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

Is this where the 1260 came from?

Iraqi Minister of Finance, Baqer Jabr Al-Zubaydi, announced that "No change in the 2007 budget, which is fixed at 41 billion dollars", but he indicated "transfers and distributions will be made so that the new budget will cover all sectors of the Iraqi people to avoid the mistakes that happened in last year's budget, and the confusion that happened in the implementation of investment projects".




After the economic committee meeting under the chairmanship of Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi minister revealed that "new conditions are put to punish the parties who fall behind in the implementation, then withdraw the funds that have not been spent and convert them to the implementation of large projects in the country".
Regarding the amendments to the salaries of governmental employees at the beginning of next year, Azzubaidi announced: "400 million dollars have been allocated to make the necessary adjustments to the salaries of the employees."

Azzubaidi pointed out that 2007budget "will be set at the rate of 1260 dinar to the dollar and 50 dollars per barrel of oil with the production of 1.7 million barrels a day".

He explained that the Iraqi Central Bank "started raising interest rates from 12 to 16% now", pointing out that there are no immediate plans to continue raising interest rates.

He explained that the aim of raising interest rates is "to strengthen the Iraqi dinar, and curb the inflation of 56% now, as well as strengthening the confidence of Iraqis in the local currency".


Iraq Development Program - 41 billion dollars, the volume of Iraq budget for 2007

Originally Posted by TEXASGIRL

I cannot access the article from work, but does it specifically state 1/14? Some people refer to "next Sunday" meaning "this coming Sunday" . Just a thought...

I don't think they would mean this Sunday as that's the day they are suppose to resume.

Of course, as WmK has pointed out, the CBI is completely seperate from the Parliament and they are the ones that have said they will start up again on the 7-8th.

Kurdistani parties declare their fear of 2007

(Voice of Iraq) - 03-01-2007
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Kurdistani parties declare their fear of 2007
From Hamid Zebari
Arbil - (Voices of Iraq)

It described five parties Kurdistani today, Wednesday, the situation in Kurdistan and Iraq's security and fateful for the Kurdish people, and called for intensified efforts to meet the challenges that will face the Kurds in the new year.

This came in a statement issued today at the conclusion of a meeting of the parties five, namely, the Communist Party of Kurdistan, and has four seats in the Parliament of Kurdistan and the Minister in the government of the province, the Islamic Union of Kurdistan, and has nine seats in the Parliament of Kurdistan, Ozeran in the territorial government, and the Armed Islamic Group in Kurdistan, and has five seats in the parliament of Kurdistan and the Minister in the government of the province, and the Kurdistan Toilers Party has one seat in the Parliament of Kurdistan, the Socialist Party of Kurdistan Democratic Party, have one seat in the Parliament of Kurdistan and the Minister in the government of the province.
The statement added, a copy of which was obtained by news agency (Voices of Iraq) Independent, a copy of "The meeting shed light on the most important events and political developments on both Iraq and Kurdistan after the Baker / Hamilton and the probability of change in the American policy and changes and accomplishments in Iraq." The statement refers to the American report issued by a group of studies on Iraq.

The final statement of the meeting Alahuzb Kurdistan, "the parties agreed on the gravity of the combined and the importance of the special circumstances in Iraq and Kurdistan, as the new year 2007 as a fateful and decisive for the response and the people of Kurdistan, which requires consolidation of efforts and energies directed towards national and face the challenges."

He also pointed out that the Kurdish parties, "highlighted the situation in Iraq and Kurdistan during the meeting, as a meeting on the political situation and the deterioration of services, inflation and rising prices at the expense of the citizens of little income."
On his part, Abu Bakr Caruana member of the political bureau of the Islamic Union of Kurdistan told (the voices of Iraq) said today that "this meeting was the initiative of the Islamic Union of Kurdistan, led by Salahuddin Bahaeddin," pointing out that they will be identified by next week a memorandum to the presidency of the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the two main parties in Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Prime Minister of Iraq's Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani.

