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

The opening of a new fuel station at Albterah in Maysan

Director of the petroleum products company in Maysan, Ali Warid, opened, on Wednesday, a new private fuel station at Albterah, 15 km west of the city of Amarah in Maysan.

Ali Warid said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the new station, " this station will be added to the stations built in the province and they are (25) stations divided on districts and respects in addition to the center of the province."

Maysan governorate is witnessing these days a remarkably congestion on fuel stations; Owing to the lack of fuel stations compared with the number of vehicles entering the province, in addition to the lack of oil derivatives supplied to these stations due to the stopping of Maysan liquidator from work for several days for maintenance.

Warid added that during the past two years alone, "(10) stations were constructed, and this figure is higher than what had been constructed during half a century in the province." He pointed out that the opening of these stations and their entry into service "will help reduce congestion at fuel stations in the province."

Maysan governorate had witnessed, several months ago, the lay of the foundation stone for a large refinery with the capacity of more than (100) thousand barrels a day and a repository of oil derivatives with the capacity of (60) million liters at Albzarkan east of the town of Amarah, the Center of Maysan governorate, and which lies 390 km south of the capital Baghdad.

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Russian-Iraqi commission to meet in December

The Russian-Iraqi intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, and technological cooperation will convene in December, a spokesman for the Industry and Energy Ministry said Thursday.

The decision was taken following a meeting between acting Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Mahmud Zebari who are co-chairmen of the commission.

"We regard the work of the Russian-Iraqi intergovernmental commission as a tool that is capable of restoring mutually beneficial relations in all areas of economic cooperation and return to the 'achievements' that we had, " the spokesman quoted Khristenko as saying.

The parties also agreed to hold a bilateral meeting at the expert level in October prior to the meeting in December.

Khristenko said cooperation between the countries involved oil and gas production, construction, electric power industry, machinery and military technical sector.

The Russian minister added that positive economic relations could be an impetus to the settlement of Iraqi debts to Russia estimated at some $10 billion.

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Oil revenue 85 percent of '08 Iraq budget

Iraq's finance minister said oil sales will make up 85 percent of next year's budget -- a decrease from this year's budget, which is running at a deficit.

Baqr Jabar al-Zubaidi said the remaining 15 percent would come from taxes and other exports, the Ishraqat Al Sadr newspaper reports, as the state attempts to decrease its oil receipt dependence and diversify revenue.

Iraq's oil sales funded 93 percent of the current budget and 97 percent of the year before, Al-Sabaah reports.

Zubaidi, however, said the current budget was based on oil exports of 1.9 million barrel per day, but real exports are about 1.5 million bpd.

"The Oil Ministry will increase the amount of oil exports during the second half of this year," he said.

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UN to host key meeting on rescue plan for Iraq

Iraq and its neighbours are to meet with major powers and donors on Saturday to review a UN-backed blueprint to rebuild the war-ravaged country riven by sectarian violence and divisions.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will co-chair the ministerial session which will consider how to bolster the UN presence in Iraq and weigh a five-year plan to stabilise the country on the political, economic and security fronts.

Organizers said the meeting aims to build on the momentum generated at the international conference on Iraq in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last May.

Some 20 countries, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and eight neighbors of Iraq -- Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, are to attend.

Participants are to examine "challenges and opportunities" in implementing UN Security Council resolution 1770 adopted last month, as well as support for the Baghdad government's efforts to curb sectarian strife through an inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation.

Resolution 1770 extended the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) by one year and urged it to "advise, support and assist" the Iraqi government on a wide range of issues.

The UN was specifically tasked with assisting Baghdad in pursuing national reconciliation and facilitating dialogue with its neighbors on issues of border security, humanitarian aid and the return of the estimated 4.5 million Iraqi refugees.

Ban told a press conference on Tuesday that he planned to discuss with Maliki "how to strengthen the UN role" in Iraq and review the "International Compact," the five-year rescue plan adopted last May at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference.

The International Compact with Iraq (ICI) is a joint initiative by the United Nations, the World Bank and Baghdad.

"The United Nations wants to do what it can to help in Iraq, subject to what the security situation permits and what the Iraqis themselves want us to be doing," UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe said on Wednesday.

"This meeting should be an important opportunity to exchange views with them in order to chart out the way forward," Pascoe said.

The UN allowed a maximum of 65 staffers to reside in Iraq after its Baghdad office was hit on August 19, 2003 by a truck bomb that killed 22 people, most notably its special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Currently there are 95 UN international staffers in the country -- 65 in Baghdad and 30 in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil -- in addition to several hundred international security personnel.

Some 235 UN-affiliated staffers also work out of Jordan and Kuwait.

