Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Iraq leaders urged to settle differences By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 9 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iraqi leaders on Thursday they have limited time to settle their differences and that the escalating waves of violence are intolerable.

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On a visit five weeks before congressional elections in the U.S., Rice also insisted the Bush administration has been honest with Americans about the costs and stakes in Iraq.

Administration officials recently have found themselves defending their conduct of the war, and Rice's remarks reflected the political toll for the White House from an unpopular conflict.

"This is really hard going," Rice told reporters during her stop in the Iraqi capital. "Not only do I believe that the president has been clear with the American people that this is a struggle, he's been clear with the American people why he thinks it's a struggle that needs to be waged."

After meetings in the Mideast with Arab and Israeli leaders, the top U.S. diplomat came to Iraq to tell sometimes squabbling leaders they have a short window to resolve disputes that she said are spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.

While killings among Iraqis have not abated, American casualties also have spiked recently.

Car bombs killed four people and wounded 28 in Baghdad on Thursday. At least 23 U.S. soldiers have died since Saturday; most were in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Rice said the U.S. role is "to support all the parties and indeed to press all the parties to work toward that resolution quickly because obviously the security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction."

In a series of meetings with leaders representing most ethnic and religious factions, Rice delivered a blunt message about how Americans do not see the history behind ethnic and sectarian splits, said a senior State Department official present at the sessions.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings were confidential, said Rice also said Americans need to see Iraqis working together rather than killing one another.

Rice met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials as the sectarian cycle of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis threatened to undermine his government. Shiite and Sunni parties in al-Maliki's coalition accuse each other of backing militias.

Al-Maliki told Iraqi state TV on Thursday that the country is in the final stage of "confronting the security challenge" and that security would be achieved "within the two or three months to come."

Rice said Iraqis themselves must settle difficult problems such as the division of oil wealth, possible changes to the constitution and the desire for greater autonomy in various regions.

"Obviously the security side and the political side are linked," Rice told reporters.

In an interview with The Associated Press, al-Maliki said that once the Iraqis work out their differences, "the political solution must be obligatory, one that all parties adhere to. The presence of parties with militias in the government is not acceptable."

Rice described the task as "the ability to get everybody to understand precisely how their interests are going to be represented and how their interests are going to be served in this political process."

Al-Maliki made curbing Baghdad violence his first priority after taking office in the spring. But curfews and other measures have failed to make much difference.

On Monday, al-Maliki announced a security plan to unite the feuding parties, creating local committees in which Sunnis and Shiites will work together to manage efforts at quelling the violence on a district-by-district level.

Contentious details of the plan must be worked out, and Shiite and Sunni parties twice have put off negotiations.

"This is, of course, a time of challenge for the Iraqi people," Rice said after a brief meeting with al-Maliki. "They are a committed people and we know they will overcome these challenges."

Rice's plane circled the Baghdad airport for 35 minutes before landing because of a threat from "indirect fire" — mortar rounds or rockets — in the airport area, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

In Washington, U.S. Senate Democrats issued a press release Thursday calling attention to the growing number of U.S. casualties and a record level of bomb attacks in Baghdad.

In AP-Ipsos polling last month, more than half of Americans said the United States was losing ground in Iraq. About 40 percent approved of President Bush's job performance.

Rice disputed that the administration has been less than candid about Iraq. Now in its fourth year, the conflict has claimed more than 2,700 American lives and cost more than $300 billion.

A new book by journalist Bob Woodward about the wartime White House, asserts that the administration routinely has understated the difficulties and fudged hard truths in Iraq.

"I would say, go back and look at any presidential speech in the last year and the discussion of the fact that this is very tough going is in there," Rice said.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

Iraq leaders urged to settle differences - Yahoo! News

Susie, PM sent

SGS,

You are 24/7 on this investment and I want to thank you for your comments, information, and analysis. When this revalue happens, I owe you big time for keeping in this.

Many Many Thanks!

