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

I think that maybe we're all looking at this wrong, including myself previously. What if the "loan" is for each representative to establish offices and staff? If it's one thing every politician wants it is subordinates to be at their beck and call. They will want offices, nicely furnished and filled with personal assistants and secretaries. Maybe this is the government subsidizing the buildup of "political" infrastructure...Just another thought...

We can speculate all we want but we don't know the full details.......

U.S. looks to Iraq PM for lead on curbing militias By Alastair Macdonald
1 hour, 22 minutes ago



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. commanders in Iraq are looking to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to give a lead on when security forces can begin to crack down on party militias blamed for much current violence, a top general said on Wednesday.

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"We have to fix this militia issue. We can't have armed militias competing with Iraq's security forces," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second ranking U.S. commander in the country, told reporters.

"But I have to trust the prime minister to decide when it is that we do that," he said in remarks that appeared to place the onus on the Iraqi premier to give a green light to action.

For the past two months, U.S. and Iraqi forces have mounted intensive operations in parts of Baghdad in what they describe as a make-or-break effort to root out militants and avert a sectarian civil war between Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.

Some Sunni leaders have complained that have not yet done enough to tackle militias loyal to some of Maliki's fellow Shi'ite Islamist leaders in the government. Maliki pledged in May to ensure the state had a monopoly on armed force.

But police and troops have not conducted major operations in Sadr City, stronghold of the Mehdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose support was vital in clinching the premiership for Maliki in April after months of Shi'ite factional wrangling.

U.S. commanders are well aware of the difficulties facing Maliki in making good on his commitments to curb armed groups allied to his own government allies, but have made clear that they expect action before too long to address the issue.

A senior U.S. military official, speaking on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said: "We are now at a time when we have a little bit of influence there. There is going to come a time when I would argue we are going to have to force this issue."

More broadly, the U.S. military is concerned that political parties in the national unity government are running ministries for their own partisan benefit and not cooperating with efforts to improve the lot of most Iraqis and bring them security.

"I can tell you in every single ministry how they are using that ministry to fill the coffers of the political parties," the official said. "They are doing that because that is exactly what Saddam Hussein did."

Another U.S. military official said on Saturday: "It's got to be dealt with and it ought to be dealt with by the prime minister and the folks that are inside this government. And I think the time is short for them to deal with that.

See it Here...U.S. looks to Iraq PM for lead on curbing militias - Yahoo! News

Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders offer help to Shi'ite PM By Mussab Al-Khairalla and Peter Graff
1 hour, 1 minute ago



BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sunni tribal leaders who have vowed to drive al Qaeda out of Iraq's most restive province met the Shi'ite premier on Wednesday, marking what Washington hopes will be a breakthrough alliance against Islamist militants.

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But this good news for the U.S.-backed government regarding Anbar province came as a leader of the Kurdish region in the north threatened to secede if Baghdad tried to exert influence over his territory's oil wealth.

Iraq's capital Baghdad was also hit by fresh sectarian clashes and bombings and a U.S. military spokesman said the past week had seen a record number of suicide attacks.

"This has been a tough week," the spokesman, Major General William Caldwell, said. "Over the past two weeks, we have seen a rise in the number of attacks, especially in Baghdad."

Baghdad police said they had found 35 bodies of victims bound, tortured and murdered in the capital. Caldwell said such sectarian killings were the main cause of violent death.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's meeting with sheikhs from Anbar province -- heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency and the deadliest part of Iraq for U.S. forces -- was one bit of reassuring news for the Americans and the Iraqi government.

Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda followers have seized control of towns and villages along the length of the Euphrates valley from Falluja near Baghdad to the Syrian border, and Washington says its 30,000 troops in the province cannot beat them on their own.

But al Qaeda's violent ways and severe interpretation of Sunni Islam have alienated traditional-minded Sunnis.

Sattar al-Buzayi, a Sunni sheikh from Anbar province who has emerged in recent weeks as a leader of a tribal alliance against al Qaeda, said he and about 15 other sheikhs had offered their cooperation to the Shi'ite prime minister.

