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

Thanks Neno, for forwarding this

I found this on IIF. I have to admit when I saw the different names originally I thought something was strange. I am making no accusations here and I'm sure there is some simple explanation. However, I do think there should be some explanation provided. Notice the name of the Kurdish friend.


RollsRoyce on IIF

Quote:
My Ladyfriend, Newal, [pronounced Noel] . . . is a Kurd, who has lived in the USA since 1982 . . .

She has an uncle and two brothers in Iraq. All three are highly connected / they were very involved in the flag deal negotiations a little while ago. We speak frequently, Newal acting as translator . . . She and her family got me involved in this *curiosity* . . .

In recent conversations her family has all but agreed with SGunS's opinions on amt. / & date when rv will go into effect . . . they are sure it has already been decided . . .





RollsRoyce on RC

Quote:
Today, Friday, September 15, 2006 0900 hrs, Eastern / 1800 hrs. their time . . .

My Kurd . . . Indira finally got through to her Kurd Brothers & Uncle via satellite phone on their way north home from Baghdad . . . with the Army in their Hum/Vee . . .

Questions & Answers:

 (Q) Is the r/v ready to go? (A) Yes, finally! [Then some grumbling] / could have / & should have been announced by now, if not for the damn Politicians! . . .
 (Q) Has it been announced anywhere in country publicly? (A) No, only the *need-to-know’s* are supposed to knows about this. But leaks are inevitable . . .
 (Q) Do you know when it will be announced publicly? (A) Umm . . . last we heard Al-Gailani will make the announcement @ 10 hundred to 11 hundred hrs. Sunday morning. [That’s this Sunday @ 2 to 3 AM east coast US time] . . .

(Voice of Iraq) - 18-09-2006 | This issue was sent to a friend

Iraq needs to all forms of assistance for the advancement of structured infrastructure

Participated Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Jalal Talabani at the outset of his visit to the United States in the commercial city of Aspen, Colorado, attended by Colin Powell and former Secretary of State and a number of owners of capital and companies, traders and journalists. His Excellency has delivered a speech at the conference on the situation in Iraq in which he stressed that the country needs to all forms of assistance for the advancement of its infrastructure and move forward to progress and development, He added that the security situation in the country heading towards better and that the Iraqis dealing day for the terrorists who intend to destabilize security and harm civilians, He called on the coalition forces to remain in Iraq to help the Iraqis until the eradication of terrorism and establishment of security in Iraqi cities.

On the other hand, he spoke of His Excellency President Talabani to the ongoing national reconciliation, he said that the Iraqis pin high hopes on the steps achieved by the government in this context. In conclusion, and called on His Excellency companies with foreign capital to come to Iraq, invest their capital. Then President Talabani replied to questions and inquiries related to all journalists that the situation in Iraq and relations with the neighboring countries and the world.
The Iraqi

POL-UN-IRAQ-COMPACT
International Compact with Iraq meets on Monday to help Iraq reconstruct

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 17 (KUNA) -- The Ministerial meeting of the International Compact with Iraq opens tomorrow Monday amid expectations that the pledges made in the past by Iraq's neighbours, donor countries and others will materialize so that Iraq becomes a "peaceful, stable and prosperous partner" regionally and internationally.

The gathering, to be attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, was called for by Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week with the intention to engage in a "strategic - frank dialogue" on plans for the country's future.

Thirty-three participants are expected to attend, including the Foreign Ministers of Iraq, its neighbours, key Security Council members, donor countries, regional and international organizations and other interested parties, organizers said.

The Compact, co-chaired by Iraq and the UN, is an initiative launched by Iraq last July for a new partnership between Iraq and the international community for the next five years.

"While the UN remains responsive to the current challenges facing Iraq, it is keen to engage in a strategic dialogue on plans for the future of the country... I hope that the participants will seize that opportunity to engage in a frank and forward-looking dialogue," Annan said when he announced the convening of the meeting last week.

When the Security Council met last Thursday to discuss the situation in Iraq, many speakers underlined the importance of the International Compact with Iraq in helping the country develop its economic programme according to clearly defined priorities, benchmarks and commitments.

