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

Iraq prison chief held after Saddam nephew escapes
Sun 10 Dec 2006 9:01 AM ET
By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD, Dec 10 (Reuters) - An Iraqi prison chief and his deputy were under arrest on Sunday after Saddam Hussein's nephew, accused of funding the Sunni insurgency, escaped jail a day earlier, sparking a huge manhunt by police.

Ayman al-Sabawi, the son of Saddam's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, escaped Badoush prison near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday after the jail's night watch commander told colleagues he was transferring him to another prison.

Interior Ministry officials said they believed the commander had been bribed to help Sabawi escape. The night watch captain, whose family has also disappeared, convinced guards to free Sabawi after showing them a forged transfer form, they said.

"The interior minister has ordered that a committee be formed to investigate (the escape) and the arrest of the head of the prison and his deputy," ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told state television.

Mosul police said the two officials had been detained late on Saturday night and were being questioned on Sunday.

Khalaf said officials thwarted a previous attempt by Sabawi to escape about a month ago. He said that plot had been engineered by a group of Saddamist sympathisers calling themselves Aawda (the Return Group).

Mosul police said 20 police vehicles had been deployed around the city to search for Sabawi, while around 40 vehicles were patrolling Mosul itself.

They said Sabawi, who was captured in a village near Mosul in 2004, had been serving a six-year sentence for funding the insurgency but was also wanted in connection with other crimes.

Sabawi's father was head of the Iraqi secret service in 1991 and head of the General Security Directorate from 1991 to 1996. After Saddam's overthrow in 2003, Washington offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture or death.

POL-KUWAIT-US-JEFFREY
Kuwait is good neighbor to Iraqis -- US official

By Eman Al-Awadhi (with photos) KUWAIT, Dec 9 (KUNA) -- Kuwait, from the very beginning, has been very helpful in "badly needed" services and supplies to the Iraqis, moving out on humanitarian projects, and generally being a good neighbor, said US Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs James Jeffrey on Saturday.

In a meeting with reporters at the US Embassy, the official, who served as deputy chief of mission in Kuwait between 1996 and 1999, said, "We (the US) wish everybody played the same role that Kuwaitis play (to help Iraqis)." Jeffrey, on a tour in the region, added that Kuwait was "a very valuable friend and ally." The tour, he said, came as a continuation of coordination with high-level officials about regional security, the situation in Iraq, concerns about the Iranian nuclear file, and "the need for moderates across the region to mobilize to deal with the succession of threats by extremists." "We really must coordinate in a better way to developing common strategies that we can then adhere to," he stressed.

On discussions he held with Kuwaiti officials, Jeffrey, who arrived here yesterday, said that they exchanged views on regional issues, priorities, and options.

"We should work with the other countries in the region to build collective actions -- not any kind of front or formal organization -- but rather a process of coordination and sharing views," the official said.

Asked about the issues that were raised during the discussions with regard to Iraq, Jeffrey, who served for 13 months as deputy chief of mission in Baghdad, said, "We raised appointing ambassadors, debt relief and the release of assistance." He said, however, that the US was "very disappointed with the situation in Iraq" and was looking for ways "to reverse this", noting that midterm Congressional elections indicated concern over Iraq and a desire to see changes there.

Moreover, the American official said that given the security situation in Iraq, it was "amazing that there has been so little spillover of violence" in the region.

Secret Iraq talks 'failed badly'

By Hala Jaber in Amman. Jordan
December 11, 2006 01:00am

SECRET talks in which senior US officials came face to face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed.

The meetings, hosted by Iyad Allawi, Iraq's former prime minister, brought insurgent commanders and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, together for the first time.

After months of delicate negotiations Dr Allawi, a former Baathist and a secular Shiite, persuaded three rebel leaders to travel to his villa in Amman, the Jordanian capital, to see Mr Khalilzad in January.

"The meetings came about after persistent requests from the Americans. It wasn't because they loved us but because they didn't have a choice," said a rebel leader who took part.

The revelations came as a US Defence Department spokesman confirmed Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew to Iraq over the weekend in a surprise trip to thank troops for their service just days before he steps down from his post.

