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

Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

hmmmmm, chart not available any longer, how interestink

It's there....it has a big line heading SOUTH.....

BTW....I have not wooted yet BUT I am getting close

Originally Posted by Lakeway

Thanks Gloribee!

PS. Canada leads Russia 3 to 1 at end of 1st period.

In what a yodeling tournament??

IIHF World Under 20 Hockey...Canada captured Gold....dinar

Originally Posted by cmeshon

It's there....it has a big line heading SOUTH.....

BTW....I have not wooted yet BUT I am getting close

i'm getting chart not available, i'll refresh
ooh, ok, i just had to hit the range, thanks!

Iraqi company for bank guarantees is planning to implement a program to guarantee loans وكالاتAgencies
اعيPlanned Iraqi company for bank guarantees for the implementation of a program to guarantee loans designed to encourage commercial banks and official sources to provide the necessary finance for small and medium-sized projects, to enhance the opportunities of these projects to reach the credit guarantee granted by the company. The company is underwriting the loans which fulfill the conditions laid down by periods according to its security, short-term loans granted the guarantee period of not more than 360 days, loans guaranteed the long-range between 5 - 1 years, and there is a grace periods specified by the bank, according to the estimates of cash flows for the project borrower. This program will face a number of problems and difficulties such as the lack of correlation lending programs training programs working to develop the performance of borrowers and reduce the risk of failure to pay, as well as the problem of the limited number of local experts, the scientific expertise and competence in the area of lending and the presence of the beneficiaries of the project lending in urban areas, and inadequate lending to rural areas and the agricultural sector

this is about a week old, but i can't remember if i ever posted it

جريدة المواطن العراقية

Iraqis decline to tip troops on car bombs and explosive charges



By Ali Khaleel



Azzaman, January 5, 2007



U.S. and Iraqi troops lack reliable tips on imminent attacks by insurgents and armed groups.



“I think they are in the dark and most of their operations target the wrong persons and areas,” said M. Hamed who did not wish his first name be revealed for security reasons.



Stories of U.S. troops arresting or killing the wrong person and attacking the wrong house abound in Baghdad. As for Iraqi forces, most of their operations are carried out for purely sectarian reasons.



The reason is not hard to tell. Iraqi rebels are always ready to punish any Iraqi believed to have tipped U.S. or Iraqi troops about their operations.



Iraqi resistance is not a gathering of rag-tag groups as occasionally U.S. commanders would like us to believe. The resistance is highly organized with intelligence gathering systems superior to those at the disposal of U.S. troops.



“Iraqi armed groups have infiltrated police and army. They usually kill any one suspected of informing on their activities,” said A. Abed.



He said most of the Iraqis who informed police on the presence of explosives, car bombs and roadside bombs have been killed.



Resistance fighters treat collaborators with U.S. troops harshly. They kidnap translators and either kill them or release them in return for massive ransom.



U.S. troops pay rewards to Iraqis informing them about the existence of roadside bombs. But there are reports of armed men placing explosives on roads used by U.S. convoys specifically to collect the reward.



Rebels are in need of cash and it seems their tactics of planting bombs with the specific aim of getting a U.S. reward have succeeded.



M. Saheb says U.S. troops pay the rebels for some of the bombs in cash and for others in blood.



Iraqi authorities are reluctant to give rewards in return for tips on the existence of explosives or imminent attacks.



“If they (the government) pay, they will be flooded with tips,” said S. Mansour.



Mansour said there is no lack of explosives and bombs in Iraq. With the prospect of a reward, many are ready to use them in a manner that will help them earn some money, he said.

let it flow let it flow let it flow
N. Iraq pipeline opens again

KIRKUK, Iraq, Jan. 5 Oil is flowing once again in Iraq's northern pipeline to Turkey, the scene of major sabotage since 2003 and source of much of the country's oil troubles.

Gulfoilandgas.com reports Iraqi officials saying the Kirkuk to Ceyhan pipeline reopened Monday and pumped 150,000 barrels to the Turkish export terminal.


Attacks on the pipeline have caused millions of dollars in damage and took away billions headed to the Iraqi government's coffers.

About 96 percent of Iraq's budget is funded by oil revenues, making sabotage a major threat to the state.

