Truck and Barter

Comments

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Sara wrote:

Here is something interesting..
Another article saying that the Maliki, Shiite, Kurdish alliance gives them a majority in parliament.
Quote:

Iraq's Sunni Leadership Joins Reconciliation Talks
Updated Aug 20, 2007 21:08 KST

In Iraq, Sunni leaders have been meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and members of a new Shi'ite, Kurdish alliance in hopes of resolving some of the differences that have blocked political progress in the country.

Days after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a Shi'ite, Kurdish political alliance that would give his government a 181-seat majority in parliament, Sunni leaders agreed to talk about about their differences. Ammar Al Hakim with the Shi'ite party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, said this is a step in the right direction.

He says he hopes the talks will overcome differences and work to bring all the parties to serve in a national government.

Television news reports in Baghdad said the talks, which included Iraq's president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, resumed on Sunday and that the Iraqi leaders agreed on an agenda for a summit aimed at saving the country's crumbling unity government.

The Sunni political party of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi Accordance Front Party, withdrew earlier this month from Mr. Maliki's cabinet, effectively blocking the prospect of political reconciliation among Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish parties.

Hashemi attended Saturday's meeting but so far has not announced his party's return to the government.

Sunni leaders have accused Mr. Maliki's government of marginalizing them. Key areas of contention include the sharing of oil revenues and easing restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party so they can serve in the army or civil service.

Salim al-Jubori with the Accordance Front says the talks do not necessarily signal a political breakthrough.

He says the discussion so far has been aimed at fixing what he calls political mistakes of the past, but they do not indicate a return by the Sunni Front to Mr. Maliki's political alliance.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200708/200708200033.html

And YET, this article published today says that Sadr says there is an imminent collapse because Maliki won't give the other interested political parties (which presumably they need for a true majority) what they want. That can only mean that HE thinks that they do not have a majority, otherwise he would be saying they will push it all through.. and he would be complaining about them being puppets of the Americans, etc.

Report: Muqtada al-Sadr says Iraq's government is near its end
The Associated PressPublished: August 20, 2007

LONDON: A top Iraqi Shiite militia leader predicted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was nearing its end.

Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told The Independent newspaper that al-Maliki's government was on the brink of collapse, despite efforts to bolster its base of support.

"Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people," the cleric was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

"The prime minister is a tool for the Americans, and people see that clearly. It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realize he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."

Al-Sadr had been among al-Maliki's strongest supporters. However, he broke with al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite, in April and withdrew his five supporters from the Iraqi Cabinet to protest the prime minister's refusal to demand a timetable for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.

He rejected recent reports that he had fled to Iran and denied claims his forces had requested help from Tehran.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/20/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Al-Sadr.php

-- August 20, 2007 2:33 PM ∞

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Anonymous wrote:

eweee me first me first ..... well I really can't think of nothing to say but thanks anyway

-- August 20, 2007 2:33 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

wow :)

-- August 20, 2007 2:40 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Computer program reveals FBI, CIA edited Wikipedia entries http://en.rian.ru/world/20070817/72026973.html

-- August 20, 2007 2:48 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Experts : Natural Gas enormous wealth Mahdoreh

They need to draft separated from the oil giant

Source : Sabah Al-19/08/2007

Given the growing importance of natural gas as an important source of the vital and reliable sources of energy to solve the energy crisis facing the world, has been this important resource ((gas)) for the burning of waste at the sight of people without wealth of the owner doing nothing to stop this waste, because the profits that have been achieved by international oil companies from behind the exploitation of oil and obtained cheaply not paid to think of how to invest ((natural gas)) associated with oil or preserved, and even in the period in which Iraq was able to sell oil and invest in national and free the projects extraction ((natural gas)), separated from the crude oil, not giant projects with higher returns Alstratigi and placed sources ((natural gas)), energy experts have identified two main sources of this important resource, the first natural gas produced from gas reservoirs only these reservoirs near ((oil reservoirs)) and the second source of natural gas associated with oil-gas facilities for crude oil accounts for a large share of world production of natural gas, and this is due to the enormity of the world's oil production, energy experts pointed to enjoy ((natural gas)) much of the economic benefits the rich and ease of use with high content of fuel, the production and consumption in the world has evolved rapidly since the beginning of the last century, due this development in the production of natural gas to the evolution of world oil production and the discovery of huge deposits of natural gas ..

Energy experts identified the features of this period in Iraq in obtaining natural gas that it is difficult and tough where international oil companies controlled oil production by the combustion and waste of natural gas is not unprecedented, de****e the fact that successive governments in Iraq to intervene for the purpose of investment, but to no avail, since the oil companies and strongly opposes the natural gas investment grounds that the investment Costs of natural gas high compared Baclav production (crude oil production) cheap However, the companies were benefiting from the natural gas as an energy source used in the production process, moving within areas of oil investment, as they used in the recent period of privileges in the process of pumping Section him in the fields to maintain the oil wells inside, as well as some small enterprises engaged in the provision of small quantities of liquid gas for household uses, and because of these conditions were large quantities of natural gas to burn waste, estimated lineage b 85-90 % of the associated gas of oil and especially during the period of 1932-1973 years of the last century ..

Energy experts explained that natural gas production witnessed a remarkable improvement due to the high rates of oil production, particularly after 1973, but experts noted that the increase in the quantities of natural gas used was steady, experts attributed this increase to the success of the plan developed in the oil sector in that period for the investment of all gas the product in the country and not burn it and benefit from it in nurturing major development projects such as the petrochemical industries and the Iron and Steel Complex and aluminum factory and investment project phosphate and other other projects, as well as the use of natural gas to fuel electric power generating stations and expansion of the electricity industry in the manufacture of gas, especially for household consumption . energy experts explained that supports the success of this stage in the natural gas investment due to the completion of important projects, such as ((sulfur recovery)) in Kirkuk and the increasing production of liquid gas in Taji and production units in each of the Al-Dawra refinery, Basra and the implementation of projects for the exploitation of natural gas for power generation electrical and building liquefied gas production plant in the southern fields.

