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

this has been posted like 4 times already lol I read it and feel like the kid on my avatar lol


الصفحة الاولىThe first page : A new fiscal policy leading to a rise in the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar


بغداد / المدىBaghdad / long
In an unprecedented led the Central Bank of Iraq ambitious campaign to promote the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar according to a plan designed to absorb liquidity and the reduction of inflation rates expressed at heights and clear on the prices of goods and services.
The presentation of the Central Bank through the auction, organized by the daily buying and selling of foreign currency sums of dollars, where they were able to achieve a gradual reduction of the dollar exchange rate started from 1470 dinars to the dollar to reach the price at the meeting yesterday transactions related to 1444.

Al (short) from official sources in the Central Bank, said that this policy would continue to thrive and become the Iraqi dinar currency of choice in daily dealings with those sources expressed its confidence in achieving this policy even finishing off phenomenon (dollarization).
The financial sources noted that government agencies, companies and parties have overestimated the adoption of the dollar currency content in their market, including played an influential role in the exacerbation of the situation inflationary come of this policy in the wake of numerous warnings by the Central Bank pointed to the escalation of the situation inflationary to the rate of 76.6% during the month of August compared with August 2005, to be adopted in its program to increase interest rates offered by the pointing of 6 to 12%. With the bank issuing of the bonds amounted to Release hundred billion dinars rewarding benefits are paid through the 182 days, but the reluctance of banks to respond to civil actions that carry the Central Bank to adopt a policy to strengthen the exchange ambition and confirmed in a statement pursuit and determined action to reduce the inflationary situation at various levels.
On the other hand, currency exchange market witnessed weak demand for the dollar and other foreign currencies, including advances of the price of the Iraqi dinar prelude to potential Anaaksh on the prices of commodities and services in the local market.

Translated version of http://www.almadapaper.com/paper.php?source=akbar&mlf=interpage&sid=12705

2 Jan 2007 19:52:28 GMT
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he has no interest in a second term and wished he could be done before the end of his current term, in which rampant sectarian violence has defied hopes for unity.

Asked whether he would accept a second term, Maliki said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal: "Impossible."

"I wish it could be done with even before the end of this term. I would like to serve my people from outside the circle of senior officials, maybe through the parliament, or through working directly with the people," Maliki said.

"I didn't want to take this position. I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again," he said. His term is intended to be four years, but it could be cut short by a power shift in parliament.


The Iraqi gov't is at such a critical stage in proving to its people and the world that it is ready to lead the country. Maliki is a whimp. It is one thing to have these feelings but to publicly announce it, is far worse. Especially now, when he doesn't even have the control he needs to even justify him being the PM. Hasn't anyone told him that he has just made one huge political blunder. Lord please RV the dinar ASAP, because with Maliki at the helm, I feel like he is navigating the Titanic.

"The Iraqi gov't is at such a critical stage in proving to its people and the world that it is ready to lead the country. Maliki is a whimp. It is one thing to have these feelings but to publicly announce it, is far worse. Especially now, when he doesn't even have the control he needs to even justify him being the PM. Hasn't anyone told him that he has just made one huge political blunder. Lord please RV the dinar ASAP, because with Maliki at the helm, I feel like he is navigating the Titanic".

Well said!!!!!!!!!

anuary 01, 2007
What is the balance sheet on Iraq?
By Greg Richards

We must evaluate the situation in Iraq in terms of the interests of the United States. If we accept the point of view of our enemies, or even of Iraqis, we are faced with an impossible situation because our enemies want us to lose, and we cannot satisfy all the objectives of all Iraqis - we cannot be the "good guys" to everybody.

It is possible that we did not think through this problem before the invasion - that by advocating majority rule in Iraq we were also advocating a social revolution, one that would depose the Sunnis from their historically predominant social and political role in favor of the Shia. But whether or not we were naïve, there is no going back now.

The question going forward for us is what is best for the United States. This is the perspective that holds the key to the "solution" for us in Iraq. Since we represent a humane society, we desire that what is good for us be as much as possible what is good for Iraq - indeed, we are willing to sacrifice a great deal for this to be the case - but this cannot become a desire to please our enemies, or to require that our actions be approved by them.

