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

Bush adding 21,500 troops to Iraq force

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
18 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Unswayed by anti-war passions,President Bush was to say Wednesday he will send 21,500 additional U.S. forces to Iraq to break the cycle of violence and "hasten the day our troops begin coming home."
He was to acknowledge making mistakes in earlier security efforts in Baghdad.

The troop buildup will push the American presence in Iraq toward its highest level and put Bush on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress. It also runs counter to advice from some generals.

Bush was to announce the buildup in a prime-time speech to the nation. Excerpts of his remarks were released in advance by the White House.

The president was to say Iraq must meet its responsibilities, too — but he put no deadlines on Baghdad to do so.

"America's commitment is not open-ended," the excerpts said. "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people."

Bush readily acknowledged making mistakes in previous efforts to quell the near-anarchy in Baghdad. "There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents," the president was to say. "And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have."

He said in prepared remarks that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised that U.S. forces would have a free hand and that "political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."

Bush's approach amounts to a huge gamble on al-Maliki's willingness — and ability — to deliver on promises he has consistently failed to keep: to disband Shiite militias, pursue national reconciliation and make good on commitments for Iraqi forces to handle security operations in Baghdad.

After nearly four years of bloody combat, the speech was perhaps Bush's last credible chance to try to present a winning strategy in Iraq and persuade Americans to change their minds about the unpopular war, which has cost the lives of more than 3,000 members of the U.S. military as well as more than $400 billion.

The new Democratic leaders of Congress met with Bush and complained afterward that their opposition to a buildup had been ignored. "This is the third time we are going down this path. Two times this has not worked," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "Why are they doing this now? That question remains."

Senate and House Democrats are arranging votes urging the president not to send more troops. While lacking the force of law, the measures would compel Republicans to go on record as either bucking the president or supporting an escalation.

Bush was to say that "to step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government. ... Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer and confront an enemy that is even more lethal."

"If we increase our support at this crucial moment and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."

Bush was to describe his plan — combining efforts to spur the Iraqi economy, fix broken services and clean up scarred neighborhoods — as a blueprint to "change America's course in Iraq and help us succeed in the fight against terror." From a military standpoint, it did not represent a major shift. Even as more U.S. troops go in, Bush said the burden would be on Iraqis to tame the violence.

"Only the Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people," Bush said in prepared remarks. "And their government has put forward an aggressive plan to do it."

In a now-familiar refrain, Bush was portraying the war in Iraq as "the decisive ideological struggle of our time."

"In the long run," he was to say, "the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy by advancing liberty across a troubled region."



Bush adding 21,500 troops to Iraq force - Yahoo! News

Sistani 'wants militias disarmed'

Iraq's national security adviser has said that the country's most senior Shia cleric supports a government attempt to disarm the country's sectarian militias.

Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said he had secured Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's support during a meeting in the city of Najaf on Wednesday.


The Shia clergyman gave his assent as Iraq's government pushed ahead with a plan that will attempt to stablise Baghdad, the country's capital, by disarming Shia and Sunni militias.

US commanders and Iraq's Sunnis say that the crackdown must also include militias loyal to Shia clerics.

"His eminence al-Sistani recommended an emphasis on the implementation of the law without any discrimination based on identity or background," Rubaie, a Shia, told reporters on Wednesday.

"He also asserted the need for weapons to be in the hands only of the state, and to disarm those holding weapons illegally."

Al-Sistani hardly ever makes public statements but - as the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shias - is believed to wield considerable influence behind the scenes.

Epicentre of violence

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, announced on Saturday that he planned a major security plan to restore order in Baghdad, the epicentre of violence in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Iraqi government forces launched an assault, later backed by US forces, against the Haifa Street area of central Baghdad in an attempt to kill Sunni fighters based there.

Asked if al-Sistani had given a green light to the Baghdad security plan, Rubaie said: "His eminence is not interfering in the details but we can say that he stressed that weapons should be only in the hands of the state."

US commanders and politicians say that Iraq's Shia-led government must attempt to silence Shia militias as well as Sunni Arab insurgents, singling out the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, as a prime cause of sectarian violence.

Diminishing influence

Al-Sistani has urged Shias in the past not to employ violence, although the rise in sectarian bloodshed over the past year has highlighted the limits of his authority.

He is also the sponsor of the United Alliance bloc to which al-Sadr, al-Maliki and the other Shia political leaders belong.

