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

Iraq Terrorists Now Recruiting in Europe
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Posted GMT 12-23-2006 9:29:37
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Awaiting trial for supporting terrorists in the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombing, Nasreddine Boussbaa has now been accused of making fake documents for Iraq-based terrorists trying to make their way back to Europe.

"Iraq is generating an exodus of terrorists," says ABC News consultant Tony Cordesman. "It is creating a training center, in effect, the worst kind of training center, because people learn through practice, not theory."

Watch Pierre Thomas' full report tonight on 'World News' at 6:30 p.m. ET

A new report issued by the State Department and obtained by ABC News says that foreign fighters in Iraq include Islamic radicals "from France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom."

The report calls them "Iraq war alumni" and concludes that "radicalization is a high risk to U.S. interests."

"The foreign fighters that go into Iraq, most of the foreign fighters are going to die there, but those that do return are going to be more energized, more fanatical, more dedicated to the cause," says Dennis Pluchinsky, former senior State Department official.

Fertile Recruiting Ground

One of the major concerns is that those radicals will return from Iraq as heroes and find fertile recruiting ground in Europe.

An assessment by the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center estimates that as many as "150,000 [European Muslims] could be open to recruitment into terrorism or become supporters."

A senior European official recently told the Iraq Study Group that "failure in Iraq could incite terrorist attacks within his country."

European terrorists and their recruits could pose a unique threat to the United States.

"They may be able to slip through any type of surveillance screens that the European police and intelligence agencies set up," Pluchinsky says. "There is a good possibility they could slip into the U.S."

Intelligence officials warn that not only Iraq but the recent strife in Lebanon and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict are converging to create a dangerous moment for the West.

"We can't quantify the number of terrorists," Cordesman explains, "but there is an almost universal consensus among intelligence experts that the number is far higher today than in 2001."

The European threat assessment concludes that the "global terrorist threat … has doubled over the last 24 months."

By Pierre Thomas And Jason Ryan
ABC News

© 2006, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

Report: Baghdad Now Dominated By Shiites
By UPI Wire
Dec 23, 2006


BAGHDAD, Dec. 23, 2006 (UPI) -- Shiite Muslim control of Baghdad has raised fears a militant Shiite fringe will have free rein to conduct broad Sunni killings, it was reported Saturday.

Neighborhoods once mixed with Shiite and Sunni Arabs are now almost entirely Shiite, residents and officials told The New York Times.

Sunnis have just one seat on the 51-seat Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city's services.

The shift to Shiite control began in February, after a shrine in the city of Samarra was bombed, The Times said.



Shiite militias began to strike back, pushing west from their strongholds and violently forcing Sunnis out of neighborhoods.

Shiites, who make up most of Iraq's population, had been locked out of power under Saddam Hussein.

Sunnis fear the Shiite-controlled government will not stop -- or, some fear, help -- a militant Shiite fringe conduct broad Sunni killings.

This could, in turn, draw Sunni countries into the fight and lead to a protracted regional war, precisely the outcome the U.S. military fears most, the Times said.

Copyright 2006 United Press International

Americans claim no involvement in ex-electricity minister's escape
The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, December 23, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. Embassy said no one affiliated with the American government helped in the escape of Iraq's former electricity minister, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who was jailed for corruption.

Ayham al-Samaraie fled a police station in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad with the help of a group of private security experts on Sunday, Iraqi officials said. Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, an anti-corruption panel, said the agents were ''foreigners.''

''The U.S. government was not involved in the disappearance of former electricity minister Ayham al-Samaraie in any way,'' said Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. ''Iraqi officials are continuing to investigate Mr. al-Samaraie's disappearance, and we are vigorously supporting their efforts.''

advertisement In telephone interviews earlier this week with the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times, al-Samaraie said a ''multinational'' group helped him escape. He also sent an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, ''Hi, I am OK and out of their reach.''

He did not reveal his location, but told the Times he was outside Iraq.

He told the Tribune he was ''now in a very safe place. ... They cannot touch me anymore.''

Al-Samaraie has a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook and told the Tribune he plans to return there after the new year. Al-Samaraie had come to Chicago 30 years ago and was a partner in a suburban engineering firm.