"Even with only a small increase in UN staff on the ground, we believe we can do more for Iraq, in addressing the humanitarian needs, for example, but also in fostering dialogue and reconciliation," said Pascoe, who will attend the meeting.

Meanwhile Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special advisor on the International Compact, is to brief participants on Iraq's humanitarian, reconstruction and development needs and on pledges made by donors so far.

The meeting will also be attended by representatives of Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as by the European Union, the European Commission, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

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Blackwater back on the streets of Baghdad

De****e opposition from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, US security company Blackwater was back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday, four days after being grounded over a fatal shooting incident.

Maliki, meanwhile, was in the firing line over a damning report by the US embassy made public Friday detailing corruption plaguing his government, which called his office's attitude to tackling the problem "openly hostile."

Blackwater guards, whom a furious Maliki wanted replaced after they opened fire in Baghdad killing 10 people, were on Friday protecting US personnel on limited missions, US spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP.

"We have resumed limited movement today. It is very limited and all missions need to be pre-approved," she said.

"The decision was taken by us in consultation with the Iraqi government. All convoys will be protected by PSDs (private security details). Yes, it is Blackwater."

The US embassy ordered all staff confined to the highly protected Green Zone in Baghdad on Tuesday following Sunday's shooting into a crowded square by Blackwater guards escorting a US civilian convoy through the capital.

Iraqis say civilians were killed, while Blackwater insists the convoy came under attack by insurgents.

Maliki demanded that Blackwater be replaced for the security duties. The firm provides guards for US officials and civilian employees in the war-torn country.

The issue is expected to be on the agenda when Maliki holds talks in New York next week at the United Nations General Assembly.

Also likely to be discussed is the draft embassy report into Iraqi government graft. Posted on the IraqSlogger.com website, it paints a grim picture of corruption at all levels.

Many departments, it says, are controlled by criminal gangs and militia while Maliki's office has shown an "open hostility" to allowing independent investigators to probe corruption cases.

The 82-page corruption report is marked "sensitive but not classified" and labelled a "working draft."

Nantongo confirmed that it is still only a draft and that there are questions about the reliability of some of the sources.

The Commission of Public Integrity (CPI), which is tasked with rooting out corruption from state institutions, is "a passive rather than a true investigative agency," the report says.

"Though legally empowered to conduct investigations, the combined security situation and the violent character of the criminal elements within the ministries make investigation of corruption too hazardous for all but a tactically robust police force with the support of the Iraqi government.

"Currently this support is lacking," it says, adding that this has allowed the "corruption to be the norm in many ministries."

"(CPI investigators) cannot be trusted to truthfully reveal criminal activity against anyone protected by the violent or powerful," the report says.

The interior ministry is seen by Iraqis as untouchable while corruption investigations in the defence ministry are judged to be ineffectual, it says.
"Several ministries are so controlled by criminal gangs or militias as to be impossible to operate (in the absence of) a tactical force protecting the investigator."

The White House said Friday that Maliki was "working hard" to fight corruption but declined to say whether he had been "adequately successful."

"We generally feel, in the administration, that they are trying to battle corruption," said spokesman Tony Fratto, who added that some corruption was to be expected in Iraq which lacks basic institutional safeguards against it.

Bush and Maliki will meet on Tuesday, the White House said.

In other developments, police said on Friday that unidentified gunmen had killed an Iraqi radio journalist in Mosul in the second such attack in Iraq's main northern city this month.

US forces also said they used a photograph to identify an Iranian they arrested in northern Iraq as a wanted bomb smuggler, amid claims by Iran the detainee is a businessman.

The Iranian was arrested on Thursday at a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, the northern city that is part of the autonomous Kurdish region.

Blackwater back on the streets of Baghdad - Yahoo! News UK

Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general

Iraqi forces have taken the lead for security in only about eight percent of Baghdad's neighborhoods more than eight months after the start of the US troop surge, a senior US commander said Friday.

Major General Joseph Fil said violence has declined sharply in the city and more than half of its 474 neighborhoods, or "mahalas," are under the joint control of US and Iraqi forces, up from about 19 percent in June.

But the percentage of neighborhoods that have moved to what the military terms the "retain" phase of the security operation, in which Iraqi forces are in the lead and US troops are on standby, has remained stubbornly small.

"This is dynamic, and 8.2 percent is where we stand today," said Fil, who commands the US-led Multi-National Division in Baghdad. That compared to seven percent in June.

"These numbers will change as we go through the fall and winter here," he assured reporters here in a video conference from Baghdad.

But the general acknowledged that the Iraqi security forces currently are insufficient "to truly protect the city."

The Iraqi government is trying to increase the size of its forces and over time 12,000 police will be added in Baghdad, he said.

