Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 22/06/2010 - 04/10/2010

Suicide car bomber attacks Al Arabiya TV in Baghdad
A suicide bomber killed four people on Monday in an attack targeting the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel in Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said.

The bomber blew up a mini-van he was driving close to the entrance of Arabiya's office in Baghdad's Harithiya district, killing a cleaner and three guards, city security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said. Ten people were wounded.

The Arabiya premises, nearby buildings and several cars were seriously damaged by the blast.

The Dubai-based Arabiya TV also reported four people were killed and said none of them were reporters. The blast wounded at least 16 people, an Interior Ministry source said.

Lawmaker Salam al-Zobai of the cross-sectarian Iraqiya bloc was among the wounded along with five of his security guards, his spokesman said. Zobai's house was near the blast.

The attack occurred a few weeks after Iraqi security forces warned that a number of media including foreign outlets such as Arabiya could be targeted by the Sunni al Qaeda insurgency.

"Yes, there were threats from al Qaeda against the media two months ago. That's why we allocated a police patrol in each media location...The threats still exist," Moussawi told Reuters.

"Al-Qaeda's fingerprints are clear in this suicide explosion."

Major General Jihad al-Jabiri, head of the ministry's ordnance department, told Arabiya TV the car was packed with 128 kg (280 pounds) of ammonium nitrate. The blast left a crater in the ground 3.5 metres (7.7 feet) wide and 1.2 (2.6) meters deep, he said.

Iraq has been on high alert for insurgent attacks since a March 7 national election produced no clear winner and left the country adrift in political uncertainty.

Overall violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian carnage in 2006-7. But daily bombings and killings continue, suggesting insurgents are trying to exploit the vacuum as political rivals jostle for power.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/59345...-tv-in-baghdad

Vying for top government post delays formation of new Iraqi government

Disagreements on who should be the next prime minister are delaying the formation of the new Iraqi government.

The winners and losers of the last general elections held four months ago want to have the post of the prime minister, according to Addnan al-Shamkhani, a senior leader of the State of Law Coalition.

The State of Law which includes the party of the current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lost the elections with a slight majority.

But his rival, Ayad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi list bloc, has failed to win the two thirds parliamentary majority necessary for forming the new government.

Allawi, a former prime minister, has garnered only one seat more than his main rival, the Maliki’s coalition.

Both are striving to win seats from other factions, such as the Kurds and the Sadr movement headed by the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

But both have their own terms which neither Allawi and nor al-Maliki are able to meet.
And there are large differences over who should be the prime minister, Shamkhani said.

Even smaller parliamentary blocs want to have a say because the personality of the new premier seems to matter a lot in Iraq, he said.

There are many Shiite factions who object to having Maliki at the head of the government.

There are some Sunni factions, among them Kurds, who would not like to see Allawi becoming the new prime minister.

As the squabbling and wrangling drags on, conditions in the country continue to worsen. Violent attacks with a scale not seen in the past two years have made a comeback with reports pointing to a drastic decline in the hold of government troops and security forces even in major neighborhoods in Baghdad.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index...07-27\kurd.htm

Disappearing Act: $8.7 Billion of Iraq Development Money Missing

The Defense Department is unable to account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Development Fund for Iraq monies it received for reconstruction in Iraq, reports Federal News Radio today.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) issued a report today that claims a “weakness” in the DoD’s “financial and management controls left it unable to properly account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in DFI funds.” The money vanished “because most DoD organizations receiving DFI funds did not establish the required Department of the Treasury accounts and no DoD organization was designated as the executive agent for managing the use of DFI funds,” explains the Inspector General. “The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss.”

DFI revenue is generated from export sales of petroleum, petroleum products, and natural gas from Iraq, and surplus funds from the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program as well as frozen Iraqi assets, according to SIGIR.

If you believe the money was simply lost through shoddy accounting practices, you may also be interested in a bridge I have for sale in Brooklyn. Simply put, the money was pilfered.

You may recall then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s admission on September 10, 2001, that the Pentagon lost $2.3 trillion. This money was supposed to go for our “national defense” against CIA assets like Osama bin Laden and tin horn dictators like Saddam Hussein and the mental case Kim Jong-Il.