Energy experts pointed out that this remarkable development in the areas of production and natural gas investment did not continue its path has been true of many industrial enterprises specializing in the separation of natural gas from crude oil to a complete standstill because of the political changes that have taken place in the country, with multiple wars against the country, which led to disruption supplier President ((oil)) as a result of the difficult circumstances of the embargo and the lack of access relevant technical equipment spe******t gas production, a combination of these factors led to a decline in natural gas production in the country is forced to adopt import mainly to fill the need of local as well as much exposure stations natural gas to near standstill because of the volatile security situation and proliferation of administrative corruption in many institutions distribution and sale of oil derivatives.

-- August 20, 2007 2:52 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Oil giants rush to lay claim to Iraq
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2151542,00.html

-- August 20, 2007 2:55 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Iraq lowers light crude oil price for USA and increases it for Asia and Europe
Monday, August 20, 2007 09:33 GMT http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Economics-News-Iraq/3-6643-Iraq-lowers-light-crude-oil-price-for-USA-and-increases-it-for-Asia-and-Europe.html

-- August 20, 2007 3:01 PM ∞

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Sara wrote:

Glad for the new page, too. :)
Here is an interesting commentary/perspective from Qatar's Leading English Daily:

Commentary: Both Sides Using Ceremonial Visits to Iraq to Gain Credibility
Finally getting somewhere in Iraq
By JONATHAN FINER Aug 20, 2007

LATE LAST MONTH the Brookings Institution’s Kenneth Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon, just back from a quick trip to Baghdad, proclaimed in the New York Times that “we are finally getting somewhere in Iraq.” In June, Senator Joseph Lieberman, fresh from his latest whirlwind tour of the war zone, described in the Wall Street Journal a “dramatic reversal” in the security situation in restive Anbar province.

Opponents of the war are also guilty of using visits to gain credibility. On a trip soon after the 2004 election, Senator John Kerry decried the “horrendous judgments” and “unbelievable blunders” made by President Bush. At a news conference I attended in Baghdad last summer, Senator Russ Feingold, a longtime proponent of withdrawal, said that continued US troop presence “may well be destabilising.” Little surprise that his travel companion, McCain, who attended the same briefings at the same bases, drew opposite conclusions.

A dizzying number of dignitaries have passed through Baghdad for high-level briefings. The Hill newspaper reported this month that 76 US senators have traveled to Iraq during the war, 38 in the past 12 months. Most never left the Green Zone or other well-protected enclaves. Few, if any, changed the views they held before arriving.

Reporters based in Baghdad rarely pay much attention to these visits, often skipping the news conferences that conclude most visiting delegations’ itineraries. Since leaving Iraq last year, I’ve been surprised by the impact these choreographed tours have had on domestic discourse about the war. First come opinion pieces full of bold pronouncements of “what I saw” at the front. Next, the recent returnees appear on late-night cable programmes or the Sunday talk shows. Those with opposing views respond, and soon the echo chamber is drowning out whatever’s really happening.

Those who visit Iraq undertake significant risks, which are inherent in traveling to Baghdad, no matter who’s providing their security. Policymakers should be commended for refusing to blindly trust accounts from diplomats, soldiers or journalists. But it’s worth remembering what these visits are and what they are not. Prescient insights rarely emerge from a few days in-country behind the blast walls.

It goes without saying that everyone can, and in this country should, have an opinion about the war, no matter how much time the person has spent in Iraq, if any. But having left a year ago, I’ve stopped pretending to those who ask that I have a keen sense of what it’s like on the ground today. Similarly, those who pass quickly through the war zone should stop ascribing their epiphanies to what are largely ceremonial visits.

(The writer was a Post correspondent in Baghdad from May 2005 to July 2006. He is currently covering the Balkans for The Post.)

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/commentary/commentarypage.asp
http://sweetness-light-forum.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=906

Maybe the public should listen to the military commanders and what those who LIVE and WORK on the ground have to say instead of trusting the politicians who have an axe to grind either way? Just a thought..

Which reminds me.. hey, panhandler.. what are you up to? Anything new from over there? Hope you are well..

Sara.

-- August 20, 2007 3:39 PM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

Roger/Steve:

I have been following your discussion regarding the Iraqi Stock Market. By the way, "nice dog and pony show." The hoop-la of the ISX opening to foreign investors has come and gone. The reality is, until Iraq has measurable economic indicators and the companies not listed on the exchange list themselves the ISX is not reflective of full market activity in Iraq.

I read on another forum about Warka freezing the opening of new accounts. Steven, do you know why Warka would need to take such action? Are they so overwhelmed? Warka appears unable to handle the current influx of mainly U.S. and British investors. How will they respond once broad foreign investment begin?

I am skeptical of both Warka and the ISX. We still do not know what government oversight is in place to regulate these entities. I will stick with my cash in hand until I am convinced otherwise.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 20, 2007 4:11 PM ∞

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Laura Parker wrote:

Sara,

I saw your entry to my entry on the last thread. It is rotten luck as you have it, that I spent most of my afternoon to answer your entry to have mine in the end loss due to computer doing off line and then aol had a new tool bar download and an error message came up. I then discovered the new thread.

I was wondering if you could somehow copy my beginning entry and then your reply and possibly Roger's thoughts on the matter. I am still going to write a new reply to your last entry. However, my response is going to long on the Russians.