So, how does the ledger on Iraq add up? Kevin McCullough has an arresting column on the economic successes currently being experienced in Iraq . Is this whistling past the graveyard? I think not, although it is only a tile in the mosaic of Iraq, not the entire mosaic. Amir Taheri supports the idea of successful advances in the Iraqi economy in his recent column datelined Um Qasr in the New York Post.

One of the most important books to come out of World War II was Inside the Third Reich, the memoirs of Hitler's war production minister, Albert Speer. One of the points that Speer made is how much economic activity can be sustained amidst the chaos of war, particularly in the case of the Allies' bombing campaign.

There is a bombing campaign of a different kind under way in Iraq. McCullough is saying that amidst it, significant economic activity is taking place, for instance, GDP growth of 13% in 2006, according to McCullough, following GDP growth of 17% in 2005. (I cannot confirm these numbers independently.) Concomitant with this, reported previously in AT,

is the now 10% gain in the value of the Iraqi dinar since August, perhaps due to rising interest rates, but a gain in value all the same. Inflation remains in the range of 50% on an annual basis, where it has been since February 2006 (scroll down for 12-month inflation figures). McCullough says that private sector unemployment is 30%, a high number, but not an infinitely high one. So the economic numbers are surprisingly positive.
This doesn't quite square with what we are being told about the refugee problem. Just after the 2003 campaign to remove Saddam, one of the figures of merit on Iraq was the return of refugees to the country. During 2006 we have been seeing a flight of refugees from the country. If reports are accurate, there are now 1 million refugees in Syria and Jordan, or about 4% of the population, and, reportedly, the professional part of it. Since these are press figures, perhaps they need to be taken with a grain of salt, but there does seem to have been a significant reversal of the direction in which people are voting with their feet between 2003 and 2006. This is not a plus. And it comes during a time when there is a growing internal refugee problem as Sunni and Shia areas are being shaken by sectarian violence. Both internal and external refugees are a symptom of the fracturing taking place in Iraqi society due to sectarian violence. This is the crisis that is allegedly calling for a dramatic response from the president - that has created the need perceived by some for a surge of U.S. troops.

The question is: how critical the current violence in Iraq is to the United States? It certainly doesn't look good and there are many constituencies - the left-leaning press, European leadership and public opinion, radical and other Islamic leadership - that would like the U.S. to feel responsibility for this. Well, we did remove Saddam without, I suspect, appreciating the political role he was providing in maintaining, however despicably, the Iraqi polity. One suspects that he knew his people better than we did. Presumably our strategy in Iraq was that we would depose Saddam and then the Iraqis would form a new civil society with our help. They have proven unable to do this so far, which has effectively left us without a strategy in Iraq that is producing daily returns. It may still be working, but the timeframe may be too long and it doesn't look good in the meantime.

There is a factor that we in the West probably tend to underestimate in regard to the Third World. Western societies, and certainly America, are commercial societies. Most people are occupied in commercial pursuits and most people achieve their wealth and place in society in commerce. This is particularly true in America where we don't have dukes, but we have Rockefellers, Fords, Morgans, Gates's, Jobs's, etc. And alongside these great entrepreneurs, we have managers, proprietors and professionals. This means that there is an entire area of endeavor where people can make their mark outside of politics and power.

But in Third World countries, there is effectively no independent economy. The only source of wealth and power is politics, or to put it differently, the only source of wealth is power. This puts the Sunnis, for instance, in a difficult position. Being deposed from their historic leading role in Iraqi power, they cannot "go back to" running their auto companies and steel companies and trading companies because these do not exist - yet.

Power is a zero-sum game rather than the positive-sum game of economics, which is one of the things that makes power disputes so intractable. And it is naïve to think that all problems can be solved by negotiation, another mistake of the ISG. History says that in most cases negotiation only occurs either after one party to a dispute has been defeated or after both parties have been exhausted. We have not arrived at either point in Iraq yet, which is the problem we face. How do we arrive at this point? First, let's review where we are - the balance sheet on Iraq so far from an American perspective.

