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

A letter to US president Geroge Bush

12/17/2006 KurdishMedia.com
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, D.C., USA

11 December 2006

Dear President Bush,
Greetings

My name is Mohammad Sadik; I am the president of Salahaddin University, the oldest and the largest university in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a student population of 23,000. I am an academic and not a politician but I am a friend of you and all the Americans, as is 99% of the population of our Region. I want to emphasize the word FRIEND as I want it to be the centre of my address to your Excellency.
The Kurds who fought with America in 2003 are very grateful to you and the men and women of the US Military for liberating Iraq from the tyrant Saddam. After the liberation of Iraq in April 2003, many American people, both civilian and military, have visited our Region and discovered for themselves that the peoples of the Kurdistan Region are their true friends.

May I take a moment to explain that we are many peoples. While predominantly Kurd, we are also Turkmen, non-Kurd Christian, Arab, Armenian, and others. The regrettable threat of violence in other parts of our country has provoked thousands of families to flee to our Region where Arab Shia and Arab Sunni and Christians live side-by-side in peace and security. All are safe under the security of our Kurdistan Regional Government.

In 2005, I heard Chat Blakeman, the American Consul in Kirkuk, speaking to his daughter on the phone from Erbil and describing our Region to her: “My daughter, I am in a part of Iraq with wonderful people, the Kurds. Its like if I ever have a flat tire they would all come to my rescue and change the tire for me because they love Americans. Do not worry about me; I am now in a safe place”.

In January 2005, American planes attacked one of our student dormitories in Erbil City in the middle of the night. I came out immediately and made the statement that it is a mistake made by our friends and I am sure no harm was intended. It turned out to be a mistake; apologies were made at the time and accepted. I felt as the president of the university I had the duty to preserve this love and friendship between the Americans and the peoples of the Kurdistan Region.

Mr. President, I have read the Baker-Hamilton report and fully appreciate the volatile situation in Iraq and the Middle East region. However, I want you to consider one thing and that is that Americans have been greeted nowhere else in the world with flowers from an entire nation, except in the Kurdistan Region. Having said this, the Baker-Hamilton Commission paid no visit to our Region to discover the value and meaning of our friendship. They formed their conclusions from a severely limited, isolated view inside the Baghdad Green Zone.

The solution to the Iraq problem will only be achieved with the help of your friends in the Middle East region who are very few. The peoples of the Kurdistan Region look forward to your policy statement on Iraq and not to the Baker-Hamilton report. The people of our Region have grown beyond the bitter experiences of betrayals and neglect, most notably those of 1975 and 1991. Please do not allow the memories to rekindle fears that it will happen again. Please do stick with your friends here.

I believe you, as the President of the United States, have the responsibility of keeping the good relationship between Americans and the peoples of the Kurdistan Region intact. Our Region is the only place in Iraq where you can have a safe base among friends.

I look forward to hearing your policy statement on Iraq.

Yours sincerely,

Mohammad Sadik (PhD),
President, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1677251.htm

جريدة المواطن العراقية

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Translated version of http://www.aliraqnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=15921

Sotaliraq.com

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Kuna site|Story page|Blair arrives in Iraqi capital ...12/17/2006

Blair-Visit :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq

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Ephron: Can Iran Help Stabilize Iraq? - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

Iraq's Economy is Booming - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

Hello everyone, any new info for us..is it still positive that there maybe a reval-this week (hopeful)

HUBBY JUST ABOUT JUMPED OUT CHAIR WITH SHOCK!! LOOKING GOOD FOLKS!!!

Blood and Money
In what might be called the mother of all surprises, Iraq's economy is growing strong, even booming in places.
By Silvia Spring
Newsweek International

Dec. 25, 2006 - Jan. 1, 2007 issue - It may sound unreal, given the daily images of carnage and chaos. But for a certain plucky breed of businessmen, there's good money to be made in Iraq. Consider Iraqna, the leading mobile-phone company. For sure, its quarterly reports seldom make for dull reading. Despite employees kidnapped, cell-phone towers bombed, storefronts shot up and a huge security budget—up to four guards for each employee—the company posted revenues of $333 million in 2005. This year, it's on track to take in $520 million. The U.S. State Department reports that there are now 7.1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Iraq, up from just 1.4 million two years ago. Says Wael Ziada, an analyst in Cairo who tracks Iraqna: "There will always be pockets of money and wealth, no matter how bad the situation gets."

