Thread: Iraq/Dinar Until June 9th 1PM CST

Iraqi clerics call from Damascus to issuance

(صوت العراق) - 01-06-2007

(Voice of Iraq) - 01-06-2007

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Iraqi clerics call from Damascus to deny issuing fatwas sectarian fighting
Damascus Noureddine disadvantaged life-01/06/07

The clerics both Sunni and Shiite in Damascus yesterday the formation of a preparatory committee to hold a conference of Iraq's senior scientists from the «opinions».

They said in a press conference that the conference will be the first of its kind and is aimed at activating the legitimacy embodied fatwa forbidding fighting and bloodshed between the sons of the Iraqi people from different ideologies and religious leanings, ethnic and reform what is happening in Iraq fatwas legitimacy.

He refused scientists disclosure of the date, place and the people involved in it in order to «achieve success and the hopes of the Iraqi people», noting that all the Islamic seek «behind people and opinions contrary to one saying».

Sheikh Ahmed al-Janabi told »life» said that things are troubled and mounting and unnatural in Iraq «prompted us to call for the convening of this conference», pointing out «that the problems of Iraq's social, religious, political, and always when they enter the country occupying sputtering all things and all laws, values and ethics».He expressed the hope that the conference would achieve «link between the religious authorities and the people».

And Syria, which hosted the gathering «Muslim Scholars Iraq» stepped up warnings recently that the sectarian war in Iraq may be moving to the region, and lead to further instability.

Rahim said Sheikh Abu bread «Our goal is to meet senior clerics from the Aqd to consider what is going on in this country and addresses manner Vetoaei». He pointed out that such treatment would be «efficient and successful». He denied that any political point of connection with this conference. He said «the solution in Iraq, but the Iraqis themselves from all sects and denominations, they will have to meet them on the word and that is what we have».

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

Folks this didnt get enough attiontion !!!!! This could really be HUGE !!!!!


ABC News has learned new details of the military's efforts to reach out to insurgents, including secret face-to-face meetings with a notorious group that has bragged about multiple attacks on U.S. forces.

The group is the 1920s Revolution Brigade, Sunni insurgents who have bragged of repeated attacks on Americans, including one just three weeks ago.



"You name a mainstream insurgent group, and we're talking to them," a source familiar with the effort told ABC's Jonathan Karl.

And military commanders have high hopes this tactic used by U.S. and British officials will be effective. Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno said he believes that the negotiations can convince 80 percent of the Sunni and Shiite insurgents to lay down their arms.


The CIA is also involved in the effort, identifying insurgent leaders and bringing them in for talks with the military. That effort has stretched to relatively junior commanders, as lieutenant colonels have been given the authority to negotiate directly with insurgents.


"I'm empowering them and trying to give them some tools to reach out, because there are insurgents reaching out to us," Odierno said today during a Pentagon briefing.


In one instance, the leader of 2,000 Sunni tribesman met with a lieutenat colonel earlier this month and said his members, including many who are suspected of supporting the insurgency, are looking for jobs with the local police.

So far, the talks have not included anyone tied to al Qaeda, but Odierno does not rule them out entirely. "I believe little -- very few of al Qaeda are reconcilable. But there might be a small portion," he said.


As the price for peace, the insurgents have demanded jobs, pensions and amnesty for their fighters, including those who have killed Americans. That is hugely controversial, but it may simply be necessary. As one senior Pentagon adviser put it, "They will stop killing us if we reconcile with them."
ABC News: ABC News

Originally Posted by oldskiier

Folks this didnt get enough attiontion !!!!! This could really be HUGE !!!!!


ABC News has learned new details of the military's efforts to reach out to insurgents, including secret face-to-face meetings with a notorious group that has bragged about multiple attacks on U.S. forces.

The group is the 1920s Revolution Brigade, Sunni insurgents who have bragged of repeated attacks on Americans, including one just three weeks ago.



"You name a mainstream insurgent group, and we're talking to them," a source familiar with the effort told ABC's Jonathan Karl.

And military commanders have high hopes this tactic used by U.S. and British officials will be effective. Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno said he believes that the negotiations can convince 80 percent of the Sunni and Shiite insurgents to lay down their arms.


