Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

US Army arrests corrupt Iraqi police chief

US troops in Iraq have arrested a corrupt police chief who is believed to have committed crimes on behalf of Shiite militias, the US military command in Baghdad reported late Thursday. Chief Thamir Mohammed al-Hussaini instructed police officers from his unit to arrest Sunnis at roadblocks and is believed to have arrested certain Sunnis on the orders of the Shiite militias, the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade, the report said.

Perpetrators often wear police uniforms when they carry out kidnappings and murders in Baghdad. It is not always clear if they are in fact police officers or whether they are extremists who have stolen the uniforms or purchased them on the black market.

The US Army said that al-Hussaini also locked up some Sunnis and demanded a ransom from their families.

He is believed to have instructed his officers to abuse the prisoners in order to extract confessions from them.

US troops claim to have arrested 11 suspected militia members from within the ranks of the security forces since May.

US Army arrests corrupt Iraqi police chief : Middle East World

Two aides of Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani killed in Iraq

Extremists have killed a further two aides of Iraq's spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported Friday. Sheikh Ahmed al-Jabani, one of al-Sistani's representatives in the mostly Shiite southern port city of Basra, was killed in the west of the city.

A second al-Sistani aide, Sheikh Adnan al-Jabani, was injured in the attack.

At approximately the same time in the city of Diwaniyah, Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Karim Bashir, a representative of al-Sistani, was killed by unknown assailants, Aswat al-Iraq reported, citing security sources.

In recent days, two other aides of the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites who lives in the holy city of Najaf in the centre of Iraq died in attacks in Basra.

A bodyguard was also killed in one of the attacks, the news agency reported.

Two aides of Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani killed in Iraq : Middle East World

Iraq's bloc rejects premier's warning over Baath party links

The political bloc of former Iraq premier Iyad Allawi dismissed on Thursday as "inaccurate" criticism made by the government over his talks with the outlawed Baath party. The Iraqi National Accord Movement said in a statement that - at the request of the United States - Allawi held talks with members of the late dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to support the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

On Wednesday al-Maliki warned Allawi that his talks with the Baath Party would be "dangerous" to his political future.

Allawi, who was Iraq's prime minister after the US-led war that unseated the Saddam regime in 2003, has recently revealed that he had helped arrange talks between US officials and former Baathists.

Allawi was a member of the Baath Party in the 1960s. His secularist bloc left the already shaky coalition government in August 2007. The Sunni Arab Iraqi Accord Front and the Shiite bloc of radical leader Moqtada Sadr also left the coalition.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi state minister of national dialogue affairs, Akram al-Hakim, told the Dubai-based al-Sharqiya TV that the government held rounds of talks with three wings of the Baath Party.

Al-Hakim said talks were held with former Baathists, such as Saddam's vice president Izzet Ibrahim al-Douri, who were opposed to attacks on Iraqi civilians.

Al-Hakim did not give any further details.

Iraq's bloc rejects premier's warning over Baath party links : Middle East World

PM's accusations baseless - INA


Baghdad, Sept 20, (VOI) - The Iraqi National Accord led by Iyad Allawi described on Thursday statements made by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, during which he accused Allawi of holding negotiations with Baathist leaders, as groundless.

"Allawi met with Baathists at the demand of U.S. officials to support al-Maliki's government," the INA said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"Al-Maliki accused Allawi of holding contact with the Baathists and meeting with Izzat al-Douri. These claims are groundless and bare of truth," the statement noted.

The statement asserted that contact is still underway between the government and Baathists, not with Allawi.

"Al-Maliki knows this very well," the statement affirmed.

Nouri al-Maliki warned on Wednesday the leader of the Iraqi National List (INL) and former premier Iyad Allawi against negotiating with Baathist leaders, particularly the Izzat al-Douri wing.

Al-Maliki wondered, "Does Allawi want to bring the Baath party back to Iraq (Iraqi government)?"

A few days ago Allawi said he had met with members from the former Baath party's Izzat al-Douri wing and unnamed U.S. officials.

Al-Douri, the second man in the Iraqi Baath party, has been wanted by U.S. forces in Iraq since April 2003.

The INA is one of the main components of the Iraqi National List (INL).

Allawi, a prominent political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, headed the interim Iraqi government formed by the U.S.-led coalition following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He is now the leader of the secular INL, which currently has 22 seats in the 275-member parliament.

Aswat Aliraq

Smuggled cars auctioned in Basra

An unprecedented wave of smuggled cars being put up for auction by the Iraqi government is occurring in the southern Iraqi province of Basra, Colonel Khalaf al-Badran, head of the customs police in Iraq's southern region, said on Wednesday.

"Smuggling is rife in Iraq's southern provinces," Col. al-Badran said.
The Iraqi government holds auctions of unregistered vehicles, particularly right-steering cars and models that are not allowed into the country.

"Car smuggling is one of the many challenges facing the Iraqi government, which put the country's resources at risk," he said.

