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

Hi Gang, I go shopping with my mom and I come back and you aren't talking dinar your talking beer. ( I didn't go with hubby on Harley, I thought I would miss something). You are all out of control and I like it. It is cominnnnnnnn soooooon!!!!!!!!

Beer and dinar go together like curry and rice flygirl1, it has to be done!!

Is that like wine and cheese. I don't like and of the handover remedies except maybe the valium. I would sleep it away.

sorce CNBC WORLD NEWS U.S.TV. eu. ofers dill that will lead to irac membership in WTO . Adster or mike what do you think about this?

Originally Posted by ourhouse37

No Branier? Is that french?
seriously, I get a huge kick out of the spelling on RC, my own included sometimes. I figure the crazier we get (I think I found 6 new white hairs this morning...) the more we will braid our fingers as we try to type.

Yes, I have been Blaimed for this before.

Apart from the relative stability of the local currency’s exchange rate, prices of most commodities in the country are volatile.

And the biggest headache for Iraqi families is fuel despite their country’s massive oil reserves.

Fuel prices have spiraled to levels far beyond the means of most families in Iraq.

Officially, fuel rates are still far below those prevalent in neighboring countries.

However, most fuel in Iraq is sold on the spot market. In other words it is smuggled from state-run inventories and filling stations and resold at exorbitant rates on the street.

DR. Salem Mohammed, a marketing specialist and researcher at Baghdad University’s Consumer Protection Center, says the struggle against unpredictable and highly volatile prices is part of the struggle to live in Iraq.

“Iraqi families have been suffering for a long time. Income and wealth have been distorted in Iraq. For decades we have not seen a logical connection between what a family earns and what it needs to spend,” he said.

He said there was no economic logic in the way prices were set in Iraq, adding that economic relations and rules were hard to explain relying on the way Iraqi market moves.

“These conditions have created numerous problems for Iraqi families who have lost the blessing of family budget planning or stable income,” Mohammed said.

“The only thing Iraqi families have grown to master is belt-tightening and when this fails and I regret to say many resort to illegal means of earning an income,” he added.

Wisasm Adnan, married with four children, says his government income is insufficient and is obliged to moonlight.

“My monthly salary hardly covers the charges of subscription for the makeshift power generator in our neighborhood,” he says.

Hafidh Hassan, another government official, said when government wages were boosted following the overthrow of the former regime in 2003, planning a family budget was possible but only for a short period.

In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion, fuel became scarcer and dearer which eventually boomeranged on almost all commodities while wages have remained the same, he said.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index...-06-24\118.htm

WASHINGTON, June 24 — The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say.
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Gen. George W. Casey Jr. is the top American commander in Iraq.