It became a non-story of little interest the next day when cave Muslims violated the laws of physics and supposedly attacked us for our freedom. It now basically resides in the corporate media memory hole.

$2.3 trillion amounts to $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America.

Nobody knows exactly where the $2.3 trillion went. But some think it was siphoned off through companies like DynCorp, AMS, and Lockheed Martin, which control the bookkeeping for federal agencies, where fraud is rampant, unchecked and very lucrative for corporate and government insiders, writesUri Dowbenko. “The fraud is so egregious, in fact, that the sovereignty of the nation itself can be questioned when bogus accounting systems can mask the revenue streams and expenditures of federal agencies to such an extent.”

Fraud and thievery is rampant in Iraq. In June, it was reported that tens of millions of dollars in federal property went missing or unaccounted for at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. A report from the State Department revealed that 159 of the embassy’s 1,168 vehicles, worth $18.5 million, are unaccounted for and pays nearly $270,000 per year in charges for more than 2,000 cell phones that have not been registered to authorized users, according to the Associated Press.

Money slotted for Iraq development — rebuilding what the Pentagon destroyed — has a funny way of disappearing. Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad. More than $9 billion went missing. “The simple truth about the missing money is the same one that applies to so much else about the American occupation of Iraq. The U.S. government never did care about accounting for those Iraqi billions and it doesn’t care now. It cares only about ensuring that an accounting does not occur,” write Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele for Vanity Fair.

Grilled by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the former Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Paul Bremer, told Rep. Henry Waxman that if the cash had gone to “ghost employees” he would have known about it. Bremer sheepishly told Rep. Dennis Kucinich he had no idea where the money went.

Instead of launching a criminal investigation and tracking down the thieves, the SIGIR study suggests “that the Secretary of Defense create new accounting and reporting procedures to avoid such mistakes in the future. It also recommends designating an executive agent to oversee progress, establishing measurable milestones, and determining whether any DoD organizations are still holding DFI funds.”

In other words, the solution is to have the same pack of wolves watch over the chicken coop.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/disappea...y-missing.html

Plan to transform the auction currency at the central bank cash to the default

Mstcharalpennek said the CBI, said the bank is a plan of action to transform Auction currency from cash payment to the electronic payment system, called the insured Balafteradi, which runs without human intervention, noting that he hoped to be direct during the March of next year.

The appearance of Mohammed Saleh told Aswat al-Iraq, said the Central Bank of Iraq following the introduction of electronic payment default known rtgs mind and mission of the organization of online transactions away from human intervention, noting that the new system is "more secure than the use of the cash transactions."

Saleh pointed out that the strategy of this system are in the presence of an electronic system is locked in a high- update task of the central bank, is administration by central institutions, through the accounts in the bank, in view of the large payments made between banks.

According to Salih, information technology issues have become a major role in the modern world, 'citing the example of the' sale of government bonds and work for pay adjustments and other transactions for other Ministry of Finance of Iraq, which has been linked to the system rtgs.

Salih noted that electronic payments are the database system of data collection and information, and approve the financial statements and reliable limited number of banks that did not exceed 36 central bank, mostly in third world countries, assisted by friendly countries and various organizations, explaining that the work by facilitating the establishment of the so-called auctions default Which will be achieved through adjustments and transactions and transfers and promotions.

And about those who work with the CBI to develop a system of payments Saleh pointed out that the work "was planned with the support of the Bank of Japan and the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury, stating that he expected to be work ready in March next year."

http://radionawa.com/ar/NewsDetailN....962&LinkID=155

D . Akram Abd El Aziz: to be strong supervisory policy for the safety of the banking industry

Said an economist Dr. Ekram Abdel Aziz importance of having strong policies and to oversee the banking systems in question to ensure the safety of the banking industry and its ability to proceed.