The CIA is also involved in the effort, identifying insurgent leaders and bringing them in for talks with the military. That effort has stretched to relatively junior commanders, as lieutenant colonels have been given the authority to negotiate directly with insurgents.


"I'm empowering them and trying to give them some tools to reach out, because there are insurgents reaching out to us," Odierno said today during a Pentagon briefing.


In one instance, the leader of 2,000 Sunni tribesman met with a lieutenat colonel earlier this month and said his members, including many who are suspected of supporting the insurgency, are looking for jobs with the local police.

So far, the talks have not included anyone tied to al Qaeda, but Odierno does not rule them out entirely. "I believe little -- very few of al Qaeda are reconcilable. But there might be a small portion," he said.


As the price for peace, the insurgents have demanded jobs, pensions and amnesty for their fighters, including those who have killed Americans. That is hugely controversial, but it may simply be necessary. As one senior Pentagon adviser put it, "They will stop killing us if we reconcile with them."
ABC News: ABC News

well damn .......... this might work ! wonder if these insurgents are paid dinar ? My guess is not i bet USD. Not sure if they would put down arms for dinar at its present rate. :)

The solution from the inside ..
ويبدأ بشراكة علنية وشفافة 2 - 2
The partnership will open and transparent 2 - 2
(صوت العراق) - 01-06-2007
(Voice of Iraq) - 01-06-2007

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أسباب الصراعات والحلول الممكنة من وجهتي النظر الأكاديمية والعملانية .
The causes of conflict and possible solutions from both academic and practical.

العراق: الحل من الداخل..
Iraq : a solution from inside ..
ويبدأ بشراكة علنية وشفافة 2 - 2
The partnership will open and transparent 2 - 2

Oil Law


Perhaps the oil exit the draft law effectively basis to ensure the survival of Iraq, where oil revenues will be archived by the State together rather than any attempt to build a national project homogeneously in the short term.In any case, the oil law is inextricably linked to the future of federalism.
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With the absence of any agreement on the nature of federalism, characterized the negotiations on the oil of no confidence, the policy edge of a cliff and, ultimately, failure.

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For negotiators, the Sunni Arabs, the situation is very simple, summarized in the following, that the Iraqi oil resources are for the benefit of all Iraqis, and thus must be managed by the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, with the proceeds to be distributed, too, centrally. In this model there is no room for the involvement of governments such as the Kurdistan region brine or entity central Basra. This tension has led the Ministry of Oil, on several occasions, the announcement of CONGRESSIONAL BILL oil Montreal, only to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region, carelessly declaration.

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The Kurdish position is followed very closely the conditions agreed upon and set out in the Iraqi Constitution.
ا
It maintains the central government to shoulder its responsibilities regarding the management of the resources of wealth institution origin 'perhaps in Kirkuk and Basra', and the distribution of proceeds to an area of the state.

معقودة.
In any case, according to Kurdish interpretation of the constitution, the local governments (CIS) responsible for the management of the fields' new 'within their territory, thereby initiating the distribution of revenues within the region (own), and to the Iraqi government but by the terms of agreements.

.
In any event, no agreement on how they would work this way. The negotiators year متصلبون position and that the oil is one of constitutional issues that must be negotiated to ensure their cooperation in the National Legislative Assembly. The confirmation of the position, the Kurds negotiation of exploration contracts (oil) with the international oil companies.
.
We have already signed a number of contracts with small companies adventure, and to provoke panic Baghdad.

Translated version of http://ht/

Originally Posted by bluedangle

I think RED has RV on the mind

how can she not? she was at the party in florida!!!

President Bush Meets with Iraq President Talabani
The Oval Office

Video (Windows)
Presidential Remarks
Audio


In Focus: Global Diplomacy


3:00 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: It is my honor to welcome the President of a free Iraq back to the Oval Office. President Talabani, thank you for coming. I admire your courage. I admire your dedication to a united Iraq. I admire the leadership you have shown, and I welcome you.

We had a good conversation today about a variety of subjects. I told the President that I'm fully committed to helping the Iraqi government achieve important objectives, we call them benchmarks, political law necessary to show the Iraqi citizens that there is a unified government willing to work on the interest of all people.

