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

I'm sorry if this has been already posted.


Minister vows to beat ‘terror’ and reconstruct Iraq in 2007

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08 December 2006 (Azzaman)
The year 2007 will see the end of ‘terror’ in Iraq, return of stability and large-scale reconstruction, a cabinet minister claimed.

Finance Minister Baqer Solagh said the same year should see the value of the Iraqi dinar surging as a sign of a robust economy.

In a statement faxed to Azzaman, the minister said he would personally follow the implementation of projects that he hoped will see a drastic decline in unemployment.

The statement was released ahead of the publication of 2007 budget which Solagh said would secure the necessary financial resources to reconstruct the country.

“Next year will see a revolution in reconstruction which will check unemployment, defeat terror and consolidate security and stability in the new Iraq,” he said.

But he gave a gloomy picture of the pace of reconstruction in 2006 in which projects worth more than 2.5 billion dollars remain unimplemented due to security problems.

But the minister said he would see to it that all projects in the 2007 are carried out.

He gave no figures on money earmarked for reconstruction in 2007

Originally Posted by Adster

More pressure from Bush. Sure the Kurds are getting more and more cheesed off to.

Ok Adster...

Being from Wisconsin, America's Dairlyland and cheese capitol, I am getting a bit, er, cheesed off with this misappropriation of our most revered of words. I may just have to wear my cheesehead to the reval party

Azzaman in English


So Stephanie is that important that the thread topic is turning to her?
Minister vows to beat ‘terror’ and reconstruct Iraq in 2007



Azzaman, December 7, 2006



The year 2007 will see the end of ‘terror’ in Iraq, return of stability and large-scale reconstruction, a cabinet minister claimed.



Finance Minister Baqer Solagh said the same year should see the value of the Iraqi dinar surging as a sign of a robust economy.



In a statement faxed to Azzaman, the minister said he would personally follow the implementation of projects that he hoped will see a drastic decline in unemployment.



The statement was released ahead of the publication of 2007 budget which Solagh said would secure the necessary financial resources to reconstruct the country.



“Next year will see a revolution in reconstruction which will check unemployment, defeat terror and consolidate security and stability in the new Iraq,” he said.



But he gave a gloomy picture of the pace of reconstruction in 2006 in which projects worth more than 2.5 billion dollars remain unimplemented due to security problems.



But the minister said he would see to it that all projects in the 2007 are carried out.



He gave no figures on money earmarked for reconstruction in 2007.

Updating with the text of the statement by the Presidency of the territory Cordstan) led temple belie quoted by the Arab satellite channel, and confirms that the President of the Republic, Jalal Talabani, Barzani supported the position of President of the Baker-Hamilton

December 8, 2006December 8, 2006

Temple denied Kamran led the official spokesman for the President of the Republic, as quoted by the Arab satellite channel, that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the report finds Baker-Hamilton conform to the interests of Iraq.

Said temple led to the Arab satellite Ajtzat statements were made by the spacecraft, in which he stressed that it is not possible to give a comprehensive assessment of the report, which includes more than seventy recommendation, but he pointed to the presence of specific points in the report, such as the recommendation to transfer the security dossier to Iraqi control, and dialogue with the neighboring states, which correspond to the policy of the Iraqi government, exceed demand this always.
Drew, the official spokesman for the President of the Republic, to the Arab satellite channel ignored the statement in his statement in which he referred to the existence of many points and the themes contained in the report, and that does not correspond to the national interests of Iraq, and contrary to the Constitution, which is keen to protect President Talabani and commitment by.
And in this context led the temple, that the President of the Republic, Jalal Talabani, supported the position of President of Kurdistan Mr. Masoud Barzani of the report, which was published in a statement issued by yesterday.