This came in answering questions from the economic reality on ways to improve the banking and financial reform is required. Abdul Aziz pointed out that the total need of the Iraqi economy needs a major overhaul not only the financial aspects, referring to distortions of sectoral structures and promised to rule the oil sector the main factor of such distortions. Stressing the need to pursue new policies to develop the performance of other economic sectors. And reflected the views of the economic expert in the morning answering questions at the center economically important financial Itelmush the reader through the content of the following dialogue:

Question. What are the implications of the reduction or raising interest rates?
That the recent economic realities in this regard stepped down from two aspects, one concerning the development and upgrading of savings to GDP ratio over the bank deposits and, of course, reinforced this trend and expand with the increased interest rates. There is no doubt to increase the size of the deposit and increase the size of savings in many respects. Partly affect the absorption volume of cash and the targeting of inflation towards the reduction and we are talking here about the frameworks studied and the mechanisms planned to achieve the balance of cash pour in moving the economy by directing funds borrowed by some income-generating projects, but this trend is governed by the interest rate and this was over the recent economic Monetarist them and financial down the size of investment activity through increasing the interest rate, which had a role in achieving a state of contraction in the direction the spending, and we believe that the central bank addressed that situation to reduce the interest rate to 6%, the overall picture needs to the process of comprehensive reform is not only aspects Cash, but aspects of financial and economic standing on her head distortions in the sectoral structure and the rule of the petroleum sector.

Question. What is the maximum interest rate?
It is known that there are limits to a maximum interest rate on loans and deposits in nearly all developing countries. This has led ceilings in some countries, real interest rates very negative, especially in countries with rapid inflation and the difference between the prices of loans and deposit rates. Accordingly, the interest rate as the longer a limiting factor for savings and hinders the efficiency of investment and perhaps the interest rates in developing countries has worsened under the guidance of the government of the banks typically earn lower interest rates on loans provided to the small borrowers, the loans are long term. And accordingly acquired strategies liberalization of interest rates is highly important in light of the reform measures to support the economy taking its success for reform in the paths of reform and implementation at the lowest cost. Highlight addition to interest rates and correct their situations, other factors may have an impact on the path of reform, in particular the financial situation of the private sector and the banking system and the quality of prudential norms applicable to the banking system and the stability at the macroeconomic level. Face interest rate policies and the reform of the real sector are heavily lost its effectiveness in the presence of the banking system is weak and overburdened. And have ordered the restructuring of weak banking institutions necessary measure in order to recapitalize and the integration and liquidation of banking institutions. Therefore, should be associated with the reform of the exchange market also requires a further speed up the reform of public finances to allow for monetary and fiscal effects of the various plans capitalization and restructuring. This is required as well as establish a minimum reform package the pact include the accounting rules related to calculating interest on loans and the adoption of the classification of new loans, and rules for conditions associated based on the guidance on the adequacy of capital, and the limits on the concentration of loans to support the liberalization of the real sector and improve the effects of the allocation of interest rate policy and increased interest Courses of growth and stability. Accordingly, these guidelines have any effect on the allocation and expansion of credit is then used to support both spending cuts and policies that accompany the transformation software patch.

Question. The most important factors that affect interest rates?
Dr. Ikram see that the most important factors are summarized in the degree of competition in the financial system, particularly banking markets degree of openness of the economy to capital flows.

Strength of financial institutions, the financial structure of the non-financial companies all these reflect the experiences of financial reform, the liberation of interest rates should be phased out if the macroeconomic climate is unstable and ineffective bank supervision, which adversely affect the profitability of the private sector. Comes the gradient of this order to avoid the negative effects of the abolition of the sudden rate systems of interest, at the same time, which follow the macro-economic policies should be retained oversight tough on the banking system or strengthened in order to reduce moral hazard in the banking system and therefore stand out among the ways to reform the development conditions Standard for capital adequacy reserve against losses on loans and the adoption of deposit insurance schemes such as the imposition of the death bankruptcy of the banking activity as well as insurance or adoption fair on bank debt ..

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...age&sid=106294

For economic (Citizen ): our banks are still working mentality Ottoman

Economist said that the Iraqi banks, whether governmental or private sector was still working mentality Ottoman Empire.

