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

Bush to Meet With Iraqi Vice President

AP Online
Dec 13 2006




WASHINGTON_While seeking a new course in Iraq, President Bush has not changed his tone about the stakes involved in the war, the importance of victory or his definition of success.

His public remarks in recent days have given no hint of the new direction that White House officials expect Bush will announce in a speech before Christmas. The president's comments sound much as they did in the weeks before the November elections, in which public unhappiness with Iraq was a big factor in the Republicans' loss of Congress.

"This is really the calling of our time _ that is, to defeat these extremists and radicals, and Iraq is a component part, an important part of laying the foundation for peace," the president said Monday.

Searching for any hint of change in Bush's thinking, a reporter at the White House press briefing noted that Bush usually calls Iraq the central front in the war on terror, not a component part. Did that mean anything? "Allow him to vary the phraseology from time to time," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. "It does not mean any change in view."

Trying to show he is interested in new ideas, Bush was to hold a video conference Tuesday with senior military commanders in Iraq. He also was to meet in the Oval Office with Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi.

Al-Hashemi said he would tell Bush of his "dismay" over the Shiite-led Iraqi government's handling of security. He accused the government of not doing enough to deal with militia attacks and said he was especially concerned about Baghdad, where Sunni-Shiite violence has flared in several neighborhoods in recent days.

"Slow and inadequate action is a problem that we have been facing with this government since it was formed," al-Hashemi said Monday in an interview with Baghdad TV, the mouthpiece of his Iraqi Islamic Party.

Continuing his outreach, Bush on Wednesday will confer with senior defense officials at the Pentagon.

On Monday, Bush went to the State Department for a 90-minute meeting to review options with advisers there, then hosted a handful of experts on Iraq policy in the Oval Office.

"Like most Americans, this administration wants to succeed in Iraq because we understand success in Iraq would help protect the United States in the long run," Bush said after his State Department briefing.

The president said his aim was to coordinate advice from his diplomatic and military advisers "so that when I do speak to the American people, they will know that I've listened to all aspects of government."

While a bipartisan commission last week described the situation in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating," Bush spoke in positive terms. He said his goal was to succeed in Iraq. "And success is a country that governs, defends itself, that is a free society, that serves as an ally in this war on terror."

Bush said Iraq was a key part of his strategy for "defeating the extremists who want to establish safe haven in the Middle East, extremists who would use their safe haven from which to attack the United States."

The administration has rejected calls for U.S. troop withdrawals until Iraq can govern and defend itself.

In an apparent reference to Syria and Iran, Bush said Iraq's neighbors have a responsibility "to help this young Iraqi democracy survive." The bipartisan commission, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., urged that the United States engage Syria and Iran but Bush has appeared cool to that idea.

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BAGHDAD - Aid agencies estimate that thousands of Iraqi parents do not send their daughters to school for cultural reasons and because of the general insecurity in the country. As a result of two decades of war and economic hardship, Iraqi schools have fallen into disrepair, enrolment has dropped, and literacy levels have stagnated, agencies say.

In the south of the country, where infrastructure is more deteriorated due to years of neglect, the situation is worse.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) estimates literacy rates to be less than 60 percent, or 6 million illiterate Iraqi adults. People in rural areas and women are worst off. Only 37 percent of rural women can read, and only 30 percent of Iraqi girls of high school age are enrolled in school, compared with 42 percent of boys.

Alia'a Haydar, 15, resident of the city of al-Samawah, some 240km south of the capital, dreams of the day when she will be able to read magazine articles on the latest fashion and music and also read the Quran, the holy Muslim book.

In the rural areas where I was living before there weren't schools. Now that we have come to the city, the only one near my home is seven kilometres away. For a girl who is not even allowed to go to the street corner alone, how could go I go to school alone?


"I don't know how to read or write my name. My family says that girls should not study as their destiny is to marry and raise children. They say women that study and read in the end turn out to be prostitutes," Alia'a said.

"I know this thinking is wrong but I fear my father. One day, he saw me trying to write on a piece of paper and he punished me for a week. Now, he is looking for a husband for me so that he won't risk losing his daughter to a school.

