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

Good God Subhkm Advantages : Iraq
Translated version of http://www.kululiraq.com/ (Last tab on the left, first column, it is the second article in that group!)

The features that characterize Iraq to the other countries in all fields are incalculable. it differs from the countries of the globe are drawing attention puzzling ...

At the economic level, Iraq is one of the richest countries of the world where the oil and the rest of the components that make it a rich country ... although part of the State to provide for the poor was able to move its economy forward and can cope with the transition properly serve its people for a long time ... We the people of this country should not of such wealth and such bounties only hunger and suffering. Country of oil and fuel imports have never been characterized by such a privilege and an agricultural country and the import of wheat and dates, vegetables, fruits and other advantage of this country possesses the qualifications of all kinds of tourism has been unable to this day to come close to the States, which depend on tourism as the first line of support to the economic advantage ... This the country has a long history and civilization and the remarkable impact of the milestone, which is one of the seven wonders of the world, but it differs from the other countries that possess other features that only ceased when that great edifice ... The other advantage ... the country owns the stretch of the two rivers north to south, but most areas and cities complain of scarcity of water ... a country like him. The border with bordering countries, but not the only decisive and positive relations with these countries, but over on him when in the case of hostilities with all neighboring countries. This is another advantage. There are many other advantages are no less important than what I like to distinguish them as the only country which did not enter ages for decades and that the only country that applies the system of government in three tests in one year, as well as from the rest of the Division characterized as a people always either sleeping or fighting not sleep.
Wael became

LEADING STORY

Launching Real Estate Loans and Subsidising Construction Materials

The Ministry of Finance announced that it will allocate one billion dollars to support the unemployed through a social protection network, and started promoting applications of real estate loans to assist Iraqis to build houses for themselves. Read

EDITORIAL


Launching Real Estate Loans and Subsidising Construction Materials
(Noozz Editorial) Oct 15 2006

Ministry of Oil Denies Low Oil Prices for Jordan
(Noozz Editorial) Oct 15 2006

The 6th Reconstructing Iraq Conference due to be held in Washington in December
(Noozz Editorial) Oct 15 2006

Noozz.com - Leader in Emerging Market Premium Business Information

Tense Baghdad Residents Find Oasis in 'Dr. Phil' - Los Angeles Times

Tense Baghdad Residents Find Oasis in 'Dr. Phil'
Seeing bedroom and workplace foibles solved on TV offers comfort to people confronted daily by mortar rounds and death squads.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
October 15, 2006


BAGHDAD — The young men at the checkpoint couldn't have been older than his own lanky teenagers. Wielding Kalashnikovs, they brusquely ordered the gentlemanly, 50-year-old Shamil Hashem Suhaili and his 16-year-old son, Ahmad, out of their car. They demanded identification. They questioned him harshly.

Where are you going? Where are you coming from?

ADVERTISEMENTIt was degrading, to be sure, for a man of his age and accomplishments. But the hydro-engineer could do little but submit.

"I answered them politely," he says. "If you make a mistake they could do anything to you. If they want, maybe they will get your mobile phone, your money, maybe they take my son. They are the judge. They do whatever they want."

Frightened and angry, Suhaili headed home with his son for lunch with their family. Afterward, Suhaili powered up his generator and wound down his nerves with one of the few things that give him comfort: "Dr. Phil."

In a world of armed gangs, random shootings, blackouts and trash heaps, salves are where you find them.

For Suhaili, they're a family lunch, a bit of gardening, and the balding American talk-show host from Texas, whose weekday television program airs with Arabic subtitles on a popular Lebanese-based satellite channel.

Syndicated and subtitled versions of "Dr. Phil" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" are growing popular throughout the Middle East. For Iraqis, they offer a window to a world in which people are more concerned with bedroom and workplace foibles than mortar rounds and death squads.

From the moment Suhaili clambers out of bed, his travails are beyond the scope of a "Dr. Phil" episode. He struggles through the dark and muggy heat, hoping there's enough water for a shower, enough light to button his shirt by. "You can't even comb your hair," he says. "You can't select the proper clothes and shirt for your pants."