Mr Rumsfeld resigned in November, the day after President George W. Bush's Republicans lost control of the US Congress with voter frustration over the Iraq war dominating the election.

Last week, the long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton, called for the US to engage with all parties in Iraq except al-Qaeda.

However, the insurgents' account of the hushed-up meetings reveals that concerted attempts to engage them in negotiations had already failed earlier this year.

Hopes were high when the insurgent leaders greeted Mr Khalilzad in Amman.

The Iraqis had just held their first democratic elections for a permanent government and the US ambassador hoped to broker an enduring political settlement.

Feelers had been put out to Iraqi insurgents before, but not at such a high level.

"The Americans had been flirting with such meetings for a while, but they needed to sit down with people who carried more weight in the insurgency," said one leader of the National Islamic Resistance, an umbrella organisation representing some of the main insurgent groups.

The trio of Iraqi negotiators claimed to represent three-quarters of the "resistance".

It included Ansar al-Sunnah - the group responsible for a suicide bombing that killed 22 in a US Army canteen in Mosul in December 2004 - and also the 1920 Revolution Brigade, which has carried out many kidnappings and claimed to have shot down a British Hercules aircraft near Tikrit in January last year, killing 10 people.

At the first meeting with Mr Khalilzad on January 17, the insurgents expressed concern about the emergence of Iran as a regional power. With the US equally worried about Iranian interference, the two sides appeared to have found some common ground.

The talks continued in Baghdad for about eight weeks, sometimes on consecutive days at Dr Allawi's home outside the green zone, the fortified area of Baghdad.

At one point the insurgents offered Mr Khalilzad a 10-day "period of grace" in which attacks on coalition forces would be suspended in return for a cessation of US military operations. They called for a "timetable for withdrawal", saying that it should be announced immediately although in practice it would be "linked to the timescale necessary to rebuild Iraq's armed forces and security services", according to one commander. Other demands said to have been received sympathetically by Mr Khalilzad, such as an amnesty for insurgents and a reversal of the "de-Baathification" process that stripped so many Sunnis of their jobs, have now been urged by the Iraq Study Group.

There was more. Brushing aside the results of Iraq's democratic elections, the insurgents proposed that an emergency government be formed under Dr Allawi's leadership. Non-sectarian politicians should be appointed to the crucial ministries of defence and the interior, they urged, because they would be responsible for rebuilding a strong national army and security service.

Under this proposal, the newly elected Iraqi government would, in effect, have been sidelined.

"I told Khalilzad that we had the know-how and the manpower to regain control of Baghdad and rid it of the pro-Iranian militias," one of the insurgent commanders added.

"If he would just provide us with the weapons, we would clean up the city and regain control of Baghdad in 30 days."

The atmosphere eventually soured at a meeting said to have been attended by Mr Khalilzad and six US generals as well as tribal leaders from Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala and other hot spots.

Each side apparently accused the other of stepping up attacks during the supposed period of grace and the insurgents refused to have lunch with the generals on the grounds that they were military occupiers.

The talks were further complicated by the different demands of warring Sunni rebel groups.

A close associate of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's former vice-president and the king of clubs in the US "most wanted" deck of playing cards, said many of the insurgent groups were still being directed by Saddam's former party and military leadership.

According to a senior Baathist representative, insurgent groups linked to al-Douri would not sit down with the Americans unless they first agreed to a series of conditions ranging from compensation for Iraq's losses during the war to the reinstatement of Saddam's military. The final blow to the negotiations came in mid-March when Mr Khalilzad said he would be willing to talk to Iran about resolving the conflict in Iraq. The news came as a bombshell to Sunni insurgents, who complained to the ambassador at their final meeting.

Shortly afterwards, the Government of Nouri al-Maliki was formed with the support of pro-Iranian elements.

The Sunni insurgents responded by sending a memo to Mr Khalilzad - now tipped to become US ambassador to the UN - suspending all meetings and accusing the Americans of "dishonesty".

According to one commander, the insurgent groups were told: "Place your faith in Allah, the gloves are off. Carry on with your resistance."