"To make the situation of girls in our community worse, in the rural areas where I was living before there weren't schools. Now that we have come to the city, the only one near my home is seven kilometres away. For a girl who is not even allowed to go to the street corner alone, how could go I go to school alone?

"I want to go to school and learn how to write but I don't know what to do. Male mentality in Iraq is very old-fashioned. They see women as their servants with no brains to think and they are afraid of losing their power over us.

"One day I will be able to read, even if I have to run away. The risk of being killed if I do that is the same as working like a donkey in my home, getting beatings from my family for not doing housework properly or living the rest of my life with an illiterate man and not being able to write my own name."

Originally Posted by karinc

WOW!!!
I came home late this afternoon after having been to see/ meet the therapists that are supposed to be working with my youngest daughter who suffers from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). She refuses, though, so her dad and I go to see them to get tips on how to cope in "everyday life"

Sometimes it's hard to be a single parent(we are divorced); even more so when one of the children is sick...

Anyway, usually I get on the computer in the morning, but that's why I didn't turn it on until late today. First thing I always check my emails, and there was an email telling me I had a PM from DayDream...
After answering her I have spent hours now trying to catch up with todays posts; not until now can I post!

I will copy part of my PM response to DayDream (where she told me she had suggested help for me):

Gee... I am overwhelmed, humbled and very glad... Not offended, not a bit - on the contrary! It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to have friends - most whom I have never even met! - who are willing to do that for my children (and, consequently, for me).
The only thing I am afraid of is that people will think I wrote that to beg...that was NOT my intention!
But I have always turned to the forums in times of happiness (like when Janya, my daughter, got the scholarship...in the thread "We need info and suggestions" in the dinar forum) and in times of need. Were you in PIPS? Remember when we were going to Hawaii? And then I got the news that I had cancer... I was very upset and sad - and turned to the forum for "moral support"...Because sometimes you just don't want to "drown" the people around you with your problems... (BTW, the cancer was operated and is gone now - and I DID go to Hawaii! )
So that's just the way I am...I say (write) what's on my mind...I don't hurt other people (at least I never intend to), but I never think twice about what I write about ME...and I certainly didn't expect any help!

However, I am EXTREMELY happy and grateful if you and others WANT to help out!!! (I would like a hugging smiley here...we don't have any, do we?)
/snip/

And again... A MILLION THANKS!!!



So, those are my feelings on this. I am very grateful for the help!
However, I would like to adress a point made by some members, namely that we shouldn't have over extended and that we should sell the dinars to make ends meet.
While I agree to a certain extent, there might always be reasons for WHY you did - or didn't - do one or the other thing...

I can't speak for anybody else; I can just, briefly, explain my own situation. I bought my dinars while I had a little bit better economy (a little from 12Daily, a little from Golden Rocks etc). Just 100 000 dinars to start. Then I bought more - but that was for me, my boyfriend, my parents, brother, children etc. So I didn't pay it all; I was just the "middle man" (or rather woman ;) ) Anyway, I don't deny that I DID over extend a bit...but as I saw it I didn't have a choice! I can't work (am sick) so I am on a fixed, very low income. We can't really live in this house without adding some rooms as it is TOO small... the kids need different things... I would very much like to be able to go out at a restaurant SOME time (haven't eaten out - not even McDonalds - for over a year)...So I am desperate.
Then you get the chance to pay some money for something that EVENTUALLY will give "some"(a lot! )money... I took that chance!!! And then things went from bad to worse... So may be I should sell now? But we MIGHT be DAYS away from a reval... And even if it takes more time, I would kick myself if I sold them now and they revalued high...
I haven't bought any dinars the last six months.
If I sold them now, they would be gone in a month (clothes for kids, food etc) and THEN what? As ourhouse/ kristin/ said: "It wouldn't even make a dent..." And then I wouldn't have the HOPE of a better tomorrow...

When I told my children that they weren't going to get any presents this year, not even one of them suggested that I'd sell the dinars. They KNOW that in the long run it will be better for them to skip presents this year but keep the dinars than the other way around...

