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

Originally Posted by boomcreek

According to what I was told at BOA, when the Dinar goes on the "world market" they will exchange. Like any other bank, they would prefer to do business with their own customers, so they establish rules regarding having an account. So, I established an account their to initiate the relationship for the future deposits I would be making. I don't have a lot in the account, but I'm treated like royalty when I come in...I believe they know it's going to happen.

I, Too estabilished an account with BoA. And you are right They Know it is going to happen. All my buds and I will be standing in Line at the same time. A DINAR ONLY line in Palm Coast, FL. Hot Dog!!

H-Silverlinning

Originally Posted by boomcreek

According to what I was told at BOA, when the Dinar goes on the "world market" they will exchange. Like any other bank, they would prefer to do business with their own customers, so they establish rules regarding having an account. So, I established an account their to initiate the relationship for the future deposits I would be making. I don't have a lot in the account, but I'm treated like royalty when I come in...I believe they know it's going to happen.

Well, here's where I get a little confused. Will it be possible for the dinar to just continue going up a little bit with every auction until they reach a certain point WITHOUT anything else ever happening??? Why is it assumed that it will go on the world market? Are all the other mideast currencies on the world market?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here because I realize after a year of being invested in the dinar, I still don't really understand all these issues.


Caroline

Originally Posted by Caroline

Well, here's where I get a little confused. Will it be possible for the dinar to just continue going up a little bit with every auction until they reach a certain point WITHOUT anything else ever happening??? Why is it assumed that it will go on the world market? Are all the other mideast currencies on the world market?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here because I realize after a year of being invested in the dinar, I still don't really understand all these issues.


Caroline

The dinar is being exchanged now with certain banks. Once they kick start it, which IMO will be very soon, (within the month,) then more banks will be dealing with the dinar.

My bank at the moment wil pay out at whatever the rate is for that particular day. So say tomorrow, the CBI auction tells us the rate is say .30 then that is the official rate. Your banks will pay at that rate.

The fil, oil law, IC are what I believe we're waiting on. They're just limiting the damage by taking out excess dinars, letting the world know with articles discussing a reval and showing by strengthening the rate they are currently doing something.

From IIF, worth a read......


U.S. forces have made progress in one of the toughest cities in Iraq. Here's a very, very long but worthwhile report by Michael Fumento on incremental but measurable progress against the insurgency in Ramadi. His bottom line? You should read the entire piece if you have time. But he seems to argue that a long grinding war of attrition against Sunni and Qaeda insurgents might work in the long run, especially with the cooperation of local tribes. But the broader issue of sectarian civil war - and the militias now fueling it - remains at large. He's a great reporter and an honest, often surprising writer. Visit his tip-jar.(AndrewSullivan Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish )

Michael Fumento: Return to Ramadi

"Put it all together – the Forward Observation Bases, new Combat Operation Posts, new Observation Posts, tribal cooperation, ever more Iraqi army and police, better intelligence, and public works projects. There's no "stay the course" strategy here; the course changes as necessary and it's continually changed for the better. I believe we are winning the Battle of Ramadi. And if the enemy can be beaten here, he can be beaten anywhere."

I'm sorry if this has already been posted.


Security

Interior: we are continuous to eradicate terrorists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baghdad, 28 November 2006 (Al-Sabaah)
Several specialist forces at the Ministry of Interior have arrested a number of terrorists through an air troops landing implemented last week, according to accurate intelligence information.

In press conference held last Thursday, the interior spokesman, the Brigadier General Abdul Kareem Khalef said that the ministry has used a new and active style to solve the important targets in order to avoid losses took place among civilians through an air troops landing implemented by a quick reaction battalion to hunt the important targets of terrorists and wanted criminals.

Hezbollah Said to Help Shiite Army in Iraq - New York Times

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DEXTER FILKINS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr.

The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.

Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria.

The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by his agency, and discussed Iran’s role in response to questions from a reporter.

The interview occurred at a time of intense debate over whether the United States should enlist Iran’s help in stabilizing Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, directed by James A. Baker III, a former Republican secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic lawmaker, is expected to call for direct talks with Tehran.

The claim about Hezbollah’s role in training Shiite militias could strengthen the hand of those in the Bush administration who oppose a major new diplomatic involvement with Iran.

The new American account is consistent with a claim made in Iraq this summer by a mid-level Mahdi commander, who said his militia had sent 300 fighters to Lebanon, ostensibly to fight alongside Hezbollah. “They are the best-trained fighters in the Mahdi Army,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The specific assertions about Iran’s role went beyond those made publicly by senior American officials, though Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, did tell Congress this month that “the Iranian hand is stoking violence” in Iraq.

The American intelligence on Hezbollah was based on human sources, electronic means and interviews with detainees captured in Iraq.