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According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007.
Under the plan, the first reductions would involve two combat brigades that would rotate out of Iraq in September without being replaced. Military officials do not typically characterize reductions by total troop numbers, but rather by brigades. Combat brigades, which generally have about 3,500 troops, do not make up the bulk of the 127,000-member American force in Iraq, and other kinds of units would not be pulled out as quickly.
American officials emphasized that any withdrawals would depend on continued progress, including the development of competent Iraqi security forces, a reduction in Sunni Arab hostility toward the new Iraqi government and the assumption that the insurgency will not expand beyond Iraq's six central provinces. Even so, the projected troop withdrawals in 2007 are more significant than many experts had expected.
General Casey's briefing has remained a closely held secret, and it was described by American officials who agreed to discuss the details only on condition of anonymity. Word of the plan comes after a week in which the American troop presence in Iraq was stridently debated in Congress, with Democratic initiatives to force troop withdrawals defeated in the Senate.
The commander met this week with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Friday, General Casey and Mr. Rumsfeld met with President Bush at the White House. A senior White House official said that General Casey did not present a formal plan for Mr. Bush's approval but rather a concept of how the United States might move forward after consulting with Iraqi authorities, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
"The recent conversations that have taken place are all designed to formulate our thinking in concert with the new Iraqi government," said the White House official, who declined to discuss specific cuts. "What this process allows is for General Casey to engage with the new Maliki government so it can go from a notional concept to a practical plan of security implementation over the next two years."
Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday that no final decisions would come on troop withdrawals until General Casey consulted with the new Iraqi government. "We expect that General Casey will come back and make a recommendation after he's had those discussions, which he has not yet had," he said.
Proponents of General Casey's approach described it as a carefully synchronized plan to turn over authority for security to the new Iraqi government. The administration has repeatedly said that American troops will begin to stand down as Iraqi forces stand up and begin to assert control. Although the planning for 2006 is advanced, officials say the projected withdrawals for 2007 are more of a forecast of what may be possible given current trends than a hard timeline.
But critics of the Bush administration handing of the war question whether the ambitious goals for withdrawing troops are realistic given the difficulties in maintaining order there. The insurgency has proven resilient despite several big military operations over the years, and previous forecasts of significant troop withdrawals have yet to materialize.
Now, after criticizing Democratic lawmakers for trying to legislate a timeline for withdrawing troops, skeptics say, the Bush administration seems to have its own private schedule, albeit one that can be adjusted as events unfold.
If executed, the plan could have considerable political significance. The first reductions would take place before this falls Congressional elections, while even bigger cuts might come before the 2008 presidential election.
According to accounts by American officials, General Casey's briefing identifies four main threats in Iraq: Al Qaeda, criminal groups, Iranian support for violent Shiite organizations and ethnic and sectarian strife over the distribution of power.
In the general's briefing, the future American role in Iraq is divided into three phases. The next 12 months was described as a period of stabilization. The period from the summer of 2007 through the summer of 2008 was described as a time when the emphasis would be on the restoration of the Iraqi government's authority. The period from the summer of 2008 though the summer of 2009 was cast as one in which the Iraqi government would be increasingly self-reliant.
In line with this vision, some cuts would begin soon. The United States has 14 combat brigades in Iraq, plus many other support troops. Under the plan, the United States would shrink this force to 12 combat brigades in September. This would be done by not replacing 2 brigades that are scheduled to be withdrawn.
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A combat brigade would be kept on alert in Kuwait or elsewhere in case American commanders needed to augment their forces to deal with a crisis. Another brigade would be kept on a lesser state of alert elsewhere in the world, but still prepared to deploy quickly. As a result of these arrangements, the plan to bring the combat force down to 12 active brigades in Iraq is being called 12-1-1.
Further reductions might be made by the end of the year. By December, the number of American combat brigades in Iraq would be 10 to 12. As with the September reduction, a brigade would be kept on alert and another brigade would be ready to deploy.
According to the projections in General Casey's briefing, the number of combat brigades would shrink to seven to eight by June 2007 and finally to five to six by December 2007.
At the same time, the number of bases in Iraq would decline as American forces consolidated. By the end of the year the number of bases would shrink to 57 from the current 69. By June 2007, there would be 30 bases, and by December 2007 there would be only 11. By the end of 2007, the United States would have three principal regional military commands: in Baghdad and the surrounding area, in Anbar Province and the west, and in northern Iraq.
The reduction and consolidation of the American force is contingent on the growth and expansion of the Iraqi forces. According to the plan, the Iraqis are to have five army divisions that will control their own swaths of territory by September. By December, that number is to grow to nine. A 10th Iraqi Division is to take on an operational role in the dangerous Anbar Province in western Iraq next spring.
The reduction in American combat brigades would have an importance beyond troop numbers. The strategy is to gradually shift the responsibility for fighting the insurgency to the new Iraqi military and to encourage the Iraqi forces to secure the nation's territory. Arranging for the Iraqis to take on an increasing combat role is the key to reducing the American military presence in Iraq.
As American forces draw down, a growing number of provinces are also scheduled to revert to Iraqi control. Prime Minister Maliki has said that his government will take over responsibility for security in Muthanna Province this summer. Located in southern Iraq near Kuwait, Muthanna is the most peaceful of the southern provinces.
Officials said General Casey's briefing did address the long-term American presence beyond 2007. At the end of that year, the United States would still have responsibility for the Iraq capital and the area west of Baghdad, two of the most violent areas in the country.
Asked for comment on the general's meeting with Mr. Bush, a White House spokesman said: "The president has clearly stated he will listen to the commanders on the ground. We are constantly evaluating our posture and the growing capability of the Iraqi security forces.
"As we move forward, we will closely work with the new Iraqi government as they develop plans to take more and more responsibility for securing their country and providing for the Iraqi people. The president appreciates the opportunity to meet with Secretary Rumsfeld and General Casey to forge a way forward with the new Iraqi government."

Saturday, June 24, 2006 6:06:54 PM ET
By Mussab Al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was expected to present a national reconciliation plan on Sunday to curb Iraq's sectarian killing and the Sunni insurgency that has crippled the country's post-war reconstruction.
Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, has vowed to crush the Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqis and to reconcile Shi'ites with the once-dominant Sunni Muslim minority. Their mutual distrust has deepened amid sectarian bloodletting.
Since taking office on May 20 he has sought to arrest the political drift that developed while Shi'ite, Sunni and minority Kurdish parties wrangled for months over posts in the government and allowed a dangerous security vacuum to develop.
Political sources said Maliki would present his plan to parliament on Sunday in what could be his boldest move yet.
Maliki scored a major victory when the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7. But fresh violence has put pressure on him to build on that success and take the sting out of the insurgency.
Sources said the plan sets out to remove powerful militias from the streets, open a dialogue with Sunni rebels and review the status of purged members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
But Maliki still refuses to engage Saddam loyalists or al Qaeda, the groups behind much of the violence.
DEFINING TERRORISM
An element of the 28-point blueprint would be to draw rebel groups into the process of implementing hoped-for agreements on questions such as defining terrorism.
But Sunni leader Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the parliament speaker, cautioned it was not a "magical solution" but an attempt to "mend the cracks" splitting apart Iraq.
"The government is committed to bring all factions to one table and to implementing a national reconciliation between them," he told al-Arabiya television at the weekend.
One important question will be just how far Maliki will go to bring Sunni Muslim insurgents to the negotiating table.
Hasan al-Senaid, a lawmaker in his Alliance, said Maliki would offer dialogue with groups that had not shed Iraqi blood.
Maliki, a former exile, has long been a strong defender of the sacking of Baath members from the army, a U.S.-engineered policy that critics say bolstered the insurgency.
Former Baathists are expected to get financial compensation under the reconciliation scheme, Senaid said.
The program also aims to tackle militias, which are seen as among the most destabilizing forces in Iraq but are difficult to disband because they are tied to political parties.
The two most powerful, the Shi'ite Badr Brigades and Mehdi Army, are the armed wings of two parties in Maliki's government.
"Militias will be disarmed and integrated into civil service jobs or the armed forces," Senaid said.