But now, thanks to my dinar family, they WILL get some!

I will not post more about this in this thread, but since it started here, and all the comments were here, I just wanted to respond...
HUGS to you ALL!!!!! Including those who think I am irresponsible for over-extending!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart... /Karin
Ps. Couldn't include all the smilies I wanted...:(

thank you dear, beautifully written. This too will be my last post on the subject. I truly had no idea that all this would touch off such a firestorm this morning when I was sitting here wondering what in the world to do. It is very interesting to see that this sort of thing brings out either the very best or the very worst in people. Those who criticize, well you know what they say about glass houses. I've been in them myself! If any of us were saints we wouldn't need to be here I guess. God bless you all, thank you, and have a Great Christmas!

OPEC ministers gather for talks on oil output

Agence France-Presse English Wire
Dec 13 2006





by Adam Plowright



ABUJA, (AFP) - OPEC ministers were set to arrive in Nigeria on Tuesday ahead of an official meeting later this week when the oil export group is expected to announce a further cut to its production quota.

Before leaving for the Nigerian capital Abuja, Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh again stressed that Iran supported an output cut to keep oil prices around the 60-dollar mark.

"Like most of OPEC members, Iran does not consider oil prices lower than 60 dollars a barrel appropriate. Given the considerable oil oversupply, we will try to have a production cut," he was quoted as saying by the Shana agency.

Delegations from Indonesia, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were expected on Tuesday, while kingpin Saudi Arabia as well as Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela were scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

As is customary at OPEC meetings, ministers will hold informal talks in their hotel rooms over the next few days before announcing a formal decision on their output quota on Thursday.

The 11-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries produces about a third of global oil supplies. Members meet regularly to fix their output quota to control prices and maximise their oil revenues.

Thursday's session, the second time Nigeria has hosted an OPEC conference after a gathering in Lagos in 1972, has prompted stepped-up security in and around Abuja.

The Nigerian oil industry, based in the the Niger Delta in the south of the country, is regularly targeted by militants, who sabotage oil facilities and kidnap workers.

A militant group notorious for previous hostage-takings claimed responsibility last Friday for kidnapping four foreigners from an oil installation belonging to Italian group Agip.

The group also threatened to launch further attacks in "the following days".

Police in Abuja have said that 2,500 officers will be deployed to ensure security for the OPEC conference.

OPEC lowered its output quota at its last meeting in Qatar in October to stem a slide in prices, which had fallen from a high of 78 dollars per barrel in July to about 58 dollars at the time of the meeting.

Since then, prices have bounced back above the 60-dollar mark, but mild winter weather in the United States and Europe, inventory levels, a weaker dollar and a slowdown in the US economy are likely to convince members of the case for another cut, analysts say.

The meeting is also expected to include some behind-the-scenes friction as countries reconvene to assess adherence to the production limits imposed at the meeting in Qatar in October.

A cut of 1.2 million barrels per day was distributed among the 10 members bound by quota system, but there are suspicions of cheating amid evidence that some members have continued pumping at previous levels.

Ministers from the leading exporters have all given notice in recent weeks that the group is prepared to pare back its quota again from its current level of 26.3 million barrels per day.

Emirati Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamili said Tuesday that OPEC will also examine the impact of the falling dollar at its meeting this week in Abuja.

Exporters are paid in dollars for their oil exports and a fall in the US currency therefore reduces their revenues.

OPEC will "examine this depreciation (of the dollar) at its coming meetings ... if it continues," he said.

"OPEC will work to re-establish balance and stability on the oil market", he said as quoted by the official news agency WAM.

adp/nh

OPEC-Nigeria-oil-commodities

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BREAKING NEWS

Iraq oil law talks stall on right to clinch deals

Reuters
Dec 13 2006 14:39




By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, Dec 13 (Reuters) - An Iraqi government committee drafting an oil law has failed to agree whether regions or the centre should sign deals on foreign investment and it is up to political leaders to find a solution, sources said on Wednesday.