A US embassy spokesman in Baghdad yesterday declined to comment on the talks but said the US remained committed to the current Government and to "an inclusive Iraqi political process, with representatives from all Iraq's communities".

The Sunday Times, AFP, in The Australian

Prices of black-market weapons surging in Iraq







New York, Dec 10(PTI) Expanding sectarian violence is sending weapon prices soaring in black-market in Iraq and even resulting pilferage of arms from Iraqi state armories, including those issued by the US authorities.
Weapon prices are soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices several times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly four years ago, the New York Times reported.

Rising prices, in turn, have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption and encouraging pilferage of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market, the report said.

All manner of infantry arms, from rocket-propelled grenade launchers to weathered and dented Kalashnikovs, have circulated within Iraq for decades. But the Times says three types of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars here as well: Glock and Walther 9-millime ter pistols, and pristine, unused Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries.

These are three of the principal types of the 370,000 weapons purchased by the United States for Iraq's security forces, a programme that was criticised by a special inspector general this fall for, among other things, failing to properly account for the arms, the Times said.

The weapons, the report says, are easy to find, resting among others in the semihidden street markets where weapons are sold in tea houses, the back rooms of grocery kiosks, cosmetics stores and rug shops.

Proprietors show samples for immediate purchase and offer to take orders of 10 guns can be found in two hours, they say, and 100 or more the next day. PTI

Germany may step up training for Iraqi armed forces
Dec 10, 2006, 16:04 GMT


Berlin - Germany, which operates a small training programme for Iraq's armed forces, may step this up, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday in Berlin after talks with visiting Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak.

'I don't rule it out in the future. We are considering what we can do,' she told reporters, adding that Iraq had to be enabled to provide its own security. She added that Iraq's and Germany's defence ministries had been in touch with one another on the topic.

Washington's ambassador to Berlin, William R Timken, has been suggesting Germany do more to train the Iraqis. The German programme is conducted in Germany and in Gulf nations, not on Iraqi territory.

Mubarak said joint efforts were needed to stop an escalation of fighting in the Palestinian territories.

Merkel called for the revival of the Mideast Quartet, a working party composing the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, to mediate between the Palestinians and Israel.

She said Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan also had to be integrated in a policy of advancing by small steps and announced she would visit Egypt in February during a tour of Mideast nations. Germany is to hold the presidency of the European Union for the first half of 2007.

Both Merkel and Mubarak said they were backing Lebanon's embattled prime minister, Fouad Seniora.

Shiite groups are demanding he step down.

Criticising Damascus, she said, 'Unfortunately I cannot see that Syria is willing at the moment to contribute by constructive steps.'

Damascus should give Lebanon diplomatic recognition, she said.


© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Tehran, Dec 10, IRNA
Iran-Iraq-Oil
Iran will export one million barrels per day (bpd) of kerosene and other oil products to Iraq within a period of three months.

An agreement to that effect was reached between Governor-General of Iranian province of Kermanshah Majid Ghafouri and his counterpart from Iraqi Sulaimaniya province in the context of Tehran-Baghdad cooperation.

As per the agreement, Iran's Oil Ministry will export one million bpd kerosene to help remove oil shortage in Iraqi Kurdistan province.

The Oil Ministry will provide an Iranian contractor with a credit of 425,000 dollars for construction of an eight km oil pipeline from Iranian city of Abadan to Sheib, Iranian border town for the purpose.

Iran's Customs Office should allow Iraqi lorries to enter Iranian provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and Kermanshah to carry oil and oil products from the three provinces to Iraq.

Iranian and Iraqi officials also agreed to reduce time schedule set for completion of `Al-Harese' electricity transfer lines in Abadan, with a capacity of 400 kilovolts, from six months to three months.

The period of completion of `Diali' electricity transfer lines in Kermanshah, with a capacity of 400 kilovolts, will also reduce from 18 months to nine months.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry will provide 30-million-dollar credit to Energy Ministry to restore electricity lines between Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has also promised to give
30-million-credit to Energy Ministry to supply equipment needed for power plants in Najaf and Karbala.

