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

CBI "Well that is a big bank in the middle of Iraq, but that's not important right now."
HA HA
LIT

Originally Posted by clintstella

I was hoping you might say that matey.

However, wasn't there a squad of US troops (the squad who assisted the distribution of the 2003 new notes) being trained somewhere in the US to be sent back over? A little vague I know but I read this somewhere a while back.

"Squad" the correct terminology? If not Soz

yes the troop from utah who did the original distribution of the dinar went back over there. they were trained for about 6 weeks before they went back over and last i heard they were indeed there now.

Maliki return to Baghdad after meeting with Bush

((Voice of Iraq) - 11-30-2006 | This issue was sent to a friend

مانMaliki return to Baghdad after meeting with Bush in Amman
Then Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad today, Thursday, after a series of meetings in the Jordanian capital of Amman with all of the American President George Bush and Jordanian King Abdullah II and his Prime Minister known Albecht.
In which he discussed ways of improving the security situation in Iraq and the transfer of responsibility from the multinational forces to Iraqi forces.

Sotaliraq.com

Personally, I feel that the person who wrote this is full of POO!!!

ANALYSIS-Iraq's oil industry in grip of despair
By Peg Mackey

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LONDON, 30 November 2006 (Reuters)
The present state of Iraq's collapsing oil sector, its economic lifeline, is bleak and its future looks far worse, despairing officials say.

Another damaging oil attack this week, the prospect of British troops handing over the oil city of Basra and virtual civil war have all but crushed hope for Iraqi officials battling to keep exports flowing to world markets.

"One thing is sure. The worst is yet to come," an Iraqi oil industry source said by telephone from Baghdad.

His task is made harder still by gross mismanagement at the oil ministry and chronic underinvestment in the vital sector -- already neglected for decades due to sanctions and wars.

"There is no line of authority at the oil ministry," said an oil official in the capital. "We are crippled. We have the resources and the finances and we are still failing."

With Baghdad in chaos, technocrats fear the oil producing regions in the Shi'ite south and in the north near Kurdistan may seize control of exports and effectively dismember the country that holds the world's third biggest oil reserves.

"Our country may be dismantled -- farewell to central government," the oil source said. "This is the danger."

Salvation, in the form of an eagerly-awaited oil law designed to unify the country and lure foreign investment, is unlikely to arrive by the end of the year.

Control of the oilfields is dividing Iraq's three main communities, the Arab Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and ethnic Kurds. Sunnis fear autonomous deals by Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north will cut them out of Iraq's oil wealth.

They, along with the Kurds and Turkmen, are disputing the status of Kirkuk and its giant oilfield. A December 2007 referendum will decide whether Kirkuk city and the surrounding area should be controlled by the Kurdistan regional government.

"That's the real flashpoint," said Peter Khalil of Eurasia Group. "The Kurds have de facto taken control of Kirkuk."

Whoever does lay claim to Kirkuk will inherit an 80-year-old oilfield that pumped 800,000 bpd or nearly a third of Iraq's output under Saddam Hussein.

Rates have slowed to a trickle since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as relentless sabotage along the northern export pipeline to Turkey has kept exports mostly idle.

The field was dealt another blow on Monday when a mortar attack ignited nearby oil tanks and cut Kirkuk production to about 100,000 bpd from 300,000 bpd.


RESTIVE SOUTH

Though plagued by factional fighting, mainly Shi'ite Basra has largely escaped the sectarian violence.

The southern Rumaila oilfields have provided steady exports of around 1.5 million bpd for close to a year.

"The oil flow from the south has been sacrosanct even with Baghdad falling apart," said a Western executive at a major oil company. "But will it last?"

Although more than 7,000 British troops are in the region, they plan to leave by the end of 2007.

Eurasia Group's Khalil said there was an outside chance of an attack on oil facilities when British troops start their hand over. He said, however, the decrepit state of the south's oil network posed a bigger risk to oil flows.

"Even if the security situation gets worse, I don't see the Shi'ites deliberately targeting the oil infrastructure," he said. "They're not going to attack their lifeline."

Iraq's production is stuck at around 2 million bpd, well down on the nearly 3 million bpd hit in the final days of Saddam and even further from the 3.7 million pumped in 1979, prior to the Iran-Iraq war.

A modest amount of foreign cash could swiftly boost flows towards four million bpd. But multinationals will not act without a legal framework and peace restored.

Senior Iraqi officials were to resume talks to resolve a dispute over the energy legislation last Thursday, when bombing in the capital killed 200. There was no word on progress.

Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani wants to retain a strong grip with only participation by the provinces, officials said.

"From a technical and economic standpoint, this is a reasonable solution," said a senior Iraqi executive. "But whether that's acceptable to all parties remains to be seen."