Laura Parker

-- August 20, 2007 6:13 PM ∞

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David wrote:

Cornish -

Interesting article you posted about "Oil Giants Rush to Lay Claim to Iraq." The following quote cleared up a lot of things for me:

QUOTE
Separately, Russia has lobbied successfully to set up an energy cartel which it hopes will rival Opec. At the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, leaders of Central Asian countries, China and Russia last week agreed to create a 'unified energy market' in the region that is home to some of the biggest producers of oil and gas.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made clear at the conference that Tehran was prepared to join the club, which would see the world's first, second and fourth largest gas producers form a powerful bloc, potentially ranged against Western interests.

Christopher Langton, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: 'Russia is seeking to have an organisation tilt the competition in its favour.'

The move coincides with the apparent decline of US influence in the region, where both the Trans-Caspian pipeline project and the diversion of Turkmen gas via Russia to Europe have stalled.

Ariel Cohen, a regional expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said: 'The resource control in Russia's hands will benefit President Putin tremendously'.
END QUOTE

Lately I've been asking myself what Russia's motivation was in seeking political alliance with Iran. I mean, here's a country (Russia) with newfound wealth, able for the first time in 15 years to run continuous air reconnaisance missions, and all of that is because of the work of the West (esp. the US) in bringing about the demise of communism and the fall of the Soviet Union, as well as the advent of capitalism and democracy. After reading a few recent posts about Russia and its being in bed with Iran, my thoughts were: You ungrateful bastards. But that's the nature of people, isn't it? We have short memories, and old demons die hard. So...if you're going to do something good for someone just to hear the thank-you's, it's the wrong reason for generosity. One must care out of conviction, not for political or social gain.

But I digress. My point is this: While I don't believe that Bush's primary motivation for going into Iraq had to do with oil (although I AM sure it was on his radar screen), oil IS DEFINITELY Russia's primary motivation for allying itself with Iran. That and, secondarily, it's a thumb on the old cold-war nose. I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't see that earlier.

David

-- August 20, 2007 6:53 PM ∞

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Laura Parker wrote:

David,

I am the one that started the discussion on Russia's forming alliances with Iran. There is more to be said on this topic. I am asking Sara to see if she can get the articles written on this from the last blog before this one has a really go start. Stay tuned, it gets worse!

Laura Parker

-- August 20, 2007 9:00 PM ∞

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Laura Parker wrote:

David,

I meant good start.

Laura Parker

-- August 20, 2007 9:02 PM ∞

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John Smith wrote:

Thomas Friedman, writer for the New York Times: "High energy prices, followed by a sharp decline in energy prices, really helped to bring down the Soviet Union. The government there spent money like it was going out of style while energy revenue was high, but then when price of oil fell, as did revenue, they couldn't sustain their expenses and that helped end the Soviet Union."

The price of oil is very high right now. The Russian economy is still heavily dependent on oil revenues. If there is a very large amount of oil in Iraq, enough to bring down the price of oil significantly, Russia could take an economic beating. The same with Iran, which is such a basketcase, they have to import oil products, despite having one of the largest reserves in the world. America's economy, however, would strengthen, with lower energy costs, as America imports most of it's oil. Not so for Iran. If the price of oil drops too much, it would be a disaster for the regime in Tehran, which could topple. They are very dependent on oil, for revenue... Talk about economic warfare. No wonder Russia and Iran doesn't support American efforts in Iraq. Go Bush!

-- August 20, 2007 9:49 PM ∞

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Laura Parker wrote:

Sara and All,

I am going to try and start to communicate information in several parts because the information is long and I believe it important to what we are about. Sara, I still would like to see if you can get the information on those entries and place on this new blog. Ok?

The information is taken from EpiCenter by Joel C. Rosenberg and its the entire chapter 10: Future Headline: Global Tensions Soar As Russia Targets Israel

I think as I type this in sections, you will all get the point rather quickly. Lets begin. Some of you might want to buy the book. I got mine from a friend and read her copy. However, I am seriously going to buy my own copy.

In the spring 2006, I came across a headline on an Internet news site that read "Russia Would Never Harm Israel: Olmert." Curious, I clicked onto the link and found a story from Agence France-Presse, which began, "Israeli leader Ehud Olmert said he had been assured by President Vladimir Putin that Russia would 'never do anything to harm Israel' despite his invitation to Hamas for talks in Moscow.

"President Putin told me that he had previously given a commitment to Ariel Sharon that Russia would never do anything anything to harm the state of Israel and that that commitment applies to me as it did to Ariel Sharon,'" Olmert explained. The Israeli prime minister's official Web site later noted that "Russian President Putin emphasized several times (in his call with Olmert) that Russia would not take any step directed against Israeli interests and would not harm Israel's security."

If only we could take such assurances to the bank. Unfortunately, we cannot.

While it may be tempting to believe that the Russian Bear is dead and buried and poses no threat to Israel, the U.S., or anyone else, Ezekiel makes it clear that the Bear is only hibernating and will soon be back with a vengeance.

Ezekiel 38:8 says that in the latter years Russia "will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel" (NASB). Ezekiel 38:12 says Russia will target Israel, the epicenter (Middle East), the people who live "at the center of the world" (NASB). Ezekiel 38:14 says Russia will target "My people Israel" (NASB). Ezekiel 38:18 says Russia "Comes against the land of Israel" (NASB). Ezekiel 39:2 says Russia will come "against the mountains of Israel" (NASB). Ezekiel 38:10 makes crystal clear that the Russian dictator in charge of this operation will be executing "an evil plan" (NASB).

Despite such specificity, however, there will be those who misunderstand the nature and threat of this "evil plan" and thus will be at risk of being blindsided by it.

"THE FINAL THRUST SOUTH"

While Putin has not yet tipped his hand about any specific designs on Israel, there are men around Putin who have. One such leader is the current deputy speaker of the State Duma, one of the highest-ranking political leaders in the Russian government and a strategic ally of Putin.

Consider excerpts from a book written by this Russian leader in 1993, in which he details his plans for expanding the Russian empire to the south--toward and ultimately through Israel:

*** The operation should be carried out using the code-name "Final Thrust to the South." Our army will carry out this task. It will be a means for the nation as a whole to survive and a way to restore the Russian army....Russia reaching the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea is a task that will be the salvation of the Russian nation....Russia will grow rich.