He added : "The meeting decided a memo to the presidency of the territory of Kurdistan, the political offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party in this regard, being the supreme power."
He said Saad Khalid Mohammed Amin, a member of the political bureau of the party "Kurdistan Toilers," that "the people of Kurdistan need a national front to face the challenges that would emerge on Iraq in the next stage", expressing his fear "that the United States abandon the Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdistan region."

He pointed out that "America is acting in line with their interests and during the past fifteen years were consistent with the interests of the Kurdish interests, but this does not mean that the next stage will be according to this approach."

He added : "We fear a possible change in American policy in the region, we do not believe that the United States policy for the coming stage will be identical to the interests of the Kurdish."

Referring to the report of Baker / Hamilton, saying that he "carries a lot and we must not lose sight of what it was and surely will have an impact on the American policy of the presence of influential people in America stands behind the report."
Pertaining

Originally Posted by Alphamystic

I don't think they would mean this Sunday as that's the day they are suppose to resume.

Of course, as WmK has pointed out, the CBI is completely seperate from the Parliament and they are the ones that have said they will start up again on the 7-8th.

Exactly. CBI is completely independend of those half working types in the Government.

If CBI has a plan, I believe they will stick to it!

I think a lot of things are done behind the closed doors.

Everything is down now, it's a hell of a time to settle things now I think!

They are misleading a lot right now, because they know the world has their attention.

You know what had my attention most.
News from last week that IMF had written off the $21 billion debt.

I don't think IMF will do that, untill things are settled.
SBA ends in march, they could have done it also in march!

Also don't forget the ICI signed in early 2007!

I think more is going on than we know!

Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

Is this where the 1260 came from?

Iraqi Minister of Finance, Baqer Jabr Al-Zubaydi, announced that "No change in the 2007 budget, which is fixed at 41 billion dollars", but he indicated "transfers and distributions will be made so that the new budget will cover all sectors of the Iraqi people to avoid the mistakes that happened in last year's budget, and the confusion that happened in the implementation of investment projects".




After the economic committee meeting under the chairmanship of Vice-President Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi minister revealed that "new conditions are put to punish the parties who fall behind in the implementation, then withdraw the funds that have not been spent and convert them to the implementation of large projects in the country".
Regarding the amendments to the salaries of governmental employees at the beginning of next year, Azzubaidi announced: "400 million dollars have been allocated to make the necessary adjustments to the salaries of the employees."

Azzubaidi pointed out that 2007budget "will be set at the rate of 1260 dinar to the dollar and 50 dollars per barrel of oil with the production of 1.7 million barrels a day".

He explained that the Iraqi Central Bank "started raising interest rates from 12 to 16% now", pointing out that there are no immediate plans to continue raising interest rates.

He explained that the aim of raising interest rates is "to strengthen the Iraqi dinar, and curb the inflation of 56% now, as well as strengthening the confidence of Iraqis in the local currency".


Iraq Development Program - 41 billion dollars, the volume of Iraq budget for 2007

Yes it is.

An American University for Iraq but Not in Baghdad
Azzam Alwash
Published: January 3, 2007

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — It would be an ambitious project even in a Middle Eastern country not embroiled in war: build an American-style university where classes are taught in English, teachers come from around the world and graduates compete for lucrative jobs in fields like business and computer science.

Their planned American University of Iraq is modeled after the famous private universities in Cairo and Beirut. The project’s managers have a board of trustees; a business plan recently completed by McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm; three candidates for university president; and $25 million, much of it in pledges from the American government and Kurdish sources. To fulfill their dream, they need much more: $200 million to $250 million over 15 years, said Azzam Alwash, the board’s executive secretary.

But if it does become a reality, the university will not be built in Baghdad, which for centuries was a beacon of learning in the Arab world.

Instead, it is slated for what is the most non-Iraqi part of Iraq. The site is on a windswept hilltop along the outskirts of Sulaimaniya, the eastern capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, 150 miles north of Baghdad and far from the car bombs and death squads that are tearing apart the Arab regions of Iraq. Because of its relative safety so far, Kurdistan can more easily attract aid and reconstruction money.

