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

Sunday October 8, 06:37 AM
Iraqi forces detain scores in oil city crackdown
KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers swept through the restive Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday, searching homes for weapons and insurgents after all residents were ordered off the streets.
In northern Tal Afar, northwest of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber killed 14 people in an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint, the latest in a series of deadly suicide bombings in the town since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

U.S. military officials had predicted a surge in violence over Ramadan. ADVERTISEMENT



The Interior Ministry said 51 bodies had been found in Baghdad in the past 24 hours, many tortured and bound, a typical feature of sectarian death squad killings.

The bloodshed followed a warning by U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner that Iraq's government had 60 to 90 days to control the violence that threatens civil war or the United States would have to reconsider its options.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki held talks with Sunni tribal leaders on Saturday and announced plans for reconstruction projects in western Anbar province, heartland of the Sunni insurgency.

An alliance of Sunni tribal leaders has promised to help Maliki's government root out al Qaeda militants who have set up bases in the province, making it the deadliest area in Iraq for U.S. soldiers and largely outside Baghdad's control.

Maliki's government is under pressure from the Americans to show some progress in containing the insurgent and sectarian violence convulsing the country, and the crackdown in Kirkuk is one of several military operations now under way.

Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed city claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen which has seen an upsurge of violence. A spate of near simultaneous car bombs in the city killed more than 20 people on September 17.

Kirkuk police chief Major General Shirko Shakir said cars and pedestrians had been cleared from the city's streets after an indefinite curfew was imposed on Friday night and Iraqi security forces began sweeping through neighborhoods.

More than 184 people had been arrested and 450 weapons seized, he said.

"This operation is an attempt to control the deterioration of the security situation in the city. We will continue it until we clean up the city and end insurgent activity," he said.

SECURITY TRENCH

Iraqi police Major General Jamal Taher said a 15 km-long trench had been dug south of the city in the last week to try to prevent insurgents and car bombs from entering Kirkuk.

Iraqi forces have beefed up security in many cities, fearing an increase in violence with the start of Ramadan.

Saturday's car bomb attack in Tal Afar was the fourth suicide car bombing on an army or police checkpoint in the town since the start of the holy month two weeks ago.

The town has been largely free of violence since U.S.-led forces drove out al Qaeda militants in a 2005 offensive. In March, President Bush cited Tal Afar as an example of progress being made in Iraq.

The government has failed to control the violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis, despite a series of plans aimed at ending the bloodshed and reconciling Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

LAWMAKER KILLED

Gunmen this week abducted and killed a Kurdish lawmaker in the capital, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation to regain control of the streets. He was the first member of the parliament sworn in in March to be killed.

U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the top U.S. military commander in Iraq General George Casey condemned the killings in a statement on Saturday as an attempt to derail Iraq's progress toward "freedom and prosperity."

U.S. officials say sectarian conflict between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs has overtaken the insurgency as the main cause of attacks that kill some 100 Iraqis a day.

But insurgents are still killing U.S. troops. The U.S. military said a soldier was killed in action near the northern oil refinery town of Baiji on Friday, bringing to at least 24 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the last week.

(Additional reporting by Thaer Ismail in Mosul, Sherko Raouf in Sulaimaniya, Ahmed Rasheed and Mussab Al-Khairalla in Baghdad, and Donna Smith in Washington)

Iraqi forces detain scores in oil city crackdown - Yahoo!7 News

White House : Iraqi government is seeking to make progress toward thinking in political solutions to the crisis. Talks between the leaders of compatibility and Rice on the threat of militias in Iraq