The President fully understands the need for the Iraqi government to meet certain benchmarks, and he is dedicated to achieving those benchmarks. We're working very hard, for example, on getting an oil law with an oil revenue-sharing code that will help unite the country. Working very hard on de-Baathification law -- reform, as well as provincial elections.

We talked about a lot of issues.

And I want to thank you very much for your vision, Mr. President, and your willingness to take the hard steps necessary to get the job done.

I told the President the decision I have made -- I've asked one of my top aides, Meghan O'Sullivan, to return to Baghdad. Meghan has been a integral part of our team here at the White House. She has been in Iraq before. She's going back to serve with Ambassador Crocker, to help the Iraqis -- and to help the Embassy help the Iraqis -- meet the benchmarks that the Congress and the President expect to get passed. I want to thank Meghan for her dedicated service to a free Iraq.

Mr. President, it is important that you succeed. Failure in Iraq would endanger the American citizens because failure in Iraq would embolden the enemies of a free Iraq. David Petraeus said, public enemy number one in Iraq is al Qaeda. Al Qaeda happens to be public enemy number one in America, too. And that should say loud and clear to citizens who still remember the lessons of September the 11th that it's in our interest to help the Iraqis defeat al Qaeda.

We must not let al Qaeda have a safe haven in Iraq. We must not retreat in the face of the unspeakable violence that they perpetuate on your citizens. We must help you prevail. And if all Iraqis showed the same courage you show, we will prevail. And there's a lot of courageous Iraqis there.

I'm confident we can succeed, Mr. President, and I want to thank you for coming here to the White House to join me.

PRESIDENT TALABANI: It is an honor meeting our great friend, who we consider the hero of liberating Iraq, President George Bush, who was always with Iraqi people. Also I must tell you that I'm committed as the President of Iraq to benchmarks and to do our best to achieve some progress forward for national reconciliation, for passing the law -- oil law, de-Baathification, and investment, and other laws which are now under discussion. And I think we are due to finish all of these and send it to parliament to be achieved.

At the same time, we are committed to do our best to train our army and our forces to replace gradually the American forces in taking responsibility of the security of our country. Of course, we are very grateful to the American people. And I present my condolences to the sacrifice which these glorious people America has always presented for liberating peoples all over -- (inaudible) -- and for Iraqi people and others.

We are always committing our desire to strengthen the unity of Iraq and the unity of the national government, to have the collective leadership in Iraq for getting the oil problem. And I briefed his excellency, Mr. President, about what we have done and what we have achieved for this purpose.

I'm glad to have the support of President Bush and the Congress. I'm grateful to Congress. I told President Bush that I'm grateful for the Congress for the last decision and for the decision, which was the resolution that was taken by Congress, the resolution of liberating Iraq at the time of President Bill Clinton.

So we are determined to success. Of course, you have problems. I don't think that everything is okay, everything is good, we have no problems -- no, we have problems. We have serious problems with terrorism. The main enemy of Iraqi people is al Qaeda and terrorists cooperating with them. But there are groups who are now raising arms against us, now we are negotiating with them to get them back to the political process of the Iraqi people. You have good achievements also. We hope that this will lead to more big steps forward to national reconciliation in Iraq.

We are also determined to improve our political and economic life in Iraq. We achieved -- unfortunately, media only concentrating on negative sides of Iraq. They are not concentrating on big achievements in Iraq, economic achievements, raising the salaries of the millions of Iraqis, improving the social life and the -- that all the universities, schools, hospitals are working well in Iraq. Besides the problems which we have -- we don't deny it -- we are trying to overcome these difficulties. But we have some achievements. Thanks to the United States of America and our great friend, President Bush, we achieve some good, important success.

Besides some failure in the security, we have also successes in bringing democracy for the first time to Iraq. All kinds of democratic rights are now available for Iraqi people. We have free election, we have now parliament elected by people. We have authorities -- presidency, prime minister -- chosen by the people. This is happening for the first time in the history of the Iraqi people.