Said Dr Issam Mahouelle's (citizen) that the banks should also Atmars role in terms of granting loans and credits. He said The work of private banks in particular is the opening of branches and deposit funds of citizens and businesses in the Central Bank against the benefits of a profitable business just without moving the money and Alacadp them. "You have to be a deliberate plan to develop the fact the Iraqi banking as well as that government banks are in other activities as grants housing loans and other Of loans that are the basis of working of any bank. Indicating that the global banks and their branches to the same number of reviewers Airadjaha Iraqis to local banks and their branches because of additional activity which started in exercise branches Rafidain and Rashid. Since a short time. indicating a country's economy is seen as the basis of the bug work and activities of private banks operating in by the commencement of activity of banks to offer loans at reasonable interest to the West Bank chapter are the benefits of government banks.

http://www.almowatennews.com/news_view_6579.html

long time with no news...is everything ok SEAVIEW?

Hi Bigopie,

I'm fine. It's the middle of summer and I have relatives etc around. So will be on and off the forum for the next few weeks. Everything back to normal in September, until then I will try and post as and when time allows. (unless, of course, something extraordinary happpens!!).

Thank you for the concern.

Advisor : Kurdistan wished central bank merging with the Central Bank of Iraq

Central Bank of Iraq adviser, on Thursday, the Kurdistan Regional Government has shown willingness to integrate central bank in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah with the Central Bank of Iraq and separated from the Ministry of Finance in the region, indicating that the direct process will take place during the coming days.

The appearance of Mohammed Saleh told that "the Kurdistan Regional Government has shown willingness to integrate sub-central bank in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah with the Central Bank of Iraq, separated from the Ministry of Finance in the region," saying the move was "very important for the region and the whole of Iraq."

Saleh pointed out that the state of integration will provide "a single monetary policy and would allow for central control of Iraqi banks in the region", noting that "the banking operations, supervision and organization of the system of payments and licenses will be standard in all provinces from north to south."

The motivations of link he pointed out that there is "an economic interest common to all to complete the linking process the fact that the CBI has a completely independent and do not have orders from the government," as well as he "enjoys international acceptance giving all banks in Iraq, high reliability for the direct supervision of them."

Salih noted that the region was "set up a central bank with its own after 1991, and the withdrawal of the former regime of Kurdistan," which was a "Bank of the Government of the Territory to meet the needs of the filing of exchange and others."

But after 2003 there was a "central banks in the first Kurdistan in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in the second, but was not able to do most of the Central Bank such as issuing currency, and their domination of the small local banks."

On the direct process of linking Saleh said that "for the meeting was a few days before the central bank governor and the Kurdistan Regional Government, was a thorough discussion of the process, and we expect the arrival of notice of them during the day," referring to "budget banks, provincial, and their employees will be part of the Central Bank of Iraq."

http://ar.aswataliraq.info/?p=238698

KRG Denies US-Iraq Probe into Oil “Smuggling”

The spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has dismissed reports that a U.S.-Iraqi delegation will visit Kurdistan to investigate allegations of oil exports to Iran.

Kawa Mahmoud, the KRG spokesman, told AKnews that even if the U.S. delegation arrives in the Region, the visit will be limited to issues concerning the formation of the new Iraqi government.

“No Iraqi delegation has arrived in the Region to discuss oil smuggling issues, the reports claiming this are false,” said Mahmoud.

The issue of alleged oil exports to Iran became a source of controversy in Iraq after a New York Times report stated “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of oil was “smuggled” from Kurdistan to Iran at a time when the international community was trying to impose tough sanctions on Iran.

Local press recently reported that a joint U.S.-Iraqi delegation had arrived at the Bashmakh borders, east of Sulaimaniya, to investigate the “illegal crude oil transportation” to neighbouring Iran.

Abdul-Kareem Bahid Lu’aibi, the Iraqi deputy oil minister, had previously stated he was not aware of any alleged oil smuggling to Iran.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Rudaw, Dr. Ashti Hawrami, Kurdistan’s Minister of Natural Resources, denied that any oil had been smuggled: “We are 100% sure that Kurdistani crude oil has never been exported”, he said, “except for the four months in which crude oil was exported via the Iraqi pipelines, and that was carried out via SOMO”.

Kurdistan is currently producing approximately 100, 000 barrels of oil a day. The KRG receives 17 percent of its oil revenues with the remainder going to the central government. The oil from the Region is exported to Turkey through a pipeline in Kirkuk.

Recently a 12-year contract was made between the ministry of oil in Baghdad and Turkey to transport crude oil through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline.

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/?p=6864