Baghdad-Washington / agencies
Prime Accord Front Dr. Adnan Al-Dulaimi with the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last Thursday evening, "the threat posed by the militia" and the readiness of the United States to help Iraq.
A statement from the Information Office of the Front that Dulaimi, House Speaker Mahmoud Almshahadani discussed with Rice matters "related to security and stability (...) We talked at length with them for more than an hour about the danger and the threat of militias to bear arms. "
He continued, "Rice also made clear the seriousness of the situation and the current Iraqi need to be rectified and resolved the militias and bring their weapons and are prevented from carrying weapons in the street."
He pointed out that Rice "did not talk much (during the meeting), but listened to us (...) It urged the Iraqis to solve their problems themselves. "
And Rice has met with the leaders of the Sunni Arabs during her visit to Baghdad on Thursday evening.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs American Shawn Mccormak that the American delegation "noted personalities change on the part of the Sunni Arabs, they do not feel that the United States has promised but extremists, who they perceive as the cause of the problems and not the United States. the matter is related to positive change. "
The President of Accord Front, saying, "We expressed the readiness of the United States to help the Iraqis to restore stability and security."
It urged the United States yesterday, the Iraqi government to deal with the phenomenon of sectarian violence by political means.
The spokeswoman for the White House, Dana Berino, told reporters that "the American administration urges Iraq to find ways to solve the political problem of sectarian violence."
The position of the American administration in the wake of statements of the chairman of the Armed Forces Committee in the Senate, Republican Senator John Warner, who has just returned from Iraq on a mission to survey which concluded the facts to the need for the Iraqi government to change the style there in the event that Iraq has become "a safer place during a period ranging Bi n 60 to 90 days from now. "
Berino flag denied the significance of the statements of Warner, arguing that "things related to the existing needs in different areas of Iraq has changed in the next two or three."
They pointed, for example, to the American forces transfer responsibility for security in some areas to Iraqi forces, while there is still a need to strengthen the presence of the American forces elsewhere.
She said that President Bush had mentioned in his speech several weeks ago that "the period through which Iraq is a critical period, and the American people very patient as long as the Iraqi government has continued to take difficult decisions would make progress."
Berino pointed out that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad yesterday, the first Wednesday to confirm that the message that "political solutions are important at this time", considering that the purpose of Rice's trip to Baghdad was to renew support for the people of Iraq "and a reminder to help these fledgling government to start making decisions difficult need to be taken and to assist them in the same building. "
She explained that the high levels of violence in Iraq during the month of Ramadan, was "to be expected", arguing that "the violence perpetrated by terrorists and followers of Saddam and the insurgents is a form of violence that continue to kill American soldiers and Iraqis alike."
It considered that "the Iraqi government is seeking to make progress toward thinking in political solutions to the crisis there," and pointed to the announcement by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last of a four-point plan to gather representatives of each party and the Iraqi different religious groups and tribal leaders to reach a political consensus to move forward with the new government.
She said : Al-Maliki, who asked that the United States should stand patience and showed some innovation in terms of his ideas included in the plan, which also included some of the parties that were more parties rebellion and rejection of political participation ", considering that the plan is" encouraging "but at the same time" extremely difficult ".
Berino and added that "field commanders in Iraq report that the administration despite the difficult situation there, in the case continue to be flexible and maintain our commitments toward Iraq, we will be able to help this emerging democracy to succeed."

Translated version of http://almadapaper.com/sub/12-561/p19.htm

Al-Maliki, denouncing the alleged Iraq an arena for settling accounts

(Voice of Iraq) - 08-10-2006

Al-Maliki, denouncing the alleged Iraq an arena for settling accounts

The capitals of the world - "European", and agencies : enhanced Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday, the process of national reconciliation meeting with representatives of important tribal elders Anbar stressing that Iraq "intended to remain an arena for settling accounts and conspiracies woven around" · He added, "on our land battles and heats Falls blood is not in the best interest of us," and denounced · transforming the country into an arena for those of · battles, "and said that the draft national reconciliation is real, which could compound the crisis," we · In another significant breakthrough called on the leader of the Shiite bloc, the United Alliance Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, to the need to be "arms in the hands of the state alone" ·
In a related development, the third started the Organization of the Islamic Conference have contacts with Islamic religious leaders in Iraq to prepare for the meeting of religious leaders to agree on a document denying the fighting between the communities, the question before the end of the month of Ramadan ·
In Washington, disclosed yesterday that the Minister of Foreign Affairs James Baker, former chair of the Committee of the two big "to develop concepts and new ideas for the future" in Iraq ·
The Emirates

Sotaliraq.com

Analysis: U.S. influence on Iraq limited By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
2 hours, 43 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Bush administration is bumping up against the limits of military and political power to influence what happens next in Iraq, four years into an increasingly unpopular war that has not gone as planned.