Iraq balance sheet


American homeland - Our primary concern and responsibility is the American homeland. Without a secure homeland we cannot project power abroad and cannot fulfill our role of being the world's only effective policeman, however much we may regret that role and however much we seek to limit it. By going on the offensive in the War on Terror and by implication by going on the offensive in Iraq, we have forced the opposition - Islamic radicalism - to throw in its resources to that fight. If Iraq succeeds in creating a modern Islamic society, the radicals are through and they know it. This is a battle they must win. And it appears that while they are attempting to do this, they do not have the resources to attack us at home. That is a clear win for the US above and beyond any other consideration. We have to ask those who want to withdraw from Iraq how they intend to occupy the opposition to keep it from attacking us here at home. They have no answer to that question; they don't even grasp that it is a question; and they won't blame themselves when they turn out to be wrong about the question.

Iraqi economy - We may be seeing a win here. Yes, with high unemployment and with a lot of messiness from the ruthless opposition, but evidence, including the recent rise in the value of the Iraqi dinar, suggests that a corner may be being turned. And this is in spite of the increase in the refugee population in 2006.

Iraqi society - we are not going to be able to make everybody happy. We seek to make our enemies unhappy. We cannot use the happiness of all as our figure of merit in Iraq. If we do that, we buy into the metric of the opposition. Essentially, their strategy is to create so much savagery that we recoil from it. One of our failures has been in the polemical arena in not hanging the murder of their countrymen and coreligionists around the necks of the radicals and nihilists. They have had to show their hand in Iraq by attacking Muslim society. We have not capitalized on this appalling strategy and pinned the responsibility for it on them. This is one of the offensives we do need to surge.

Initially, our enemy was Saddam and his regime. Now it is any force dedicated to destroying Iraq and keeping it from jelling into a successful civil society with a democratic central government and a functioning private economy. If you are against that, even for the reason of maintaining your historic position, you are on the opposite side from the US. We cannot take it as our failure that the opposition has a nihilistic strategy of destruction for the purpose of preventing their fellow countrymen from living decently in the modern world. This strategy is a statement of their failure, the bankruptcy of their religion and philosophy.

30 Years' War? - The last great religious war in Europe was the 30 Years' War from 1618 - 1648. It devastated what is now Germany, killing 30% of the population. Indeed, the 30 Years' War is why Germany failed to develop as a nation state until the late 19th century. It may be that we are seeing something like this now between the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq. Perhaps there is no solution to it except to let it blow itself out. The Sunni - most injudiciously, to an outsider - laid the predicate for intersectarian slaughter. This was an incautious step for a minority to take. While we did get Zarqawi, it appears that he may have achieved his goal of committing such unforgivable atrocities before he died that he lit off an internal war in Iraq. This may be a situation to which no outsider - even the US - has a solution. It may simply have to blow itself out.

The military problem - In World War II, our objective was "unconditional surrender" of our enemies. With unconditional surrender, the political problem is solved militarily but in a limited war, the political problem has a separate but related existence to the military problem. It is not enough to "rely on the generals." Solving the civilian-political problem is not their job. After all, what is their writ? To destroy our enemies or make friends with them? The civilians have to make that decision.

It is in the political-civilian area that we have been deficient in our strategy. It may well have been that our model before deposing Saddam was that there was an Iraqi polity that, absent the terror of Saddam, would be able to work out its problems through democratic means. If that was our model, it didn't work. We need a new model. Do we support majority rule - the al-Maliki government? That very likely means that we oppose the Sunni insurgency, even though the Sunni in some sense balance out the influence of the Iranian Shia. Well, that problem is not going to go away. If we are in a war, we have to want our side to win. If our side is to win, we must have a side. That nettle seems not to have been grasped, and no amount of surged troops is going to grasp it. It must be grasped as a matter of policy and then the troops can be given a military objective.

Should we surge troops? Wrong question. The question is (a) what is our objective and (b) what is our strategy for achieving it? Once we decide these two things, then we must find the leader who can execute on the strategy - the Ulysses Grant of this war - and not rotate him out until the job is finished.

Why Iraq is a Success
By Kevin McCullough
Sunday, December 24, 2006

The nation and economy known as the new Iraq is succeeding, and those who dispute this are simply lying.