According to the colonel, smugglers usually manage to provide their contraband with official documents. "We call for enacting new customs laws to crack down on smuggling, which has negative implications for our national economy," he said.

The customs department in the southern zone recently arrested many smugglers, who were afterwards brought to court, Col. al-Badran explained, noting that other operations for smuggling livestock and camels are also commonplace.

Meanwhile, smuggling of oil derivatives has dropped after the recent increase in fuel prices in the country. In most cases smugglers make holes in oil pipelines that are not well protected by security forces.
The mainly Shiite city of Basra is located 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4577

Bush 'knew nothing' on Hunt-Iraq oil deal

President Bush said he "knew nothing" about a deal between Hunt Oil, which has ties to the administration, and the Iraqi Kurdistan government.

Bush was pressed on the controversial production-sharing contract during a news conference Thursday.

"Our embassy also expressed concern about it," Bush said when asked if it undermined a national oil law. "I knew nothing about the deal."

"I need to know exactly how it happened," he added. "To the extent that it does undermine the ability for the government to come up with an oil revenue-sharing plan that unifies the country, obviously I'm -- if it undermines that, I'm concerned."

The revenue-sharing law is different than the oil law.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has signed a number of oil and gas deals with private oil companies since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The KRG sees it as a sign of economic development in a war-torn and struggling country, but the move is seen by others as undercutting the federal Iraqi government.

Iraq hasn't been able to pass an oil law, which it is waiting for before moving forward on developing its vast oil sector.

The Hunt Oil deal was announced by the KRG Sept. 8. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said all but a handful of KRG oil deals are considered illegal and will not be upheld.

But the Hunt deal has raised concerns in the United States, considering the connections of Ray Hunt, its chief executive officer.

Hunt was appointed by Bush twice to the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board -- "which is said to have access to intelligence that experts acknowledge is advantageous to the international energy interest of the Hunt Oil Company," according to a statement by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who has called for investigations into the deal.

Hunt has also been a major fundraiser for Bush and held a top Republican Party position.

Bush 'knew nothing' on Hunt-Iraq oil deal : World

Bush fears Hunt Oil deal will hurt Iraq
Dallas firm defends keeping White House out of Kurdish plan

President Bush expressed concern Thursday about whether Hunt Oil Co.'s search for oil in the Kurdish region of Iraq could undermine the national government in Baghdad.

"I knew nothing about the deal. I need to know exactly how it happened," Mr. Bush said at a White House news conference. "To the extent that it does undermine the ability for the government to come up with an oil revenue-sharing plan that unifies the country, obviously I'm – if it undermines that, I'm concerned."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's oil minister has called the deal with the Dallas-based oil company illegal. Negotiations over a national oil law that would divide Iraq's oil revenue among regional and ethnic factions collapsed after the Kurds announced the Hunt exploration deal. Congress and the Bush administration see the law as a crucial benchmark for healing sectarian divisions in Iraqi politics.

Qubad Talabani, Washington representative of the Kurdish Regional Government, said the deal would benefit all Iraqis through a revenue-sharing agreement approved by the Kurdish parliament in August.

"What's undermining the government is the lack of progress on the [national] oil law," said Mr. Talabani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "This deal didn't undermine the oil law per se. It will give it a good kick up the backside to get the process moving forward."

Hunt chief executive Ray Hunt is a friend of the president, a major backer of the Bush presidential library at Southern Methodist University and a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

De****e those ties, a company spokeswoman said no one in the U.S. government was told of the negotiations leading to Hunt's exploration contract in the Kurdish province of Dahuk, near Iraq's northwestern border with Turkey.

"We're a privately held company. We do not make it a practice to discuss our business dealings with anyone except the involved parties, and in this case the U.S. government is not an involved party," Hunt Oil spokeswoman Jeanne Phillips said.

At his news conference, Mr. Bush said the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, headed by Ambassador Ryan Crocker, had "expressed concern" about the Hunt deal.

Iraq has immense oil reserves but has seen little exploration since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Ever since, U.N. sanctions, war, corruption and sabotage have crippled oil production.

Once national elections were held in 2005, Iraqi political factions immediately started debating the division of oil revenue, the role of the provinces in petroleum exploration and production, and how much authority should be vested in an Iraqi national oil company.

The Iraqi coalition government of Kurds and Arabs from the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam reached agreement on a national oil law in February. Kurdish negotiators said a religious review board then changed the language in ways they could not accept – pulling authority from the regions back to Baghdad – and the deal has yet to be submitted to the Iraqi parliament.

Meanwhile, oil workers in southern Iraq have objected to provisions in the draft law that would allow international oil companies to participate in exploration and production. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, a Democratic presidential candidate, has taken up their cause by charging that the Bush administration wants to distribute the crude to its allies in the oil industry.

"As I have said for five years, this war is about oil. The Bush administration desires private control of Iraqi oil, but we have no right to force Iraqis to give up control of their oil," Mr. Kucinich said.