A Sunni Arab, al-Samaraie was a member of the transitional government set up after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

He was convicted on one of 13 charges of corruption earlier this year, but the conviction was thrown out on appeal a few days before his escape. He still faces trial on the other 12 counts. The charges concern an estimated $2 billion in missing funds for contracts on rebuilding the country's electrical infrastructure.

Al-Samaraie is also believed to have had contacts with Sunni Arab insurgents and had tried to persuade them to put down their weapons and join the political process.

Dubai firm, Iraq airport deal
Iraq: Thursday, December 21 - 2006 at 07:52
Dubai-based Global Strategies Group has won a contract with Iraq to provide aviation security services at Baghdad International Airport, Gulf News reported. The agreement with Iraq's Ministry of Transportation is for 12 months. It extends previous terms which has seen GSG looking after security at the airport since June 2004.

Iraq : National alliance of Kurdistan

Morning talk
Mohamed Abdul Jabbar carp
The new alliance could description, which is being set up to talk about through the words used by President Jalal Talabani to talk about "efforts to unite the moderate forces that believe in democracy." The Alliance is a "moderate, democratic," and "open to others", as elsewhere. Such an alliance is needed to be described as Shiite or Sunni, Kurd.

It is a national, meaning that the strong participation in it, with the ability to reach the level of the whole country, and represents the aspirations beyond factional aspirations at the level of community or national level, without ignoring the legitimate rights of these groups, especially the rights of the Kurdish people. In a later stage of the evolution of this alliance when it is, will be talking about the change in the nature of membership in its parties, and the forces, which also lead to a reopening of the file of the electoral base where it is still confined to the membership of these parties sectarian or ethnic characterization of the individual, and that their electoral base is still captive this description, and this is incompatible with the extension of the National Alliance.

The second characteristic function of this alliance being democratically. Democracy is not a ready, but is becoming a constant and the rules and mechanisms and principles must be reflected not only in all public bids of the alliance, but also in internal relations. Here the Alliance to be clear in their choices of democracy, whether it is the process of consensual democracy or democratic numerical. Perhaps the political process needs to consensual democracy if the masses are moving as a block, any ethnic or sectarian. But if the move as political, and here he moderation, there is no need for a democratic consensus, which calls, among other things, a strong coalition of the components of factional ethnic community, and not for its democratic political moderate, and also requires the adoption of the principle of unanimity in decision-making, which is expressed by the parties to give the coalition the right to veto, which means the impossibility of a decision of the opposition to him. I read that the alliance a desired conditions for membership, including the adoption of the conditions of democratic mechanisms, on the one hand, and the adoption of the political consensus on the other. It is unfortunate that these two things can not take them together, but if it was one of form rather seriously. In political life based on the national representation and moderation and democracy, can be used only to the voting mechanism, and taking the opinion of the numerical majority, if not needed because of the strong national and democratic and moderate right of veto to each other, they did not meet on the basis of the representation of ethnic groups, but political parties are supposed to be coming up on the basis of a political program, and the difference between map is not supposed to interrupt the resolution, a requirement of unanimity.

This may be the National Democratic Alliance is moderate vessel jacket for the political process, which almost drowning war waged by the forces of the extremist terrorist hand, and because of the catastrophic effects caused by the system of quotas and sectarian and ethnic alliances, on the other hand. Nor should the forces that operate for the establishment of the alliance to sow the seeds of the seeds of disintegration باستصحابها since the beginning of the principle of unanimity or consensus, or the right of veto in the decision-making process. These forces to decide once and forever it will be democratic in form and content and commitment to democratic mechanisms in political decision-making.

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Originally Posted by Mike5200

Dubai firm, Iraq airport deal
Iraq: Thursday, December 21 - 2006 at 07:52
Dubai-based Global Strategies Group has won a contract with Iraq to provide aviation security services at Baghdad International Airport, Gulf News reported. The agreement with Iraq's Ministry of Transportation is for 12 months. It extends previous terms which has seen GSG looking after security at the airport since June 2004.

...PAST TENSE... more data to support the claim that the FIL is in place. Thoughts?

by Sabah Jerges
Sat Dec 23, 4:53 AM ET



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad's vicious sectarian war has claimed another victim; a Christmas tradition that used to bond the city's Christian community closer to their Muslim neighbours is dying.

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Until this year, Muslim farmers from Baghdad's outskirts would descend on Sadun Street in downtown Karrada to sell Christmas trees to the area's large Christian community and exchange season's greetings.