With doctors, engineers, businesspeople, academics and students among the hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighboring countries or the West, the university raises hopes of stanching the country’s enormous brain drain and pushing Iraq forward. “You really need to develop the political elite of the future, the educated elite of the future,” said Barham Salih, the project’s Kurdish founder, a deputy prime minister who received a doctorate in statistics and computer modeling from Liverpool University in Britain, and whose daughter attends Princeton. “The focus is also to stimulate reform in the Iraqi education system.”

However, some Arab education officials in Baghdad, the capital, have argued that the university should be built there, not in a part of Iraq where secessionist ambitions are well known.

Baghdad first achieved fame for its schools and scholars during the Abbasid caliphate, which reached its height in the eighth century. Even in the 20th century, before the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and international economic sanctions of the 1990s, students from the region flocked to Baghdad.

But because of security threats, many universities in Baghdad have been closed since October. Up to 150 employees from the Ministry of Higher Education were abducted by men in commando uniforms in mid-November. Jihadist groups have threatened to kill students on campuses.

So intellectuals like Kanan Makiya, the prominent former exile and writer who strongly advocated for the American invasion, say they plan to move their research projects to the American University. Mr. Makiya founded the Iraq Memory Foundation, an organization based in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad that is documenting Saddam Hussein’s atrocities.

“The problem is nobody can thrive in Baghdad anymore,” said Mr. Makiya, who teaches Middle Eastern studies at Brandeis University and sits on the new university’s board of trustees. “The north is much more stable, growing, prosperous.”

“There is a sadness that we’re being driven out of Baghdad,” he added.

The university’s planners plan to make Mr. Makiya’s documentary project the core of the humanities department. Mr. Alwash, an environmental scientist, has said he will use the university as a base for his research project, which is about rejuvenating the southern marshlands.

Other prominent intellectual and political figures, many of whom supported the American invasion, are on the board. They include Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins, and John Agresto, an education adviser in the Coalition Provisional Authority who, as he ended his tenure there in 2004, told a reporter he was “a neoconservative who’s been mugged by reality.”

The planners have sketched a rough schedule. Construction would start in the spring, and the first 15 to 30 students could begin a six-month intensive English course, to be taught in rented space here in Sulaimaniya, before they start a two-year master’s program in business administration. The first class to earn bachelor’s degrees would start in fall 2008; the program would take five years, with the first devoted to the study of English, Mr. Alwash said.

Although the university has regional aspirations like its counterparts in Cairo and Beirut, the first undergraduate class would be mostly Iraqis, Mr. Alwash said, and a majority probably Kurds.

In the university’s first five years, degree programs would focus on subjects that the board judges to be crucial to Iraq’s development: business, petroleum engineering and computer science, for example. “This has to have immediate practical consequences for the economy of Iraq and the politics of Iraq,” Mr. Salih, the founder, said.

After five years, the university may add humanities degree programs.

“We want them to study the ideas of Locke, the ideas and writings of Paine and Madison,” Mr. Alwash, the executive secretary, said. “We want them to understand what democracy is — not only majority rule, but also the rights of minorities. They should be well rounded.”

Projected undergraduate enrollment is 1,000 students by 2011 and 5,000 by 2021. The numbers are small compared with enrollment at Baghdad University, the country’s flagship public university, which has 70,000 students. Sulaimaniya University here has about 12,000 students.

In total, about 475,000 Iraqis are pursuing college-level degrees across the country, in 21 public universities or colleges, 18 private ones and about 40 technical institutes, according to the American Embassy.

Tuition at American University would be $8,500 to $10,000 a year, Mr. Alwash said. That places the university beyond the reach of the average middle-class Iraqi family. But Mr. Salih said the school planned to give loans and scholarships.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador and an alumnus of the university in Beirut, has promised that American agencies will give the school $10.5 million, possibly the largest donation by the United States to any single education project in Iraq, if American officials approve the business plan. Mr. Khalilzad, a native Afghan, helped found the American University of Kabul after the American military ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001.

Some Kurds fear that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the governing party of eastern Kurdistan led by Mr. Talabani and Mr. Salih, could end up diverting money from the university for its own purposes. Among many Kurds, the main Kurdish parties have a reputation for corruption and authoritarian rule.