*** The Arabs and Europeans...have a vested interest in seeing to it Russia establishes her new borders....Only in this way can they escape the Israeli trap.

*** Can't Russia, mustn't Russia, make just one move, one little move southward?...The Germans want this....The world will understand that if Russia needs it that means it's good.

*** The Russian army needs this. It will let our boys flex their muscles instead of sitting around the barracks, worn out by hazing, in the depths of Russia, not knowing who and where the enemy is and what moral and physical preparations they should make.

*** Only America would not be pleased, but she won't interfere. The alternative to this development of this situation is too grave for her if she interferes.

*** This is....Russia's fate, and without it Russia is doomed to stop growing and die....Russia has been given a great historical mission. Therefore it must act decisively.

*** Let Russia make its final "thrust" to the south. I can see the Russian soldiers gathering for the final expedition southward. I can see Russian commanders in Russian division and army headquarters, mapping out the route for the military formations and the endpoints of those routes. I see aircraft gathered in air bases around the southern regions of Russia. I see submarines surfacing...and armored infantry vehicles are on the move and great masses of tanks are rolling through. Russia will finally make her last military expedition.

The author of this book, titled The Final Thrust South, is Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, the bombastic, often ridiculed, but influential ultranationalist founder of the woefully misnamed Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). In 1994, when few intelligence analysts in Moscow or Washington took him seriously, Zhirinovsky triggered a political earthquake when his LDPR won a quarter of the seats in the Russian parliament, just a year after laying out this Fascist and imperialist vision of Russia's future.

A 1994 Time magazine cover story titled "Rising Czar?" noted:

Zhirinovsky is no ordinary politician. (He) has slugged fellow lawmakers in the halls of parliament, hobnobbed with ex-Nazi storm troopers in Austria and posed, au naturel, for photographers while cavorting in a steam bath in Serbia. He has been kicked out of or denied access to nearly half a dozen European countries. He has threatened to restore Russia's imperial borders, annex Alaska, invade Turkey, repartition Poland, give Germany "another Chrenobyl," turn Kazakhstan into a "scorched desert", and employ large fans to blow radioactive waste across the Baltics. To Western eyes, the incendiary rhetoric and exuberant loutishness of this barnstorming Bonaparte have marked him as something of a buffoon. But to many Russicans, Zhirinovsky offers a kind of touchstone for their deepest yearnings and frustrations.

Indeed he does, and that is his danger. As Heritage Foundation Russia expert Ariel Cohen wrote in 1994, "It is tempting to dismiss Zhirinovsky's outrageous book as political polemic. But a failed Austrian painter and former army corporal was similarly ignored when he published his own tract: Mein Kampf. The tendency to dismiss Zhirinovsky as a buffoon and to assume that his supporters did not know what they were voting for may be a naive, even dangerous, response to his election and his position as de facto opposition leader gives him influence that cannot be ignored."

THE MAN BEHIND THE MAN

When I (means Joel Rosenberg, the author) last visited Moscow, I sought a meeting with Zhirinovsky. In Ezekiel Option (another book he wrote), after all, I was writing about a Fascist, anti-Semitic ultranationalist who rises to power in Moscow, becomes a czar, and leads the Russian army south to the Mediterranean. Why not meet such a person in real life?

Zhirinovsky's personal support among Russians had slipped since he had landed on the cover of Time. In December 2003 elections, the LDPR received only 11.6 percent of the vote and 38 seats in the DUMA. But he was still a player. Zhirinovsky and his colleagues represented the third-biggest political force in the country, behind Putin's United Russia Party (222 seats) and the Communist Party (53 seats). What's more, several Russia experts I trust suggested that the LDPR's drop in the polls had nothing to do with Russians becoming less nationalist but with Putin becoming more so. Why vote for "Mad Vlad," they argued, when Putin was the real deal---a tough-as-nails leader, a czar in the making, without any of Zhirinovsky's rhetorical baggage? The more authoritarian Putin has become, they explained, the more votes he has siphoned off of the nationalist and ultranationalist parties into his own camp.

"Actually, the guy you want to see," one of my Russian friends told me, "is not Zhirinovsky himself. I mean, he's fun to talk to. You've get some great quotes. But the guy you really want to talk to is the man behind the man, Zhirinovsky's brain."

"Who's that?" I asked. "Alexei Mitrofanov," he said. "He's the number two guy in the LDPR. For years he was the chairman of the Geopolitical Committee of the Duma, roughly the equivalent of the (U.S.) House Foreign Relations Committee. He's Zhirinovsky's chief strategist. But far more importantly, he's a guy who is quietly, carefully helping shape Putin's direction, and thus Russia's."

My father and I met Mitrofanov for coffee at the Hotel National, across the street from Red Square and the Kremlin, on Wednesday, September 1, 2004. We had never met a Fascist before, and certainly not one with real political power. We didn't even know what Mitrofanov looked like and weren't quite sure what to expect. But soon a large, plump man not much older than myself (he was born in 1962, I in 1967 (Rosenberg dob)arrived with several bodyguards who took up positions by the doors of the restaurant.

In manner, he was the complete opposite of Zhirinovsky--well educated, sof-spoken, almost sky--and clearly intent on putting a "kinder, gentler" face on his boss's vicious brand of politics. But it soon became readily apparent that this was indeed "Zhirinovksy's brain." They think exactly alike.

"We are pragmatic people," Mitrofanov began, speaking of himself and his party. "But Russia is in danger of collapsing with ten years....Gorbachev made foolish decisions. He lost the whole empire for nothing. But it just proves that if the leader will be weak, Russia will be ruined....Russians want a strong dictator."

"What about Putin?" I asked. "Is he a czar?"