Asked whether he had discussed disarming the al-Mahdi Army with al-Sistani, Rubaie declined to comment.

Al-Sistani's meeting with Rubaie comes three days after the Shia cleric met al-Sadr for the first time in over a year.

Rubaie said al-Sistani had also urged the government to help people driven from their homes by violence.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...453E4577CB.htm

UN requests $60m for Iraqi refugees

The UN refugee agency has made an emergency appeal for $60m to help tens of thousands of Iraqis fleeing their homes every month.

It says there are now two million Iraqis living outside the country as refugees, while a further 1.7 million live within Iraq as displaced people. It said the latter figure could reach 2.3m by the end of 2007.

The office for the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday: "The current exodus is the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948."

Unremitting violence

The UNCHR said almost half a million Iraqis have fled to other parts of the country in 2006 alone, and that the numbers are expected to grow this year.

It said: "Unremitting violence in Iraq will likely mean continued mass internal and external displacement affecting much of the surrounding region.

The agency said about one in eight Iraqis has abandoned their homes, though many of these had fled in the two decades prior to the 2003 US-led invasion.

The emergency funds come on top of the $1bn it requested last month for its global operations in 2007.

It said the money would be used to cover its protection and assistance programmes for Iraqi refugees inside and outside the country, as well as non-Iraqi refugees within Iraq.

Prostitution

The UNHCR said acute poverty was reportedly forcing women into prostitution and leaving refugees and their host communities increasingly vulnerable.

It called for emergency assistance for up to 250,000 people in Iraq.

Guterres said: "The longer this conflict goes on, the more difficult it becomes for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced and the communities that are trying to help them.

"The burden on host communities and governments in the region is enormous."

The agency said that Syria alone is hosting between 500,000 and one million Iraqi refugees, Jordan has taken in up to 700,000, while 20,000 to 80,000 are in Egypt and up to 40,000 in Lebanon.

(CBS/AP) As part of his new plan for Iraq that he will outline to the American people tonight, President Bush will make it clear that his patience with the Iraqi government is not unlimited and that it must perform.

"I have made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq’s other leaders that America’s commitment is not open-ended," Mr. Bush said in remarks prepared for tonight's speech. "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people – and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this."

White House officials say the main thing the Iraqi government needs to understand is that it could lose its primary benefactor — President Bush — if it doesn't pick up its share of the burden.

According to a White House fact sheet, Mr. Bush will call on the Iraqi government to intensify efforts to build balanced security forces throughout the nation that provide security even-handedly for all Iraqis. He will also call for planning and funding for a program aimed at eventually demobilizing militias.

Mr. Bush will tell a nation weary of war that he is sending 21,500 more Americans to Iraq, arguing it has been a mistake not to commit larger numbers of U.S and Iraqi troops to stabilize the country.

The move will force the administration to extend the tours of duty for many troops in Iraq by two to four months, according to White House officials.

In the briefing for network anchors, officials said it may also require calling some reservists and members of the National Guard to active duty, CBS News Anchor Katie Couric and chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer report.

Democrats pledged to confront Mr. Bush over the troop escalation, which is set to begin next week.

Unveiling his retooled war strategy in a pivotal prime-time address from the White House, the president will acknowledge in unusually stark terms how dire the situation is — because of errors in U.S. assumptions and failures by the government in Iraq to follow through on promises.

"A vast majority of the American people are not satisfied with the progress in Iraq," White House counselor Dan Bartlett told CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "President Bush is in their camp. He's not satisfied. He's going to say the strategy was not working; he's going to tell them specifically how we're going to fix the strategy."

CBS News will broadcast the address tonight live beginning at 9 p.m. EST.

The United States is changing its goals, switching from a focus on training Iraqi security forces to securing the battered population and targeting economic aid toward seats of the worst violence. Mr. Bush, meanwhile, is putting the onus on the Iraqis to meet their responsibilities and take the lead in the fighting, but without the threat of specific consequences if they do not.

"The Iraqis have to step up," Bartlett said.

Bartlett said that the rules of the past, where for instance U.S. forces in Baghdad "sometimes were handcuffed by political interference by the Iraqi leadership," must end.

"They (the Iraqis) are going to have more boots on the ground," he said. "They're going to be the ones doing the knocking on the door."