His work at Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources sometimes seems the perfect metaphor for his life: spending the day plugging the cracks in Iraq's dams.

After climbing into his beat-up Volkswagen, Suhaili girds himself for the hourlong ride past multiple checkpoints. If he's short on gas it means a dangerous wait at the fuel station, or paying steep black-market prices for fuel from a jerrycan.

"Sometimes these people are cheating," he says. "They mix it with water or diesel. It ruins your car."

Suhaili, a Sunni Arab, is a stocky man whose reddish brown hair and mustache show wisps of white. His smoky-brown eyes glisten as he recounts his family's near-brushes with disaster: A car bomb explosion near his home shattered every window and door frame. A mortar round struck his son Abdullah's school. Uniformed gunmen abducted a dozen young Sunni Arab men from his neighborhood — people who had played with his sons — before torturing and killing them.

But much of the frustration is more mundane: Hours of work are lost on his computer because the power goes out at the ministry. A checkpoint delay holds him up for an hour. Teachers demand bribes in excess of $100 to help his two sons, Abdullah, 19, and Ahmad, advance in school. Fear of suicide bombings at a crowded no-frills market forces him to shop at a pricier one.

There are the half-melted spent bullets he finds on his roof, a warning that even minding your own business and staying at home may not protect you from the random gunfire that rains down on Baghdad.

And all day long he worries about the unspeakable. His daughter, Yasmine, a quiet but alert 22-year-old, travels along dangerous roads to medical school. His sons navigate the halls of a school riven by sectarian tensions. His wife, Hadel Hazem, insists on driving herself — sometimes alone — around the city. He thinks of them with every television and radio report of corpses, kidnappings and bombings.

"When my child is late coming home from school for just five minutes, 100 thoughts go through my mind," says Hazem, a retired electrical engineer who runs a small nonprofit organization for widows.

After work, school and errands, when all five family members gather for a midafternoon lunch, they share stories of terrible fates that have befallen others.

Abdullah and Ahmad discuss a new project they're working on: setting up a computer network among the neighborhood boys so they can compete at video games without leaving their homes.

But sometimes the anxiety explodes. An argument breaks out.

Abdullah calls for Iraq peace

By Syed Rashid Husain

RIYADH, Oct 14: King Abdullah met prominent Iraqi Sunni and Shia Muslim clerics on Saturday and stressed the need for tolerance and peace to overcome the current sectarian strife in their country.

The Iraqi religious scholars are here to attend a conference organised by the Organisation of Islamic Conference to push for sectarian peace in Iraq. The meeting of leading religious scholars from Iraq is scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday. Last week, a preparatory meeting of Iraqi scholars was held in Makkah to formulate a document on reconciliation between Sunnis and Shia communities in Iraq. The document, known as the Makkah Declaration, is to be adopted at the scholars’ meeting later this week.

Abdullah calls for Iraq peace -DAWN - Top Stories; October 15, 2006

Iraqi police force faces shake-up¡¡
Last Updated(Beijing Time):2006-10-15 11:26

Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, whose police forces have been accused of complicity in sectarian attacks, has fired 3,000 employees accused of corruption or rights abuses and will change top commanders, a spokesman said Saturday.
Thousands have died this year in the cycle of killings between Shiite and Sunni death squads. At least 22 were killed Saturday, mainly in sectarian attacks.

Iraqi police force faces shake-up¡¡

More than 58 million auction sales volume of the Central Bank of Iraq

Originally Posted by Adster

Here's a thought. Dinar 3 years old tomorrow. Ration cards being distributed 16th. Add this to a big announcement the Republicans are meant to be coming out with tomorrow/16th.

Things that make you go hhmmmmmmmm........

Justice / special continued Iraqi dinar exchange rate to rise last Thursday at the dollar figure is the highest recorded this year in an auction the Central Bank of Iraq in 1470 dinars.
Translated version of http://www.aladalanews.com/ (Fifth Arabic TAB on the right, first article!)
Volume increased demand for the dollar purchase auction at the conclusion of the Central Bank of meetings last week, recording the volume reached 58 million and 810 thousand dollars, with 24 million and 750 thousand dollars in cash and 34 million and 60 thousand dollars in the form of remittances outside the country, the World Ptgtabtha fully exchange rate of 1470 dinars. , the lowest point on the exchange rate last Wednesday of Dbenara in 1471, did not submit any of the 15 participating banks auction offers to sell the dollar.