Iraqi envoy Hamid Al-Bayati told the council that day that his government "believes that the international Compact with Iraq provides an opportunity for donor countries to fulfill the commitments which they have taken upon themselves at the Madrid and other conferences.

"We urge the friendly and brotherly countries that have not yet supported the reconstruction of Iraq to do so through initiatives to support the International compact with Iraq," he said.

UN Special representative in Iraq Ashraf Qazi also told the Council that given Iraq's importance and potential, its neighbours and the wider international community have a "vital stake" in helping it become a peaceful, stable and prosperous partner, fully integrated within the region and the international community.

"The International Compact with Iraq could become an important vehicle to that end," he said.

At a preparatory meeting for Monday's meeting, held in Abu-Dhabi last week, Iraq already outlined its key priorities on which to form a Compact, such as effective public resource management and economic reform in private sector development and social sector reforms.

In that preparatory meeting, Iraq also pledged its strong commitment to tackling corruption, creating a transparent and efficient oil sector, developing a solid budgetary framework, improving governance and building and consolidating effective national institutions.

Kuna site|Story page|International Compact with Iraq meets on Monday to...9/17/2006

Where Iraq Itself Finds Hope

By Barham Salih
Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page B07

From my experiences visiting the United States, it is easy for me to understand how disappointed and saddened Americans must be at the scenes of violence from Iraq. For Iraq's leaders, the carnage is a source of deep frustration. The pace of what we can achieve, relative to what we aspire to, is simply not what the people of Iraq and the generous people of the United States deserve.

We must change the dynamic of violence. The Iraqi government has undertaken a searching analysis and is responding with a strategy on two fronts: national and international.

We have a sense of urgency, but we refuse to give in to panic. While it is important to highlight the progress made, particularly given the extremely pessimistic tone of debate in Washington, we know we must confront many grave challenges. The unrelenting security problem, sectarian polarization, corruption and the inability of the government to deliver services are all threats to the transition. They could prove fatal if not dealt with urgently.

We Iraqis must recognize that it is up to us to resolve our problems. Outsiders cannot deliver for us. The Iraqi leadership must assume responsibility, deal with these challenges and turn the tide. This can be done by Iraqis, but they will undoubtedly need sustained support from the international community and particularly the United States.

The key planks of the national side of our strategy -- embodied in a "national compact" -- are national reconciliation, democratic federalism, political inclusion and a fair and rational oil policy. To achieve these things, the Iraqi Policy Council on National Security, composed of key elected officials, has adopted an intensive legislative timetable. This agenda is vital: It is the political part of our approach to ending the violence.

We have imposed a tough timetable because we owe it to our own people to press harder and to advance, no matter how intense the assault upon us by the terrorists. For example, this month we should pass our investment law and establish a Parliamentary Commission for the Review of the Constitution. Next month the parliament should vote on legislation to reform the de-Baathification commission. In December it should pass legislation on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants.

These laws will move us toward a viable political equilibrium inside Iraq. Because Iraq is an inherently diverse country we need a balance that protects diversity and encourages a voluntary, democratic, federal national unity. This will benefit the entire region.

For most of its existence as a modern state, Iraq was profoundly unbalanced politically. Power was concentrated in the hands of the few, the benefits of the state denied to the many. The liberation of Iraq in 2003 temporarily created a new, if fundamentally democratic, imbalance. Almost overnight, the Kurds and Shiite Arabs were enfranchised, while many -- too many -- Sunni Arabs did not participate in the new political process.

We must defend diversity. Those responsible for the violence, the Baathist-jihadist terrorist axis, hate and reject diversity and democracy. They seek supremacy and theocracy.

Yet another force that the national compact must address is the disequilibrium that comes from majoritarianism. This is an issue not just for Iraq but for its regions, because those who are a majority in one part of the country are a minority in other areas. To prevent tyranny of the majority, Iraq now has a bill of rights that requires practical political enforcement.

Balance is critical. Without it, there could be disintegration of the country. Within the national reconciliation program outlined by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, we must seek balance on de-Baathification -- balance between the need for justice for the victims of the Saddam Hussein regime and the need to politically rehabilitate those whose crimes were not beyond the pale.

