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

Originally Posted by orrkallen

Hi Friends!
Just thinking: we've seen news report after news report of various groups of Iraqi government officials clamoring about the need for foreign investment monies and how they are going to bend over backward to make it safe, profitable, worthwhile, POSSIBLE for this to happen as soon as they are able. We read reports giving us updates on all the different things they are working on or know they need to work on to make this a reallity; things like new offices for the opening of the ISX, modernization of the the banking institutions... which brings me to my point (finally ). With the big rush to get this foreign "Investment Thing" rolling, IF there was NOT going to be a Revalue soon, making the dinar a convertable/exchangeable currency, one might expect at least a little encouragment, directing the investment community on how and where to open an Iraqi bank account and- etc... to get those important steps taken care of NOW- AHEAD of time so that when the exchange opens in (presumably) September, these anticipated foreign investors would be ready to buy, buy, buy! IF however, there is going to be a Reval soon... it would be a moot point.!?
Blessings On YOU! AL

i have really been doing my homework & reading a lot of information, but my better senses tell me that Big Business Investors will not be in need of directions, on how to set up there overseas accounts- as i am sure they know what to do in other similar activities.

Also, some interesting info on Iraqi Updates http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/9604
Let us not forget that it is mostly all about the oil, I read in many places that the timeframe for US military to stay until the end of the year. Yet In another of my quests for info, I read that a war can not be won with time contraints placed. Besides, with all the oil that is going to be pumped SOON - I dobt the US is EVER going to leave - Why would they - isn't that why they are there in the first place???

Country profile: Iraq

Though free from the yoke of its former president Saddam Hussein, pressing problems loom large for Iraq and its new leaders. The paramount challenge is to restore security and civil order.
Since US-led coalition forces deposed Saddam in 2003 insurgents have targeted civilians, Iraqi security forces and international agencies. Tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims have spilled over into brutal sectarian violence, prompting fears of civil war. Coalition and Iraqi troops have faced armed rebellions and guerrilla-style attacks.

More than 2,000 coalition troops, and many thousands more Iraqi civilians, have been killed since the start of the military action.

OVERVIEW


OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA


American missiles hit targets in Baghdad in the early hours of 20 March 2003, marking the start of the campaign to remove the Iraqi leader.

Saddam's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) had formed the main justification for the action, though inspectors later concluded that Iraq had no WMD stockpiles.

US and British ground forces entered from the south, with the leadership in Baghdad remaining defiant. By 9 April US forces had advanced into central Baghdad and Saddam Hussein's grip on power had withered.

Sovereignty was transferred to an interim government in June 2004 and six months later Iraqis voted in the first multi-party elections in 50 years.

Cradle of civilisation

Straddling the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and stretching from the Gulf to the Anti-Taurus Mountains, modern Iraq occupies roughly what was once ancient Mesopotamia, one of the cradles of human civilisation.


No timetable has been set for the withdrawal of coalition forces
In the Middle Ages Iraq was the centre of the Islamic Empire, with Baghdad the cultural and political capital of an area extending from Morocco to the Indian subcontinent.

Mongol invasions in the 13th century saw its influence wane, and it played a minor role in the region until independence from British control in 1932.

Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 and a coup in 1968, Iraq became one of the centres of Arab nationalism under the control of the ruling Baath (Renaissance) party. Oil made the country rich, and when Saddam Hussein became president in 1979 petroleum made up 95% of its foreign exchange earnings.

But the war with Iran from 1980 to 1988 and the Gulf War in 1991 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, together with the subsequent imposition of international sanctions, had a devastating effect on its economy and society. In 1991 the UN said Iraq had been reduced to a pre-industrial state; later reports described living standards as being at subsistence level.


In the post-Saddam years, attacks by insurgents on Iraq's oil infrastructure have cost the country billions of dollars in lost revenues.

In the north, the Kurdish community has broken away to create a semi-autonomous region of its own.

FACTS


OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA



Population: 26.5 million (UN, 2005)
Area: 438,317 sq km (169,235 sq miles)
Capital: Baghdad
Major languages: Arabic, Kurdish
Major religion: Islam
Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 60 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Iraqi dinar = 1,000 fils
Main exports: Crude oil
GNI per capita: n/a
Internet domain: .iq
International dialling code: 964
LEADERS


OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA


President: Jalal Talabani


Jalal Talabani: The first non-Arab to lead an Arab nation

The parliament that emerged from elections in December 2005 re-elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani to a second term in the largely-ceremonial post in April 2006.

He heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish parties in northern Iraq. The first non-Arab to head an Arab state, he has promised to work with all ethnic and religious factions to rebuild Iraq.


Vice presidents: Adil Abd al-Mahdi, Tariq al-Hashimi
Prime minister: Jawad al-Maliki

Within minutes of being re-elected, President Talabani asked Shia politican Jawad al-Maliki to form Iraq's first full-term government since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.