Also we have some kind of success in rebuilding our country. Not all parts of Iraq are terrible. You have in the north of Iraq, Kurdistan -- in Iraq living in peace, security and prosperity. And also, in the south, you have about nine provinces now secure and gradually -- days ago the American forces delivered the responsibility of security to the authorities in Iraq -- so we are going forward -- with difficulties; I don't deny difficulties, I don't deny shortcomings, I don't deny that still we are suffering from some problems. But we are determined to benchmarks, and we are determined to move forward and to achieve, as Mr. President mentioned.

Now we are due to have the oil law, which will revolution for all Iraqis; due to review the de-Baathification. We have our new draft for this. We have another draft for investment. We are encouraging investment from outside to Iraq. And we are going to renew the local elections -- in near future for this.

But again, I am grateful to the American people, to the President of the American people, for what they have done for my people, for Iraq. We are now living in much better situation than we had in the past. And we are facing common enemy, which is still -- al Qaeda is the enemy not only of Iraq and America, but all people of the world. Look to the Arab countries, everywhere; al Qaeda -- in Morocco, in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, al Qaeda is starting to work against all peoples of Middle East. So we are fighting this enemy. And as President Bush said, there must be no place for al Qaeda in Iraq or in other places, because if they can have such a kind of bases, they will threaten Europe and United States of America.

Again, Mr. President, thank you very much for your kind visit, and for your important words you say.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you.

END 3:10 P.M. EDT

President Bush Meets with Iraq President Talabani

Sunnis revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 55 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - U.S. troops battled al-Qaida in west Baghdad on Thursday after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.

Backed by helicopter gunships, U.S. troops joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district.

The fight reflects a trend that U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in the province have banded together to fight al-Qaida, claiming the terrorist group is more dangerous than American forces.

Three more U.S. soldiers were reported killed in combat, raising the number of American deaths to at least 122 for May, making it the third deadliest month for Americans in the conflict. The military said two soldiers died Wednesday from a roadside bomb in Baghdad and one died of wounds inflicted by a bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Dale C. Kuehl, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the U.S. military's role in the fighting in the Sunni district. He said the battles raged Wednesday and Thursday but died off at night.

Although al-Qaida is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shiite Muslim-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.

The U.S. military congratulated Amariyah residents for standing up to al-Qaida.

"The events of the past two days are promising developments. Sunni citizens of Amariyah that have been previously terrorized by al-Qaida are now resisting and want them gone. They're tired of the intimidation that included the murder of women," Kuehl said.

A U.S. military officer, who agreed to discuss the fight only if not quoted by name because the information was not for release, said the Army was checking reports of a big al-Qaida enclave in Amariyah housing foreign fighters, including Afghans, doing temporary duty in Iraq.

U.S.-funded Alhurra television reported that non-Iraqi Arabs and Afghans were among the fighters over the past two days. Kuehl said he could not confirm those reports.

The heaviest fighting came at 11 a.m. when gunmen — identified by residents as al-Qaida fighters — began shooting randomly into the air, forcing people to flee into their homes and students from classrooms.

They said the fighters drove through the streets using loudspeakers to claim that Amariyah was under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group.

Armed residents were said to have resisted, set some of the al-Qaida gunmen's cars on fire and called the Americans for help.

One Amariyah resident, reached by telephone late Thursday, said the shooting continued, especially along al-Monadhama Street, the main thoroughfare in the district not far from Baghdad International Airport, where the U.S. military has extensive facilities.

"The Americans came this afternoon and it got quiet for a while. We are staying home, frightened. We have no idea what's going on. There's nothing to do. There has been shooting outside since last (Wednesday) night," the resident said.

Everyone contacted in the neighborhood spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears of reprisals from roaming gunmen.

Casualty figures were not immediately available. But the district councilman said the al-Qaida leader in Amariyah, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained.

Saif M. Fakhry, an Associated Press Television News cameraman, was shot twice and killed in the turmoil in Amariyah on Thursday. Fakhry, 26, was the fifth AP employee to die violently in the Iraq war and the third killed since December.

He was spending the day with his wife, Samah Abbas, who is expecting their first child in June. According to his family, Fakhry was walking to a mosque near his Amariyah home when he was killed. It was not clear who fired the shots.

Also Thursday, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said U.S. military officers were talking with Iraqi militants — excluding al-Qaida — about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence.