U.S. Frees Sunni Leader; 2 U.S. Troops Die
Saturday, June 24, 2006 9:01 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By KIM GAMEL

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — American troops detained a top Sunni religious leader for a few hours after a raid seeking terror suspects Saturday, while a bomb killed two U.S. soldiers patrolling south of Baghdad during a mammoth military operation trying to secure the capital region.


The slayings, along with the announcement of the deaths of two U.S. soldiers Friday, raised the week's toll to 16 Americans killed and underscored the dangers of the security campaign in Baghdad.


The arrest of Sheik Jamal al-Din Abdul Karim al-Dabban drew sharp protests from Sunni Arabs and was an embarrassment for Iraq's Shiite prime minister on the eve of his presentation of a reconciliation plan aimed at drawing the disaffected Sunni minority into the political process.


The influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars said al-Dabban was arrested with three of his sons at about 5 a.m. in Tikrit, hometown of former leader Saddam Hussein. The cleric was released about seven hours later after protests, Tikrit Gov. Hamad Humoud al-Qaisi said.


The U.S. military said it detained five people during a raid in the Tikrit area, 80 miles north of Baghdad, and later realized one was a senior religious leader, who was released.


"The security forces did not know it was a senior sheik's house when they conducted the assault," the statement said.


The military said the raid was based on intelligence that arose from the June 7 killing of al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It said one of the suspects "was directly associated with several senior-level al-Qaida members and reportedly plays an important role in the network between Baqouba and Tikrit."


Hundreds of people responded to calls broadcast over mosque loudspeakers to gather in front of the Tikrit governor's office to protest the detention, said Sheik Yahya Ibrahim al-Atwani, deputy head of the local chapter of the scholars' association.


The Iraqi Islamic party, the largest Sunni political group, condemned the arrest and warned it could provoke the Sunni-dominated insurgency. "The sheik represents an Islamic and national symbol and these violations could cause the security situation to deteriorate," it said.
Since losing the dominance they enjoyed until the ouster of Saddam Hussein, Sunni Arabs have been the driving force behind the insurgency, and Iraqi and American leaders are trying to draw them into politics in hopes of weakening support for the uprising.


Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is to present a 28-point national reconciliation plan to parliament Sunday setting out steps for preparing Iraqi forces to take control of Iraq's security and outlining an amnesty program for insurgents not involved in major bloodshed, a key politician said.


The proposal also promises to review the country's new constitution to address Sunni Arab demands and try to find a way to disband militias blamed for worsening sectarian bloodshed, according to a draft of the plan obtained earlier this week by The Associated Press and a description of the latest version by Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman.


Shortly after taking office May 20, al-Maliki vowed to take over security issues from American and other foreign troops in all of Iraq's 18 provinces within 18 months.


That fits with the U.S.-led coalition's strategy to hand over security in certain regions while withdrawing to regional bases to stand ready in case of emergency. A final stage would involve the gradual pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq. No specific timeline has been given for that plan.
In addition to the two U.S. soldiers killed by a bomb Saturday while patrolling on foot south of Baghdad, four American soldiers died Friday, including three killed by roadside bombs in separate attacks in Baghdad and another who died in a non-combat incident.


The military did not give more details about the deaths, but U.S. forces have been increasingly visible in Baghdad recently as they fan out in support of tens of thousands of Iraqi troops trying to restore security in the capital.


Ten other U.S. soldiers were killed or found dead earlier this week, including two whose brutalized bodies were recovered Tuesday, four days after they went missing after an attack on a U.S. checkpoint in the so-called Sunni Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.


Baghdad was relatively calm a day after clashes broke out in the center of the city, forcing the prime minister to impose a curfew on the city of 6 million people, although sporadic violence was reported.


At least 11 people were killed in attacks nationwide. Among them were Maj. Gen. Mussa Hatam, the local chief of intelligence in the northern city of Kirkuk, and two of his guards, who were killed when a roadside bomb struck their car.
———
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.



http://www.adelphia.net/news/read.ph...LNWC01L2_UNEWS



Tomorrow can't come soon enough! lol!

Just to break the quiet a bit.. I am getting a very strong feeling that when the reval does happen.. the amount will be in the .25 USD to .30 USD per dinar range. Completely unsupported by any real information, based only on the fact that is the range where it is most difficult for me to decide how much to exchange and how much to hold..

Ok.. back to waiting mode..