Iran will provide Iraq with one billion dollar credit to restore railways, national grid, construct two oil pipelines between Abadan and Basra and build roads of Chazzabeh, al-Amara, Mehran and al-Kut.

Parts of the credit will be allocated for construction of two power plants in al-Kut and Sadr city, on suburb of Baghdad and two hospitals in Najaf and Sadr city.

Ministry confident of surge in cereal output



By Ali Shatab



Azzaman, December 10, 2006



The Ministry of Agriculture is working to boost the volume of wheat produce to 2.4 million tons in 2007.



The ministry’s undersecretary, Subhi al-Jumaili, said measures were taken to help farmers fertilize, cultivate, harvest and ship the produce to state silos in the summer of 2007.



Officials say the ministry’s forecast is attainable but they fear the upsurge in violence might dampen hopes of a bumper harvest.



If the ministry succeeds in harvesting 2.4 million tons it will be a real post-U.S. occupation economic success.



In the more than 30 years of former President Saddam Hussein’s rule domestic wheat yields rarely hit two million tons.



For decades Iraq has been relying on wheat imports to meet domestic consumption estimated at more than four million tons a year.



Jumaili said his ministry was taking similar measures to boost rice output.



He said he expected farmers to ferry 300,000 tons of rice to state silos in 2007.



That figure, though far below current consumption needs, would in itself represent a leap forward if attained.



Rice is Iraqis’ staple diet and imports in the range of one million tons are needed to meet domestic needs.



The government encourages farmers to grow wheat, barely, rice and other cereal grains through generous financial incentives.

I am here with my daughter and she is having a good time with these happy faces. I am glad to share the rolclub with her as I read these posts and she points out all the neat faces.

Originally Posted by neno

Dont know that one. But I am sure you can have someone do it for you after you send them the Cash. The only problem I know of is Canada's Customes. Might have a Problem crossing the Line there. If you can not figure it out. You can use Iraq dinars Dinar Trade as they will ship everywhere. Safedinar is just in the US if my memmory serves right. Good Luck.

I ordered dinar from the Bank of Nova Scotia on Friday with no trouble. I have also ordered from Safedinar in the past. They will not send C.O.D. to Canada but, if you send a M.O., they will send the dinar as soon as they get it.

I wish I could buy dinar for E-gold!

Originally Posted by Mike5200

Ministry confident of surge in cereal output



By Ali Shatab



Azzaman, December 10, 2006



The Ministry of Agriculture is working to boost the volume of wheat produce to 2.4 million tons in 2007.



The ministry’s undersecretary, Subhi al-Jumaili, said measures were taken to help farmers fertilize, cultivate, harvest and ship the produce to state silos in the summer of 2007.



Officials say the ministry’s forecast is attainable but they fear the upsurge in violence might dampen hopes of a bumper harvest.



If the ministry succeeds in harvesting 2.4 million tons it will be a real post-U.S. occupation economic success.



In the more than 30 years of former President Saddam Hussein’s rule domestic wheat yields rarely hit two million tons.



For decades Iraq has been relying on wheat imports to meet domestic consumption estimated at more than four million tons a year.



Jumaili said his ministry was taking similar measures to boost rice output.



He said he expected farmers to ferry 300,000 tons of rice to state silos in 2007.



That figure, though far below current consumption needs, would in itself represent a leap forward if attained.



Rice is Iraqis’ staple diet and imports in the range of one million tons are needed to meet domestic needs.



The government encourages farmers to grow wheat, barely, rice and other cereal grains through generous financial incentives.

This is an exciting article from an economists point of view. I have mentioned Agri/food production several times. In the total overview of the Iraqi economy when speculators are looking for investment, they will take very seriously the extent that a country can feed itself. Most people are surprised when I tell them about the vast wheat fields in northern Iraq. Now consider another factor, Iraq has another resource that few countries have and will figure into the economic mix over the next five to ten years, WATER. We know that the USDA is in Iraq and have had an extensive program to boost their food production. So it looks like their efforts might be paying off. Have a good day.