"And press office published the full text of the statement by the Presidency of the territory Cordstan on the report of the "Commission to Study Iraq"

"After examining the report," Commission to Study Iraq, "we need to put forward the following points :
1- The non-arrival of the members of the Baker-Hamilton Cordstan to, and for whatever reason, is a big shortage in the evaluation process and report loses credibility.
2- Recommendation (26) to the audit of the Iraqi Constitution, the participation of experts from the United Nations.
In our view, any review of the Iraqi Constitution requires to be done within the mechanisms established by the Constitution itself. Therefore, we reject any change outside these mechanisms work, and everyone knows that the territorial integrity of Iraq is a commitment to this Constitution.
3- Recommendation (28) to put oil revenues under the control of the central government, and the distribution of proceeds on the basis of population in the areas in Iraq, considering that the control of the regions oil wells run with the new process of national reconciliation.
In relation to this recommendation, we renew our commitment to the full Constitution, which defines the right solution to this issue, and will reject any change in this area.
4- in (30) on the Kirkuk report calls for the postponement of the application of Article (140) of the Constitution and to mandate "the international community to support Iraq," which the Commission proposed to set up to address this issue.
In our view, the Constitution defined mechanisms application of Article 140 and the ceiling of the time, and this is the minimum acceptable Alkord. Therefore, any delay in the process of the application of this article is a great fears, which can not be tolerated in any form by the people Cordstan.
5- entire report stresses the strengthening of the central government and weaken the powers of provinces, and this in itself incompatible with the principles of federalism, Aldstoralthi form the basis of the new Iraq.
Here, I reiterate that federalism is the only way to preserve the unity of Iraq.
6- Six-take report clearly in a number of sections in the account of the interests and concerns of neighboring Iraq and calls for a greater role for these countries. In our view, this proposal is not consistent with the interests and sovereignty of Iraq in general and with the benefit of the people Cordstan in particular, which constitutes interference in the affairs of Iraq.
7- report calls in a number of paragraphs, for example, in recommendations (27) and (35), to persuade the parties that oppose the political process and resort to violence and to be included in the Authority and the government. This, in our view, contrary to the interests of the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people and the democratic process.
8- with our thanks and gratitude to the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush and the American administration for their role in the overthrow of the former regime and their efforts to support the new Iraq, we believe that the Baker-Hamilton raised many of the recommendations unrealistic and non-believing that the application of these recommendations would help the United States to overcome the difficulties. If the aim is to be imposed on us by this Committee recommendations of the Inalienable application, we declare our rejection Cordstan behalf of the people of all incompatible with the Constitution and the interests of Iraq and Cordstan.
9- that the report did not agree with us was confirmed by Mr. James Baker in a telephone conversation in which he noted that the Commission had taken into consideration in its territory Cordstan privacy. Note that we have made clear in advance the opinion of the Kurdish party in our letter to the Committee. It seems that the committee did not take the contents of this letter in our account did not mention it.
Finally, make it clear that :
- We are committed and any form of the Committee's report.
May not ignore the democratic process and gains the Iraqi people and the people of Cordstan especially after the elections and the adoption of the constitution voted on by more than 80% of the Iraqi people and supported by the international community and by the United States of America.
We believe that before the others to resolve the issues of Iraq, Nodal that is needed is for the Iraqis themselves to solve this problem, including the serious treatment of the issue of national reconciliation. Therefore Ndauajjamia Iraqi forces to secure the political process and the Constitution, federal, democratic and an Iraq to take the steps necessary to address those solutions contract to avoid the regional and international forces based on the recommendations and suggestions wrong.

Translated version of http://www.iraqipresidency.net/index.php?language=arabic

Oil for Sale: Iraq Study Group Recommends Privatization
By Antonia Juhasz

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08 December 2006 (AlertNet)
The Iraq Study Group may not have a solution for how to end the war, but it does have a way for its corporate friends to make money. In its heavily anticipated report released on Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group made at least four truly radical proposals.

The report calls for the United States to assist in privatizing Iraq's national oil industry, opening Iraq to private foreign oil and energy companies, providing direct technical assistance for the "drafting" of a new national oil law for Iraq, and assuring that all of Iraq's oil revenues accrue to the central government.

President Bush hired an employee from the U.S. consultancy firm Bearing Point Inc. over a year ago to advise the Iraq Oil Ministry on the drafting and passage of a new national oil law. As previously drafted, the law opens Iraq's nationalized oil sector to private foreign corporate investment, but stops short of full privatization. The ISG report, however, goes further, stating that "the United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise." In addition, the current Constitution of Iraq is ambiguous as to whether control over Iraq's oil should be shared among its regional provinces or held under the central government. The report specifically recommends the latter: "Oil revenues should accrue to the central government and be shared on the basis of population." If these proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be privatized and opened to foreign firms, and in control of all of Iraq's oil wealth.