Sources among Iraq's Shi'ite majority and close to the talks said the chief sticking point was the insistence of the ethnic Kurds, whose region embraces the country's northern oilfields, that it should have the right to control undeveloped deposits.

"There is one outstanding issue and it needs a political agreement," Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, an ethnic Kurd who heads the Oil Committee, said.

"We are trying to reach a compromise formula," he told Reuters.

The contracts issue is vital to Iraq's future as a solution favouring the regions would devolve power over its most valuable resources to the majority Shi'ites and the Kurds, who inhabit regions with oilfields, weakening the central government.

"The law now awaits more talks between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish region," Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told Reuters.

The industry desperately needs foreign investment to revive the shattered economy, which relies heavily on oil export revenues. Iraq sits on the world's third largest crude reserves.

Minority Sunni Arabs, who were the dominant group under Saddam Hussein before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, fear regional devolution will leave them with nothing.

Even though the Shi'ites are dominant in the southern region also containing major oilfields, they have so far also opposed the Kurdish stance in the talks.

"The first round of the talks has failed, now we are waiting for the second round," a senior oil industry source told Reuters.

The Oil Committee which includes the oil minister, has agreed on more than 90 percent of the law.

Salih, who said talks will resume in a few days, was hopeful the Iraqi officials would overcome their differences.

He said the committee has agreed on oil revenue sharing and on restructuring of the industry, which he called key issues.

"We have not failed. The talks will resume in few days, the oil law is the priority for the government," he said.

Iraqi officials have always said that the law will be delivered to the parliament to ratify by the end of December. Salih said that officials were working hard to meet the deadline. ((Writing by Mariam Karouny, editing by Anthony Barker. Baghdad newsroom))

Keywords: IRAQ OIL/LAW

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WORLD VIEW

Turkish, Iraqi ministers spar over Kirkuk at Bahrain meeting

Turkish Daily News
Dec 13 2006




Defense Minister Vecdi Gonulr the weekend reiterated the Turkish capital's frustration with the Iraqi Kurdish bid for domination of northern Iraq's multiethnic and oil-rich city of Kirkuk

At a conference held by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in the Bahraini capital of Manama on Sunday, Gonul said Kirkuk's future status carries major implications for Turkey and Iraq's other neighbors no matter who controls the city and its surrounding oilfields. He asked the Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish-led government to avoid imposing an "unrealistic" future on Kirkuk.

However, Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, an ethnic Kurd, warned Turkey not to meddle in "our Kirkuk."

"You speak of Kirkuk as if it were a Turkish city," Zebari told Gonul. "These are matters for Iraq to decide."

The Turkish capital is worried that Iraqi Kurds are trying to take control of Kirkuk as part of their push for an independent state on Turkey's border and has repeatedly urged power-sharing among ethnic groups in the Iraqi oil center of Kirkuk.

The city lies just south of the Kurdish autonomous region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city. Iraq's constitution calls for a census and referendum on the issue by the end of next year.

"We hope the natural resources of Kirkuk will be used by all groups in Iraq without discrimination," Gonul told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference in the Bahraini capital.

Bildt warns over treading on dangerous ground':

Kirkuk is an ancient city that was once part of the Ottoman Empire, with a large minority of ethnic Turkmens as well as various Christians, Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have rallied to reverse what they claim to be the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein, which purged Kirkuk and other oil-rich Kurdish areas and replaced Kurds with Arab settlers.

Thousands of Kurdish settlers from northern Iraq have flooded back into Kirkuk, colonizing the city's desert outskirts. Many believe the influx is a bid to change the city's ethnic balance ahead of a 2007 census and referendum to decide whether Kirkuk will be annexed to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The grim Iraq Study Group assessment issued in Washington last week described Kirkuk as a "powder keg" and recommends that the referendum be delayed.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt warned those favoring the partition of Iraq that they were treading on dangerous ground. "Every partition is written in blood," Bildt told the security conference in Bahrain. "The carnage we see today is only the beginning of the bloodshed we will see if there is a partition."