Clark: Hanging Saddam would cause chaos By WILLIAM C. MANN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 10 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team, predicted on Thursday that a bloodbath would follow should an Iraqi court trying the former president have him executed.

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At a news conference, Clark said he feared that should Saddam and the others be hanged, "catastrophic violence" would follow that would lead to "the end of civilization as we know it in the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia. Total, unmitigated chaos."

Saddam's Sunni Muslim tribe of 1.5 million would be enraged over what they would consider the revenge killing of the former president by the Shiite-controlled and U.S.-sponsored government, Clark said.

Clark, 78, was attorney general under President Johnson despite opposing the Vietnam War and has been best known since for defending people with unpopular causes. Besides Saddam, he has worked with blind Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a planner of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, convicted in a 1975 gunfight at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in which two FBI agents died.

Saddam and the other defendants, who include his vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, are being tried for genocide in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds during the late 1980s. They already have been tried for murder and torture in the deaths of 148 Iraqi Shiites from the Iraqi town of Dujail who allegedly conspired to kill Saddam in 1981.

The court that tried them was to have returned its verdict on Oct. 16, but it announced this week it will not do so. A new date was not set.

Clark said the defendants are at Camp Cropper near Baghdad's airport in a new $60 million detention center. The Army says it oversees about 13,000 prisoners in Iraq at Cropper, Camp Bucca in the southern desert and Fort Suse in the Kurdish north.

The United States has said it transferred Saddam to Iraqi custody some time ago, but his whereabouts have not been divulged.

In March, an AP-Ipsos poll in the United States and several other countries found that two out of three Americans felt Saddam was getting a fair trial and if convicted should be executed. Lesser majorities in eight other countries polled said he was being tried fairly and should be jailed for life if convicted.

Clark: Hanging Saddam would cause chaos - Yahoo! News

Political parties must get rid of their militias: Iraqi prime minister
(AP)

6 October 2006



BAGHDAD, Iraq - Political parties must either get rid of their militias or get out of politics, Iraq’s prime minister said in his toughest warning yet to groups blamed for the country’s wave of sectarian violence.


Ahead of talks with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on how to stop the wave of Shia-Sunni killings in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki told The Associated Press on Thursday he was optimistic’ a political solution will be found to persuade militias to dissolve.

But once an agreement is reached, the political solution must be obligatory, one that all parties adhere to,’ he said. The presence of parties with militias in the government is not acceptable.’

The political parties must obey the decisions of the government or else get out of the political process. I don’t believe there is any power that wants to leave the political process,’ he said, speaking during an iftar’ dinner, the meal that ends the daily Ramadan fast.

About three dozen people attended the special iftar, held amid intense security in a dining room in the compound of Abdul-Aziz Al Hakim, the head of the largest party in the Shia coalition that dominates the government.

Outside, hundreds of guards from Al Hakim’s party _ Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq _ were deployed in the streets throughout the south Baghdad neighborhood, carrying automatic weapons. SCIRI is accused of running its own militia, the Badr Brigade, though the party says it has been dissolved.

Among those present were Al Maliki’s Cabinet, parliament members _ mainly from the Shia coalition and a few Kurds and Sunnis _ and a few officials from the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein. They were served up with a feast of roast fish and meats with rice, followed by a wide spread of fruits and sweets and tea.

Al Maliki is under intensified pressure to find an end to the Shia-Sunni violence that has killed thousands of people this year and has threatened to tear the country apart. The killings have continued despite the prime minister’s repeated calls for them to dissolve.

Several Shia parties in Al Maliki’s government have militias _ some of them blamed for grisly kidnapping-murders that nearly every day leave tortured and bound bodies of Sunnis dumped in neighborhoods of the capital.

Shias have argued that militias are needed to protect them against Sunni insurgents who have targeted their community with brutal attacks against mosques, markets and other public areas. Shia leaders have accused Sunni parties in the government of links to the insurgency. US and Iraqi commanders have also said that some militia fighters may no longer be under the control of the parties, carrying out killings on their own.