“I hope this will not just be party propaganda, because we need a real academic center for this society,” said Asos Hardi, the editor in chief of a weekly newspaper here. “Having a Western-style university in Iraq would help strengthen education here and across the country.”

I bet there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we are not aware of....government obviously is still working this week. Expect anything.

Barazan Albandar and executed at dawn on Thursday

(Voice of Iraq) - 03-01-2007
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Baghdad (AFP) - A source close to the Iraqi government Wednesday that Barazan Al-Takriti, half brother of President Saddam Hussein and the former president of the Revolutionary Court Awwad Albandar Siaadman dawn Thursday.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous, told Agence France Presse "has been signed papers related fields and will be executed at dawn tomorrow, Thursday," but he pointed out that Al-Takriti, Albandar "are still under the protection of American and Ntselmehma yet."

It appealed to Tripoli sister of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Wednesday, the sister-all Arab leaders and Muslims action to halt the death penalty in her brother Barazan Tikriti.

Her sister Amal Ibrahim, Saddam and his mother and his brother Barazan, in a statement to France Presse from the headquarters set up in the Libyan capital Tripoli, "I appeal to all international organizations and international heads of the Arab and Islamic world to stop this massacre, and this government wrong and unjust."

She wondered, "How to pronounce the death penalty on Barazan has quit office and the authority for more than twenty years that this court ruling and void as well."

Saddam Hussein has executed at dawn last Saturday at the headquarters of military intelligence in the Kadhimiya district north of Baghdad implementation of the ruling of the right in the November 5 for his conviction in the case of the murder of 148 Shiites in Al in the eighties of the last century.

The court also timely to Barazan and Albandar death by hanging for the same reasons.

Originally Posted by kiko

Exactly. CBI is completely independend of those half working types in the Government.

If CBI has a plan, I believe they will stick to it!

I think a lot of things are done behind the closed doors.

Everything is down now, it's a hell of a time to settle things now I think!

They are misleading a lot right now, because they know the world has their attention.

You know what had my attention most.
News from last week that IMF had written off the $21 billion debt.

I don't think IMF will do that, untill things are settled.
SBA ends in march, they could have done it also in march!

I think more is going on than we know!

I sure hope you're right. I'm starting to get bummed by some of this news coming out. I think the Iraqi Government has been on a thin line the last few months and that ***** with the cell camera doesn't realize the extent of damage he's done. All for a little pride and maybe some cash.

It will be interesting to see what the CBI does in the near future. Even though they are seperate from Parliament it would be very hard for the CBI to move forward when the Government is in chaos.

What would be the point of them moving forward if it seems like it'll be for nothing?

Originally Posted by Alphamystic

I sure hope you're right. I'm starting to get bummed by some of this news coming out. I think the Iraqi Government has been on a thin line the last few months and that ***** with the cell camera doesn't realize the extent of damage he's done. All for a little pride and maybe some cash.

It will be interesting to see what the CBI does in the near future. Even though they are seperate from Parliament it would be very hard for the CBI to move forward when the Government is in chaos.

What would be the point of them moving forward if it seems like it'll be for nothing?

Well then I only hope they do it for their own people!

I think january is a critical month and I hope to see some improvements like laws being enacted.

Originally Posted by Alphamystic

I sure hope you're right. I'm starting to get bummed by some of this news coming out. I think the Iraqi Government has been on a thin line the last few months and that ***** with the cell camera doesn't realize the extent of damage he's done. All for a little pride and maybe some cash.

It will be interesting to see what the CBI does in the near future. Even though they are seperate from Parliament it would be very hard for the CBI to move forward when the Government is in chaos.

What would be the point of them moving forward if it seems like it'll be for nothing?

THEY ARRESTED THE DUDE WITH THE CAMERA.

CBI I believe will move forward as planned because of one group - KURDS!
Kurds are fed up with the bull and want their purchasing power back ASAP. So lets all do a HUGE FARM JIG that the Kurds get what they want.