Similarly, in our counterterrorism and anti-militia strategy, we must balance political and security measures. There is no pure security solution to the terrorism and militia challenges -- just as there is no neat, "politics only" way of settling these issues. We need both approaches. The door to the political process must always remain open; our security forces must be ever vigilant.

The second part of our strategy is international. The Iraqi government understands that it must end terrorist violence not just for Iraq's sake but also for the region. If Iraq plunges into a full-blown civil war, so will the rest of the Middle East. This is not a theory but a fact that our wiser neighbors comprehend.

Resolved to avoid past mistakes, we announced the plan for an "International Compact With Iraq" in a statement with the United Nations on July 27. At a recent productive meeting in the United Arab Emirates, with the assistance of the United Nations, Iraq sat down with other interested parties to develop this compact.

It involves a road map for economic development. In a nation weaned on war, we need to give the bored young men of Iraq employment and the pride that comes from hard work -- instead of the easy swagger of the gunman. We should invest our oil revenue in infrastructure. We must aim to create jobs and distribute the benefits of the current oil boom widely.

We want a partnership, not unconditional aid. We are adopting a structured plan for economic development, not issuing a laundry list of financial demands. In utilities and hydrocarbons there has to be transparency and accountability, a dialogue between the federal government and the federal regions and equitable development.

Moreover, we are promising clear targets for economic restructuring, accompanied by mechanisms for intelligence cooperation and security coordination. Such an approach, with broad international support, is something new and, we hope, a harbinger of a Middle East characterized by cooperation, not conflict.

The writer is deputy prime minister of Iraq.

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

thanks for the post pipshurricane..

Always nice to see things moving forward in a possitive direction.

Not sure if this has been posted but just in case:

18 September 2006
International Development: Russia to relieve Iraq of debt
Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, has told reporters that officials were working out details of an agreement to relieve Iraq of the bulk of its multibillion-dollar debt.

Speaking in Singapore after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart he said, "This work will be finished, and the signing (of the deal) will take place in the coming months."

The decision to write off Iraqi debt was seen in part as an effort to improve Russian companies' chances of winning contracts in Iraq.

i On Global Trends: International Development: Russia to relieve Iraq of debt

Cheers!
DayDream

In Iraq’s Desert, Tribes Battle Al-Qaeda for Control
Reuters

RAMADI, Iraq, 18 September 2006 — Sheikh Sattar Al-Buzayi summoned other tribal chiefs last week for a war council at his fortified home in Ramadi, the teeming, scarred capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, desert heartland of the Sunni Arabs. There was a bountiful feast of beef and rice, and a vow of unrelenting battle against the common enemy — Al-Qaeda.

“We have to form police and army forces from among our sons to fight these Al-Qaeda militants,” Buzayi, who says the militants murdered his father and his brother, told Reuters. “We have now entered a real battle. It’s either us or them.” Those words carry a powerful promise for US commanders, who acknowledged last week they cannot defeat Al-Qaeda in its Iraqi bases on their own. They need Iraqi tribes — Sunni Arabs like the Al-Qaeda militants themselves — to take up the fight.

Those following Iraq’s war from outside read mostly of sectarian conflict that pits the once-dominant Sunnis against the newly empowered Shiite government and US troops. But in Anbar the decisive battle is being fought within the Sunni community itself, between tribal leaders who still have clout among traditionally minded Arabs, and followers of Osama Bin Laden’s militant sect, who have seized power in towns on the banks of the Euphrates as it winds from Syria to Baghdad.

A young man who calls himself Abu Farouq, a senior Al-Qaeda figure in northern Ramadi, said his fighters want an Islamic caliphate in Anbar. Sheikhs like Buzayi are their enemy. “We have the right to kill all infidels, like the police and army and all those who support them,” he told Reuters. “This tribal system is un-Islamic. We are proud to kill tribal leaders who are helping the Americans.”

Iraq’s largest province remains a mystery to outsiders. Foreign reporters can generally enter only in the company of US troops. Iraqi journalists work in fear of both militants and US forces. Reuters Iraqi staff members in the area, who cannot be credited for their own safety, met and spoke to people across the province to produce this account.

Anbar residents say the towns of Khalidiya and Haditha are effectively controlled by Al-Qaeda, who run Islamic courts, force women to wear an Afghan-style burqa and regularly dump bodies of those they call “traitors” and “spies” on the streets.