Al Maliki has frequently called for militias to be dissolved, insisting that weapons must only be in the hands of national security forces. But Sunni leaders have accused the government of balking at moving forcefully against Shia militias because of their links to the government.

This past week, the government has taken new steps to show it is serious in tackling sectarian violence.

Iraqi authorities on Wednesday pulled a brigade of about 700 policemen out of service in its biggest move ever to uproot troops linked to death squads. The brigade is suspected of allowing gunmen to kidnap 24 workers from a frozen food factory in a district of Baghdad where the Shia Mahdi Army militia is known to have considerable power. The bodies of seven workers were found in another Baghdad district hours later; the fate of the others is unknown.

The suspended 8th Brigade has been ordered out of the field, and the US military said they will undergo retraining while some members will be put under investigation.

Al Maliki underlined that only a political solution can bring a stop to the violence.

The dissolving of militias cannot just be a matter of force. It requires many means to reach the goal, persuading the militias to dissolve themselves. That is better,’ he said. The dissolution of militias must be through the political powers.’

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said Thursday that an armed Shia group has threatened to kill Palestinian refugees living in Baghdad if they do not leave Iraq within 72 hours.

The New York-based group said it had obtained a leaflet from a group calling itself Al Bayt Revenge Brigade Rapid Response Units that stated: There is no place for Palestinians in the Iraq of Ali, Hassan, and Hussain.’ The names refer to three revered Shia imams.

There was no indication when the time period began. The leaflet, the rights group said, urged the Palestinian refugees to leave and fight occupation in your own country.’

The rights groups said that over the past two years, Iraqi governments have done little to protect Palestinian refugees, and some officials have claimed that they are involved in terrorism and supporting the insurgency.

Khaleej Times Online - Political parties must get rid of their militias: Iraqi prime minister

Originally Posted by rcman

I dont think they would spam they have busy forum

maybe someone trying to damage their reputation that happens lot

forget it lets go on with dinars

They weren't too busy to spam at IIF.

Key US Senators Offer Sober Assessment of Iraq
By Deborah Tate
Washington
05 October 2006



Two U.S. senators who just returned from a brief trip to Iraq are calling on Iraqi leaders to do more to settle political differences and curb sectarian violence.

The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee are expressing frustration over what they describe as the Iraqi government's slow progress to forge political compromise, stem the violence and provide basic services to the Iraqi people.

The committee chairman, Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia, offered his bleakest assessment of Iraq to date. "To summarize it, it seems to me the situation is simply drifting sidewise," he said.

Warner says if the Iraqis do not make further progress toward stemming the violence by the end of the year, the U.S. Congress would have to make what he called bold decisions. He said all options would be considered, but did not elaborate further.

Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, believes the Bush administration should set a timetable to begin a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to "force" the Iraqis to recognize that they must take more responsibility to change the situation in their country. "Unless they face up to the fact that they must make those political compromises, this is just going to be an endless quagmire for U.S. troops," he said.

But Senator Warner opposes setting a timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal. "I am convinced we need to do everything we can to maintain the stability of this government, and put all pressure that we possibly can, recognizing that they are a sovereign nation, to get them to move forward more aggressively and do the job of a government; because if that government were to fail, if Iraq would devolve into a civil war, the consequences are frightful, not just for the Iraqi people, but for the whole region, and indeed for the whole world, because it would be viewed by the terrorists as a victory," he said.

Speaking at separate news conferences, Warner and Levin welcomed a new security plan announced by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week aimed at bringing together feuding Sunni and Shiite parties in his government to work jointly in local committees to stop the violence.

Senator Warner says the plan - details of which are yet to be hammered out - must be given a chance to work.

Warner and Levin were accompanied on the trip by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Democratic Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee completed his own trip to Iraq this week.

Frist, a heart surgeon, met with Iraqi doctors in Baghdad, as well as U.S. troops and government officials.