The proposals should come as little surprise given that two authors of the report, James A. Baker III and Lawrence Eagleburger, have each spent much of their political and corporate careers in pursuit of greater access to Iraq's oil and wealth.

"Pragmatist" is the word most often used to describe Iraq Study Group co-chair James A. Baker III. It is equally appropriate for Lawrence Eagleburger. The term applies particularly well to each man's efforts to expand U.S. economic engagement with Saddam Hussein throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Not only did their efforts enrich Hussein and U.S. corporations, particularly oil companies, it also served the interests of their own private firms.

On April 21,1990, a U.S. delegation was sent to Iraq to placate Saddam Hussein as his anti-American rhetoric and threats of a Kuwaiti invasion intensified. James A. Baker III, then President George H.W. Bush's secretary of state, personally sent a cable to the U.S embassy in Baghdad instructing the U.S. ambassador to meet with Hussein and to make clear that, "as concerned as we are about Iraq's chemical, nuclear, and missile programs, we are not in any sense preparing the way for preemptive military unilateral effort to eliminate these programs."*

Instead, Baker's interest was focused on trade, which he described as the "central factor in the U.S-Iraq relationship." From 1982, when Reagan removed Iraq from the list of countries supporting terrorism, until August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, Baker and Eagleburger worked with others in the Reagan and Bush administrations to aggressively and successfully expand this trade.

The efficacy of such a move may best be described in a memo written in 1988 by the Bush transition team arguing that the United States would have "to decide whether to treat Iraq as a distasteful dictatorship to be shunned where possible, or to recognize Iraq's present and potential power in the region and accord it relatively high priority. We strongly urge the latter view." Two reasons offered were Iraq's "vast oil reserves," which promised "a lucrative market for U.S. goods," and the fact that U.S. oil imports from Iraq were skyrocketing. Bush and Baker took the transition team's advice and ran with it.

In fact, from 1983 to 1989, annual trade between the United States and Iraq grew nearly sevenfold and was expected to double in 1990, before Iraq invaded Kuwait. In 1989, Iraq became the United States' second-largest trading partner in the Middle East: Iraq purchased $5.2 billion in U.S. exports, while the U.S. bought $5.5 billion in Iraqi petroleum. From 1987 to July 1990, U.S. imports of Iraqi oil increased from 80,000 to 1.1 million barrels per day.

Eagleburger and Baker had much to do with that skyrocketing trade. In December 1983, then undersecretary of state Eagleburger wrote the U.S. Export-Import Bank to personally urge it to begin extending loans to Iraq to "signal our belief in the future viability of the Iraqi economy and secure a U.S. foothold in a potentially large export market." He noted that Iraq "has plans well advanced for an additional 50 percent increase in its oil exports by the end of 1984." Ultimately, billions of loans would be made or backed by the U.S. government to the Iraqi dictator, money used by Hussein to purchase U.S. goods.

In 1984, Baker became treasury secretary, Reagan opened full diplomatic relations with Iraq, and Eagleburger became president of Henry Kissinger's corporate consultancy firm, Kissinger Associates.

Kissinger Associates participated in the U.S.-Iraq Business Forum through managing director Alan Stoga. The Forum was a trade association representing some 60 American companies, including Bechtel, Lockheed, Texaco, Exxon, Mobil, and Hunt Oil. The Iraqi ambassador to the United States told a Washington, D.C., audience in 1985, "Our people in Baghdad will give priority -- when there is a competition between two companies -- to the one that is a member of the Forum." Stoga appeared regularly at Forum events and traveled to Iraq on a Forum-sponsored trip in 1989 during which he met directly with Hussein. Many Kissinger clients were also members of the Forum and became recipients of contracts with Hussein.

In 1989, Eagleburger returned to the state department now under Secretary Baker. That same year, President Bush signed National Security Directive 26 stating, "We should pursue, and seek to facilitate, opportunities for U.S. firms to participate in the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy, particularly in the energy area."

The president then began discussions of a $1 billion loan guarantee for Iraq one week before Secretary Baker met with Tariq Aziz at the state department to seal the deal.