Gonul agreed, saying Iraq's fragmentation "will be the beginning of a disaster that will engulf the whole region."

The International Institute of Strategic Studies conference has brought together some 200 security representatives from more than 20 countries, including Iran, Iraq and the United States.

Anybody having trouble linking to some of these links of this particular headline. Seems they have been frozen, wonder if google is doing a recall.

Bush: I Won't Be Rushed on Iraq - Google News

Seems the one's linked with Faux work.

Originally Posted by neno

WORLD VIEW

Turkish, Iraqi ministers spar over Kirkuk at Bahrain meeting

Turkish Daily News
Dec 13 2006




Defense Minister Vecdi Gonulr the weekend reiterated the Turkish capital's frustration with the Iraqi Kurdish bid for domination of northern Iraq's multiethnic and oil-rich city of Kirkuk

At a conference held by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in the Bahraini capital of Manama on Sunday, Gonul said Kirkuk's future status carries major implications for Turkey and Iraq's other neighbors no matter who controls the city and its surrounding oilfields. He asked the Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish-led government to avoid imposing an "unrealistic" future on Kirkuk.

However, Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, an ethnic Kurd, warned Turkey not to meddle in "our Kirkuk."

"You speak of Kirkuk as if it were a Turkish city," Zebari told Gonul. "These are matters for Iraq to decide."

The Turkish capital is worried that Iraqi Kurds are trying to take control of Kirkuk as part of their push for an independent state on Turkey's border and has repeatedly urged power-sharing among ethnic groups in the Iraqi oil center of Kirkuk.

The city lies just south of the Kurdish autonomous region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city. Iraq's constitution calls for a census and referendum on the issue by the end of next year.

"We hope the natural resources of Kirkuk will be used by all groups in Iraq without discrimination," Gonul told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference in the Bahraini capital.

Bildt warns over treading on dangerous ground':

Kirkuk is an ancient city that was once part of the Ottoman Empire, with a large minority of ethnic Turkmens as well as various Christians, Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have rallied to reverse what they claim to be the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein, which purged Kirkuk and other oil-rich Kurdish areas and replaced Kurds with Arab settlers.

Thousands of Kurdish settlers from northern Iraq have flooded back into Kirkuk, colonizing the city's desert outskirts. Many believe the influx is a bid to change the city's ethnic balance ahead of a 2007 census and referendum to decide whether Kirkuk will be annexed to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

The grim Iraq Study Group assessment issued in Washington last week described Kirkuk as a "powder keg" and recommends that the referendum be delayed.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt warned those favoring the partition of Iraq that they were treading on dangerous ground. "Every partition is written in blood," Bildt told the security conference in Bahrain. "The carnage we see today is only the beginning of the bloodshed we will see if there is a partition."

Gonul agreed, saying Iraq's fragmentation "will be the beginning of a disaster that will engulf the whole region."

The International Institute of Strategic Studies conference has brought together some 200 security representatives from more than 20 countries, including Iran, Iraq and the United States.

WOW!!!! NENO HOOKIN US UP WITH THE NOOZZ!!!!!!! WOoT!!!!

Iraqis risk lives in quest for jobs
Desperation sends many to square in Baghdad despite deadly bombings
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Said Rifai
Originally published December 13, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq // Workers know that a trip to the square could mean death, and still they go.

Every day, laborers crowd Tayaran Square in downtown Baghdad, the scene of nine bombings in the past three years, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. With unemployment as high as 60 percent, men survive on the jobs they find there, which pay an average of $10 a day.

The latest suicide bombing attacks left at least 76 people dead and more than 200 injured yesterday, the Interior Ministry reported. The nation's leaders condemned the attack and promised to investigate, but workers complain that the government offers little relief from a cycle of poverty and violence that is pushing them toward extremism.

Ali Naji, 32, avoided the square as long as he could. He returned yesterday because he desperately needed the money. One of the bombs exploded as he watched a group of laborers eating breakfast.

"I saw their flesh shattered," Naji said.