The lawmakers' visits to Iraq come just five weeks before midterm elections and amid continued concern among the American people about the U.S. military effort in Iraq.

A new public opinion poll by the Pew Research Center finds that 58 percent of Americans believe the U.S. mission in Iraq is not going well, while 47 percent say the war is hurting, not helping, the fight against terrorism.

Democrats hope the unpopularity of the war will translate into votes for them on November 7th, and perhaps return control of Congress to their party.

VOA News - Key US Senators Offer Sober Assessment of Iraq

GW wants the oil law finalized and pronto. Notice in this link close to the bottom the mention of Condi telling them that "the Iraqi's themselves resolving issues such as the distribution of oil wealth."

Translated version of IRAQHURR.ORG

This law should be the 3rd one to pass in investor sentiment, with the 1st being the FIL (which I believe has been done already just not announced due to the 2nd)....and the 2nd being the reval itself (not calling this a law that needs to be passed so to speak).

Further back I read of a GOP "surprise" during the month of October that will strengthen the Repub's hopes for the November elections. Only assuming here, but I highly doubt that the surprise mentioned would be a reval in Iraq's currency, but I could definately see it being US oil companies jumping into Iraq's petro game feet first.

The mention of each Iraq citizen receiving 10K dinar can go either way IMO. I read it is a common thing for the children to receive money, not candy or gifts, at the end of Ramadan, and that it is part of the ceremony for Iraqi's to give to the poor and needy. So even though it equates to only around $7 US$, it is mentioned going to every citizen, so that would fit the religious meaning of the holiday. On the other hand, and the timing for this seems just right (if this is what is happenning), 10K dinar in every Iraq citizens possession right at the time of a reval, especially one like most nowdays seem to think will happen (the 1/1 range), would speak very LOUD words to the citizens, all in a very positive way.

IMO, I feel like something big is about to happen in the not too distant future (2-3 weeks or sooner). Either we are going to be finally off the seemingly endless roller-coaster ride of a lifetime, or the ballgame is going to be called due to a rain out, and have to be started over again.

News
The presidential office denies errors lawyer Badi Aref Izzat
October 5, 2006

Al-Jazeera satellite television, on 9-30-2006 interview with the lawyer, Badi Aref Izzat, The number of distortions and outright lies, in addition to the fact that they are a departure from the norms of decency and assets.
And His Excellency President Jalal Talabani, who always maintained that his home is open to all Iraqis, had received the lawyer Badi Aref Izzat. listened to him and how it views and grievances, and stressed that the new Iraq, contrary to decades of tyranny years, keen on human rights and the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. However, the Office of the President of the Republic strongly denies that the President has talked about the "forgotten" Halabja, it is a tragedy has become a wound does not heal, not only in the hearts of Iraqi Kurds and general, but it has left scars in the consciences of leaders and representatives of the public opinion. and especially those who kept silent and did not driven by the sight of infants, chemical Substances who died in the arms of their mothers in the streets of the town in Iraqi Kurdistan martyred.
Talk that Mr. Badi Aref Izzat is untrue, and contrary to reality only, but tomorrow is to reflect on the craft of the deal for the legal profession, and the honor of this profession, which requires the Secretariat and honesty and objectivity.

The Office of the President

Iraqi Presidency

The Presidency of the Republic recognizes the Archives collection of historical documents and legal

October 5, 2006

Handed the presidency of the republic, to the Archives and Records, a group of legal and historical documents dating to the protracted Covenants and the Ottoman royal.
And these documents had been among the assets of the Iraqi archives, which severely damaged, in April 2003, because of his abusers and thieves.
And a donation from the Czech State, took the competent bodies in the capital, Prague, the process of restoration of documents, and handed over to the rightful owner, Iraqi state, through President Jalal Talabani.
Spurred on by His Excellency, the documents handed over to Dr. Saad Bashir Iskandar Director-General of Archives and Records, to preserve the documents within the archive other.

Iraqi Presidency