Jawad al-Maliki (right) succeeded interim PM Ibrahim Jaafari (left)
Mr Maliki was the compromise candidate of the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance, the winners of parliamentary polls in December 2005. Kurdish and Sunni parties opposed the alliance's first nominee, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who withdrew his candidature after four months of political deadlock.

Mr Maliki is the deputy leader of the Dawaa Party, a Shia Islamist grouping. He spent years in exile after leading an anti-Saddam resistance movement in the 1970s.


He advised Mr Jaafari, also from the Dawaa Party, who was chosen as interim premier in April 2005 and went on to form Iraq's first democratically-elected government in more than 50 years.

Mr Maliki helped to draft Iraq's new constitution, approved by voters in October 2005.


Foreign minister: Hoshyar Zebari
Defence minister: Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Obeidi
Oil minister: Hussein al-Shahristani
MEDIA


OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA


Media outlets have flourished since the fall of Saddam. But although Iraq is said to have one of the most free media environments in the Arab world, scores of journalists and media workers have fallen victim to insurgents and coalition military action.

There are more than 100 newspapers and magazines on offer in Baghdad and other cities and private radio and television stations have mushroomed.

The TV and radio stations set up by the now-defunct US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) are now part of a publicly-funded broadcaster, the Iraqi Public Broadcasting Service.

Private media outlets are often linked to the political, ethnic or religious groups which are jostling for a say in Iraq's future. But they face a lack of resources, in particular a constant power supply.



Banned under Saddam, satellite TV enjoys a large following

Analysis: Iraq's media three years on
Iraq's television revolution

Foreign broadcasters also target Iraq. They include the BBC, Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo and the US-backed Al-Hurra TV, Radio Sawa and Radio Free Iraq. Many of them are available via local relays in Baghdad and other cities; the BBC World Service is relayed in Baghdad and Basra.

Iran's Al-Alam TV, which broadcasts in Arabic, can be received terrestrially in Baghdad.

Satellite TV, though popular, remains a luxury for most Iraqis. The use of satellite dishes and receivers was banned under the former regime. The pan-Arab news stations Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera are widely watched.

In Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish enclaves, rival factions operate their own media outlets.

The press

Al-Sabah - sponsored by state-run Iraqi Media Network
Al-Zaman - London-based daily, printed in Baghdad and Basra; English-language pages
Al-Mada - Baghdad, private daily
Al-Mashriq - Baghdad, private daily
Al-Dustur - Baghdad, private daily
Al-Manarah - Basra, private daily
Television

Al-Iraqiya - state-run public TV
Al-Sharqiya - private, broadcasts terrestrially and via satellite
Kurdistan Satellite Channel - operated by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) from autonomous northern enclave
KurdSat - operated by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from autonomous northern enclave
Radio

Republic of Iraq Radio - national, public
Radio Basra - public
Voice of Iraq - private, Baghdad mediumwave (AM) station
Hot FM - private, Baghdad FM music station
Radio Dijla - private, Baghdad FM talk and music station
News agency/internet

Voices of Iraq - pooled news service launched by Reuters Foundation and UN Development Programme, English-language pages
National Iraqi News Agency (Nina) - private

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...les/791014.stm

What lies beneath Bush-Maliki plan


“Under the prime minister's leadership, coalition and Iraqi leaders are modifying their operational concept to bring greater security to the Iraqi capital. Coalition and Iraqi forces will secure individual neighborhoods, will ensure the existence of an Iraqi security presence in the neighborhoods, and gradually expand the security presence as Iraqi citizens help them root out those who instigate violence.

This plan will involve embedding more U.S. military police with Iraqi police units to make them more effective,” President Bush announced recently following talks with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Bush's plan simply implies pursuing a new strategy to reclaim control of Baghdad that involves sending Iraq more occupying troops instead of starting a gradual withdrawal, according to The New York Times.

Under the new plan both the U.S. and the Iraqi leaders agreed upon, troops will be concentrated in specific neighborhoods to tighten control over the movement in and out of the capital, in an attempt to eliminate remnants of “insurgency and violent militias”.

Maliki stated that during his visit to the U.S., his first since becoming Prime Minister, he and the American President agreed that training and better arming Iraqi forces as quickly as possible, particularly in Baghdad, was crucial to stabilizing the violence-torn country.

But, according to The Times editorial, the plan carries risks for the U.S. Army, as it will “divert American military police from deploying to Anbar Province”, where, as the U.S. government prefers to call it, “insurgency” proved to be active.

Deploying more American troops in Baghdad, where violence and almost daily attacks noticeably surged in recent weeks, means more deaths among the U.S. forces.