"Putin is a nationalist, a pragmatic nationalist," Mitrofanov replied. "I had many private conversations with hime before he became president and I know that he is close to out party in his heart...But he is not a strong leader. He has too many limitations."

Well, that was a twist, I thought, someone who thinks Putin isn't czarlike enough. "What about your boss? Is he the next czar?"

"Zhirinovsky wants to be like Stalin," he said, "like Lenin. He wants to have power and make Russia number one in the world again."

"Does he have a chance at succeeding Putin?"

"I think yes," Mitrofanov explained. "Not in the next elections, in 2008. But in 2012, I think Zhirinovsky will be the president of Russia. He will be sixty-six. He will have been in politics for twenty years. People will know his name, his brand, like Marlboro, like Coca-Cola.... Besides, Zhirinovsky will be very quiet (until then). He is changing."

"Changing how?" I asked.

"Changing his style and his ideas, gaining experience....He is the man Russia needs."

"What would he do as president, in foreign policy, for example?"

"He would build a coalition," Mitrofanov replied without hesitation. "Russia must control four countries in order to have quiet borders---Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan." Then, after a moment's pause, he added, "And Turkey."

"Why these?"

"Zhirinovsky wants to rebuild the Byzantine Empire," he said
matter-of-factly.

I just stared at him, trying to process what he was saying and why he was being so open about his party's ambitions. The Byzantine Empire? I thought. That would include a lot more land than just those five countries. It would include Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Eqypt...and Israel.

"We need it," Mitrofanov explained, "or we will have instability."

"Doesn't such a position run the risk of having the LDPR be accused of being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel?"

"Russia is very quiet towards the Jews today," he said. "There's no anti-Semitism here. Not like in Europe....I know people in the Russian military---very nationalistic people---who have ideas that Jewish people have ruined Russia, and they have an idea to attack Israel. Colonel (Pavel) Chernove of the FSB, for example. He believes we should say to the Muslim World, 'We have the power, the land, and the nuclear weapons. You have one billion people, living bombs. Let's work together.' He said Russia must be Muslim, not Orthodox Christian.... He wanted to push Jews out of all leadership positions in Russia."

"What's Chernov doing now?" I asked.

"He used to be in the LDPR," Mitrofanov freely admitted. "He played an important part in the party for a while. He was number two, in fact, until Zhirinovsky fired him. He drank too much. Fired off a machine gun. But he had lots of supporters."

I looked at my father, and he looked back at me. He didn't say anything then; nor did I. But we were thinking the same thing. We were sitting with a man who believed that an ex-FSB officer's offense was getting drunk and blowing off some steam, not his desire to form a nuclear alliance with Iran and the rest of the Muslim world to blow up Israel. And as evil as that was, this was no crank we'd met at the Moscow circus. Mitrofanov is a respected member of the Russian parliament. He was a senior advisor to the deputy speaker of the that parliament. And he had no hesitation to tell two Americans that he and his party want Russia to build an empire and launch the "final thrust south."

We thanked him for his time, paid our bill, and left as quickly as we could.
-----

There is a map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 550 and it covers Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Cypress, Tunisa, Egypt, parts of lower Spain. I wish we could scan in a map of the Byzantine Empire in AD 550.

This section is where I am going to stop for the night. However, you are going to be interested in the rest of this chapter, I promise. I will continue this tommorrow.

Hope this makes for interesting discussion!

-- August 20, 2007 11:43 PM ∞

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Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(991)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 991 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Tuesday 2007/8/21 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 11 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1239 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1237 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 50.895.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 50.895.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.000.000 -----

-- August 21, 2007 6:53 AM ∞

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Sara wrote:

I was thinking about the latest big attacks in Iraq. The terrorists point to it as their victory, but it really is not the fault of the American and Coalition forces. It is the fault of the Iraqi Parliamentarians.

Isa 17:14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

Those who spoil and rob us of our right are reaping a longer, more troubled and bloody conflict ("before the morning he is not" = death). Because they will not do the oil laws and begin the process of reconstruction of their nation, they doom their own people to harm and death. Do you think the terrorists used local Iraqi people to do these latest attacks? Why is it they could find such people, ripe for delinquency? Because they are desperate people, without jobs or hope. And why is that? Because the Iraqi Parliament would rather squabble about being Sunni or Shiite than care about the Iraqi people as a nation.

When I see the devastating attacks I think it more evidence of the portion of those who spoil and rob us of our right. They take from US, and they reap "before the morning, they are not".. the removal of their very lives. Such is the deserved punishment of those who will not cooperate with what is right for the nation.. trouble and death. If they want God on their side and His protection, they cannot do what is evil.. robbing and spoiling us of our due rights due to the perogative of winning in war... this results in consequences to them and their people and loved ones. I have no doubt that this is how God will judge it, and how He will blame it, in the end analysis. No matter how men try to blame it on America, it is not us but the supposed "representatives" of the Iraqi people - who are taking a leisure break right now - it is the Iraqi Parliamentarians who are condemning their own people to attack and death by their own inaction on the political front.

They have much to answer for, for the blood is on their hands before the courts of God.

Sara.
PS Laura, I think those who read the board have read our arguments.. do continue on if you have more thoughts on it. Summary - Roger said the Russians are not a force which is capable of superpower status which would rival the US or pose a true danger, though they have some weapons from The Cold War and are attempting to upgrade them. You pointed out the endtime scenerio which has Iran and Russia allied in a final battle, and I said it isn't for this time that those words were written. The time is not appointed to be the end of all things yet. This time is to fulfill other Scriptures which have to do with the two missing players in your narrative, Iraq and Egypt, and the calling placed on them. I gave references to back these assertions, including ones explaining the indigenous people of Iraq and their claims upon their nation, Iraq.