IZDIHAR News Highlights

Iraq Takes Major Step toward Opening Negotiations for Accession to the World Trade Organization

12 October 2006 - Recently, Iraq reached a new milestone in its ongoing bid for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by submitting written responses to a host of questions raised by key members of the organization.

The questions focused on Iraq’s agricultural regime, customs and tariff policies, privatization, intellectual property protection and enforcement, technical barriers to trade, as well as efforts to ensure good governance and fight corruption. They addressed the current state of affairs as well as future intentions of the Iraqi government in terms of regulatory and capacity building reforms.

The submission of Iraq’s replies illustrates consistent progress and momentum towards WTO accession and reform of the trade policy regime, despite challenging circumstances. Since filing its application letter to join the world trade body in September 2004,the pace of Iraq’s progress to date has matched and in some cases exceeded that of previously acceded countries. The USAID-funded ZDIHAR project has contributed to this progress by providing training and technical assistance to Iraqi government officials focused on WTO accession. IZDIHAR worked with the ministries concerned and assisted in compiling and organizing the information needed for the responses.

This step is another milestone on the way to convening the first formal meeting of the WTO Working Party on Iraq’s accession in Geneva, which launches the negotiation process.

repost for reference...

General Motors Crosses the 100,000 Unit Sales Mark Ahead of Schedule - Zawya.com | Middle East Business News

General Motors Crosses the 100,000 Unit Sales Mark Ahead of Schedule




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15 October 2006
UAE records 85% sales growth to 11,704 units during first three quarters of 2006



YTD 2006 sales across the region of 100,098 units






Dubai, United Arab Emirates - General MotorsGeneral MotorsGeneral Motors Middle East
News | Profile | Officers
' (GM) growth in the United Arab Emirates has continued with year-to-date sales up 85% to 11,704 units over the same period in 2005. Middle East sales in July, August and September - the best three month period ever - were 37,467 units, up 22% over the corresponding period in 2005. Year-to-date sales have passed the milestone 100,000 unit barrier to reach 100,098 units, an increase of 21% over the same period in 2005.



"Chevrolet continues to drive our growth in the Middle East, especially the new generation of our large SUVs, the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, and our offerings in the small car segment the Optra and Aveo," commented Terry Johnsson, Managing Director of GM Middle East speaking to journalists at a media briefing held in Kuwait. "All of the new launches we have had this year have been a tremendous success and we have some very important new models yet to come. Things look good for continued growth."


Year-to-date sales of Chevrolet are up by 27% to 67,146 units over 2005. Sales of the new generation Tahoe and Suburban have both more than doubled this year, with the new models in showrooms for less than 3 months. Sales of the Chevrolet Optra are up 47% year on year to 11,236 units while Aveo sales have increased by 27% over 2005 to 10,549 units.


GM's positive performance is consistent across all its major brands. GM's premium brands have also experienced outstanding sales results. Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab year-to-date sales have grown by 58% to 3,967 units over the same period last year. Sales of the all-new Cadillac Escalade in September 2006 were up 35% over September 2005 across the region while more than 1,800 units of the iconic HUMMER H3 have been sold in 2006.


Long time Middle East favourites, the GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, have seen sales increase by 6% to 18,282 units, bringing total GMC year-to-date sales to 28,342 units, an increase of 7% over the same period last year.


GM maintained its momentum throughout the third quarter across the whole region. In Saudi Arabia, GM's largest market in the region, year-to-date sales have grown 7% over 2005 to 57,920 representing 58% of GM's total regional sales. Sales in Bahrain have increased 3% to 1,507 units, Kuwait sales have grown at 5% to 12,579 units and the Levant markets (Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) have seen sales increase by 28% to 4,320 despite the recent war in the region.


Sales in Oman have increased 44% to 1,632 units and Qatar sales are up 70% to 3,914 units. Sales in iraq have more than trebled so far in 2006 with sales in the first nine months totalling 6,339 units.