Prices were low and, for the remaining Christians in an increasingly dangerous district, it was as much an inter-religious social event as a market.

"They used to wish me Merry Christmas before selling me the tree I chose," said mother-of-two Mary Hanna. "I miss them and their trees this year."

Reporters who visited Karrada in the build-up to Christmas found very few tree stalls, where once Sadun street would have been decked with green boughs.

Shops were still stocking a colourful array of artificial trees, baubles and party decorations, but the pre-Christmas street market ambiance was lost.

Baghdad's large but dwindling Christian community has thus far not been a target for the rival Sunni and Shiite death squads whose attacks have pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian war.

But the blockade on Christmas trees is a worrying sign in what was once one of the Middle East's most cosmopolitan cities; a mix of ethnic Arabs and Kurds, of religious Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Jews.

To bring the Christmas trees to Karrada, the farmers would have to carry them through the backroads of Baghdad's suburbs and brave a gauntlet of car bombs and illegal checkpoints manned by sectarian assassins.

"They are afraid to come as they would certainly be targeted by gunmen, who hate to see those offering trees to Christians," said Sameer Yunan, a Christian. "They want division in our society."

Mother-of-three Ban Zaki said she would buy an artificial tree to celebrate Christmas, but regreted the passing of a tradition that would have seen her and her kids picking the best fir from the friendly tradesmen.

"We look forward to Christmas. When we bring the tree home, our kids know that Santa Claus is coming with presents. It won't be so much fun this year," she sighed.

Christians have lived side-by-side with Muslims and other religious groups in Iraq for centuries as a respected part of society, sometimes achieving high office in government.

Areas like Karrada were once among the wealthiest in the city, fuelling a widespread belief that Christians are rich, which has in turn made them a prime target for the kidnap gangs that also target Muslims.

Census figures from before the first Gulf War in 1991 put Christian Iraqis at more than one million, but the number has been falling ever since, with refugee flows accelerating since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In the wake of the US invasion, Muslim Iraqis turned to political movements organised on sectarian lines, effectively excluding Christians from influence. Many have fled the violence tearing the country apart.

There have been attacks and kidnappings targeting churches and priests, but not many. More than anything there is a sense that they are not welcome any more in a country intent on organising itself on Islamist lines.

"Christmas is a big occasion for us," said Bassam Sami, a legal adviser at the education ministry. "The occasion however is completely different this year. Life has become so difficult for all Iraqis, including Christians.

"We are afraid that something will happen that spoils this merry occasion," he added. "We always pray that this scene of daily killing may stop for good. I pray to God to stop the bloodshed."

Pensioner Anwar Khudhir, admitted that as a Christian he had not been directly threatened by the war dividing his Sunni and Shiite neighbours, but said no-one in his community felt like holding parties amid the bloodshed.

"This violence is haunting all Iraq. We can't celebrate surrounded by wakes and distressed neighbouring families. We want to celebrate while our Muslim brethren are happy too," he said.

Iraqis Sue Over Oil-For-Food Program
12 hrs ago Iraqis Sue Over Oil-For-Food Program

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By LARRY NEUMEISTER, The Associated Press
Dec 23, 2006 1:36 AM (12 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 15,663 of 15,695 articles

NEW YORK - Iraqi citizens filed a $200 million lawsuit Friday against a prominent European bank and an Australian wheat exporter, saying they were cheated out of humanitarian goods when the companies permitted the U.N. oil-for-food program to be corrupted.


The lawsuit, brought by seven Iraqi individuals seeking class-action status on behalf of northern Iraqis, said the bank, BNP Paribas, and AWB Limited, the largest humanitarian goods provider under the oil-for-food program, cheated the citizens of Iraq from June 10, 1999, to June 3, 2003.

The suit, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks at least $200 million in damages under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

According to the lawsuit, residents of the Irbil, Dokuk and Sulaimaniyah areas of Iraq claimed they did not receive the full benefits to which they were entitled.

The lawsuit said the companies stole from the Iraqis "by engaging in a brazen kickback scheme" in which money earmarked for the benefit of Iraqis was instead improperly transferred "into the coffers of Saddam Hussein's corrupt Iraqi regime or used to indemnify goods suppliers, including AWB, for the bribes they had paid Iraq."

The lawsuit said the companies disguised and misrepresented the kickbacks to make them appear to be legitimate costs. It also accused them of knowing or recklessly disregarding that money was being paid illegally to the government of Saddam Hussein.