He also suggested he might not be able to meet the September deadline for telling Congress whether President Bush's military buildup in Iraq is working.

Odierno said commanders at all levels are being empowered to reach out for talks with militants, tribes, religious leaders and others. Iraq has been gripped by violence on a range of fronts including insurgents, sectarian rivals and common criminals.

"It's just beginning, so we have a lot of work to do in this," he said. "But we have restructured ourselves ... to work this issue."

He said he thinks 80 percent of Iraqis, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militants, can reach reconciliation with each other, although most al-Qaida operatives will not.

"We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces," Odierno told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.

On the assessment of operations that is due in September, he said he thinks it will take longer to tell whether the increase of nearly 30,000 troops will work as intended: to quell violence enough to give Iraqi officials breathing space to work on reconciliation and development issues.

In western Iraq on Thursday, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, and there were conflicting reports about the death toll. Police said as many as 25 people were killed, but the U.S. military said just one policeman died.

Elsewhere, three policemen and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians were wounded when a suicide truck bomber struck a communications center on the western outskirts of Ramadi, according to Anbar provincial security adviser Col. Tariq Youssef Mohammed.

American forces, meanwhile, continued Thursday with the search for five kidnapped Britons in and around Baghdad's Sadr City district.

A procession of mourners, some of them women wailing and beating their chests, marched through Sadr City behind a small bus carrying the coffins of two people who police said were killed in a U.S. helicopter strike before dawn.

The U.S. military said it had no report of airstrikes in Sadr City and that there were no civilian casualties in the second day of the search for the Britons. The five were abducted from a Finance Ministry data processing building in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday.

APTN video tape from Sadr City showed the coffins of the victims atop a small bus with men and women walking behind, crying. A young boy could be seen sitting next to the coffins on the bus.

Sunnis revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq - Yahoo! News

A good idea: oil accounts for Iraqis

editorials and opinion
By DEROY MURDOCK
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, May 31, 2007

For a first-rate solution to Iraq's problems, just ask a second-tier presidential contender. Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson proposes that Baghdad open personal oil-revenue accounts for every Iraqi.

"I would split the oil reserves -- one-third to the federal government, one-third to the (18) state governments, and one-third" to the citizenry, Thompson proposed at MSNBC's May 3 Republican presidential debate. "If every man, woman and child is getting part of the oil proceeds, they're going to have a vested interest in their country." He adds by phone: "This is the best way to build the country and secure the peace."

This idea belongs in the "hydrocarbon framework" currently before Iraq's Parliament.

Assuming Iraq exported 1.4 million barrels of $60 petroleum daily, revenues would total $30.7 billion annually. Some 28.8 million Iraqis would share one third of this, or about $355 each. Though modest by American standards, this figure exceeds 10 percent of Iraq's $3,400 per-capita GDP.

Families and individuals could use these funds to finance immediate needs or establish small businesses. A new Iraqi investor class could channel these oil proceeds into shares of emerging local companies.

Personal oil-revenue accounts "will be a key change that directly makes a difference in the lives of Iraqi women," Frances Brigham Johnson and Bruce Moran of Strategic Planning Initiatives recently wrote in their free-market blueprint to rejuvenate Iraq. "The change will put women directly into the market economy as buyers of family necessities and investors in viable enterprises."

Whenever Iraq's squabbling, hapless Parliament (unlike America's serene, efficient Congress) adopts an oil law, adding personal accounts would mark a dramatic break with Baathism. Citizens of that new republic have every right to ask their representatives, "What have you done for us lately?" Seeing Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni legislators fix the nettlesome oil revenue-sharing question, while including such accounts, would give Iraq's leadership a badly needed credibility boost.

Tamper-proof personal accounts would place much of Iraq's oil revenues beyond politics. Economists lament "the curse of oil," a paradox wherein petroleum-rich nations stay backward despite vast mineral wealth. Why? Government elites distribute oil proceeds to favored political loyalists more than to common citizens. Consequently, economic distortions erupt as entrepreneurs focus less on inventing new products and services and more on befriending oil-rich politicos. If its oil stays state-owned, Iraq runs this risk. However, universal accounts could alleviate this danger.