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As U.S. officials now acknowledge, the cycle of sectarian killings poses a greater threat than does al-Qaida or the anti-American insurgency.

"The security situation is not one that can be tolerated and it is not one that is being helped by political inaction," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week at the start of a two-day trip to Iraq.

The day Rice arrived, a leading Republican and Bush loyalist offered a bleak assessment of Iraq. Sen John Warner, R-Va., said Iraq is "drifting sideways" and that the U.S. military has done what it could.

Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Congress must make some "bold decisions" if, after three months, the Iraqis have not made progress to calm ethnic violence and hasten reconstruction.

Rice's visit came a month before the fall elections in the United States that Democrats are portraying as a referendum on President Bush's handling of Iraq.

Associated Press-Ipsos polling in September found that more than half of likely voters say the U.S. is losing ground in Iraq, and Democrats got higher marks than Republicans about which party would best handle the conflict. Forty-six percent of likely voters said Democrats and 40 percent said Republicans.

Democrats argue that Iraq had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks and that the war has been a costly distraction from the global effort to combat al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

In Iraq's capital, Rice reaffirmed Bush's commitment to help Iraqis finish the job.

She also carried an implicit warning about Americans' patience as she shuttled under heavy guard among the often squabbling factions in Iraq's fragile government.

People in the U.S., she told the Iraqi politicians, do not see the complicated history of grudges and strife among ethnic groups that drives the current violence.

"What they see are Iraqis killing Iraqis, and that is not a good image," a U.S. diplomat who attended the meetings later quoted Rice as saying. "The world, the American people, need to see different views. They need to see Iraqis working together and producing progress."

In other words, Rice was saying, the folks at home who are bankrolling the war at $300 billion and counting may not see why American lives and dollars are being spent to police internecine fighting half a world away.

The U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice's sessions with Shiites, Sunnis and others were private, also said Rice was frank about the stakes.

Rice told the Iraqis that "of all of the threats facing Iraq — the insurgency, al-Qaida terror, sectarian violence — it's sectarian violence that poses the strategic threat to success, as Iraqis would define it, for their country and in certainly success as we would define it for Iraq."

It also is the force that the United States has the least leverage to counter.

The bodies dumped on Baghdad streets each night are unrelated to the presence of U.S. troops, although mounting deaths among U.S. soldiers reflect the latest attempt to slow the revenge killings.

The United States has put increasing pressure on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to stop sectarian violence amid deep divisions within his Cabinet between Shiite and Sunni parties.

Sunnis complain al-Maliki is hesitant to take tough action against Shiite militias because many of them are linked to parties he relies on. His signature plan to contain the spiral of violence in Baghdad has had little effect, and it is not clear how much authority he commands to do more.

The U.S. claim that democratic politics will triumph in Iraq depends largely on al-Maliki's success, and Rice praised him as a strong and capable leader.

At the same time, she told reporters, she was firm in "saying very clearly to all of them that what the Iraqi people expect, and indeed what the United States expects, is that they're going to overcome any political differences rapidly."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Anne Gearan covers foreign affairs and diplomacy, based in Washington.

Analysis: U.S. influence on Iraq limited - Yahoo! News

Iraqi forces launch crackdown By Mustafa Mahmoud
Sat Oct 7, 9:27 AM ET

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers launched a major security crackdown in the restive Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday, searching homes for weapons after all residents were ordered off the streets.