Democrats, emboldened by November elections that put them in charge on Capitol Hill in part over the war, laid plans to register their opposition to the troop buildup.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would call a vote on the increase, trying to isolate Mr. Bush and put Republicans on the spot. Democratic leaders in the Senate also said they would schedule a debate next week on a symbolic measure expressing opposition.

"American voters expect us to help get us out of Iraq," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a 2008 presidential hopeful and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that heard independent experts on Iraq.

Republicans, too, were restless. "I do not want to embarrass the president, but I do not support a surge" in troops, said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who said he had told Mr. Bush as much last week.

The president faces a tough and skeptical audience: According to a recent CBS News poll, just 23 percent approve of his handling of the war, while 72 percent disapprove.

Source

Originally Posted by $onedaysoon$

less then 3 hour to pres bush speech

Yep, oneday!

The whole world is watching!

All or nothing, and I am curious how Iraq is acting tommorow!

I am going to sleep within a few minutes (european time).

Keep posting if you can!

Universities Launch Major Training Initiative on International Auditing Standards with Support from Professional Association


9 January 2007 - Ten universities in Iraq, in collaboration with seven local chapters of Iraq’s leading professional association for accounting professionals, are launching a major education initiative to introduce International Auditing Standards to Iraq. Approximately 800 students and accountants throughout Iraq will participate in the seminar over a two month period beginning early January 2007.

The professional association, a full member of the International Federation of Accountants and known throughout the region for the capacity-building services it provides to members, is helping to raise the standards of the accounting profession in Iraq while contributing to its own sustainability by organizing seminars and professional networking opportunities throughout the country.

The seminar on Auditing Methods, Methodology and Standards will consist of 20 sessions – three per week - totaling 60 hours of education. The training is equivalent to a college level class and is fully compliant with international education standards established by both the United Nations and the International Federation of Accountants. In addition to lectures and discussions, participants will be equipped with an “auditor’s toolkit” that includes audit programs, internal control questionnaires and other tools to assist them in professional auditing practices.

The training initiative builds on previous activities developed by the USAID-funded IZDIHAR project in co-operation with universities and the professional association. The courses will be delivered and overseen by professors who are graduates of the “Training of Trainers” activities organized by the project and follows on the successful completion of a course on International Accounting Standards attended by 429 students from eight universities.

The growing capacity of Iraqi universities to provide up-to-date accounting curricula and the widening circle of Iraqi accounting professionals familiar with international accounting and auditing standards is part of a sustained effort to improve the business environment in Iraq, expand the private sector and create new jobs.


IZDIHAR News Highlights

The Site Now is under Modify Please visit us on 14th of Jan . 2007!!

Warka Bank For Investment & Finance


They are busy!
Yesterday I could check Warka Bank For Investment & Finance and i got that ugly site with nothern baghdad etc.

Now it's redirected to warka-bank.com which is under construction.

Hmmmm.....

Bigslick just updated on the "positive rv rumor thread"

Iraq -- facing challenges and achieving progress in 2007

10 January 2007
At the end of 2006, the foreign secretary [Margaret Beckett] outlined her expectations of a gradual handover to the Iraqi government of security responsibility in the southern provinces where British forces are present. The beginning of 2007 is an apt moment to examine how this handover is progressing.


The levels of violence remain high in areas like Al Anbar, Diyala and parts of Baghdad. Great challenges confront those who are seeking national reconciliation. It is possible, when faced with such huge tasks, to lose sight of the very real progress which is being achieved in other parts of Iraq.


Two of the four provinces where British troops were operating have already been passed over to Iraqi control: Muthanna and Dhi Qar. Early indications suggest that Iraqis have done an excellent job of maintaining order and continuing the process of reconstruction in these regions. Coalition forces stand ready to help if necessary, but this has so far not been required.


Al Najaf was handed over in December, demonstrating the success of the principle of timing such transitions when the circumstances are right and the Iraqis are ready, rather than being pushed into abiding to the artificial dictates of a rigid timetable.

Our work to train Iraqi forces has borne fruit. Time and time again, Iraqis are demonstrating their willingness and ability to take the lead. The saying that "the people of Mecca are the most knowledgeable of the twists of their streets" has never been more applicable: as the training and readiness of these forces moves forwards, Iraqis are showing that they are the most capable people to be ensuring security and stability for themselves.