"We agreed to cooperate," Buzayi told Reuters. "We haven't agreed to anything specific, but we agreed to cooperate."

Another tribal sheikh, Hameed Farhan, said most tribes supported the agreement. He called for tribesmen to join the army and police and said Maliki promised Iraqi troops for Anbar.

"If the government gives us support, you will see what we can do," he told Iraqiya state television.

Maliki's office issued a statement praising the chiefs for their commitment to fighting the militants. It was the first time he met them since they pledged to fight al Qaeda in a gathering at Buzayi's Ramadi home two weeks ago.

KURDISH THREAT

Apart from the sectarian divide between Shi'ites and Sunnis, the big ethnic faultline in Iraq is between Arabs and Kurds. That has been comparatively stable, with Kurds enjoying wide autonomy and Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, holding Iraq's presidency.

But in a sharply worded response to recent comments by the oil minister in Baghdad, the prime minister of the Kurdish autonomous region, Nechirvan Barzani, threatened to secede if Baghdad claimed authority over his region's oil.

"The people of Kurdistan chose to be in a voluntary union with Iraq on the basis of the constitution," he said. "If Baghdad ministers refuse to abide by that constitution, the people of Kurdistan reserve the right to reconsider our choice."

U.S. and Iraqi officials have predicted an increase in violence with the start of the Ramadan holy month this week, and Washington has focused its security efforts around the capital.

Its second ranking commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, stressed that Washington was looking to Maliki, five months into the job, to give a lead on tackling militias, some of them loyal to his Shi'ite allies in government:

"We have to fix this militia issue," he said. "But I have to trust the prime minister to decide when it is that we do that."

Ramadan began with a deadly bombing on Saturday that killed at least 34 people in a Shi'ite neighbourhood, which Sunni militants said was revenge for death squad killings.

On Wednesday, gunmen attacked near a Sunni mosque in Hurriya, northwest Baghdad, killing 10 people. A car bomb near a market in the mainly Shi'ite Bayaa district killed five people.

Buzayi confirmed that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed a senior Qaeda figure in Anbar on Tuesday, Khalid Ibrahim Mahal, described as Qaeda's "emir" in the province.

Iraqi journalists for Reuters in Ramadi said another Qaeda figure named Zuhair, known locally as "The Butcher of Anbar," was killed by tribal gunmen on Monday.

See It Here.. Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders offer help to Shi'ite PM - Yahoo! News

Originally Posted by Kevmo

I disagree, most members of congress here in the U.S. are multi millionaires. Thats what you do when you have so much money you dont have to work for a living. You seek power over others lives.

I can see both sides of the situation though. The question is why are they getting it. But it doesnt go far at the current rate. However, if it were given in anticipation of a revalue, it could be a payoff for cooperation in getting the security situation resolved. If so, it may indicate a lower RV and not 1:1 or higher. Just a thought.

Good point,

That is how I am seeing it, and since U.S. Senate are instant millionaires when they are elected, deferred, but never the less millionaires, not on pay alone, but their pension package is where they make out, even if the die, the spouse continues to be paid. So it pays to be in politics, and pays BIG.

My take on this is it may be tied to performance, and they have a contract, so think about this, you show up at cabinet meetings, you don't have to repay it, you miss meetings or your represented regions are not peaceful, then you owe it back at current rate, you perform, you pay it back at former rate. Now there is a plan. LOL Make these a$$holes act in a responsible manner, something most are not doing at this point.

Good luck to all, Mike

Because of the instability of the dinar right now (in the beginning years of the new government) the banks could have a clause in the loan contract that says they owe the banks $13,500 usd, (equivalent to 20mil. Dinar) regardless of what the dinar does. After all, that’s the amount the bank is out.

These are American trained politicians, if they haven’t learned how to do a little insider trading without getting caught then they must be slow learners.

I know, we could send Hillary over to teach them how it's really done. lol.