Civil war or not, Iraq has an economy, and—mother of all surprises—it's doing remarkably well. Real estate is booming. Construction, retail and wholesale trade sectors are healthy, too, according to a report by Global Insight in London. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports 34,000 registered companies in Iraq, up from 8,000 three years ago. Sales of secondhand cars, televisions and mobile phones have all risen sharply. Estimates vary, but one from Global Insight puts GDP growth at 17 percent last year and projects 13 percent for 2006. The World Bank has it lower: at 4 percent this year. But, given all the attention paid to deteriorating security, the startling fact is that Iraq is growing at all.

How? Iraq is a crippled nation growing on the financial equivalent of steroids, with money pouring in from abroad. National oil revenues and foreign grants look set to total $41 billion this year, according to the IMF. With security improving in one key spot—the southern oilfields—that figure could go up.

Not too shabby, all things considered. Yes, Iraq's problems are daunting, to say the least. Unemployment runs between 30 and 50 percent. Many former state industries have all but ceased to function. As for all that money flowing in, much of it has gone to things that do little to advance the country's future. Security, for instance, gobbles up as much as a third of most companies' operating budgets, whereas what Iraq really needs are hospitals, highways and power-generating plants.

Even so, there's a vibrancy at the grass roots that is invisible in most international coverage of Iraq. Partly it's the trickle-down effect. However it's spent, whether on security or something else, money circulates. Nor are ordinary Iraqis themselves short on cash. After so many years of living under sanctions, with little to consume, many built up considerable nest eggs—which they are now spending. That's boosted economic activity, particularly in retail. Imported goods have grown increasingly affordable, thanks to the elimination of tariffs and trade barriers. Salaries have gone up more than 100 percent since the fall of Saddam, and income-tax cuts (from 45 percent to just 15 percent) have put more cash in Iraqi pockets. "The U.S. wanted to create the conditions in which small-scale private enterprise could blossom," says Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk at Global Insight. "In a sense, they've succeeded."
Consider some less formal indicators. Perhaps the most pervasive is the horrendous Iraqi traffic jams. Roadside bombs account for fewer backups than the sheer number of secondhand cars that have crowded onto the nation's roads—five times as many in Baghdad as before the war. Cheap Chinese goods overflow from shop shelves, and store owners report quick turnover. Real-estate prices have risen several hundred percent, suggesting that Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than most Americans are.

There's even a positive spin to be put on corruption. Money stolen from government coffers or siphoned from U.S. aid projects does not just disappear. Again, says Farid Abolfathi, a Global Insight analyst, it's the "trickledown" effect. Such "underground activity" is the most dynamic part of Iraq's economy, he says. "It might not be viewed as respectable. But in reality, that's what puts money in the hands of the little people."

Meanwhile, Iraq's official economic institutions are making progress, improbable as that might sound in the context of savage sectarian violence and a seemingly complete breakdown of leadership and law. Yet it's a fact. A government often accused of being no government at all has somehow managed to take its first steps to liberalize the highly centralized economy of the Saddam era. Iraq has a debt-relief deal with the IMF that requires Baghdad to end subsidies and open up its gas-import market. Earlier this year the government made the first hesitant steps, axing fuel subsidies—and sending prices from a few cents a liter to around 14. "This has become one important way of institutionally engaging with Iraq," says economist Colin Rowat at the University of Birmingham. "If you lose that engagement, then that means a lot more people have given up on Iraq."

It goes without saying: real progress won't be seen until the security situation clears up. Iraq still lacks a functioning banking system. Though there's an increasing awareness of Iraq as a potential emerging market, foreign investors won't make serious commitments until they are assured a measure of stability. Local moneymen are scarcely more bullish on the long term. In Iraq's nascent bond market, buyers have so far been willing to invest in local-currency Treasury bills with terms up to six months, max.