American officials say the Iranians have also provided direct support to Shiite militias in Iraq, including explosives and trigger devices for roadside bombs, and training for several thousand fighters, mostly in Iran. The training is carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, they say.

In Congressional testimony this month, General Hayden said he was initially skeptical of reports of Iran’s role but changed his mind after reviewing intelligence reports.

“I’ll admit personally,” he said at one point in the hearing, “that I have come late to this conclusion, but I have all the zeal of a convert as to the ill effect that the Iranians are having on the situation in Iraq.”

Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, offered a similar assessment in his testimony.

Neither General Hayden nor General Maples described Hezbollah’s role during the hearing.

In the interview on Monday, the senior intelligence official was asked for further details about the purported Iranian role.

“They have been a link to Lebanese Hezbollah and have helped facilitate Hezbollah training inside of Iraq, but more importantly Jaish al-Mahdi members going to Lebanon,” the official said, describing Iran’s role and using the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army.

The official said the Hezbollah training had been conducted with the knowledge of Mr. Sadr, the most influential Shiite cleric.

While Iran wants a stable Iraq, the official said, it sees an advantage in “managed instability in the near term” to bog down the American military and defeat the Bush administration’s objectives in the region.

“There seems to have been a strategic decision taken sometime over late winter or early spring by Damascus, Tehran, along with their partners in Lebanese Hezbollah, to provide more support to Sadr to increase pressure on the U.S.,” the American intelligence official said.

Some Middle East experts were skeptical about the assessment of Hezbollah’s training role.

“That sound to me a little bit strained,” said Flynt Leverett, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a Middle East expert formerly on the National Security Council staff. “I have a hard time thinking it is a really significant piece of what we are seeing play out on the ground with the various Shiite militia forces.”

But other specialists found the assessment plausible. “I think it is plausible because Hezbollah is the best in the business, and it enhances their position with Iran, Syria and Iraq,” said Judith Kipper, of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Mahdi Army and other militia fighters traveled to Lebanon in groups of 15 and 20 and some were present during the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel this summer, though there was no indication they had taken part in the fighting, the American intelligence official said.

Asked what the militia members had learned, the official replied, “Weapons, bomb-making, intelligence, assassinations, the gambit of skill sets.”

There is intelligence that indicates that Iran shipped machine tools to Lebanon that could be used to make “shaped charges,” sophisticated explosive devices designed to penetrate armor, American officials have said. But it is not known how the equipment was in fact used.

The officials said that because the Iraqi militia members went through Syrian territory, at least some Syrian officials were complicit. There are also reports of meetings between Imad Mugniyah, a senior Hezbollah member; Ghassem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards; and Syrian representatives to discuss ways of stepping up the pressure on the United States in Iraq.

The mid-level Mahdi commander interviewed this summer said the group sent to Lebanon was called the Ali al-Hadi Brigade, named for one of two imams buried at the Askariya Mosque in Samarra. The bombing of that shrine in February unleashed the fury of Shiite militias and accelerated sectarian violence.

According to the Mahdi commander, the brigade was organized and dispatched by a senior Mahdi officer known as Abu Mujtaba. It went by bus to Syria in July, and was then led across the border into Lebanon, he said. He said the fighters were from Diwaniya and Basra, as well as from the Shiite neighborhoods of Shoala and Sadr City in Baghdad.

“They travel as normal people from Iraq to Syria,” one of the militiamen said. “Once they get to Syria, fighters in Syria take them in.”

Among American officials, concern over the purported Iranian, Syrian or Hezbollah role grew recently when an advanced antitank weapon, an RPG-29, was used against an American M-1 tank in Iraq.

“The first time we saw it was not in Iraq,” Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, told reporters in September. “We saw it in Lebanon. So to me, No. 1, it indicates an Iranian connection.”

American intelligence officials said the source of the weapon was still unclear.

General Abizaid also said it was hard to pin down some details of relationships between armed factions in the Middle East, adding: “There are clearly links between Hezbollah training people in Iran to operate in Lebanon and also training people in Iran that are Shia splinter groups that could operate against us in Iraq These linkages exist, but it is very, very hard to pin down with precision.”

Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, and Hosham Hussein from Baghdad.

Originally Posted by Alphamystic

I agree. The CBI is going to have to do a fine balancing act with the RV amount. Personally I think they are going to have to RV at lease .50 or higher.

Anything lower would allow too much investing to occur yet AND to high of an amount will put the CBI in a position of paying out too much as well as, curbing some companies from investing is reconstruction. JMO

i asked this a couple weeks ago with no response...

why would they want or not want foreign investors,
( large amounts of dinar in foreign persons hands ) ?