Sending more foreign troops to Iraq demonstrates the failure of the security plan announced by the Iraqi prime minister in June, and supposed to be aimed at ending rampant "sectarian and militia violence".

The plan included the deployment of some 51,000 troops and police officers - 7,200 American soldiers - and the establishment of new checkpoints.

Al-Maliki, who unveiled his plan last month saying it will restore stability in Baghdad, promising to take over security in Iraq from U.S. forces within the coming 18 months, has already acknowledged the deteriorating security situation in the country, specially the Iraqi capital.

Additional forces to be deployed in Iraq will be equipped with Stryker armored vehicles, military police and, “essentially, what is left of the American military's reserve in Kuwait,” the editorial added.

The new troops, about 8000, will begin with the relatively calm areas to demonstrate a measure of success before taking on violence-hit areas. "Baghdad is truly a must-win," Major General William Caldwell IV, the senior spokesman for the military command was quoted as saying. "The prime minister has stated it. General Casey has stated it. We have to win in Baghdad. We don't have an option."

"In the first 30 days of the Baghdad security plan (referring to Maliki's original Baghdad security plan) there was a very slight downtick in the amount of violence," according to a senior American officer, who demanded anonymity. "Everybody had very high expectations. They thought it would bring it down dramatically."

But violence continued to surge higher. At the East Room news conference, the American President boasted that the Iraqi PM was very clear in stating that "he does not want American troops to leave his country until his government can protect the Iraqi people. And I assured him that America will not abandon the Iraqi people."

Asked if the deteriorating security situation in Baghdad would affect plans for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, Bush said that determining troop level will be based on recommendations from military commanders.

Currently there are about 127,000 American troops in Iraq. But the Bush administration is facing mounting discontent and increasing pressure from Democrats as well as Republicans to withdraw a substantial number of troops by the end of 2006.

"Conditions change inside a country," Bush said. (Source: Aljazeera.com)

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Descripti...&Cat=4&Num=005

Iraq studies possibility of joining Free Trade Zone

Saturday, July 29th 2006


http://www.portaliraq.com/news/Iraq+...__1112127.html


"The Ministry of Trade has announced that a ministerial committee has been charged to study potential opportunities for Iraq to join the Free Trade Zone that links the United States to Jordan, Bahrain and UAE. "

A Good news break............................

Amid rubble, he gave Iraqi children a place to play

Guardsman used skills as Hub parks architect

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Globe Correspondent | July 30, 2006
The constant weapons raids and roadside bomb explosions began to weigh on the mind of Sergeant Lucas Murray during his year in Iraq. Watching local children play soccer, with artillery shells marking the goals, made the Boston parks architect think he could make a lasting contribution to the community simply by doing what he did for a living back home.
He built a playground.


With donations from a playground equipment company and muscle from friends in the National Guard, he constructed the park he had dreamed of, giving the children of Abraham Jaffas, north of Baghdad, somewhere to play other than trash heaps in a town still devastated from the invasion three years ago.

"The children of Iraq are the ones we want to grow up seeing us as the good guys, as opposed to an organization that came in to remove a dictator and left them worse off," Murray said. ``This was my strategy for helping the war effort on a humanitarian level. We built something permanent to leave behind."

Watching a video months later of Iraqi children grinning while breezing down slides and swinging from monkey bars among the rubble, Murray smiled and said that building the playground may be one of his life's great achievements.

It was a difficult, sometimes dangerous task. A bomb exploded not far from his base during a planning meeting for the park. Seven American soldiers died in insurgent attacks in the nearby Al Taji area 20 miles north of Baghdad during April, the month the park was built.

Murray put together a team of American troops, a dozen Iraqi soldiers, and more than 20 children from the neighborhood to dig ditches, pour concrete, and piece together equipment. The American soldiers worked for six days in full body armor, guns strapped across their chests, in temperatures of 110 degrees to finish the project.

It was important to Murray to get to know the Iraqis over falafel and tea, and to have the children who would be using the playground invest time in building it, so it felt like their own.

"The thought behind this was to work with them side by side, as opposed to giving it to them as a gift," he said. ``It meant something more than just the play structure itself. It showed them we could do something together."

Boston is spotted with Murray's parks in Mission Hill, Roxbury, and Dorchester, along with the artificial turf field at Saunders Stadium. Having a place to gather and have fun increases the quality of life for all members of a community, whether it's Boston or war-torn Iraq, he said.

"The one universal is that kids want to play," he said. ``The reason Iraq is such a desolate place is that there is nothing for kids and adults to do, nothing to engage them."

Murray joined the Rhode Island National Guard in 2000 after earning a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Rhode Island. He started at the Boston Parks and Recreation Department two years before he was called to go to Iraq with Company D, Third Battalion, 172d Infantry Regiment. He married his girlfriend before leaving for basic training. He is relieved to be home with her now at a house they bought in Hyde Park.
Angie Murray, also an architect for the Parks Department, where they met, said she is proud of her husband.