When Iraqis realize they individually own much of their nation's bounty, they will regard sabotaged pipelines and refineries not as somebody else's headache, but as direct attacks on their own personal fortunes. "Iraqis will watch the oil wells, because those will be their wells at stake," Thompson says. This should drive a well-honed wedge between Iraqis and terrorist Muslim fanatics. Average Ahmads will have a powerful incentive to report Islamofascists so they can be liquidated.

Devoting one third of oil revenues to personal accounts might be stingy. Why not half or more? Indeed, why not privatize the entire petroleum sector, perhaps by splitting exploration, drilling, pipeline, refining, and shipping functions into distinct enterprises? Their shares could be deposited into personal accounts. A limited government could fund vital services by lightly taxing these companies and Iraq's citizens after they have received these disbursements. Today, Iraqi officials are first in line for oil income. Sending them to the back of the queue could revolutionize the politician-constituent relationship.

"If you don't rely on your people to pay taxes, there's less need for a consultative process," Goldman Sachs vice chairman Robert Hormats, author of "The Price of Liberty," told me. Conversely, Middle Eastern governments, like Iraq's, "will need some degree of consultation if they rely on their people to pay taxes."

In essence, there's no representation without taxation. Making Iraqi politicians financially dependent on citizens, rather than the reverse, could fortify this fledgling nation.

Given Iraq's staggering woes, this idea may be a Band-Aid on a country screaming for bypass surgery. Hoover Institution scholar Victor Davis Hanson also warns that Baghdad's leaders may spurn this notion as "not invented here." Nonetheless, while Congress bickers over benchmarks, Iraq's legislators should surprise the world this summer by scrapping their vacation plans and setting Iraq on a path to prosperity.

(New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

A good idea: oil accounts for Iraqis | ScrippsNews

Originally Posted by oldskiier

Folks this didnt get enough attiontion !!!!! This could really be HUGE !!!!!


ABC News has learned new details of the military's efforts to reach out to insurgents, including secret face-to-face meetings with a notorious group that has bragged about multiple attacks on U.S. forces.

The group is the 1920s Revolution Brigade, Sunni insurgents who have bragged of repeated attacks on Americans, including one just three weeks ago.



"You name a mainstream insurgent group, and we're talking to them," a source familiar with the effort told ABC's Jonathan Karl.

And military commanders have high hopes this tactic used by U.S. and British officials will be effective. Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno said he believes that the negotiations can convince 80 percent of the Sunni and Shiite insurgents to lay down their arms.


The CIA is also involved in the effort, identifying insurgent leaders and bringing them in for talks with the military. That effort has stretched to relatively junior commanders, as lieutenant colonels have been given the authority to negotiate directly with insurgents.


"I'm empowering them and trying to give them some tools to reach out, because there are insurgents reaching out to us," Odierno said today during a Pentagon briefing.


In one instance, the leader of 2,000 Sunni tribesman met with a lieutenat colonel earlier this month and said his members, including many who are suspected of supporting the insurgency, are looking for jobs with the local police.

So far, the talks have not included anyone tied to al Qaeda, but Odierno does not rule them out entirely. "I believe little -- very few of al Qaeda are reconcilable. But there might be a small portion," he said.


As the price for peace, the insurgents have demanded jobs, pensions and amnesty for their fighters, including those who have killed Americans. That is hugely controversial, but it may simply be necessary. As one senior Pentagon adviser put it, "They will stop killing us if we reconcile with them."
ABC News: ABC News

It's HUGH!!!!

Analysis: At odds with U.S. over Iraq oil

Published: May 31, 2007 at 4:00 PM

By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- As the Bush administration and Congress press Baghdad to pass an oil law, a parliamentarian visiting Washington wants them to back off the legislation viewed by many to be too friendly to oil companies and detrimental to Iraq.

"The people as well as all the members of Parliament believe that this law is not only for robbing Iraq of its oil wealth but also for the division of Iraq," said Mohammed al-Dynee, a member of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue's contingent in the Parliament. He spoke to United Press International via a translator from Amman, Jordan, where he has meetings after spending 25 days in Washington.