Call it whatever you'd like - a quagmire, a country torn by violence, the next Vietnam, etc. - but it is dishonest to say is that this nation is not a success. Government corruption, uncontrolled militias, and (as the drive-by media likes to remind us) daily attacks using improvised exploding devices - but it is not an economy going under.

Take yourself back to the days following 9.11. Do you remember the near stand still our economy experienced? The airline industry down for days and the markets went into the tank. I can only surmise that similar bumps in our economic stability would be felt if we were seeing radicals crossing the borders from our neighbors (and who knows - they probably are), and decided once here they would blow up policemen, military check-points, and the passing civilians on a daily basis.

Despite the violence the economic growth in Iraq is defying all expectations by nearly any observer.


In this photograph provided by The White House, President Bush presents the Purple Heart to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Cordero of El Paso, Texas during a visit Friday, Dec. 22, 2006, to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington where the soldier is recovering from injuries suffered in Iraq. Looking on with first lady Laura Bush is Sgt. Cordero's mother, Rosa Cordero. (AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper)
Want proof?

The leading cell phone company Iraqna is set to take in nearly $520 million in revenues in 2006. That follows a record year in 2005 of $333 million. The leading export of Iraq is producing nearly $41 billion in revenues. In 2004 there were only 8,000 registered companies with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - today there are over 34,000.

While we in the U.S. are thrilled to hear about GDP (gross domestic product) coming in at around 4% (so much so that it begins to bring down our national debt faster than expected), imagine enjoying Iraq's GDP growth of 13% in 2006. Which followed a record year in 2005 of 17%.

Since 2003 the salaries of average Iraqis have risen in excess of 100%. In addition the Iraqi government has slashed the income tax rates from 45% to just around 15%. That has resulted in the average Iraqi family being able to develop long term nest-eggs (we call them IRAs).

Gasoline is only .56 cents a gallon. It wouldn't be that high except that Iraq decided to payoff some of its debt to the World Bank and are using energy profits to do so.

In addition much of the formerly centralized organization of the economy has been turned over to private sector endeavors and while some government sectors have seen a spike in unemployment, private sector unemployment is hovering around 30%. (High to you and me, but still better than in the Saddam era.)

There will be many who will read this latest round of good news and dismiss it out of hand. But thinking people will understand that this growth did not happen in a vacuum.


Are there still significant challenges before the Iraqis? Yes, and there will be for decades - but the violence so reported in the daily news grind does not begin to give one even a slight glimpse of the entire picture.

The militias need to be disbanded. Iran needs to keeps it nose out of the Shia population, and the Saudis out of the Sunnis. But while these debates are occurring don't miss what's happening behind the scenes. Every single day 25 million Iraqis are going to jobs, coming home, paying bills, putting some into savings, educating their children - and living in freedom.

Those who still disagree will argue that their freedom was not worth the cost in the numbers of lost American lives. And they do so dishonestly - knowing that we've lost fewer lives in the Global War on Terror than in any other armed conflict America has fought in (based on the numbers of American citizens and the percentage serving during war time).

In this photograph provided by The White House, President Bush presents the Purple Heart to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Cordero of El Paso, Texas during a visit Friday, Dec. 22, 2006, to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington where the soldier is recovering from injuries suffered in Iraq. Looking on with first lady Laura Bush is Sgt. Cordero's mother, Rosa Cordero. (AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper)
But some things are more valuable than life, and freedom is just such a treasure. Honorable people have always recognized this, and in turn expressed tremendous gratitude for the sacrifice made. Dishonorable people have always preferred tyranny to freedom, and the most dishonorable believe in freedom only for themselves.

The Global War on Terror has been and will continue to be a tough, log slog, in Iraq the news has not been the best in recent months. Yet there is good news, and it deserves to be noted.

Iraq will succeed. The terrorists will fail. And the longer the arm of freedom can reach, the more both statements will be proven true.

And in an economic sense - we need no greater proof.

Kevin McCullough's first hardback title "The MuscleHead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking" is now available. Kevin McCullough is heard daily in New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware on WMCA 570 at 2pm. He blogs at Kevin McCullough :: Musclehead Revolution.