Witnesses saw a pickup truck approach the square before 7 a.m., collect several workers and leave. A second driver soon appeared, slamming into a group of workers and detonating his car, said witness Swadi Hussein, 28. After police responded to the first blast, the pickup driver returned, drove into the patrol and detonated his truck, Hussein said.

"As soon as the first explosion happened, I wanted to run, but my legs wouldn't move," said Hussein, who sells secondhand clothes at the market on the square. "I was too shocked to do anything." Hussein blacked out and came to in the hospital with glass embedded in his head.

Interior Ministry Chief of Operations Abdul-Kareem Khalaf said the bombing was retaliation for raids this week by ministry investigators who killed 17 insurgents and detained 32 others.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the attack a "horrible massacre" and promised a thorough investigation.

Workers at Tayaran are poor, mostly Shiites. Some are professionals, college graduates who lost their jobs and businesses as Iraq's economy faltered.

They stand in the square in front of the stores that rent dirt compactors, concrete makers and other construction equipment.

Sometimes they sit at the stalls of vendors on the corner who sell them sweet tea, fried eggplant, potato sandwiches and falafel, and remember better days, years ago, when the vendors could barely keep up with the number of customers.

One day last week, the crowd included a father caring for his sick daughter, a youth trying to provide for his elderly parents and a would-be groom who wanted to be able to furnish an apartment for his bride.

As jobs dry up across the city, workers are becoming more desperate.

"The lucky ones are well off if they had one or two days work during the past two weeks," said Hussein Abdul Jabbar, 37, a former carpenter who went to wait in the square with his brother last week.

A father of four, Jabbar lives in the Shiite stronghold Sadr City. He and other workers try to stay safe by avoiding majority Sunni neighborhoods, he said, but can't afford to avoid the square.

Ali Abdul Kadhim, 21, said he ended up at Tayaran after he tried to get a job as a police officer and was asked to pay a $300 bribe. He is engaged to be married but has postponed the wedding until he can afford to furnish his bride's apartment.

"I wouldn't have to join the security forces if I had that kind of money," he said of the bribe demand as he stood at one of the small coffee shops in Tayaran Square, trying to decide whether he could afford to buy a cup of tea.

Kadhim has applied for charity furniture from the local office of the party allied with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, which is solidifying its support through such social services.

Abdullah Latif, 36, a graduate of the Kuwaiti Fine Arts Institute, said he had applied for a job at the Culture Ministry but was asked to pay a $200 kickback. Latif, a former actor, was scrounging for jobs in the square to pay the rent on a tiny room he shares with his wife and two children.

His last job was washing cars for $1 a day, low even by Tayaran standards. But Latif is at the mercy of his employers.

"What can I do?" he said. "There is no work, and they know it."

Ali Sharhan is 47 but looks much older. He said his daughter is disabled and that he would like to take her to a hospital for treatment but can't afford to travel there or to pay the doctors.

Sharhan, who has been out of work for three weeks, said he plans to appeal to the local office of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite party allied with the Badr Organization militia. Fellow workers in the square last week suggested that Sharhan also contact al-Sadr's group.

Hassan Jabbar, 40, a demolition specialist who was waiting in the square with his brother last week, said the sectarian fighting has sent his former employers fleeing overseas out of fear of being killed, kidnapped or held hostage. He blamed the U.S. and Iraqi governments for failing to stabilize the country.

"The situation before the war was much better," he said. "Work was always available, whether in the private or public sectors, and we could travel to any place without any fear."

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The U.S. military has been updating training for the Iraq Army to help confront the threat of improvised explosive devices.

Officials said U.S. military transition teams have been revising courses to reflect new threats to Iraqi troops. They said the teams include advisers on intelligence, fire support, communications, logistics and combat tactics.

"The Iraqi commanders are concerned about their own capabilities," Maj. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of 1st Infantry Division, said. "They're concerned about whether or not they will be fully supported by their government."

Ham was one of three senior commanders who briefed the House Armed Services Committee last week on changes in U.S. training teams. He said training for 11-member advisory teams has become more rigorous since mid-2006 and was stressing basic skills.

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