Originally Posted by Adster

We can speculate all we want but we don't know the full details.......

EXACTLY!

Iraq intelligence report expected after November By David Morgan
17 minutes ago



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has begun work on a new intelligence report about Iraq that is not expected to be completed before the November 7 election and possibly not until January, officials said on Wednesday.

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But the report, which intelligence officials began working on about six weeks ago, has already been swept up in a political storm over the Iraq war and the U.S. war on terrorism, as Republicans and Democrats campaign for control of Congress.

The document, known as a national intelligence estimate, would show how the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies judge the stability of the Iraqi government and the prospects for controlling sectarian violence that threatens civil war.

The administration on Tuesday released key judgments from a separate April estimate on global terrorism after sections saying the Iraq war had strengthened the international Islamic militant movement were leaked to the media.

Some Democrats, saying the new report would present a grimmer picture of Iraq than portrayed in White House rhetoric, want U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte to produce the document within the next six weeks.

But knowledgeable officials said the report was never expected to emerge before early November.

"This is a two-to-four month process. There is no hard and fast deadline because of how fast they did the 2002 NIE on Iraq. They did that in three weeks, and it showed," said a Democratic Senate aide familiar with report preparations.

The aide was referring to a notorious prewar estimate of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which helped the White House justify war against Saddam Hussein but later was found to be based on faulty intelligence.

'STEADY FLOW OF INFORMATION'

Negroponte ordered work to begin on the new Iraq assessment in mid-August. But an intelligence official said the first stage -- the setting of parameters known as "terms of reference" -- has not yet been completed.

The last estimate on Iraq was in July 2004. The National Intelligence Council, which prepares intelligence estimates, has since produced about two-dozen classified reports on Iraq.

"There has been a steady flow of information on Iraq," the intelligence official said.

Senate Democrats requested the new report in a July 26 letter to Negroponte. A week later, the Senate adopted an amendment from Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts that gives Negroponte 90 days to complete the report following enactment of the $377.6 billion defense appropriations bill.

A final vote on the bill is expected on Thursday or Friday.

That would set a late December deadline for the document and Negroponte could extend the deadline further simply by explaining to Congress his need for more time, officials said.

See It Here... Iraq intelligence report expected after November - Yahoo! News

Originally Posted by Adster

I'm saying that it's far too much money to be given out, even via a loan if it revalued at 1:1! A lot of them will head straight off to Dubai and not come back! Seriously, their people would be up in arms.

Just don't see how they could justify giving out what would be equivalent to $20 million per house representative if it r/v's at 1:1 (albeit being a loan.)

Because of what was stated before...They are getting a loan at todays value and are only required to pay back what they borrowed, roughly $14,000, before the reval. Anything that increases the value of their "loan", such as the reval, investing or whatever, is just gravy.

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

Not sure if anybody posted this yet....Kickin' butt and taking names!

Warrants issued against 88 ex-officials

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Baghdad, 27 September 2006 (Gulf News)
Arrest warrants have been issued against 88 former Iraqi officials, including 15 ministers, on charges of corruption, an independent anti-corruption commission said yesterday.

Among those wanted are 61 "living as fugitives abroad", said Ali Al Shabout, spokesman for the Public Integrity Commission. Interpol has been informed that they are wanted for prosecution in Iraq, he said.

The agency, which answers to parliament, is run by a judge who serves a five-year term. It was established in 2003 after the US-led invasion.

Iraq has been struggling to deal with endemic corruption in the civil services. Al Shabout said the agency has documented the loss of $7.5 billion (about Dh27 billion) through corruption over the past three years.

At the end of the last year, six arrest warrants on corruption charges were issued against former Iraqi ministers who served in the two previous postwar governments.

One of those six was Iraq's former electricity minister, Ayham Al Samarie, who was arrested last month in Iraq. Al Samarie, a dual Iraq-US citizen and Sunni Arab political figure, stands accused of financial and administrative irregularities.

Warrants issued against 88 ex-officials | Iraq Updates

HOUSECLEANING!!!!