Iraqna isn't the only success story. There is also Nipal, a money-transfer service that is the backbone of Iraq's cash economy, as well as a slew of successful construction firms in Kurdistan. Such companies are not waiting for Iraq's political crisis to resolve itself. Yet imagine how they would prosper if it did, and how quickly they would be joined by others. As things stand, Iraqna faces extraordinary difficulties. It builds towers but lives in constant fear that they will be blown up. It has to be careful about whom it hires, or where it assigns people to work. Whether Sunni or Shia, it doesn't matter; criminal gangs and militias regularly try to kidnap employees to hold them hostage for ransom, regardless of ethnicity. As for long-range planning? Forget it, says Ziada, the Cairo analyst. "It's a terrible situation for any company."

But again, that's the remarkable thing. In a business climate that is inhospitable, to say the least, companies like Iraqna are thriving. The withdrawal of a certain great power could drastically reduce the foreign money flow, and knock the crippled economy flat.

With Michael Hastings in Baghdad
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

Originally Posted by DinarDevildog

Hello everyone, any new info for us..is it still positive that there maybe a reval-this week (hopeful)

While we are all hopeful, I do not think we will see a reval this week, but I sense it will happen soon. JMHO

Gloribee

في توصيات مؤتمر المصالحة .. اجماع على وحدة العراقThe recommendations of the Reconciliation Conference. Unanimity on the unity of Iraq

(صوت العراق) - 18-12-2006(Voice of Iraq) - 12 - 18-2006
ارسل هذا الموضوع لصديقThis issue was sent to a friend

في توصيات مؤتمر المصالحة .. اجماع على وحدة العراق وتوضيح الصلاحيات الاتحادية وبذل مزيد من الجهد في مراجعة الدستورThe recommendations of the Reconciliation Conference. Unanimity on the unity of Iraq and to clarify the powers of Yugoslavia and make more of an effort to review the Constitution

بغداد / المدىBaghdad / long
Committees unanimously emanating from the political forces, which concluded its work yesterday, Sunday, to maintain the unity of Iraq and to clarify the powers of Yugoslavia and the powers of provinces and invitation of the Constitution Review Committee to make more of an effort to expand the culture of constitutional and rehabilitation of the Iraqi army officers and former composition of the army, the military establishment on the basis of national participation away from sectarianism and the ban on the activity of armed militias and countless arms in the hands of the state.
The Commission proposed to the former army and the dissolved entities, "the formation of a consultative body composed of Iraqi army officers linked Commander of the armed forces will provide recommendations and proposals and care for all military salaries through the allocation of pension rewarding."

He said Najeeb Al-Salihi, Chairman of the Committee and the subsequent recommendations of a 17 dissolved entity exists in Iraq suffer from many problems, we must find solutions to them.
The recommendations also stress the "invitation of senior Iraqi officers immigrants through the provision of security and reassure them and call for the abolition of the civil administrator Paul Bremer regarding the military."
As confirmed by the Committee in its recommendations to "take swift action to accommodate the wishes of the military to return to the army in accordance with the controls of quality and efficiency and balances with the warning of the sectarian quota system in the army and the emphasis only on the national identity through absorbing all the components of the Iraqi people."
She also stressed the rehabilitation of the thousands of military personnel who have been harmed by the Saddam regime, including officers, Baathists.
She stressed the importance of the relatives of the elements of the armed forces of the martyrs and wounded and bringing social welfare.
As stated in the recommendations of the Commission complete sovereignty dissolution of the militia headed by Muhammad Naji Mohammed emphasis on "strengthening the national sovereignty and a schedule for the withdrawal of foreign forces with the building of the Iraqi armed forces and to give powers to the government to move military sectors."
It stressed the necessity of the weapons, however, the state only and the use of elements of the former army people in these militias and the compulsory service.
It stressed the strengthening of the armed forces and to find solutions to unemployment through human development and activating investment projects in the country and address the issues of detainees who were found not guilty, and to spread the culture of security among the masses to respect national security and the activation of the items and document Mecca to outlaw Iraqi blood.
With the balance of the Commission and the expansion of political participation in the recommendations, followed by Deputy Chairperson of the Committee Safiya Suhail reconsider the importance of the parliamentary seats in the House of Representatives called compensatory seats.
The committee called for the allocation of these seats to the political forces and parties which did not win any recent elections provided that the parties to this history of struggle in confronting the former regime.
It urged the government to give greater powers to choose elements recommending giving positions "not political" and Undersecretary of the Ministry What without characters of competencies.