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In northern Tal Afar, northwest of Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber killed 14 people in an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint, the latest in a series of deadly suicide bombings in the town since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The fresh bloodshed followed a warning by U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner who said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government had just 60 to 90 days to control the violence that threatens civil war or the United States would have to reconsider its options.

Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed city claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen which has seen an upsurge of violence. A spate of near simultaneous car bombs in the city killed 20 people on September 17 alone.

Kirkuk police chief Major General Shirko Shakir said cars and pedestrians had been cleared from the city's streets after an indefinite curfew was imposed on Friday night and Iraqi security forces began sweeping through neighborhoods.

"This operation is an attempt to control the deterioration of the security situation in the city. We will continue it until we clean up the city and end insurgent activity," he said.

Iraqi police Major General Jamal Taher said a 15 km trench had been dug south of the city in the last week to try to prevent insurgents and car bombs from entering the city.

Iraqi forces have beefed up security in many cities, fearing an increase in violence with the start of Ramadan.

Saturday's car bomb attack in Tal Afar was the fourth suicide car bombing on an army or police checkpoint in the town since the start of the holy month two weeks ago.

The town has been largely free of violence since U.S.-led forces drove out al Qaeda militants in a 2005 offensive. In March, President Bush cited Tal Afar as an example of progress being made in Iraq.

LAWMAKER'S DEATH CONDEMNED

Tal Afar residents said the surge in violence came after the Iraqi military and police dramatically increased the number of checkpoints in the town, setting up many in residential areas.

"We are living in a state of terror," one resident told Reuters. "My house is near an army checkpoint, which is a target for suicide bombers. If they attack it, the soldiers will be killed and so will we."

Police Colonel Kareem Khalaf said 10 civilians were among the 14 killed in Saturday's attack.

Maliki's four-month-old national unity government has failed to control the spiraling violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis, despite a series of plans aimed at ending sectarian and insurgent bloodshed and reconciling Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Gunmen this week abducted and killed a Kurdish lawmaker in the capital, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation to regain control of the city's streets. He was the first member of the parliament sworn in March to be killed.

The U.S. envoy to Iraq and the top U.S. military commander General George Casey condemned the killing in a statement on Saturday as a desperate attempt to derail Iraq's progress toward "freedom and prosperity."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Baghdad this week to deliver a blunt message to Iraq's leaders, telling them to end their "political inaction" and work faster to end the violence threatening to tear Iraq apart.

U.S. officials say sectarian conflict between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs has overtaken the insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government and U.S. forces as the main cause of the attacks that kill some 100 Iraqis each day.

But the insurgency is continuing to exact a deadly toll on U.S. soldiers. The U.S. military said a soldier had been killed in action near the northern oil refinery town of Baiji on Friday, bringing to at least 24 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the last week.

U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said on Wednesday it had been a "hard week" for U.S. soldiers, who suffer two to three deaths a day on average in Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Thaer Ismail in Mosul, Sherki Raouf in Sulaimaniya Ahmed Rasheed and Mussab Al-Khairalla in Baghdad, and Donna Smith in Washington)

Iraqi forces launch crackdown - Yahoo! News

Originally Posted by neno

This means it is it to me.

BTW, Just moved 40 BS Post. To The Crazy Thread.

"golly!"

At least 40 of my post got moved again!
Well, I had better stick some news on this one, eh?

The Completion of Draft law on Iraq Securities and Iraq Stock Exchange Iraqi Dinars | Iraqi News and Iraqi Money
October 06, 2006
The Executive Director of Iraqi Stock Exchange, Taha Ahmed Abdulsalam revealed that a committee, consisting of the Iraqi Securities and Stock Exchange Staff completed the draft of securities law in Iraq, after consulting with a number of international experts, like the American Stock Exchange staff to make the Iraqi law specifications within the International frame, a fact and not only a slogan.

He pointed out that the draft is "complete" in the form that meets with the requirements of modern investment, electronic circulation, outside link, stock exchanges, the Arab and regional economies.