Big Projects for National Economic Participatation, MP Says

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

28 November 2006 (Al-Sabaah)
MP Younadim Kana deputy chief of the economic and investment committee emphasized that the coming period would witnessing big study to improve number of decisions which share raising up within the economic actual in Iraq He said in a statement issued that, the committee right studying the decisions and private legality within communications and information decision besides oil, gas and banks investment decisions in addition to any field sharing in improving the national economic for the public benefits.He concluded that, the committee has many important ideas still at the studying period which returns within the luxury and economic development for the citizens in the state

Finding Peace in the North
In Iraq's Kurdish region, violence is rare but disputes remain.
By Aamer Madhani

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IRBIL, Iraq, 27 November 2006 (Chicago Tribune)
The skyline in this northern Iraqi boomtown is a mosaic of half-built concrete retail centers, sparkling new hotels and giant earthmovers and cranes working overtime. The cafe-lined streets buzz late into the night.

While in much of Iraq, coalition troops never leave their secure bases without donning bullet-proof vests and helmets, the few U.S. troops stationed in Irbil travel through the city wearing camouflage baseball caps. Instead of staring resentfully, Kurdish motorists honk their horns and smile as the Americans drive by.

The calm here is part of a separate peace forged by Kurds in the three northern provinces known as Kurdistan since the start of the Iraq war — only that peace soon might be in peril.

In coming months, Kurdish leaders will begin the process of laying their historic claim to the region’s oil-producing center, the contested city of Kirkuk, thereby opening the door to a dispute with Arab and other Iraqis that potentially could immerse the Kurdish enclave in the kind of violence gripping the rest of the country.

The dispute could be one more headache facing the Bush administration and U.S. military commanders as they explore alternatives to their Iraq strategy in response to voters’ clear demand for changes at the polls.

Kurdish leaders say the constitutional annexation and repatriation of Kirkuk is non-negotiable and necessary to rectify Saddam Hussein’s policy of forced migration of Kurds, who for years were uprooted from their homes in the Kirkuk area and replaced by Arabs.

The leaders acknowledge their move on Kirkuk could have a destabilizing effect, at least in the short term. But for the Kurds, there is no bigger prize than the dusty city that sits atop billions of barrels of oil.

“There are many questions we face, but the only real question is that of Kirkuk,” said Sadi Ahmed Pire, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s politburo in Irbil. “Kirkuk can be solved two ways: We can discuss it with the neighboring countries and Iraqi communities and solve the situation politically, or we can solve it militarily. We hope to solve it peacefully, but this is an issue that cannot wait. It will be resolved.”

Since the fall of the former regime, Kirkuk has been a flash point of ethnic strife, with fighting between the city’s Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, all of whom claim to be the predominant group in the city with ancestral ties to the land.

Thousands of Kurds who say they were displaced from the area during Saddam’s regime have been living in a soccer stadium and other refugee camps around the city since soon after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and are awaiting repatriation.

The three-step plan for normalizing the situation in Kirkuk starts with bringing the predominantly Kurdish villages and towns that were administratively detached from the city under Saddam’s regime back into the fold by March 29, according to the timeline set in the Iraqi Constitution.

The constitution also calls for a new census of the area to be completed by July 15 and for the people of Kirkuk to hold a referendum on whether they should join Kurdistan by the end of 2007. The Kurds also must negotiate an understanding with neighboring Turkey, which believes any move toward Kurdish independence will stoke unrest among the millions of Kurds in Turkey. Iran and Syria also have Kurdish minorities.

Further complicating matters, Kurdish leaders say they might find themselves in a delicate position if the intractable violence pitting Shiites against Sunnis elsewhere in Iraq devolves into full-scale civil war.

“We’ve been living in what feels like two separate countries because we are so separated from the violence in the south,” said Mowloud Murat, a top political adviser with the Kurdistan Islamic Union. “If there was a civil war between the Shiites and Sunnis in the south, ... the Kurdish leaders would have no choice but to separate us from the rest of Iraq.”

The Kurdish north has operated as an autonomous region since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the U.S. military established a no-fly zone over Kurdistan. Kurdish leaders point out that they had more than a decade head start on the rest of Iraq in practicing democracy, which has contributed to relative stability in Kurdistan.

For the Kurds, the U.S.-led invasion was a risky venture because it rejoined the country’s fate with Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Arab population. The Kurds ultimately were willing partners in the invasion but demanded that federalism and the return of Kirkuk would be core points enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution.

Pire and other Kurdish leaders see Kirkuk as an indisputable red line. The city, which is home to large populations of Arabs and Turkmens, is considered by Kurds the “heartbeat” of greater Kurdistan. It is the economic nucleus that makes the region, and perhaps an eventual Kurdish state, viable.

Kurds and U.S. officials blame the forced migration of Kurds, known as Arabization, on the former regime, but the policy of Arabizing the city and surrounding area goes back to the early days of Iraq.