But once Hussein invaded Kuwait, all bets were off. Baker made a public plea for support of military action against Hussein, arguing, "The economic lifeline of the industrial world runs from the Gulf and we cannot permit a dictator such as this to sit astride that economic lifeline."

Baker had much to gain from increased access to Iraq's oil. According to author Robert Bryce, Baker and his immediate family's personal investments in the oil industry at the time of the first Gulf War included investments in Amoco, Exxon and Texaco. The family law firm, Baker Botts, has represented Texaco, Exxon, Halliburton and Conoco Phillips, among other companies, in some cases since 1914 and in many cases for decades. (Eagleburger is also connected to Halliburton, having only recently departed the company's board of directors). Baker is a longtime associate and now senior partner of Baker Botts, which this year, for the second year running, was recipient of "The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers Oil & Gas Law Firm of the Year Award," while the Middle East remains a central focus of the firm.

This past July, U.S. Energy Secretary Bodman announced in Baghdad that senior U.S. oil company executives would not enter Iraq without passage of the new law. Petroleum Economist magazine later reported that U.S. oil companies put passage of the oil law before security concerns as the deciding factor over their entry into Iraq. Put simply, the oil companies are trying to get what they were denied before the war or at anytime in modern Iraqi history: access to Iraq's oil under the ground. They are also trying to get the best deal possible out of a war-ravaged and occupied nation. However, waiting for the law's passage and the need to guarantee security of U.S. firms once they get to work, may well be a key factor driving the one proposal by the Iraq Study Group that has received great media attention: extending the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq at least until 2008.

As the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group are more thoroughly considered, we should remain ever vigilant and wary of corporate war profiteers in pragmatist's clothing.

U.S. Department of State: Iraq Country Information
Iraq

President Bush Receives Report From the Iraq Study Group
President Bush (Dec. 6): "This report gives a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq. It is a report that brings some really very interesting proposals, and we will take every proposal seriously and we will act in a timely fashion. ... We can achieve long-lasting peace for this country, and it requires tough work. It also requires a strategy that will be effective. And we've got men and women of both political parties around this table who spent a lot of time thinking about the way forward in Iraq, and the way forward in the Middle East, and I can't thank them enough for your time." [full text]

President Bush Meets With His Eminence Abdul Aziz AL Hakim, Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
President Bush (Dec. 4): "I told His Eminence that I was proud of the courage of the Iraqi people. I told him that we're not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq, and that we want to continue to work with the sovereign government of Iraq to accomplish our mutual objectives, which is a free country that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself; a free country which will serve as an ally in the war against the extremists and radicals and terrorists." [full text]

President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with Prime Minister Maliki of Iraq
President Bush (Nov. 30): "The Prime Minister and I also discussed the review of our strategy in Iraq that is now nearing completion. I assured the Prime Minister that our review is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the sovereign government of Iraq to meet their objectives, which we share." [full text]

ÇáÕÝÍÉ ÇáÑÆíÓíÉ Iraq of Tomorrow - ÚÑÇÞ ÇáÛÏ

someone could play around on the site and copy and post if they tried a little, but I must get some real work done :(

Here are some interesting facts:

Source www.CIA.gov:
USA GDP 2005 12 Trillion Dollars
Iraq GDP 2005 94 Billion Dollars (in US money)

US economy is 20+ times larger than Iraq

Source Federal Reserve:
US cold cash in circulation 246 Billion Dollars M1
Liquid dollars to spend 825 Billion Dollars M2
All moneys combined 3.3 Trillion Dollars M3

Source Roll Club:
Iraqi Dinar in circulation 9 trillion
Total Dinar printed 14 trillion
All moneys including US money unknown

If the dinar were revalued to 1 US dollar, Iraq would be able to purchase ALL the products and services produced by the largest economy in the world the US economy in one swoop. Another interesting FACT, the USA currently produces 8 million barrels of oil per day almost three times the amount of Iraq.

Some additional mathematics:
Iraq oil production 3,000,000 barrels day X $60 per barrel equals $180 million per day. Times 365 days a year equals 65 billion per year. They just edged out the sales at Microsoft for the year. I'm sure Bill Gates is very upset.