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network

It is expected that the first month of next year to move the exchange rate


MENAFNMENAFN - 07/12/2006- 07 / 12 / 2006

MENAFN) Finance Minister announced that Iraq is about Iraqi support and strengthening of the Iraqi dinar, which will be reflected positively on the state and the people, and help increase the services.

The minister said in a statement that next year will witness an increase in the budget by up to 73% this year, which saw a slowdown in disbursements, which spent the Ministry of Water Resources, about 75% of its budget, and 20% in housing and 17% in oil.

It is noteworthy that the reason is that the funds have not been launched only in the month of April fair, leading to the loss of half a year, there are 2.5 billion dollars to reconstruct the governorates, in addition to the lack of engineering consulting firms and the lack of experience.

It is expected that the first month of next year to move the exchange rate and the creation of provincial offices consulting, engineering, which will deal with the disbursement of the budget by 100%.

It should be noted that the coming year will witness a revolution Aemarih large, and will contribute to reduce unemployment and enhance security and stability in Iraq.

Originally Posted by $onedaysoon$

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network

It is expected that the first month of next year to move the exchange rate


MENAFNMENAFN - 07/12/2006- 07 / 12 / 2006

MENAFN) Finance Minister announced that Iraq is about Iraqi support and strengthening of the Iraqi dinar, which will be reflected positively on the state and the people, and help increase the services.

The minister said in a statement that next year will witness an increase in the budget by up to 73% this year, which saw a slowdown in disbursements, which spent the Ministry of Water Resources, about 75% of its budget, and 20% in housing and 17% in oil.

It is noteworthy that the reason is that the funds have not been launched only in the month of April fair, leading to the loss of half a year, there are 2.5 billion dollars to reconstruct the governorates, in addition to the lack of engineering consulting firms and the lack of experience.

It is expected that the first month of next year to move the exchange rate and the creation of provincial offices consulting, engineering, which will deal with the disbursement of the budget by 100%.

It should be noted that the coming year will witness a revolution Aemarih large, and will contribute to reduce unemployment and enhance security and stability in Iraq.

WOOT! WOOT! WOOTTEEERRR!

Stocks rise in Iraqi oil to Turkey


London, January 2 January / Reuters /-aviation source said today, Tuesday, that Iraqi oil stocks reached 3.8 million barrels of Kirkuk crude by pumping from the fields to northern Turkey.
.The storage in the Turkish port of Ceyhan is less by about 200 thousand barrels from the level of four million barrels, which has put the Iraqi oil marketing company / Sumo / auction for the sale of stocks.
ولم.The shipping company has not been able to confirm whether production has resumed since stopped pumping last Wednesday.
3And exports from Kirkuk sporadic attacks because of pipeline sabotage disrupted most of the time since the invasion, led by the United States against Iraq in March in March .2003
.Iraq put five auctions since June until September and sold 9.6 million barrels of Kirkuk crude.

Translated version of http://www.alsharqiya.com/display.asp?fname=aboutus%5C2006%5C008.txt&storyti

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that he had no desire to occupy the office for a second and expressed his wish to leave office before the end of the current period, which represents the sectarian violence excessive challenge to the hopes of achieving national unity.

Maybe Maliki is trying to save face with knowing that a National Salvation Government could possibly be the next move in Iraq. Only time will tell.

Originally Posted by SimplyD

The Iraqi gov't is at such a critical stage in proving to its people and the world that it is ready to lead the country. Maliki is a whimp. It is one thing to have these feelings but to publicly announce it, is far worse. Especially now, when he doesn't even have the control he needs to even justify him being the PM. Hasn't anyone told him that he has just made one huge political blunder. Lord please RV the dinar ASAP, because with Maliki at the helm, I feel like he is navigating the Titanic.

Hmmmmm... what if...

What if Maliki has been given a heads-up that on a certain date or within a certain period, he would be given his pink slip? What if he was given an opportunity to come up with his own method of saving face (as most high rankng political positions do (ie. pursuing other interests, spend more time w/ family, etc) ) and this "I don't want this position" is the best he can come with? It could happen.

Sorry mewannapeg, apparently I was still typing while you posted it.