But in the meantime US forces have recruited and are training 8,000 "volunteers" to protect their own neighborhoods, the general said, making clear that US plans on securing the city hinge on them.

The shortfall in Iraqi security forces made the local reconciliation initiatives "so very important," he said.

Fil said he was confident that Iraqi security forces would strengthen sufficiently by the expected end of the surge in July 2008, when two and half US brigades will have been withdrawn from Baghdad.

The plan for restoring order in Baghdad follows a sequence of operations that are supposed to ultimately transfer responsibility for security to Iraq security forces.

In the first phase, combat operations are launched to "disrupt" militia and insurgent strongholds. Then US and Iraqi forces "clear" neighborhoods of armed resistance.

Once a neighborhood is clear, US and Iraqi security forces establish a physical presence to "control" them. In the final "retain" phase, Iraqi security forces are in the lead but US forces remain in position to respond if needed.

Fil said 16 percent of Baghdad's neighborhoods are still in the "disrupt" phase, and 30 percent are in the "clear" phase.

He said tough fighting is still underway in districts of southern and northern Baghdad, and US and Iraqi forces have not yet entered into the predominantly Shiite district of Sadr City.

Iranian-backed militias continue to attack US forces in the city de****e a pledge by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to halt them.

"I do expect ... by the time the surge starts to be reduced, that we'll still have some areas of Baghdad that are probably still under 'clear', and there may even be some that are under 'disrupt,'" Fil said.

Iraqi forces take lead in only 8 percent of Baghdad: US general - Yahoo! News UK

Rice orders full review of Iraq diplomatic security

The State Department said on Friday it would thoroughly examine the use of private security contractors to protect American diplomats in Iraq after a deadly shooting involving the U.S. firm Blackwater.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had ordered a "full and complete review of how we are conducting our security details" but said dangerous diplomatic missions in Iraq had to go on because they were critical to U.S. goals in the country.

Her spokesman said the senior department management officer had already begun the evaluation and that outside experts might be brought in to help correct any flaws found in the system.

"I take very seriously, and called up Prime Minister Maliki to regret the loss of life," Rice told a news conference in Washington.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suggested the U.S. Embassy stop using Blackwater after what Iraq called a flagrant assault by the firm's contractors in which 11 people were killed while the firm was escorting an embassy convoy through Baghdad on Sunday.

With anger mounting in Baghdad, Iraq's Interior Ministry has drafted legislation giving it wider powers over the contractors, who provide security for U.S. diplomats on the violent streets of Iraq.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Pat Kennedy, director of the department's office of management policy, would lead the evaluation of protective security detail. The senior management diplomat had already begun his work, he said.

"We may take some additional steps with respect to the review, including bringing in some outside experts," he told reporters.

Blackwater guards were back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday after the U.S. Embassy eased a three-day ban on road travel by U.S. officials outside the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Rice said Blackwater employees had been killed in their duties protecting U.S. diplomats "in extremely dangerous circumstances."

"It is extremely important to recognize that we're doing important work there. We need protection for our diplomats," she said.

Blackwater has handled 1,800 trips by U.S. officials outside the Green Zone since January and "it's only a very small fraction that have involved any sort of use of force," said McCormack.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have launched a joint inquiry into Sunday's deadly shooting incident involving Blackwater, which employs about 1,000 contractors to protect the U.S. mission and its diplomats.

Rice orders full review of Iraq diplomatic security - Yahoo! News UK

Police forces plagued by sectarianism face changes

The latest bloody clashes in the city of Karbala have led Iraqi political leaders to think of either changing or rehabilitating the dysfunctional and sectarian police forces.

Fadhil Al Amiri, an officer in the Iraqi police forces, told Gulf News: "There is a real problem in the Iraqi police forces. There are sectarian elements operating according to their sectarian and partisan allegiances and other patriotic elements. Therefore it is important to be cautious about cleansing these forces."

According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry statistics, the police forces number between 200,000 and 220,000 elements throughout Iraq except for Kurdistan region. The previous months witnessed an inflow of more elements to this vital force which is responsible for most of the security operations inside the cities.

Illiterate

Abu Ghalib, a former general in the Interior Ministry, told Gulf News: "The former Iraqi prime minister, Ebrahim Al Jaafari, warned that all police forces members in the southern Shiite provinces are Shiites, and their counterparts in the Sunni provinces are Sunni.

As for the capital Baghdad, 92 per cent of those forces are Shiite. Besides Shiite police personnel are affiliated to political parties and have primary school education or even illiterates who do not know how to read or write. This is a very serious matter and unfortunately if this policy continues, Iraqi citizens and the country will pay a heavy price".

Accusations have been levelled against the Iraqi police forces of complicity in abductions and thefts especially against banks, some are involved in assassination operations against Iraqi citizens on sectarian basis.