Can we draw some logical conclusions from this data that would indicate the actual value of a Dinar?

This article has already been posted but I wanted to share my take on it at the end of the article. All comments are welcomed.

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Iraq's dinar currency has risen to a nearly two-year high against the U.S. dollar, thanks to trading by the central bank at its daily auction, the bank said Thursday.

Most of all the money the Iraqi government earns it gets in U.S. dollars because oil exports are the main source of its income, and the bank has about US$14 billion in foreign assets, said Mudher Qassim, the Central Bank of Iraq's director of statistics.

It sold 35 million U.S. dollars at Thursday's auction, state-run Iraqiyah television reported.

"Our goal is to reduce inflation, which is now running at about 50 percent, by improving the dinar and thereby making imported goods cheaper," Qassim said in a telephone interview.

Today in Africa & Middle East

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Iraqi reaction to U.S. report runs from cautious to critical
More than 80 percent of all Iraq's tradable goods are imported, he said.

In a report in August, the International Monetary Fund also said inflation was escalating in Iraq. The 12-month rate of inflation ended 2005 at 31.7 percent, but inflation then accelerated, with 12-month inflation reaching 58 percent in May 2006, the report said.

On Wednesday, the dinar was trading at an auction price of 1,424 against the U.S. dollar, according to the central bank's Web site, its strongest price since March 23, 2004, when it was at 1,420.

Between Nov. 29 and Thursday, the Iraqi currency traded widely at a market price between 1,410 to 1,442 to the dollar, the best the dinar had seen Jan. 26, 2005, when it was at 1,405, the Web site indicated.

"The dinar has steadily increased against the dollar because of the Central Bank's efforts to stabilize the currency and control inflation," said Hussein al-Uzri, president of the state-owned Trade Bank of Iraq.

"Iraqi consumers get oil and food that is government subsidized, so the rise in the dinar won't have an immediate effect on them and the economy. It will take some time. But as Iraqis realize the value of the dinar is rising, they will stop immediately exchanging their currency into dollars," he told The Associated Press.

Wednesday's bipartisan U.S. Iraq Study Group said that by the end of 2006, "The Central Bank of Iraqi will raise interest rates to 20 percent and appreciate the Iraqi dinar by 10 percent to combat accelerating inflation."

Two money changers in Baghdad said Thursday said their businesses haven't been affected by the central bank's intervention yet, but some consumers were watching to see what will happen to the dinar next.

Government employees who are paid in dinars already are benefiting by getting a better deal at the many Iraqi stores that import products such as electronic goods and sell them in dollars only, said one money changer.

The other one said the many poor and unemployed Iraqis who survive by receiving U.S. dollars from relatives overseas — and Iraqis who work for foreign companies and are paid in greenbacks — are worse off.

Both money changers spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their security in Baghdad, where many people are killed in sectarian violence between Sunni Arab insurgent and Shiite militias. Businessmen and store owners often are kidnapped by common criminals seeking ransoms from their relatives.

Mustafa Alani, a senior adviser at the Gulf Research Center in the United Arab Emirates, said he believes the Iraqi government's concerns about inflation will not be addressed by its manipulation of the currency market because the main reasons that the prices of goods are expensive is that companies importing them have to spend so much money providing security to their truck convoys. Many avoid using warehouses in Iraq because they are easily attacked, Alani said in a telephone interview from Abu Dhabi.

Qassim agreed, saying he believes that the cost of security alone increases the cost of importing goods to Iraq from neighboring countries by 15 percent to 30 percent.

Here is my take on this. When you go into Mexico you get dollared to death because of the corruption in the country. You can not compare countries like Iraq or Mexico to ours in a manner of how things may appear to us; they don't have the same institutions or values that we do to combat this kind of corruption. So in essence the market place incorporates this in its daily business just like in Mexico. The cost of security in Iraq will soon grow to be a business of its own and will simply be a part of doing business in Iraq. The cost of security will be included in the price of goods sold. This is good for us who are holding dinars because the business of security inflates the price of goods. The economy has grown and will continue to grow. Obviously the economy would grow faster if all the security issues were handled, but a 14% growth, which they have had in the last couple of years, indicates a fairly robust economy.


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1275 =1 usd