"Our customers have told us that success in the marketplace depends on a combination of great cars and SUVs, strong brands and overall ownership experience, and that is exactly what GM is doing in the Middle East," added Johnsson. "The last quarter of the year will be a very important period for us as we launch some very important new models. Early next month we will introduce an all-new Chevrolet Caprice, Lumina and Epica, three cars with total sales so far in 2006 of 24,500 - 25% of our total sales in the region."


"We will also be launching a brand new, compact SUV, the Chevrolet Captiva, which will see us compete in a totally new and highly competitive segment of the automotive industry," he added. "We also have a few surprises up our sleeve before the end of the year!"


GM brand highlights - 2006 YTD Results


- Chevrolet sales up 27% to 67,146 units


- Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab sales up 58% to 3,967 units


- GMC sales up 7% to 28,342 units


GM market highlights - 2006 YTD Results:


- Saudi Arabia sales up 7% to 57,920 units


- Bahrain sales up 3% to 1,507 units


- Kuwait sales up 5% to 12,579 units


- Levant (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon) sales up 28% to 4,320 units despite war


- United Arab Emirates sales up 85% to 11,705 units


- Oman sales up 44% to 1,630 units


- Qatar sales up 70% to 3,914 units


- iraq sales more than trebled to 6,339 units


GM Middle East corporate highlights - 2006:


- GM Technical Training Program - joint training initiative with the General Organisation for Technical and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) - officially opened in Riyadh and Jeddah


- Middle East Lumina CSV Championship launched


- Chevrolet sponsors Saudi National football team


Middle East Distribution Centre - US$63 million expansion completed



-Ends-

Editorial: Part of the Problem - Zawya.com | Middle East Business News

Editorial: Part of the Problem





15 October 2006
THE conclusion by the UK's Chief of General Staff, Sir Richard Dannatt, that British forces in iraq are actually part of the problem rather than a solution is a damning contradiction of the stubborn optimism of his political master Tony Blair. The general's comments are all the more telling because he is a serving officer who has surely placed his career on the line by going public in this way. In the last six months, a procession of American generals has been telling US legislators that the White House assertion that the insurgency is slowly being defeated is plain wrong. These senior American officers, however, have all launched their criticisms from the safety of retirement.


In his interview with Britain's Daily Mail, Gen. Dannatt asserted that the presence of the UK armed forces "exacerbated" the security problem and therefore they should be withdrawn "sometime soon." He was scathing about the lack of postwar planning after the US-led Coalition forces had effectively "kicked the door in." He noted that the original tolerance given the British occupation forces in southern iraq had turned to outright and menacing intolerance. Dannatt also said: "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear. As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited, certainly by those in iraq at the time." He clearly believes that Afghanistan, where it is widely accepted that NATO troops are on the ground in insufficient numbers, would be a far better deployment of the UK's limited armed forces.


What Dannatt chose not to address is what would happen to iraq if the occupation forces withdrew. With the violence -- both insurgent and inter-communal -- increasing every day, it is clear that George Bush's trumpeted mission to produce a peaceful, pluralist democracy has failed utterly. Washington is beginning to finger the Iraqi coalition government for the debacle. There can be no doubt that the endless political wranglings, first over the constitution and then the formation of the coalition government created vacuums which the men of violence quickly filled with Iraqi blood.


Clearly, nothing can exculpate Bush for the invasion on wholly false WMD evidence. That is the ultimate source of the current chaos and instability. As many as 665,000 Iraqis may have died since 2003, simply so the president could settle his father's grudge with Saddam and Washington is seeking an escape from the chaos it is responsible for creating. In response to Dannatt's highly irregular comments, the Blair government has asserted that the chief of General Staff still enjoys its complete confidence. Can it be therefore that the general was meant to say these things? Could it be that when this officer, well known for his outspokenness, was appointed in August to the most senior job in the British Army, it was fully expected that he would go public with his inevitably stark and critical analysis? If so, then the British are preparing the ground for their own withdrawal. How is Washington planning and justifying similar actions at its end?