In Maysan, which we hope will be ready for transition very soon, security responsibility is already mainly in Iraqi hands. The capability of these Iraqi forces was amply demonstrated in Maysan's provincial capital, Al Amarah, recently when disturbances were brought under control by Iraqi troops without any need of direct UK assistance. Much of the credit for the smoothness of the transition process so far can be attributed to the commitment of other troops working in cooperation with the British in these southern provinces, including Australians, Japanese, Italians, Danes and Romanians.


Basra, however, is a very different story. There are much greater security challenges facing British and Iraqi forces there, and reliable reports that the police have been infiltrated by militias. We are well aware of these difficulties. In recent months we have been engaged in an Iraqi-led operation of unprecedented scale, Operation Sinbad, designed to create the conditions for Iraqis to take full responsibility for the city and bring militias under control.


The operation has taken place over a number of phases, district by district, so as to restore order, deal with politicised or criminal elements within the police forces and undertake comprehensive reconstruction. So far, the operation has progressed well, and significant areas of the city are already enjoying better conditions.


The joint Iraqi-UK operation on Christmas Day, in which Iraqi and British forces worked together to close down the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) of the Basra police force was an important step. The SCU had developed a notoriety across Basra for alleged links to some of the worst crimes and it was seen by many as no more than a death squad in official garb. Many of the prisoners who had been held by the SCU showed signs of torture and mistreatment. The Iraqi justice system says it is committed to documenting and investigating all of this and bringing those culpable to justice. That is a challenge that must be faced by any civilised nation.


Fighting police corruption and infiltration by militias, the UK has worked hard to support police and prison reform in southern Iraq. We have trained over 10,000 Basra police officers and 680 prison officers, emphasising the need to respect human rights.


The ongoing disbandment of the SCU and the arrest of many of those associated with it sends out an important message: the worst perpetrators of violence against ordinary people are not beyond the law and both the coalition and Iraqi forces are serious about dealing severely with them.


Iraqi authorities are increasingly better equipped to tackle militia violence, stamp out corruption and reform their administration, at local and national level. This is no easy task, but it is vital for the country's future.


A significant problem for Basra is unemployment. How tempting it must be for someone who has no way to feed his family to accept generous amounts of money to fire rockets, plant roadside bombs or join a death squad. This is why Britain has been investing substantial amounts of development assistance in economic activities like replanting date palms and reinvigorating the dilapidated oil industry.


Over the past decade, Basra -- which had been a keystone in Iraq's oil industry with it's refineries and ports -- had become terribly run down and incapable of producing a fraction of its potential oil exports. Basra should be a wealthy, prospering city, generating employment, investment and growth. It is deeply frustrating that the security situation and repeated attacks against the region's industrial and civilian infrastructure have stalled progress.


But much has been achieved. By summer 2007, the UK will have added or secured electricity generating equivalent to a 24-hour supply for a million people and improved access to water for around a million people in southern Iraq. Job creation programmes are providing more than 1.8 million employment days for unskilled workers, helping to raise household incomes. Over 3,000 women and young people in the south have been trained in business and enterprise skills. As well as replacing 200km of water mains in southern Iraq, the UK has worked hard to train engineers to rebuild their infrastructure.


Tackling these structural problems is an important factor in drying up the sources of recruitment for militias and terrorists funded by those who do not see the vision of a strong, prosperous and united Iraq as being in their interest.


2007 is a hugely important year for Iraq. It is the year where Iraqis themselves, with the full support of the coalition, Arab states and the international community must distance themselves from the spectre of continued sectarian conflict and unite their efforts to work towards a reinvigorated, strong and united Iraq -- a democratic state with a representative and inclusive government that puts the interest of its people as its highest priority.


Despite the very obvious challenges and obstacles to achieving this noble aim, the vast majority of Iraqis want the peace, security and opportunity to create for themselves and for their brothers and sisters a better life. These brave people deserve our support.


The writer is British minister of state. This article is reprinted with permission from the British embassy in Amman.

By Kim Howells

© Jordan Times 2007

Iraq -- facing challenges and achieving progress in 2007 - Zawya.com | Middle East Business News

Bush’s Iraqi policy shift: al-Maliki must bring sanity to dysfunctional Iraqi government
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

KurdishMedia.com - By Rauf Naqishbendi

Iraq under US management is in a sad state. Sectarian clashes between Arab Sunnis and Arab Shiites fill the daily headlines, Iraqis are fearful for their lives and apprehensive about their futures, and the Iraqi government is crippled by the clashing factions. The Shiite dominated government ignores the root cause of the instability and busies itself formulating trivial measures; as a result the Iraqi government has gotten weaker and has no credibility with or respect from the general Iraqi population. This has given terror organizations the upper hand, allowing them to intensify the chaos and further undermine the Iraqi government.