Kamal Kirkukli, the deputy speaker of the Kurdish Regional Government, spends most of his days in an office that his Kurdistan Democratic Party has set up in Irbil to research the cases of families who were expelled from Kirkuk. The office is filled with hundreds of boxes of documentary evidence.

Kirkukli said that it is possible many young Arab men and women, who were born in Kirkuk on land their parents illegally gained, will be forced to leave the only homes they have known. While Kirkukli said the situation for some Arabs is difficult and not their fault, it is necessary that they move.

“What is built on a wrong remains a wrong,” Kirkukli said.

Alaa Talabani, a Kurdish parliamentarian whose family was expelled from Kirkuk in 1991, said she fears that carrying out repatriation of Kirkuk too quickly could do more harm than good for the Kurdish refugees in the city.

In the short term, Kurdish leaders know they must remain tied to Iraq, while keeping focused on their long-term goal to establish an independent state, said Talabani, who returned to Kirkuk in 2003. To achieve the goal, she said, Kurds must help bring stability to the rest of Iraq and improve relationships with Turkey, Syria and Iran.

“It is too soon to deal with Kirkuk,” said Talabani, who is the niece of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. “Maybe in a year or two, we can let the people of Kirkuk decide their fate.”

In ways both small and large, the Kurds seem to be separating themselves from the rest of Iraq.

Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdish Regional Government, in September banned the flying of the Iraqi flag in the Kurdish region. The Iraqi national government and Kurdish Regional Government also have quarreled over who has the right to negotiate with foreign companies vying for oil exploration in Kurdistan after a Danish oil company discovered oil near the northeastern town of Zakho.

Iraq’s oil minister argued that oil is a national resource and revenues from the new Zakho find have to be shared with all of Iraq. Kurdish leaders contend the constitution calls only for the sharing of oil revenues from existing oil reserves and newly found oil is the property of the region where it is found.

While the security situation in much of Iraq has stifled foreign investment, hundreds of foreign outfits — from Turkish construction companies to a German bierhaus — have set up in Kurdistan. Although there has been economic growth, some businessmen complain Kurdistan is ultimately hampered by the security situation elsewhere in the country.

On a recent cool night in Irbil, hundreds of shoppers roamed the aisles of Ahmed Rekhani’s $20 million venture, the New City Mall, while others loitered in the parking lot to stare at a pristine white Hummer that had pulled in.

The mall, which opened three weeks ago, is more of a one-stop retail center where you can purchase food, clothes and electronics. It sits on 23,000 square yards of land and includes a Turkish restaurant with a staff imported from eastern Turkey and a motel for out-of-town shoppers.

Sitting in his second-floor office, Rekhani nervously fingered a stack of invoices and explained to a visitor that he has sunk his fortune into a project that is risky at best.

“There is no one to insure us, no banks to give us loans,” he said. “The security situation in much of the country is very dangerous. And while it is peaceful here, the dangers elsewhere in Iraq can easily affect us, and things could change quickly.”

Anis Sandi, an Egyptian general manager who Rekhani recruited to help run the project, was more blunt about the situation: “It’s like we’ve built this whole thing on sand.”

Iraqi developers launch $350 million 'mini-city' in Kurdistan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DUBAI, 27 November 2006 (AFP)
Iraqi developers said Monday they have launched a $350 million project to build a lush "mini-city" in the relative safety of the war-wracked country's northern Kurdish region. The development of "Empire World" in the Kurdish capital of Arbil is designed to "show some hope and some opportunities" in Iraqi Kurdistan, said Michel Hebert, CEO of the Iraqi-owned group Empire Holdings which is behind the venture.

Empire World, which broke ground in June, covers 750,000 square meters of integrated commercial, residential, hotel and leisure facilities in a "mini-city" all-inclusive environment, Canadian-born Hebert told reporters in Dubai.

"The site is designed to provide its users with the latest and most sophisticated technology and services," and will feature two towers, one providing office space and the other housing a luxury hotel, Hebert said.

The project will cost $350 million over eight years, he said, describing Kurdistan as "safe and secure, with a booming investment environment and a diversified economy."

Empire Holdings president Shwan al-Mulla emphasized the favorable nature of the investment climate in Iraqi Kurdistan, "in particular the recent enactment of the investment promotion law which offers attractive incentives for investment and guarantees equal treatment for both domestic and foreign investors."

Iraqi Kurdistan, which encompasses the provinces of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah, was largely deprived of economic development under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

In 1991, the region became virtually autonomous after Saddam was defeated in the Gulf War and the US-led allies made the area a no-go zone for the Iraqi forces. Since then, it has seen progress on the economic front and has largely been spared the violence that has plagued the rest of Iraq.