Electronic trading: Implementing electronic trading expected to begin early next year. He anticipated that the number of executed contracts, now 350, will increase hundreds of times after adopting the electronic system. This means achieving high fluidity of the circulated shares by perhaps up to 100%.(Source)Dar AlHayat (NOTE: More at the site! Check it out! READ!!!!)

Opening Najaf, Iraq Refinery Next Week
Iraqi Dinars | Iraqi News and Iraqi Money
October 06, 2006
Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced that the opening of Najaf refinery will be next week. Assem Jihad, spokesman of the Ministry said "the capacity of Najaf new refinery is ten thousand barrels a day.

He pointed out that the Oil Ministry announced that Al-Ahdab field in the province of Wasit will be the first field to be developed to produce 30 thousand barrels per day. It is planned to increase production over the next two years to 90 thousand barrels per day which will make it possible to establish a very large electricity station in this field.

(NOTE: More at the sites above! Check it out! READ, Read, READ!!!!)
Q: How close to the RV are we?
A: Close as the hairs on the end of your nose!

*neno, you can chew, chew, chew on me anytime!*

Originally Posted by neno

This Post and OSW's saying to me IMHO is the surething. Wow!!! Just a little bit longer. Gone this long and not near as much as some. Looks like Part 5 will be it.

I hope that you do not have to move this to the Rumor and Prediction section, I hope that Part 5 is the ultimate, like in "poker"! Real poker is played with five cards! And I hope this is a "Straight Flush! Or if there is a "motomachi" in the deck, Five of A kind, "Aces + Jester!

Translated version of http://www.iraqipresidency.net/index.php?language=arabic
President congratulates Alaizidien collective far
October 7, 2006

The occasion of the Eid's collective Aizidien living decrees in the temple to Walsh Bible, Senior nicest compliments and congratulations to all the sisters and brothers Alaizidien in the world in general and Iraq in particular Aizidie. This year's celebration coincides with the introduction of the draft of Iraq's Kurdistan region, where most Kurds Alaizidien and assure you that the Constitution contains all of the doctrine Alaezideh and privacy of rites and rituals as Iraq's constitution guarantees these rights.
Once again I congratulate all Alaizidien and in the forefront of His Serene Highness Prince, Sheikh Makki Mr. Papa and members of the Council spiritual, also, we welcome visitors to the temple Walsh distinguished from outside Iraq, we wish them the best accommodation between their parents, and you all Eid is fine.

Jalal Talabani
President of the Republic of Iraq
7-10-2006

Originally Posted by motomachi

I hope that you do not have to move this to the Rumor and Prediction section, I hope that Part 5 is the ultimate, like in "poker"! Real poker is played with five cards! And I hope this is a "Straight Flush! Or if there is a "motomachi" in the deck, Five of A kind, "Aces + Jester!

Translated version of http://www.iraqipresidency.net/index.php?language=arabic
President congratulates Alaizidien collective far
October 7, 2006

The occasion of the Eid's collective Aizidien living decrees in the temple to Walsh Bible, Senior nicest compliments and congratulations to all the sisters and brothers Alaizidien in the world in general and Iraq in particular Aizidie. This year's celebration coincides with the introduction of the draft of Iraq's Kurdistan region, where most Kurds Alaizidien and assure you that the Constitution contains all of the doctrine Alaezideh and privacy of rites and rituals as Iraq's constitution guarantees these rights.
Once again I congratulate all Alaizidien and in the forefront of His Serene Highness Prince, Sheikh Makki Mr. Papa and members of the Council spiritual, also, we welcome visitors to the temple Walsh distinguished from outside Iraq, we wish them the best accommodation between their parents, and you all Eid is fine.

Jalal Talabani
President of the Republic of Iraq
7-10-2006

Yes,
I do feel we are close. With all the great news coming out, seems everything is coming together.
LIT

Just remember that 14-- dinar is a defacto rate.