Boycotting Iraqi lawmakers, Cabinet ministers set conditions for returning to work

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30 November 2006 (Associated Press)
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must improve security and provide more reliable electricity and other basic services before Shiite politicians end a boycott of the government launched to protest the premier's summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, a top legislator said Thursday.

The boycott by ministers and lawmakers loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is not affecting many vital ministries, and one striking minister said work continues at his office even with him gone.

But the walkout has driven home the fragility of al-Maliki's coalition government of feuding Shiites, Sunni Arabs, Kurds and secularists.

Top Shiite legislator Baha al-Aaraji said in a telephone interview that to end the boycott there must be an increase in the number of well-trained Iraqi security forces, and the government must provide more electricity, gas and other basic services, especially in southern provinces that are less violent than central and northern Iraq. In Baghdad and other cities, residents often have no electricity or water supplies for much of the day.

Al-Aaraji would not answer further questions.

One of the main goals of the U.S. coalition is to train enough Iraqi soldiers and police to take over its security responsibilities, especially in particularly violent areas such as western Iraq, where al-Qaida in Iraq is powerful, and Baghdad, where fighting between Sunni militants and Shiite militias is escalating.

After his summit with al-Maliki in Jordan on Thursday, Bush said they both have agreed to speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces, but that U.S. troops would remain in Iraq as long as needed to strengthen the prime minister's authority.

"One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we've been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people," Bush said during a joint news conference with al-Maliki in Amman. "Today we had a meeting that will accelerate the capacity for the prime minister to do the hard work necessary to help stop this violence."

In Iraq, the U.S. military said Thursday that Iraqi forces had found 28 bodies the day before in what may be a mass grave south of the city of Baqouba. For about a week, heavy fighting between Iraqi police and Sunni insurgents has killed scores of people in and around Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

In the southern city of Basra, gunmen killed Nasir Gatami, the deputy of the local Sunni Endowment chapter, and three of his bodyguards in an attack on their two-car convoy, police said. The Endowment, which confirmed the attack, was created to care for Sunni mosques across Iraq. In the past four months, 23 employees of its employees have been kidnapped in Baghdad, reportedly by suspected Shiite militias.

The U.S. command said Thursday that an American soldier was killed the day before during combat in Baghdad, raising to at least 2,884 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war.

The boycott by Shiite legislators and ministers doesn't affect top ministries in al-Maliki's government such as foreign, defense, oil, finance, interior, justice or trade. The boycotting Shiite Cabinet members include the ministers of agriculture, health, transport and public works.

Liwa Smeism, one of the boycotting Cabinet ministers, said Thursday that the Shiite boycott wouldn't stop all work at government offices such as his Ministry of State of Tourism and Archaeological Affairs.

"We are protesting, not closing the ministries. The undersecretaries and other officials are running them. If my decision is needed at my ministry, my staff can call me up at home," he said in a telephone interview.

Smeism said the participating ministers are "suspending our participation in the Cabinet meetings until we get new directions from our leaders of the boycott."

Like, al-Aaraji, Smeism declined to comment on the decision by al-Maliki and King Abdullah II of Jordan to abruptly back out of a meeting with Bush in Amman on Wednesday night.

In announcing the boycott Wednesday, the 30 lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers said their action was necessary because the summit in Jordan constituted a "provocation to the feelings of the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional rights."

The Sadrists had threatened to quit the government and the 275-member parliament if al-Maliki went ahead with the summit. But by downgrading their protest to a suspension of membership, they left open a return to their jobs.

Originally Posted by Adster

Matey, the lower denoms IMO are already sitting and waiting in the banks for the big 'OK'.

Adster, Do you no of anyone that is holding any of the 50,250,500 dinar notes? I seen them on the CBI website they need even lower denoms before the reval don't you think?

Trapper T - I have those in my desk drawer

Originally Posted by Trapper t

Adster, Do you no of anyone that is holding any of the 50,250,500 dinar notes? I seen them on the CBI website they need even lower denoms before the reval don't you think?

Yea, the smaller ones will have to come out for a r/v for sure. I have some 500s nothing lower, one I keep in my wallet for good luck.

Lots of tough news today.
Perhaps a December to remember...

Talabani back to Baghdad after a visit to Iran
Baghdad - (Voices of Iraq)

Returned Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad today, Thursday, after a visit to Iran that lasted four days.

A Talabani during the visit held talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and senior officials of Iran and Talabani described before leaving Tehran Balnajehh "and the results will emerge soon."

During the visit was the signing of several agreements of cooperation between the two countries in the educational and industrial sectors

ÇáØÇáÈÇäí- ÚæÏÉ :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq


Maliki is back, Talabani is back. Iraqi people must seen results soon.

I think they are now picking up Shabibi for the big announcement.