BNP paid as much as $1.5 billion in kickbacks to Hussein's government while AWB paid more than $200 million, the lawsuit claims.

BNP is headquartered in Paris, France, but has offices in the United States, including New York. Edwina Frawley, a BNP spokeswoman, said she had no comment Friday.

A government-commissioned report in Australia was released several weeks ago saying AWB paid $220 million in kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime from 1999 to 2003 to secure lucrative wheat contracts under the oil-for-food scheme.

Under the oil-for-food program, AWB, which had sold wheat to Iraq since 1948, sold 6.8 million tons to the nation, receiving more than $2.3 billion in payments, the lawsuit said.

"It's the first I've heard of it," AWB spokesman Peter McBride said of the lawsuit. "It would be an ill-conceived action, and if it's brought to fruition, it would be vigorously defended."

In late November, in response to the government-commissioned report, the wheat exporter accepted responsibility for the scandal and announced a corporate restructuring plan.

Iraq no longer permits AWB to send wheat there.

In October 2005, a U.N.-backed investigation said in a report that about 2,200 companies in the oil-for-food program, including corporations in the United States, France, Germany and Russia, paid a total of $1.8 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein's government.

A message seeking comment from lawyers Gary Osen and Joshua Glatter was not returned Friday evening.

The lawsuit was filed in New York because, it says, "the defendants maintained offices, conducted or transacted substantial business and committed acts in New York."

Iraq Baghdad : the division to nine squares to provide security under the supervision of al-Maliki

The internal organs using sophisticated explosive detection
Baghdad-Sabah
Interior Ministry announced the arrival of a large number of sophisticated devices to detect explosives and weapons will be used during the period of close to support the security plan in Baghdad that the new phase has been divided city of Baghdad, which to nine square under the direct supervision of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Emphasized in a press conference Thursday, the spokesman of the Interior Ministry, Brigadier Abdul Karim Khalaf, pointing out that more than 200 experts at the Directorate of Combat explosives will be in possession of these devices are deployed in all areas of Baghdad, including the city outlets, noting that the ministry will be able to use these devices to detect weapons and explosives from a distance of up to one hundred meters, as well as the possibility of detection of explosives in the ground and use in the inspections.

He added Brigadier Khalaf said that these devices will be used in support of the new security agenda by which the division of Baghdad to the cutters Karkh and Rusafa and appointed Commander of the whole city by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and then divided Baghdad into nine squares to operate in a decentralized means that the new leader of each square would have the powers to move his forces to deal with any security imbalances within the firm without obtaining approvals routine and will be the factor of time, however, these field commanders, as they see fit.

On the other hand, the ministry spokesman said that the development happened in cooperation with the tribes in the north and south of Baghdad, and that the ministry has succeeded in creating national reconciliation with the clan, which was captive to the
Terrorist organizations and SATISFACTION, pointing out that the clan provided the ministry with information of the utmost importance and led to the arrest of a large group of terrorists was last named Haitham al-Samarra'i a professor at the Mustansiriya University and the Emir of terrorist groups in the area south of Baghdad, as well as 11 other members of the terrorist cell.
He added that rapid intervention brigade in the ministry was able to arrest two terrorists in the air landing, as well as the arrest of
One of the terrorists who planned the killing of Al-Taji area named the Rashid Hamad after the prosecution to the city of Tikrit.

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Bush thanks El Salvador for extending troop presence in Iraq 2 hours, 35 minutes ago



WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush thanked Salvadoran President Antonio Saca by telephone for recently extending El Salvador's troop presence in Iraq, the White House said.

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"The president expressed his appreciation for their commitment to the freedom and wellbeing of the Iraqi people," the White House said in a statement.

"The president also complimented the professionalism and courage of the Salvadoran forces deployed to Iraq," noting that the most recent delegation will be the eighth contingent sent to Iraq from the Central American nation.

The White House said the two leaders also agreed to meet in 2007 to "discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues."

On December 15, El Salvador's legislature approved a plan to send a new contingent of soldiers to Iraq in 2007.

The number of soldiers had not yet been determined but would not be more than 380, according to the legislation.

They will replace the 379 Salvadoran soldiers currently in Iraq with the US-led coalition.

El Salvador is the only country in Latin America to have sent troops to Iraq.