Gulfnews: Police forces plagued by sectarianism face changes

'Kuwait firm paid cash for contracts'

The Kuwaiti company building the US embassy in Baghdad has been accused of agreeing to pay $200,000 (Dh734,000) in kickbacks in return for two unrelated US Army contracts in Iraq.

The scheme, outlined in a now-sealed court document obtained by a news agency, allegedly involved First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting and a manager for Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. or KBR, a firm hired to handle logistics for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The document summarises grand jury testimony from the former KBR manager, Anthony J. Martin, who pleaded guilty in July to taking kickbacks in 2003.

Although the government has tried to keep First Kuwaiti's name out of public records related to Martin's case, details from his grand jury testimony were found by a defence lawyer, J. Scott Arthur., who included a summary in a six-page document filed last on Friday in an unrelated federal court case.
According to the court document, Martin testified to a federal grand jury that he engaged in the kickback scheme with Lebanese businessman Wadih Al Absi, who controls First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting. The company is building the $592 million (Dh2.17 billion) Baghdad embassy, the largest in the world with working space for about 1,000 people.

Without merit

In a statement, First Kuwaiti said Martin's allegations are "without merit." Questions about the company come amid growing concerns about contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, and claims that the State Department's inspector general has been reluctant to help investigations into alleged fraud.

First Kuwaiti has done other work for the government, including jobs for the Army Corps of Engineers and the US Marine Corps, according to the company's website. The company already is under scrutiny by Congress for its labour practices, and a State Department e-mail disclosed this week says the Justice Department is investigating First Kuwaiti for alleged contract fraud on the embassy project.

The document filed by defence attorney Arthur seeks more information from the government about the alleged conspiracy between Martin and First Kuwaiti. Arthur contends the government is improperly withholding evidence about Martin and his allegedly criminal relationship with the company through Al Absi.

In the court filing, Arthur says that while preparing for his client's upcoming trial, he discovered the allegations about First Kuwaiti and Al Absi agreeing to pay kickbacks to Martin.

Martin said in court documents that he agreed to receive kickbacks before awarding a $4.6 million contract to First Kuwaiti to supply 50 semi-tractors and 50 refrigeration trailers for six months. A month later, Martin awarded First Kuwaiti an additional $8.8 million subcontract to supply 150 semi-tractors for six months.

Gulfnews: 'Kuwait firm paid cash for contracts'

Ministry seeks power to punish foreign firms

Iraq wants to tighten control over security contractors after a deadly shooting incident involving the US firm Blackwater, ending their long immunity from Iraqi prosecution, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

Spokesman Major-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf said the ministry had drafted legislation giving it wider powers over the contractors and calling for "severe punishment for those who fail to adhere to the ... guidelines on how they should operate".

Iraq has said it would review the status of all security firms after what it called a flagrant assault by Blackwater contractors in which 11 people were killed while the firm was escorting a US embassy convoy through Baghdad on Sunday.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki suggested the US embassy should stop using Blackwater and said he would not allow Iraqis to be killed "in cold blood".

The shooting has incensed Iraqis who regard the thousands of security contractors working in the country as private armies that act with impunity.

Khalaf said the new draft law, which he expected parliament to pass soon, gives the ministry powers to prosecute the companies and to refuse or revoke contracts.

Many security firms operating in Iraq have no valid licence. A law issued by US administrators after the 2003 invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussain granted them immunity from prosecution and has not been formally revoked.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the Interior Ministry will also propose that foreign security companies be replaced by Iraqi firms.

"These American companies were established in a time when there was no authority or constitution," the newspaper quoted a ministry report as saying.

The head of an association of security firms in Iraq said replacing foreign companies with Iraqi security companies was not a new suggestion and was unlikely to happen overnight.

"One alternative would be partnerships with Iraqi companies, putting an Iraqi face on what we're doing," Lawrence Peter, director of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, told Reuters.

Peter said around 30,000 people, half of them Iraqis, worked for security firms in Iraq.

An embassy spokeswoman said on Thursday Blackwater, which employs around 1,000 contractors to protect the US mission and its diplomats, was "still here and still under contract from the State Department".

Attacks

In the latest violence, one US soldier was killed on Thursday by a bomb which exploded near his vehicle in Diyala province, east of Baghdad, the military said.

In Basra gunmen shot dead Shaikh Amjad Al Jinabi, a religious aide to Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani on Thursday evening after he had attended a funeral in the Shiite city, Al Sistani's office said.

Another Al Sistani aide was killed in a drive-by shooting in Diwaniyah, police said.

Al Maliki met Sunni lawmakers on Thursday, his office said.

Gulfnews: Ministry seeks power to punish foreign firms