Thank you, John Smith, for contributing your post on why (this time around) Iran and Russia are opposing the US.. due to economic reasons and the price of oil. Very interesting.. thank you. :)

-- August 21, 2007 8:48 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

Rosenberg Cont'd... EpiCenter

1982: THE THREAT FROM THE NORTH

Since the times of Czar Peter the Great, Russian leaders have had designs on central Asia and the Near East, and for nearly half of the twentieth century, Moscow armed Israel's enemies and encouraged them to attack and destroy the Jewish state. But now a fuller and more disturbing picture is emerging. Previously classified White House, CIA, and State Department documents, as well as interviews with top U.S. and Israeli leaders and historians, reveal that Moscow has on more than one occasion planned direct Russian invasions of Israel.

In the summer of 1982, for example, then-Israel prime minister Menachem Begin went public with a story that prior to that time had been known only to the upper echelons of Israeli and U.S. intelligence. The Israeli Defense Forces, he explained, had uncovered a secret buy massive cache of Soviet weaponry in deep underground cellars and tunnels in Lebanon that had caught him and his top advisors completely off guard. The weapons appeared to have been pre-positioned by Moscow for the launching of a full-scale invasion of Israel and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East.

Begin said Israel had found "ten times more Russian weapons than were previously reported." The haul, he told reporters, included 4000 tons of ammunition, 144 armored vehicles and tanks, 12500 pieces of small arms, 515 heavy weapons, 359 sophisticated communications devices, and 795 "optical instruments" (including night-vision goggles and field glasses). It was enough, Begin believed, to equip at least five Russian combat brigades and required, according to one-report, "a fleet of 10 ton trucks, working day and night for six weeks, to haul them back to Israel."

"I can now tell you," the Israeli prime minister continued, "that only yesterday...we found other arms depots containing fully ten times as many weapons as we had found before, enough to equip not five brigades, but five or six divisions. We shall need literally hundreds of trucks to evacuate these weapons from Lebanon, where we shall undoubtedly fine more arms."

Begin said that Israeli intelligence had bably underestimated the Russian threat from the north. Israel certainly knew the Soviets were arming Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization for their terrorist attacks against Israel. That was why Israel had invaded Lebanon in the first place. But Begin conceded that neither he nor his colleagues had any idea of the extent to which Moscow was preparing for a massive future ground assault against the Jewish state.

"Something happened which nobody knew," Begin admitted. "In fact, the evidence at hand points to a conspiracy, that pre-positioning by the Soviet Union of such massive quantities of arms---and I mean modern, highly sophisticated weapons--could only be in preparation for some indeterminate future date to overrun Israel, then Jordan, and then Saudia Arabia and other Persian Gulf States. Otherwise, there is no explanation for the quantities of weapons we have found. The (Palestinians) couldn't have used them, having neither the necessary manpower nor the skills."

The Washington Post reported the story of the Soviet arms cache on July 7, 1982. But the implications of such an important discovery got lost amid a series of other earthshaking events in the Middle East. Just one month earlier, an Israeli air strike had destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor and thus Iraq's entire nuclear-weapons development program. And just two months after the discovery of the Soviet arms, members of the Maronite Phalange militia massacred hundreds of Palestinian men, women, and children in Lebanese refugee camps known as Sabra and Shatila.

The Osirak bombing and the Sabra and Shatila massacres, alson with international outcry over whether Israeli defense minister Ariel Sharon was responsible for letting the massacres happen, dominated world headlines for months. (I, Laura Parker don't remember this event. I wonder if the Russian were behind this?). Begin found himself and his entire government on defense in the global public-relations wars. And the Soviets' plans and preparations for invading Israel and the rest of the Middle East were lost to a world that either never heard the story, did not remember, or did not care.

When I (Rosenberg) interviewed Caspar Weinberger, who was the U.S. defense secretary in 1982, he both remembered and confirmed Menachem Begin's story for me. He also admitted that the discovery of the Soviet arms cache "was perhaps larger than most people (in Washington) would have expected." Weinberger conceded that he and others in the Pentagon were surprised by the "size, scope, and speed"---and secrecy---of the Soviet pre-positioning in the Middle East, given how carefully the U.S. was watching the Soviet military.

But Weinberger said he was not surprised that the Soviets had been preparing for an invasion of Israel, Saudia Arabia, and the Persian Gulf region. To the contrary, these were precisely the concerns that were driving the Reagan administration's anti-Soviet policy at the time.

"We (in the Reagan White House and the Pentagon) were all concerned about growing Soviet influence and growing Soviet attempts to increase their stature in the whole Mideast," Weinberger told me. "And the fact that here was confirmation of this by this discovery of a very large stash of weapons was continually disturbing, but not surprising...The fact that they (the Soviets) were building up their weapons and planning to use various Mideast spots as bases for military action was not a surprise--it was the size, scope, and speed with which it was being carried out that was further reason, we thought, why their motives had to be watched quite carefully."

I asked Weinberger specifically if he and President Reagan had shared Prime Minister's Begin's concern that the Soviets might try to overrun Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the other Persian Gulf states.

He confirmed that they had. "The Soviets were trying to increase their influence in the whole Mideast. They were (targeting) the oil fields...We were taking actions and preparing ourselves to prevent that domination from succeeding."

Did he believe the discovery of the Soviet arms justified the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and attempts to destroy the PLO? Weinberger said Israel's move was at first "disturbing" because it was a "unilateral action" and threatened to upset the fragile balance of power in the Middle East, and this was "not good."

That said, however, he suggested that on balance the Israelis were probably right to go in, especially given what they found and the Soviet invasion they may have stopped. It was a total surprise. It unleashed international condemnation of Israel, including pointed criticism from the Reagan administration itself. But the result was that Israel effectively staved off far more cataclysmic evils that were coming from the Russians.

Then Weinberger warned that the discovery of the secret Soviet arms cache was disturbing evidence "that military actions are being planned" or "made increasingly possible" in the Middle East that can elude the detection of even the world's best intelligence services.