He was able to end on a good note and feel like he truly made a difference," she said.

I'd LOVE to see a picture of the playground...after seeing the Iraq on the news channels it would be nice to see the children laughing and having fun...the good things that are happening. :-)

This is the good news, bad news is parliament are on their hols for 30 days...........

We might get confirmation of the FI Laws being passed today IMO. We can but hope. If not looks like a 30 day wait.....


Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:29 GMT
http://www.afxnews.com

BAGHDAD (AFX) - International oil companies have shown "serious willingness" to help develop Iraq's oil industry, the country's oil minister said on Sunday after a trip to the US.
Speaking before parliament to discuss the United Nations plan for an 'International Compact' to develop the Iraqi economy, Hussein Shahristani said he met with several international oil companies, though the country's new investment legislation would not allow them to invest in upstream activities.

"Most of the companies have shown a serious willingness to help and to work with Iraqi oil companies and on their own" to develop the industry, he said.
"We are hoping the International Compact will give a chance to many more companies to come and cooperate with us to develop Iraq's oil fields."

Shahristani also described a pair of laws that were now before parliament to boost the sector, including the long-awaited Iraqi investment law.
"This law will allow the domestic and international private sector to invest in all fields of oil production, except for exploration and drilling for crude oil," he said. "These areas are reserved for the Iraqi state."

He added that the private sector could be involved in downstream activities such as refineries and distribution of refined products, as well as petrochemicals.

Under the previous regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's massive oil reserves -- among the largest in the world -- were off limits to foreign investors.
Despite the plentiful oil reserves, a lack of refining capacity and persistent pipeline sabotage and pervasive corruption mean that Iraqis wait in long lines for gasoline.

Shahristani said moves were under way to expand the countries from which Iraq imports finished products, particularly from the "east" -- suggesting Iran -- following the disruption of imports from Turkey and the Mediterranean.
A second law before parliament will allow the private sector to import finished products and operate gas stations.

Currently the government produces 10 mln litres a day and imports another 7 mln litres, well short of an estimated daily demand of 22 mln litres.


http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-...fd-97acdfce6cb0

We need the FI Laws to be passed today IMO, otherwise more delays......




Parliament begins tomorrow leave for 30 days after the completion of the first Legislative chapter
Baghdad-morning
At the end of the parliament today is the House had to start the first chapter Legislative leave - Thirty days, however, deputies said that the disruption of the Council at this critical juncture is not in the interests of Iraq.
http://www.google.com/translate?u=h...n&hl=en&ie=UTF8

Excellent news, I mentioned the Compact a few pages back. Iraq are soon to be trading globally, that's what it says to me!!!


(MENAFN) The Iraqi government and the United Nations have launch an International Compact backed by the World Bank and aims to help Iraq, Middle East Times reported.

The Compact will bring the international community and multilateral organizations together to help Iraq achieve its National Vision over five years.

The main goal of the compact is to set up a structure for Iraq's economic transformation and integration into the regional and global economy.

An executive committee including Iraq and UN officials, the World Bank, the IMF, and other regional financial institutions will oversee the compact.

The compact was achieved during Iraqi Prime Minister visit to the United States and was directly backed by Washington.

http://menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.as...yId=1093121986

Iraqi Dinar Value should be Raised, Baker Jaber AL Zubaidi:
He explained that the financial authorities were set on holding a meeting next month to discuss the matter. The meeting is to be attended by experts and specialists from the Ministry of Finance, the Iraqi Central Bank and the Commercial Bank

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...page&sid=25629


OK, which is it? A few days ago Zubaidi talked of LOPPING and I see here in this particular link that the term LIFTING was used by him in June.

Is it the translation or is he double-minded? Or both?

I'm not getting on that rollercoaster again. No way! I believe it is going to happen. When? Not sure. Hopefully soon, within the month, which btw would be WONDERFUL! But, anytime this year would still be WONDERFUL! Got to keep it in perspective and not get all caught up in the when. Just knowing that it WILL HAPPEN should be enough for all of us to be rejoicing. It just might be time for us to practice a little delayed gratification. Which IMO is good for the soul.

Don't get me wrong, I want it to revalue ASAP just like everyone else, I'm just getting my mind right and willing to accept a longer time table if need be.

I've put it in God's hands and His timing and I know that He is perfecting that which concerns me and everyone else that will allow Him to. Of course I'm suggesting to Him the sooner the better, but bowing to His need, willingness and ability to work it out for the good of everyone and this of course will lead to my ultimate good. I trust Him.

Well, I feel much better for having said this and thanks for listening.

I'm still believing for it to happen in August! Gives me time to purchase more!

Monica