But there are also towns like Qaim on the Syrian border where tribesmen have taken matters into their own hands and thrown the Al-Qaeda militants out. Others want to emulate them. “We just want to live like everyone else. We’re sick of all this bloodshed,” said one Ramadi resident, voicing a common sentiment but requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals. “If you criticize Al-Qaeda, you will find yourself dead the next day. We don’t want to live in constant fear,” he added.

How many of Anbar’s million people support Al-Qaeda or other rebels is unclear. Most fighters are young locals with little gainful employment. Dozens of foreign Arabs also come in through Syria every month. Against them are ranged 30,000 Americans, 6,400 new local police and Iraqi army units now being trained.

Ramadi itself, the provincial capital of around half a million people, is a major battleground, where US Marines face daily attack and must protect the senior Iraqi officials. Around 30 tribal leaders from across the province attended the meeting at Buzayi’s home, some making dangerous journeys from towns seen as militant strongholds. They agreed to build up local security forces in order fight against Al-Qaeda.

Some Anbar tribes swore opposition after an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber killed 70 police recruits in January, most from the Dulaimi tribe’s Albu Uley clan, who promoted police recruitment. A month later Al-Qaeda claimed the assassination of a clan leader, Khaled Al-Huteymi. That triggered sporadic clashes and assassinations between several clans and the militant group.

As well as taking on the tribes, Al-Qaeda militants have also crossed swords with former allies among Sunni nationalists who have battled the Americans since the fall of Saddam Hussein. This year Qaeda said it killed Hameed Al-Fahdawi, a leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a nationalist insurgent group.

In Fallujah, recaptured by US Marines after battles with insurgents in 2004, suspected Qaeda militants have shot dead 19 preachers after sermons against killing local police and troops. “We are suffering but we can’t complain,” another Ramadi resident said. “Al Qaeda has demolished our city. Bodies are everywhere. What kind of a life is this?”

In Iraq’s Desert, Tribes Battle Al-Qaeda for Control

Cheers!
DayDream

from NPR friday,
Coca Cola Asia to open a new plant in Afghanistan, after that, Iraq. when asked if violence would impede them, head of operations says, no. We will handle what we have to handle. May not seem like much, but then again! Coca Cola? Sounds fizzy and good to me.

Originally Posted by lndmn_01

I found this on IIF. I have to admit when I saw the different names originally I thought something was strange. I am making no accusations here and I'm sure there is some simple explanation. However, I do think there should be some explanation provided. Notice the name of the Kurdish friend.

RollsRoyce on IIF

Quote:
My Ladyfriend, Newal, [pronounced Noel] . . . is a Kurd, who has lived in the USA since 1982 . . .

She has an uncle and two brothers in Iraq. All three are highly connected / they were very involved in the flag deal negotiations a little while ago. We speak frequently, Newal acting as translator . . . She and her family got me involved in this *curiosity* . . .

In recent conversations her family has all but agreed with SGunS's opinions on amt. / & date when rv will go into effect . . . they are sure it has already been decided . . .

RollsRoyce on RC

Quote:
Today, Friday, September 15, 2006 0900 hrs, Eastern / 1800 hrs. their time . . .

My Kurd . . . Indira finally got through to her Kurd Brothers & Uncle via satellite phone on their way north home from Baghdad . . . with the Army in their Hum/Vee . . .

Questions & Answers:

 (Q) Is the r/v ready to go? (A) Yes, finally! [Then some grumbling] / could have / & should have been announced by now, if not for the damn Politicians! . . .
 (Q) Has it been announced anywhere in country publicly? (A) No, only the *need-to-know’s* are supposed to knows about this. But leaks are inevitable . . .
 (Q) Do you know when it will be announced publicly? (A) Umm . . . last we heard Al-Gailani will make the announcement @ 10 hundred to 11 hundred hrs. Sunday morning. [That’s this Sunday @ 2 to 3 AM east coast US time] . . .

If you had gone back a bit further in my posts you would have read that . . . her actual name is *Newal* . . .

I *nicknamed* her *Indira* because she is the spitting image of the *Actress* Indira Varma . . . *HBO-ROME & The Kama Sutrra* . . .