-- August 21, 2007 9:38 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

The item I am trying to submit is long and therefore, I am going to type it in sections.
I hope everyone will understand what I am getting at when all done.

Laura Parker

-- August 21, 2007 9:44 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Sara, Roger and All-

Sara, I wanted to thank you for your submission of Isaiah. I did know it was there and it saved me time to look it up. I would agree with you that the highway has not been built. It gives us hope that we know that Iraq will become a nation in its own right.

Given, what I have just typed, I am concerned about the same method of arms cache coming through Lebanon again to attach Israel and the Middle East. The question is how strong is Russian now and going to be.

The article submitted on natural gas coalition with the Russians, Chinese is troubling. Especially as Iran will join too, looking so innocently.

We need to be on guard and understand these geopolitical motivations and be able to counter these moves. For the life of me, I am not sure how we do this.

In the democratic debates for President of the U.S., one of the candidates let it drop that President Bush is trying to get Buster Breaking Bombs to pentrate lower cellars under the ground where nuclear weapons are stored. I suspect, President Bush is considering going after the Iranian Nuclear situation. The democrats have made it clear that they are going to block this initiative.

It's a dangerous world we live in.

Pray-

Laura Parker

-- August 21, 2007 10:05 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All, Rosenberg cont'd from EpiCenter:

1973: THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR

On October 6, 1973, combined Arab forces from Egypt, Syria and numberous other Arab and Islamic countries attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Tensions had been building for months. Rumors of war were in the air. But both Israeli and U.S. intelligence officials and political leaders were caught almost completely off guard, not believing the war would really come. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir was so sure fighting would not break out that she had refused to order a preemptive strike or even to mobilize the Israeli reserves, not wanting to provoke hostilities if they could be avoided. That hesitation nearly led to the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Over the course of the first week of the war, the Arab coalition made stunning gains. In the north, 1000 Syrian tanks and 600 pieces of Syrian artillery stormed up the Golan Heights and advanced toward the vulnerable Israeli farmlands of the Galilee region. To the south, some 400 Egyptian tanks crossed the Suez Canal, wiped out Israel's forward defenses, and began working their way across the Sinai Desert. Meanwhile, Arab air forces shot down three dozen Israeli fighter planes in just the first few days.

It was clear to the general public at the time that the Soviet Union was providing the weaponry, ammunition, intelligence, and military training to help the Arab and Islamic coalition destroy Israel, a key ally of the United States. What was not known publicly was the extent to which the Soviets were orchestrating the war behind the scenes and preparing to enter it directly.

By the second week of the war, the momentum had begun to shift. The Israelis had retaken the Golan Heights and were bombing Damascus. They had also retaken most of the Sinai Peninsula, crossed the Suez Canal, and had ground forces within a hundred kilometers of Cairo. By the third week, Moscow was under tremendous pressure from the entire Arab world not to let the Israelis humiliate Syrian president Hafez al-Assad or Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, so Moscow began to move. The Soviets began a massive airlift of arms and ammunition to their allies. The U.S., in turn, began a massive, round the clock airlift of arms and supplies to Israel.

On October 24 at around 10pm eastern time, the Soviet ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin, telephoned Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and dictated the text of a top secret message from Russian general secretary Leonid Brezhnev to President Richard Nixon. In the message, Brezhnev accussed Israel of refusing to abide by a ceasefire called by the UN Security Council and then issued a chilling threat: "I will say it straight: that if you find it impossible to act jointly with us in this matter, we should be faced with the necessity urgently to consider the question of taking appropriate steps unilaterally. We cannot allow arbitrariness on the part of Israel."

It was cloaked in the language of diplomats, but there it was: if the Nixon administration did not stop the Israelis from advancing and agree to send a joint Soviet-American ground force to the region to act as peacekeepers, the Soviets would send ground forces in "unilaterally."

Top U.S. officials in the White House and National Security Council were stunned as Brezhnev threatened to turn an already dangerous regional confrontation into an overt global showdown between East and West. What's more, they knew they would have no choice but to match any move by the Soviets to escalate the situation. Washington had to defend Israel or send a devastating message to her allies that the U.S. could not be counted on in a direct showdown with Russia.

And then the Soviets began to escalate. At least seven Soviet combat-ready airborne divisions in East Germany and elsewhere in Eastern Europe were put on alert and mobilized for immediate departure for the Middle East. Soviet tranport planes were positioned and prepped to insert these forces into the fight with Israel. Soviet warships moved into the Mediterranean.

The U.S., in turn, ordered its own military forces on alert. The Pentagon ordered U.S. nuclear forces to DEFCON 3, the highest state of peacetime readiness. The Joing Chiefs of Staff also ordered the 82nd Airborne Division to prepare to head to the Middle East. Additional U.S. naval forces--including another aircraft carrier---moved into the Mediterranean, all out of a real and rising conern that the Soviets were about to makea unprecedented military move against Israel.

Kissinger drafted for President Nixon (who was deeply embroiled in the Watergate scandal at the time) a reply that was sent to General Secretary Brezhnev on October 25. In the letter Nixon bluntly said to the Soviet leader that the U.S. had "no information which would indicate that the ceasefire is now being violated on any significant scale." He agreed to "take every effective step to guarantee the implementation of the ceasefire" and said the U.S. was working closely with Israel to bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

But he also warned that "in these circumstances, we must view your suggestion of unilateral action as a matter of the gravest concern involving incalculable consequences...(W)e could in no event accept unilateral (Soviet) action. This would be in violation of our understandings, of the agreed Principles we signed in Moscow in 1972, and of Article 2 of the Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War....Such action would produce incalculable consequences which would be in the interest of neither of our countries and which would end all we have striven so hard to achieve."