Miracles are rare. Social and economic amelioration don’t occur serendipitously or by mere desire but rather can be ascribed to ingenuity and well thought out visionary planning. This is what has been lacking in Iraq. The Iraqi government under Nuri al-Maliki has been inciting bloodshed by supporting militia terror organizations. Consider Baghdad and the Sunni region – though they have been bloodbaths for a long time, the magnitude of the pandemonium has gravely escalated under Prime Minister al-Maliki. Mr al-Maliki is cognizant that the root cause of the problem is Moqtada al-Sadar and his militiamen and yet instead of rooting them out he supports them.

A puppet of Iranian Ayatollahs, Moqtada al-Sadar, who has spent most of his life in Iran, indoctrinated by the Iranian regime, his militiamen trained and sponsored by the Iranians, was let back into Iraq after the ousting of Saddam’s regime. This was a capital mistake and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. When he returned to Iraq, his Mahdi Army was about a thousand armed men strong; now his army numbers more than 60,000, and has grown so rapidly that he can’t even keep track of his followers or their criminal activities. The Bush administration was rightly adamant about crushing this man but al-Maliki opposed it since al-Sadar and the mere thirty members of the Iraqi parliament that belong to his movement are his supporters. As one can see, rather than attend to the general good and the fate of the Iraqi people, al-Maliki has stirred up a frivolous political game to maintain his political domination.

The lack of restraint of al-Sadar has had disastrous consequences. The Ministries of Health, Agriculture, and Transportation are now controlled by him, and the Facilities Protection Service is a source of financing for the Mahdi Army. These three ministries have been turned into the ammunition and support center for Al-Sadar’s terror organization. Iraqi health institutions had been run by scientists and health professionals. As soon as Al-Sadar took control, he replaced the management teams with personnel from his organization who don’t even have backgrounds or experience in the medicine or healthcare fields. Additionally, he transformed hospitals into death squads, beheading innocent patients and engaging in indiscriminate daily carnage leaving many Iraqis the sacrificial victims of his power struggle.

Al-Sadar’s men have been able to attain police and army uniforms and equipment. In these disguises they have attacked both the Iraqi army and police forces, kidnapping and killing their opponents, thus making Baghdad the most dangerous place in the world.

Due to the lack of purposeful action by the Iraqi government as exemplified above, Iraq has become a battleground for international terrorism, including al Qaeda. To our dismay as we wage the War on Terror, insurgents and terror groups are becoming financial enterprises reaping the benefits of their terror activities, and they have gotten beyond self-sufficiency and are now monetarily capable of financing terrorism beyond Iraq. Their main source of income is looting Iraqi oil and selling it on the black market; the profits from this have been estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars. Their target has been the oil-rich fields of Kirkuk whose oil used to be routed to Turkey via pipelines. These pipelines were constantly being sabotaged and finally it was decided to transfer the oil via trucks, and that is where the terror looting occurs. Iraqi officials are aware of this danger, yet they haven’t put any safety measures into place to protect the flow of oil and keep it out of the reach of terror organizations.

The solution to the aforementioned problems is not to send more American troops, unless additional American troops, in conjunction with Iraqi army and police forces, are going to cooperate to tackle these problems. There are several other vital steps that must be taken. First, Mr. Al-Maliki must put the Iraqi people’s well-being ahead of his own political aspirations, or alternately resign and new elections be held. Government without credibility is dysfunctional and it’s about time Mr. al-Maliki brought some sanity to his government. Second, Al-Sadar’s militia must be crushed along with all other suspicious groups regardless of these groups’ affiliations, and Al-Sadar must be brought to justice for his atrocities against the Iraqi people. Third, the drilling of oil in Kirkuk must stop until every barrel of drilled oil can be accounted for. These troublesome obstacles disturb Iraq’s stability; they must be dealt with immediately, otherwise any plan to stabilize Iraq will be undermined right at the outset.

Bush’s Iraqi policy shift: al-Maliki must bring sanity to dysfunctional Iraqi government (KurdishMedia.com)