabic version of the draft law and the unofficial English translation and says they are ambiguous and seem to be written in haste.

"The law did not strike me as something that was explicitly designed to favor American companies, although I'm not ruling that out," he says.

But the stipulation that a new Federal Oil and Gas Council must include foreign participation did "raise a red flag," he says. Under the draft law, the council would carry out Iraqi oil policies and set criteria for foreign companies working in the industry.

"Why shouldn't Iraq use Iraqi nationals to decide how the contracts will be awarded? They have oil engineers. Use the best brains in the country and, hopefully. they will do what is in the best interest of the country," he says. "Otherwise, there's an impression that American companies are telling Iraqis what to do."

Foreign investment needed in Iraq

With the world's second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, Iraq is the top prize in the international oil business. Iraq needs new foreign investment to help modernize its oil industry, which has been closed to new technology for the past 25 years, says Mr. Gheit.

But even with a new draft oil law, international oil companies won't be eager to send engineers into a nation in turmoil. "It's very difficult for oil companies to recruit people willing to work in the Iraqi oil fields. It's mayhem," he says.

"If the idea of the law is to expedite getting international oil [firms] to ... set up shop and invest money, they're mistaken," Gheit adds. "I doubt very much that any oil company will be willing to send geologists, engineers to be shot at, kidnapped, or beheaded."

In the 1990s, Saddam Hussein shifted Iraq's oil industry from production-sharing agreements, which gave foreign investors a substantial share in revenues, to service agreements, which limit such investors' profits.

"It's very important, as we said in the [Iraq Study Group] report, that the US not be seen as trying to seek control of that oil," says Lee Hamilton, a cochairman of the Iraq Study Group. "But that will be very difficult to achieve because of the mind-set in much of the region today that we went in because of the oil.... Most of the critics will not be persuaded by any rhetoric of the US but by a law that is drafted and implemented fairly."

Iraq asks Iran firms to bid for oil refinery workBy Mariam Karouny


BAGHDAD, 17 May 2007 (Reuters)

Iraq has invited Iranian firms to bid for contracts to build at least four oil refineries across the country, Iraq's oil ministry said on Wednesday in a sign of growing ties with the United States' regional foe.

"Today, the Iranian firms have been invited to bid in building refineries which the ministry has already announced it was planning to build," spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.

Iran and Iraq, which fought a bitter war in the 1980s, have been strengthening ties since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, arousing concern among Iraq's once dominant Sunni minority and other Arab states as well as in the United States.

Washington, which considers Iran part of an "axis of evil", accuses Tehran of meddling in Iraq. But the two countries, which broke ties in 1979 after Iran's Islamic Revolution, have said they will hold talks within weeks in Baghdad to discuss helping Iraqi people.

Mustafa Alani, senior consultant and director of the security department at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre said the invitation for Iran to bid was probably politically motivated. Iran was unlikely to be able to meet Iraq's refining needs.

"It doesn't make sense," he said. "First of all Iran doesn't have the know-how and the technology. Secondly, they are suffering from their own problems. They are short of supplies themselves and are looking at rationing oil products."

Iraq wants to build at least four refineries to help it solve chronic fuel shortages. The ministry said last year that it wants to build Nahrain, just south of Baghdad, with a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. A second refinery at Kuya in the north, is projected at 70,000 bpd.

Iraq also plans to build a refinery in Nassiriya, south of Iraq, for export purposes with a capacity of 300,000 bpd and another in southern Amara.

Iraq has eight oil refineries, none of which were damaged during the invasion. Oil officials say that the plants are operating at only 50 percent-75 percent of capacity, forcing Baghdad to import most of its fuel.

PIPELINE TALKS

Jihad said that Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani agreed with the Iranian ambassador on Wednesday to activate an agreement to build a pipeline to carry about 200,000 bpd of Iraqi crude to Iran's southern refineries.

"They have agreed that the technical committees should begin within days mutual visits to discuss costs and the time they need to build the pipeline," Jihad said.

"The Iranians will buy the crude based on market price."

Iraq needs to attract investment from international oil companies to develop its oilfields and increase production.