Iraq currently produces about 2 million barrels a day and exports 1.5 million of that. The majority is pumped from the Shiite-controlled south and exported from ports in the region as well.

But the northern pipeline dips into a Sunni stronghold before heading north through the oil rich and relatively safe Kurdistan region, successfully exposing it as a target.

While Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said late last month another pipeline will be completed soon to help shoulder the burden of transporting the north's oil, problems remain.

Security is not getting better in Iraq, hindering needed investment.

And in Ceyhan, where Iraqi oil stocks have reached 3.65 million barrels, nearly 4 million more barrels are needed before Iraq can offer another tender for its oil sent there.

Kuwaiti in talks to buy Saddam's 'noose'


Businessman ready to pay any amount of money

KUWAIT CITY: A well-known Kuwaiti businessman is negotiating hard to own the noose which hung ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to death.

Reliable sources say the businessman's representatives have asked the Iraqi Ministry of Interior Affairs to sell the rope to them.

The businessman is apparently ready to pay any amount of money for the noose. According to sources, it is with Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr and the businessman's representatives are negotiating with him.

The businessman had earlier purchased the vandalized statue of Saddam Hussein which stood at Al-Firdous Square in Baghdad. Sources say he obtained the statue through American representatives and exhibits the head of the statue in his diwaniya (sitting room).

Back

Rebuilding Baghdad: Just add ICE
Friday, 05 January 2007
Story and photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim
2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs



Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Seidel Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, hands out candy to the local children.BAGHDAD — One the biggest efforts in rebuilding Baghdad is concentrating on the very things many have taken for granted: central services such as sewer systems, clean running water, electricity and trash disposal.

In the past few years, many Iraqis have had to without these necessities.

So, the responsibility of helping bring all these services back to Baghdad has fallen on a few members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s Special Troops Battalion.

These members make up the Infrastructure Coordination Element. Each person was selected because of his engineering background and each are taking on a specific task.

Although 1st Lt. Andrew Webber, Headquarters Company, BSTB, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, is a chemical officer back at Fort Hood, Texas, here he serves on the ICE as a project manager for water and sewer projects. Within his duties, he deals with municipalities and help them develop plans and provides funding and a quality control team to facilitate projects.

“When the city needs something done, we develop the scope and course of action,” he said. “I also give the funding and supervise [the project].”

According to Capt. Marc Motyleski, the ICE officer-in-charge, the overall purpose of the ICE is to develop, manage, and synchronize both infrastructure and large scale construction projects within the Black Jack’s area of responsibility. The ICE is also the unit’s primary liaison with the Amanat, or the Baghdad City government, local district utility directors, and outside agencies.

“Ultimately, it is the ICE’s responsibility to interpret the commanders’ intent and develop a critical path that will accomplish the overall mission, which is to assist the Iraqi people in rehabilitating and reconstructing the city of Baghdad in order to provide the local citizens a reliable and efficient infrastructure,” said Motyleski of Woodbridge, Va. “To develop that critical path the project management team is required to synchronize our own efforts with those of the local government and outside agencies. This synchronization is vital in the development of a systematic and effective reconstruction plan that will ultimately meet the commander’s intent.”

The ICE Team usually deals with projects around the neighborhood of $500,000 or less, said Webber, a Raymond, Wash.

The team’s mission takes them outside the wire into the many different muhalla’s, or villages, to different project sites such as sewage plants, electric plants, schools, clinics, and many others.

Currently, within the southeastern part of Baghdad, the ICE is working on a landfill. According to Motyleski, it will be the largest one in the area at 12,000 square meters, and should be able to satisfy trash collection in Al-Doura and Al-Rasheed areas for a year.

It’s these improvements that make the ICE Soldiers feel good about what they do.

“It’s gets me out of the FOB and interacting with the locals,” Motyleski said. “It just makes me feel like I have an effort in building a new life for these people.”

Recent Iraqi Police graduates begin working in Baqubah
Friday, 05 January 2007

About 125 Iraqi Police officers, from the Baqubah area, graduated from the first Iraqi Police Training Academy in Baqubah. The training for the IP officers was provided by Iraqi instructors.BAQUBAH — About 125 Iraqi Police officers, assigned to various units in the area, graduated from the first Iraqi PoliceTraining Academy in Baqubah recently.