© Arab News 2006

Divisa in partes tres

15 October 2006
But dividing iraq into three parts may be more tempting than realistic

Three years ago, just after the American-led invasion of iraq, an American sergeant based in the northern city of Kirkuk, then the main focus of ethnic and sectarian competition, offered your correspondent his own interpretation of what was going on. "You know what all this is about? Undoing what you British did at the end of World War I." He was referring to the peace settlements that followed the collapse of the Ottoman empire, when the British took control of the former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul and proceeded to lump them together into a single unified state, with a Sunni monarchy in charge. There has been ethnic and sectarian-based conflict ever since.

Seldom has the violence been worse than it is now. Over a 24-hour period this week 60 bound, tortured and murdered bodies were found scattered across Baghdad. iraq's ministry for migration reports that sectarian killing has caused over 300,000 Sunnis and Shias to flee from one part of the country to another. On top of this comes the worst figure of all: the huge estimate of total deaths by an American-Iraqi medical team.




Time, some have suggested, to go back to the drawing board and think about partitioning the country into a Kurdish north, a Sunni centre and a Shia south. The idea was floated in America during the summer by Senator Joseph Biden, though his proposal, like most partition schemes, falls short of creating three separate states. iraq would remain one country but with a radical form of federalism that divides it into three autonomous regions, with the central government in charge of defence and the distribution of oil revenues.


At first glance, partition has much to recommend it. iraq is already divided, politically and demographically, into three distinct ethnic and sectarian blocks. Partition would formalise what is fast happening on the ground, allowing the Americans to extract themselves from the task of trying to keep Iraqis from killing each other. Sunni and Shia politicians bitterly contest control of key posts in government and the security forces, while their militias clash over control of territory. In theory, a partitioned iraq would allow each group to set up its own mini-government and to police its own affairs, removing the incentive for sectarian violence.


iraq's constitution already allows for autonomous federal regions along the lines of the Kurds' northern self-rule zone. A clear majority of Kurds imply that they would like, at some future date, to secede altogether. Apart from the Kurds, however, few groups are prepared publicly to advocate outright partition, although some, such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in iraq (SCIRI), a Shia party, advocate a southern federal region.


Privately, quite a few others think partition a good idea. Many Shias are convinced that the Sunnis will never cease from trying to regain control of the central government. Only by cutting the Sunnis loose, they argue, can peace be restored. Some of the Shia refugees, who have fled Sunni areas and are now living in camps in the south or outside the country, hope that partition will allow them to be permanently resettled, possibly in homes vacated by Sunnis fleeing the other way.




But any attempt to move towards partition would meet fierce resistance. Sunnis, clearly, would oppose any settlement that left them isolated in their oil-poor heartland. The Sunnis, however, are not alone: many Shias, including the radical Sadrist movement, are ideologically committed to Iraqi unity. Sunni and Sadrist opposition was enough to delay a motion presented by SCIRI last month that would have paved the way for the creation of a southern federal region.


Determined opposition would also come from outside. iraq's Arab neighbours would be fiercely against any division of the country, both on principle and to avoid having an Iranian-dominated Shia state on their doorstep. Turkey, for its part, objects vigorously to the notion of an independent Kurdistan.


Nor is there any guarantee that partition would reduce the violence, at least in the short term. Probably hundreds of thousands of Baghdad residents still live in mixed Sunni-Shia neighbourhoods. If partition was on the cards, it would disastrously encourage ethnic cleansing: sectarian militias would set about creating facts on the ground prior to any drawing of new borders.


In the longer term, creating new sovereign entities could simply transform iraq from a single failed state to multiple failed statelets, each of which might be used by radical groups to plot attacks on the other. In 2004 the Americans turned over control of Fallujah, a Sunni hot spot west of Baghdad, to locally-recruited security forces--only to see al-Qaeda affiliates take control and use the town as a base for kidnapping and car-bomb manufacture.


Some Shia analysts believe that independence could result in a series of mini-civil wars in the south between the various militias. iraq may be too fragmented to function as a single united entity. The trouble is that it is also too fragmented to be neatly divided into three.

© The Economist 2006

Divisa in partes tres - Zawya.com | Middle East Business News