Oil multinationals are waiting until a new hydrocarbon law, which sets the rules of investment in Iraq to be passed by the parliament before pumping cash into Iraq. International oil firms are eyeing its giant and largely underdeveloped oilfields.

Oil is the country's main source of the hard currency needed to rebuild its economy, and the energy sector is struggling to recover from years of mismanagement and sanctions.

AND THIS IS TRANSLATED< MIND you.

Added news on 5-17-2007 17:50

... Armed robbery in the death toll billion dinars

Baquba-conscious - of Omar Abdel Rahman

A security source from the Iraqi police in Baquba today, Thursday, a broad that the armed Busto armed salaries one of the capital and seized billion Iraqi dinars.
Where the source said the armed group, the armed robbery on the salaries of the Directorate of Social Welfare on Thursday afternoon, where, according to a source formation
A committee of three employees, and (5) protection of personnel to bring the salaries of the people of the death of the Rafidain Bank, received salaries, which are estimated one billion Iraqi dinars after assuming billion!!!

Memorial dinars gunmen ambushed staff in the area Khalil Pasha, and took the staff and guards to an unknown and captured the salary!

..

This source did not give any other details

That sentence in blue above is the ONLY one that made sense.

Originally Posted by flight222

Someone has this governor's signature on the notes??

Not sure where that would be.....

Gonna have to check tonight.

Originally Posted by garthstar

for anyone wondering or worried about cashing in in Australia (which would best be avoided by a flight to Swizerland anyway), go to travelex, and take just one note, ask them to check it for you.

they will pull out their book with all the currencies from the world, and it has a nice 25,000 dinar note picture there.

they may not sell, but will definately buy.

just a case of waiting for it to be worthwile.

i checked at Bondi Beach branch, Travelex.

Where is that 'THANK YOU' button???? I was thinking of flying to Dubai!!!

Originally Posted by cooldolphins

I'd like the English version, not the igpay atinlay ersionvay.

anksthay.

It is in the english version. Obviously you've had 1 too many spicy crawdads that probably made your eyes blurred.

The oil and gas presented to the House of Representatives within the next two weeks for discussion and approval

.Luna / May 17 / BAGHDAD / express Abbas Bayati member of the House from the United Iraqi Alliance bloc today hoped the offer of oil and gas in the House within the next two weeks for discussion and approval by the Board of its importance to the Iraqi citizens.
وقالفيه.Bayati said in a statement to reporters that some of the political blocs have indications about this law, including the distribution of oil imports equally to all parts of Iraq, as well as questions with some lumps if the distribution of imports within the law or in a separate supplement to the law is being discussed in the House in full and thorough and serious after agreement on the points of disagreement.
في لنفطHe added that he hoped to reach Baghdad high-level delegation from the Kurdistan region to discuss some aspects of the law with the Iraqi government and with spe******ts in the Ministry of Oil
.He explained that the parliamentary blocs want to be reassured that their observations on the law, and given the sensitivity of the oil. البرلمان.He needs enough time to study it before it is put to Parliament.
.He pointed out that the House was determined to be discussed and endorsed by the House of Representatives that the coming summer holiday. / / Ended / p u / u p / economic.

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by Paul Schemm Wed May 16, 11:41 PM ET


FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - A seven-tonne truck sits idling beneath the night sky corralled by six US Humvees -- it is carrying 45 billion Iraqi dinars (35 million dollars, 25 million euros) in cash, the wages for much of the Fallujah area.
In a rare experiment for the rebel-ridden western province of Al-Anbar, the US military is looking to the once-derided police force of the erstwhile insurgent bastion to escort the millions to the bank.
But the Fallujah force, seen as in cahoots with Islamic militants before a devastating November 2004 US counteroffensive to retake the city, are not yet trusted to do the job alone.
The US marines live in hope that they will soon be able to rid themselves of the risky night-time run through what is still bandit country.
The huge consignment of crisp dinar notes represents the payroll for all state employees, including staff at public utilities and government-owned firms, for the entire Fallujah district.
"Elsewhere in Anbar, we just deliver it ourselves, but here we thought; 'Why not use the IPs? (Iraqi police)'," said Major Andrew Dietz, deputy commander of the civil affairs group for the 6th Marine Regiment.
"They really don't do it anywhere else," he added, noting it was a sign of how far the city police had come.
Past police chiefs had been fired for corruption and the force is only now overcoming its once shady reputation.
The money for the salaries is from Baghdad but has to be flown by the Americans to their base outside Fallujah.
From there some two dozen marines load the bags and boxes of cash into the truck and drive it out into the desert to wait for the police.
The police, however, were late and more stars began to appear in the darkening skies, feebly lit from the glow of the nearby marine base.
The money was destined for the state-owned Rafidain Bank, which would then disburse it to other banks in the area.
News that the bank needs another transfer always seems to come at the last minute, making the next delivery an imperative if salaries are to be paid.
Keeping government employees paid not only keeps going what meagre municipal services the battered province still has, it also keeps people from turning to the insurgency for money, according to the marines.
Suddenly in the distance appear flashing lights and then bumping across the desert road roar six blue and white police pickups accompanied by a light cargo truck.
Snouts of assault rifles poke out of windows covered by the crude metal plates the police weld on their vehicles to give then some protection from insurgent bullets or bombs.
Not one of the policemen was dressed the same, with some sporting baseball caps, and others the chequered Arab headscarves often worn by the insurgents themselves. Many cover their faces with ski masks.

The rise of an effective police force has come with its own dangers and the families of officers are regularly targeted.
Dust was kicked up as the pickups jockeyed for position but soon the police colonel restored order and box after box of money was loaded onto the trucks.
Mohammed Fandy, manager of the Rafidain Bank was on hand as well, supervising the offloading of his precious currency and telling the masked men to be careful with the heavy boxes.
Trucks loaded, the police abruptly tore off towards central Fallujah, their flashing lights highlighting them against the darkness of the desert.
The marines sped off behind them, pushing their hulking Humvees to unaccustomed speeds to keep up with the lighter police vehicles.
"Our job is security and to make sure it actually gets there," said Chief Warrant Officer Steve Townsley as his vehicle entered the dark streets of the city centre. "Not that we don't trust IPs."
The situation has not yet reached the point where the Iraqi police are solely responsible for getting the tens of billions of dinars to the bank -- although the marines would be more than happy to give up these midnight runs.
"The last one was supposed to be our last one, and now there's this one," grumbled Townsley.
The police took a short cut through the car park of the bullet-scarred town hall that sits in the city centre like an embattled Alamo, and swerved into a series of narrow alleys that left the Humvees' antennae tangled in low slung power lines.
When they caught up, the unloading had already begun, with menacing masked figures armed with light machine guns and draped in bullets guarding the dark street corners.
Less then half an hour later, the job was done and the city's coffers have been replenished for at least the next six weeks.
Except that banker Fandy then comes over and tells the marines that he's heard the long awaited government compensation for householders left destitute by the destruction of the US assault of two and a half years ago is finally ready. "They'll soon be sending another 90 billion dinars (70 million dollars), so be ready for that," he said.
I am not sure if this was already posted, forgive me if it was!

Originally Posted by Hkp

It is in the english version. Obviously you've had 1 too many spicy crawdads that probably made your eyes blurred.

perhaps, but lets look at this, please.

Baquba-conscious - of Omar Abdel Rahman

A security source from the Iraqi police in Baquba today, Thursday, a broad that the armed Busto armed salaries one of the capital and seized billion Iraqi dinars.
Where the source said the armed group, the armed robbery on the salaries of the Directorate of Social Welfare on Thursday afternoon, where, according to a source formation
A committee of three employees, and (5) protection of personnel to bring the salaries of the people of the death of the Rafidain Bank, received salaries, which are estimated one billion Iraqi dinars after assuming billion!!!

Memorial dinars gunmen ambushed staff in the area Khalil Pasha, and took the staff and guards to an unknown and captured the salary!

..

This source did not give any other details

O.K. Did the security source from baquba SAY TODAY that a broad seized someones capital of a billion dinars?

then, Ya know what, I can't even dissect it. Laugh all you want! It sounds like to me the bank is closed (dead) and security guards are holding a memorial for the ambushed staff of the gunman who captured someone's salary.