Mr. Talabani said the problems with the draft oil law were much deeper than concerns over foreign oil companies.

He said the Iraqi government had lost nearly two years worth of hard-fought compromises over the federal relationship between Iraq's regions and its central government.

"Time and time again, we see people reneging and trying to pull it back to the center," he said. "The constitution is clear. The center can no longer dominate Iraq."

Hunt and its Canadian partner in Iraq, Impulse Energy Corp., expect to begin preliminary exploration work this fall and start drilling next year.
Mr. Talabani said there was still "plenty of time" to pass a national oil law before any Hunt discoveries are brought into production.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...l.34410bf.html

Ministry of Industry to build 250,000 solar boilers- Iraq

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry announced that the Iraqi Prime Minister has agreed to assign the ministry to manufacture 250,000 solar boilers to use instead of electrical boilers, IDP reported.

He further added that the effort is part of the Electricity Minister's plan to use alternative energy in the upcoming years.

In addition to this, the ministry has reopened the fifth unit of the Dora power generation station and four units in Quds power station, which previously ceased operation due to shortages in gas.

It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Electricity has recently made a proposal to the energy committee in Cabinet to lend the Industry Ministry $60 million to produce 250,000 solar boilers.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4574

Kirkuk pipeline attack sets Iraq oil back

The international oil market will still have to rely on Basra to supply Iraq's oil exports as an apparent attack shuts down the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline again.

The pipeline is key to increasing Iraq exports, providing the capacity to increased production. The Bush administration, during benchmark stump speeches last week, held up the newly reopened pipeline as a success story.

Iraq produced just less than 2 million barrels per day last month, according to estimates by the global energy information firm Platts. The country usually exports slightly more than three-fourths of what it produces. Most of that is coming from export terminals in Basra, in south Iraq, since attacks on the pipeline feeding oil to a terminal in Ceyhan, Turkey, has rendered it virtually useless.

Media reports are quoting sources on the ground that a pre-dawn bomb ripped open the pipeline between Kirkuk and Baiji, sending oil into the Tigris River, forcing water pumps in Tikrit and Baiji to shut down and threatening the supply into Baghdad.

Last month Iraq officials gave a hushed admission that the line had been repaired and oil was flowing to Turkey, most likely in test quantities, said Rochdi Younsi, Middle East analyst for the business risk firm Eurasia Group.

"They did say that they were completing a series of tests that appear to be promising, tests meaning that they were pumping a certain volume through the pipeline," Younsi said. "But frankly no one expected the Iraqi government to make an announcement because doing that usually leads to an attack."

Iraq recently announced an Oct. 5 tender for shipments of oil from Ceyhan, a move that comes after enough oil had been shipped to storage tanks there.

"Yesterday a report came out saying basically that exports of oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had been abruptly interrupted for the past six days, which basically implies that it was working before that," Younsi said. "And then this morning we heard about the explosions."

Younsi said it is an added dynamic in the power struggle in Iraq. Kurds in the relatively safe and semi-autonomous northern region will be "growing impatient with the deterioration of security in that area," which the federal government controls.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4576

Iraq parliament to discuss key oil law

Iraq's parliament should start in early October to debate an oil law, needed to regulate how wealth from world's third largest oil reserves will be shared by its sectarian and ethnic groups, the deputy speaker said.

Khaled al-Attiya said the parliament would take its time to discuss the draft, which is seen as key to reconciling warring Iraqis and attracting foreign investment. But he expected it to pass before the end of the year.

The legislation, which had been expected to pass before the end of 2006, was delayed due to disagreements over control of oil reserves, much of which are in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq and in the country's south.

The draft was approved by the cabinet in February but faced opposition from the Kurds, who felt they were getting a bad deal.

In July, the cabinet approved "some linguistic changes" to February's draft.

Attiya, a senior member in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance, told Reuters late on Wednesday there has been an agreement between the powerful Shi'ite Alliance and the Kurdish coalition to go with the draft approved by the cabinet in February.

"That helped in putting the law on schedule (for debate). Possibly in early October," he said.

He said the law should be debated fully, not decided by some back-room deal.

"This law is not like any other law. This is a strategic law," he said.

"So it is only right that we give this law all the time it deserves in discussions in the parliament and not to have a political deal about it among the political blocs behind closed doors."

But he said: "I do not think that the time will extend beyond the end of the second legislative quarter ... from now until before the end of the year."

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said that there has been a basic agreement between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) that the draft passed in February stands.

"The prime minister and KRG remain committed to the text voted on unanimously, including the Accordance (Sunni Arabs) ministers in February," Salih said.

The Kurds had previously said some of the annexes were unconstitutional because they wrested oilfields from regional governments and placed them under a new state oil company.

The annexes also covered control over discovered and undiscovered oilfields and who would have the power to negotiate contracts with international oil companies.

February's draft refers to annexes but they were neither discussed nor voted on then.

Iraq parliament to discuss key oil law - Yahoo! News UK