"Officers from the Emergency Ready Forces, the Quick Reaction Forces, and Baqubah Iraqi Police participated in this two-week long training academy," said Maj. John J. Herrman, Task Force Blue operations officer. "Those officers are now ready to assume their duties as the rule of law enforcers here in Baqubah."

The training for the IP officers was provided by their own Iraqi instructors and special weapons and tactics team, otherwise known as SWAT, Herrman said.

"Instructors from the Tactical Iraqi Police Academy provided the classroom portion of the training; the range cadre taught weapons handling and maintenance, and SWAT members assisted with the hands-on portion of the training," Herrman said. "We provided oversight through the (Iraqi police liaison officer) and our Military Police."

The training included classes on democratic policing, the Iraqi Constitution, rule of law, weapons safety, proper firing techniques for both AK-47 rifles and handguns, shoot and maneuver, hands-on defensive techniques, dismounted patrolling as a member of a team, mounted patrols, react to improvised explosive devices, first aid, and entering and clearing a building, Herrman said.

He also said during this training, the IPs received their new uniforms and equipment that signifies they are police officers.

"The training academy will continue providing classes every day through the end of January, and quarterly after that," Herrman said. "They expect to have at least 25 percent of the Baqubah Police Force trained by the end of the third training cycle."

"For most police officers here, this was their first formal training," he continued. "They have been out on the streets mixing it up for years, never fully understanding the proper way to use a weapon, the rule of law, the constitution they are to support, or how to conduct themselves as a policeman. We hope that the course turns out a more ethically and tactically proficient policeman, able to better enforce the laws of Diyala, and to serve and protect all Iraqis."

"The Iraqi Policemen are some of the bravest people we have ever met," said an American police advisor supporting Task Force Blue. "They risk their lives, and those of their families, on a daily basis trying to bring law and order to the streets of their cities. The training we are providing is designed to save some of those lives and extract a high price from the terrorists and insurgents who choose to attack these officers."

Maj. Gen. Ghassan Adnan Awad Al-Bawi, the Diyala chief of police, attended the ceremony, and provided the graduates a motivational speech on the importance of training, regardless of their years of service as police officers.

(Courtesy of Maj. Raul E. Marquez, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Pubic Affairs Office.)

Building ‘shining light’ in Tal Afar
Friday, 05 January 2007
Story and photo by Sgt. Armando Monroig
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment



Children who participated in the grand opening festivities of the new building at the Tal Afar, Iraq, government center exit the facility after the opening celebration. The mayor and his staff as well as other members of the local leadership will be working out of the new building.TAL AFAR — City leaders here received more than additional office space with the grand opening of a new building at the city’s government center recently.

“This building is a symbol for the people of Tal Afar,” said Mayor Najim Abdullah Abid Al-Jibouri. “With this building, the people of Tal Afar show their insistence on building their city in spite of the hard situation in Iraq and Tal Afar.”

The recently constructed building will house the mayor’s office, along with those of other city officials.

More importantly, the building has already become a symbol of the continuing progress being made by the citizens of Tal Afar to be self-reliant, and the dedication of their leaders to keep moving forward, said Lt. Col. Malcolm Frost, 3rd Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment commander.

“It demonstrates the Iraqi security forces are taking the lead,” said Frost, whose unit, part of the 25th Infantry Division, provides military support to the Iraq Security Forces operating in Tal Afar. “This becomes the shining light for the seat of governance here.”

Frost said the new building is “a visible marker for the transition” of Tal Afar’s government to a body which continues to grow less dependent on U.S. influence. To that end, members of 3-4 Cav. have been supporting Iraqi leaders in the western Nineveh Province for the past five months.

“It makes the Iraqi’s feel good,” said Frost. “It makes them proud that they are moving forward, can do things on their own and are in charge of their future.”

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of the 25th Inf. Div., headquartered in Tikrit, attended the grand opening and commended the city’s leaders on their unity.

“This is what Iraq needs – Iraqis coming together,” said Mixon during a press conference held inside the new government building.

“The coalition will stand with you,” he said. “It is up to Iraqis to take control of Iraq. I know this great country and people can do that.”