Translated version of http://www.sotaliraq.com/

Sorry if already posted.

The rise in the value of the dinar

The high price of the new currency has revived hopes prosperous economic future.
Written by : * Aqil Jabbar Baghdad
Despite the emergence of the pictures of car bombs and shootings and angry demonstrators in Iraq through Arab television screens every night, remains businessmen in the region, betting on the future economic prosperity of the country, which has been ravaged by war.
That at least, is the word one of the Iraqis, who stated that the rush to buy the new Iraqi dinar, lies in the high value from 1,650 to the highest value of one thousand per dollar within two days only.
He hailed Abbas, the director of the Gulf banking company in Baghdad, "The Jordanian businessmen were selling large amounts of dollars to buy new Iraqi money."
And the same thing is happening in Basra, except that the Kuwaitis are buying. As the morning assurances of the banking company in the southern port.
As stated in the report issued by the Egyptian government newspaper Al-Ahram had the businessmen to buy dinars, with the exception that Iraq's oil wealth in the end is the reason for the high value of the currency.
The rocket rise of the value of the Iraqi currency impact of the new expiry of the circulation of the old dinars, which bore the face of Saddam Hussein in the 15 / January, which paved the way for the new securities issued last October.
He said Mohaned Rahim, Director of Auto Fair opened, "we used to use the dollar to buy cars from Jordan and the UAE, and now after printing the new currency, and the companies agreed to export cars to Iraq for the Iraqi money."
The rise also came with the beginning of the pilgrimage season, which is traditionally a very bleak time for the Arab currencies, as pilgrims heading saying goodbye for the last time to change the dollar to be spent in Saudi Arabia.
But this year, the new Iraqi dinar currency of choice for the pilgrims.
Mustafa said Abdul Razak Mihdawi, director of a company specialized in Mecca pilgrimage trips, "I have agreed to do the Saudi government trade exchange with the Iraqis in Iraqi currency. "
Currently used by the dinar and the dollar in the stores Iraq, and this change from the recent past, where the American currency typically used to buy expensive imported goods such as electronics.
He said Ali Osman Alvtlaoui, an employee in the company grains in the public sector "that the decline in the dollar benefit each citizen receives his salary in Iraqi currency, as this will allow him to buy anything sold the largest dollar value." The Alvtlaoui "was a video CDs sold at a price previously (60) thousand Iraqi dinars, while today is not equivalent to more than (46) thousand dinars."
However, Seif Motaz who works as an interpreter with the American army, complained that the interview of (450) net worth had declined to slightly more than half of the previous value. He said, "if the dollar continued to fall I will have to look for other work dinars."
However, the last time people looked at things Bqiasathm, Vitzkron last days before inflation in the Penal Code, when the dinar is equal to more than three dollars.
He said Rasul Al-Hammadi of age (65) years, "I hope that the value of the dinar itself, which was in the 1960s and 1970s. Each time high dinar, good things happen to Iraq and the Iraqi economy. " * Aqil Jabbar trainee journalist at the press of war and peace Baghdad
Translated version of http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=heniicr2004&l=ar&s=f&o=168578

I saw this it looks interesting, Does any one have nooze?



Head of Trustees of Iraqi Stock Exchange: Time to Implement Investment Law

Originally Posted by bubbajr

I saw this it looks interesting, Does any one have nooze?



Head of Trustees of Iraqi Stock Exchange: Time to Implement Investment Law

I think NENO can get it ( I HOPE )

UPDATE-I just sent someone an e-mail asking if they can get it

Originally Posted by $onedaysoon$

I think NENO can get it ( I HOPE )

UPDATE-I just sent someone an e-mail asking if they can get it

I think NENO has a subsription