I've said it since day one, Iraq's current exchange rate is "set" and is being artificially maintained at that level. That's what both the EPCA and SBA say, they labeled the current exchange rate as the "Program Exchange" rate, not "Real Exchange" rate. Sometimes the IMF also refers to it as the "Nominal Exchange Rate." And here's proof of what I'm talking about, direct from what the IMF said in the past reviews up to the latest IMF SBA review:


This is from the recent Aug 06 review:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...006/cr06301.pdf


“It is also possible that rising international crude oil prices and growing spending power in the economy are pushing up Iraq’s equilibrium real exchange rate. With the nominal exchange rate fixed, the real exchange rate adjustment is reflected in a rising domestic price level.”


This one is under the SBA Technical Memo of Understanding Dec 2005:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2005/irq/120605.pdf

"For purposes of monitoring under the program, a program exchange rate will be used. This program exchange rate will be set at ID 1,500 per U.S. dollar. The program exchange rate will be used to convert into Iraqi dinars the U.S. dollar value of all CBI foreign assets and liabilities denominated in U.S. dollars, as required. For CBI assets and liabilities denominated in SDRs and in foreign currencies other than the U.S. dollar, they will be converted in U.S. dollars at their rates prevailing as of September 30, 2005, as published on the IMF’s website."

This is under the EPCA Memo of Technical Understanding Sep 2004
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...004/cr04325.pdf

"For purposes of monitoring under the program, a program exchange rate will be used. This program exchange rate will be the U.S. dollar/Iraqi dinar exchange rate on or about August 31, 2004, as reported by the CBI (ID 1,460 per U.S. dollar)."
In the latest August 06 review I quoted above, the IMF pretty much admitted that the "real exchange rate" is now manifesting itself in the high prices of commodities in Iraq. Iraq no longer has any other option left but to adjust the "program exchange rate" to the "real exchange rate."

Originally Posted by cigarman

Just remember that 14-- dinar is a defacto rate.

I've said it since day one, Iraq's current exchange rate is "set" and is being artificially maintained at that level. That's what both the EPCA and SBA say, they labeled the current exchange rate as the "Program Exchange" rate, not "Real Exchange" rate. Sometimes the IMF also refers to it as the "Nominal Exchange Rate." And here's proof of what I'm talking about, direct from what the IMF said in the past reviews up to the latest IMF SBA review:


This is from the recent Aug 06 review:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...006/cr06301.pdf


“It is also possible that rising international crude oil prices and growing spending power in the economy are pushing up Iraq’s equilibrium real exchange rate. With the nominal exchange rate fixed, the real exchange rate adjustment is reflected in a rising domestic price level.”


This one is under the SBA Technical Memo of Understanding Dec 2005:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2005/irq/120605.pdf

"For purposes of monitoring under the program, a program exchange rate will be used. This program exchange rate will be set at ID 1,500 per U.S. dollar. The program exchange rate will be used to convert into Iraqi dinars the U.S. dollar value of all CBI foreign assets and liabilities denominated in U.S. dollars, as required. For CBI assets and liabilities denominated in SDRs and in foreign currencies other than the U.S. dollar, they will be converted in U.S. dollars at their rates prevailing as of September 30, 2005, as published on the IMF’s website."

This is under the EPCA Memo of Technical Understanding Sep 2004
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft...004/cr04325.pdf

"For purposes of monitoring under the program, a program exchange rate will be used. This program exchange rate will be the U.S. dollar/Iraqi dinar exchange rate on or about August 31, 2004, as reported by the CBI (ID 1,460 per U.S. dollar)."
In the latest August 06 review I quoted above, the IMF pretty much admitted that the "real exchange rate" is now manifesting itself in the high prices of commodities in Iraq. Iraq no longer has any other option left but to adjust the "program exchange rate" to the "real exchange rate."

We have seen that the .31NID is still on the books also. Cig, I think you provided that link didn't you? Anyway, I know we would all be THRILLED at $1.00...BUT what if they rolled out the .31NID=$1.00USD do the math on that.