President Bush has called for the passage of an oil law that equitably redistributes revenue from Iraq's oil sales back to its people. The Democrats in Congress adopted this as a benchmark they will hold Bush to, including it in the supplemental Iraq war spending bill approved last week.

"There is an awakening amongst Iraqi people as well as members of Parliament that this law is against our interest," Dynee said.

The law is stuck in negotiations, mostly over a vaguely worded 2005 constitution that each side interprets differently. Kurds, in the north, want more of a free-market system and strong regional say in how the oil is developed, as well as an automatic mechanism for redistributing revenue. Sunnis and most Shiites want strong central control over the oil. The oil unions are threatening to strike if foreign companies have too much access to or any control over the oil. A group of 61 Iraqi oil experts wrote a letter to the prime minister urging the law be held until conditions improve and to allow further debate.

Dynee said the proposed law has not been sent to the Parliament yet because of the opposition to it. "I will certainly vote against it," he said, "and so will my party as well as a very large group of parliamentarians."

The Iraqi Front for National Dialogue is a Sunni group but describes itself as a non-sectarian coalition. The coalition has 11 seats in Iraq's 275-seat Parliament, making it the fifth-largest group.

Dynee said he's "absolutely sure we will have a majority to defeat it because the opposition is from all parties. At one point, we all thought this law was a good law, that it would do good for the Iraqi people."

Now, he said, there is a fear that it will open up Iraq's vast reserves -- the third-largest in the world -- to foreign oil companies that will be able to sign contracts controlling the respective fields for up to 30 years. He also said the law, by giving power to regions, would end up splintering the country.

"People have started understanding that at first they believed that America had come to give them freedom and democracy," Dynee said, "and they have now started to understand that America did not come at all for that; they came for the oil, and the best proof of that is this oil law."

Iraq's oil law had been drafted and negotiated behind closed doors. This lack of transparency become fodder for opponents and has bolstered the claim it was Americans and oil companies who wrote the initial draft.

Among their evidence: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in 2001, which included a wish list for privatizing Iraq's oil; a pre-war working group of the U.S. State Department that focused on Iraq's oil sector; the U.S. Agency for International Development's contract with McLean, Va.-based consultant BearingPoint for "broad economic reform" of Iraq, including the oil sector; and a meeting organized by the U.S. Energy Department last year in Washington between the oil minister and the heads of oil companies.

And now, the insistence by Washington -- including pressure by former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and during visits by Cheney and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, as well as the benchmark -- to put a law on the books.

"All Iraqis seem to agree that the oil industry needs investment and it needs foreign expertise to improve that, to make that possible," said Paul Hilder, the London-based campaign director for Avaaz, a global online advocacy community. "The questions is how can that be done in such a way that the Iraqi people, who have been really the fall guys in this whole process, the victims of the last four years if not longer, how can they get the best deal out of this?"

Avaaz is collecting 100,000 signatures to a petition against the oil law, which Hilder said will be presented to Iraq's Parliament by three members -- a Sunni, a Shiite and a Kurd.

Dynee said he spent time in Washington talking to members of Congress and the anti-war movement. "If you want more chaos in the area, then you should back this plan and see what happens to your troops," Dynee said he told Congress, referring to Iraqi opposition to the law.

According to the weblog of University of Michigan Iraq expert Juan Cole, Sawt al-Iraq reported in Arabic this week "Husain al-Falluji of the Iraqi Accord Front (Sunni fundamentalist) said Friday that the IAF would never approve the new petroleum law until the constitution is first amended. He said that the party has made a firm decision in this regard."

"The oil law itself, it's just a step," said Saad Rahim, manager in the country strategies group at analyst PFC Energy. "Even getting oil out of the ground is just a step. And if you look at oil has never solved anyone's problems, producer country's problems. It's really a question of how do you move beyond that.

"I don't think it changes anyone's mind who already thought that the war was about oil. I don't personally believe that it was. I think it was about political change and things like that," Rahim said. "But it is inevitably, inexorably tied to oil, because of the nature of the country. It's hard to take that apart and depoliticize the oil issue. I keep coming back to this idea that just simply pushing oil for oil's sake is no good."

United Press International - Energy - Analysis