Nixon's firm letter, combined with the heightened American military posture, soon made it clear to Moscow that any move they made against Israel would be met with the full force of the United States. Within days, the Soviets backed off. Tensions began to defuse, and a full cease-fire was eventually achieved. Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 had the U.S. and Soviet Union come so close to the brink of nuclear war, and this time the motivating factor was a Russian leader's threat to attack Israel directly.

Yet for all that, Kissinger would remark to his top aides that the Soviet military "did not maneuver as provocatively as they did in 1967."

----

And we have a Hugo Chavez in our back yard. Makes one wonder if we maybe facing another Cuban missile crisis!

-- August 21, 2007 11:02 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura, could you SUMMARIZE your point(s), please?

Are you saying Putin is the antiChrist or is he the person depicted in the endtime prophecies concerning "the bear", according to your view?

What is the conclusion of your articles which you wish to discuss?
How does it affect the Middle East, and ultimately our investment (Iraq and the Dinar)?

Sara.

-- August 21, 2007 12:07 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Sara,

First, I am not saying that Putin is necessarily the anti-Christ. However, he is following the agenda of setting up alliances with various countries in the Middle East that the Bible outlines. His work is going to be very useful to the next leaders of Russian.

Second, it would appear that Russia is heading into a czar like dictatorship by moving away from democratic freedoms i.e., like elected officials, open press etc. The article is useful from Rosenberg, as it again gives us insight to declassified documents showing Russian intent to attack the Middle East for oil and the possible trade route of the Israelis. The Russians are again showing this military behavior.

Third, I would agree with Roger that the Russian do not have the up to date military hardware. However, I would not dismiss them--as this could be very dangerous. They have been using the Islamist, Moslems all along as bodies to fight a proxy war. Just as the Iranians are doing in Iraq. Militarily, I believe that the Soviets are providing the arms, military planning and advisors to the Arabs, Islamists/Moslems.

Fourth, we even see the possible intent of Russians willing to change religions for military reasons to become muslims. A statement to outright reject Christianity.

Sara, it maybe possible that the anti-Christ comes from Russia but I am unsure about this one. However, we do know that this person is going to be influencial in the European Union. I read somewhere, that one of the Russian politicians wanted to join this union for fear of having to stand up militariliy to China. I thought that interesting!

Fifth, the coalitions we have been noticing are designed to fight an economic war against freedom loving nations (not simply the U.S.).

Sixth, the coalitions are also designed to take over nations militarily if left unchecked.

---

Now you might ask, how does this affect the dinar?. Rosenberg also did another interview with Casper Weinberger and he asked him, if he thought Iran had a nuclear bomb as of yet? Weinberger (former Reagan defense secretary) believed that Iran already has the bomb. He believed this is why the Iranian President is being so provocative. I think, Bush thinks so too.

This reality (of Iran having nuclear weapons) will have a definate impact on the dinar and as you observed earlier, this situation is going to have to be dealt with soon. I am not suggesting that this is the end times war.

What I am suggesting is what Jesus said. He stated that men can judge the weather but do know know how to judge the seasons/times. I am simply making an observation, that we seem to be at a time in life---the beginning of biblical prophecy heading into the end times.

Let's not get blindsided by countries with evil plans and motivations for the spoils of war. Stay on the alert and watch!

Finally, war could break out in the Middle East and the way you invest your dinars such as a middle east banks could be very risky indeed, if this occurs.

Laura Parker

-- August 21, 2007 1:29 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Warka's Dinar Transfer Policy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear XXXXX,

Due to the large number of FedEx packages that are being sent from the USA tighter restrictions and controls will be placed by the Iraqi customs on the FedEx packages that are coming from the USA and to avoid the possibility of the packages being confiscated we recommend that clients deal with our US associate and VVIP client Mr. William Burbank who can assist our esteemed clients with their dinars through his company BB&M International.

By using BB&M International to transfer your Iraqi paper dinar into Iraq you do not break laws in either the US or in Iraq. BB&M is a licensed registered currency trading company in the US licensed with the US treasury and licensed and registered in Iraq as a finance business as well. They sell your dinar into dollars at spot in the Dubai currency market and wire the dollars directly into your account at Warka Bank for Investment and Finance. They use licensed, bonded and insured couriers from Titan Security company a company licensed by US Department of Justice to courier the notes to Dubai. This complies with all laws in both countries and allows you to safely hold your existing position in the Iraqi dinar in an Iraqi institution.

For further information please contact Mr. Burbank at the following email address: bbm@onebox.com

If clients still choose and prefer to send funds by FedEx they will be doing so at their own personal risk.

Best Regards,

Deputy Managing Director
International Affairs
__________________
.

-- August 21, 2007 1:40 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inflation Measure Decrease of Past July

Inflation measure decreased for last July as were recorded in last June as the general standard number reflected for the consumer prices in 3,2%.

A source at planning ministry said that, the static's central body and information technology carried out the report of the inflation for July which accounted on the basic of collecting the statements fields about the price of the goods and the formed services for the consumers basket of the retail in a collecting markets in Baghdad and the provinces which showed inflation measure decrease last month resulted in the standard number for the foodstuffs, fabrics, clothes, shoes, furniture, fuels, lighting, and transporting, pointing that the agreement on these collections formed 83,0 % from the family consumer spending.

Inflation Measure Decrease of Past July | Iraq Updates
__________________

-- August 21, 2007 2:03 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

IMF advises Iraq to shore up reconstruction, oil investment

For the first time in 25 years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Iraq to increase the pace of reconstruction and investment, mainly in the oil sector.

"Directors commended the Iraqi authorities for keeping their economic programme on track by strengthening economic policies and making progress in structural reforms, de****e an unsettled political situation and a very difficult security environment," said the IMF in a statement Tuesday summarizing its Executive Board assessment on Iraq's economic performance.

"The expansion of oil production is lagging, and that inflation, while on a downward path, remains high, reflecting in large part continued shortages, notably of fuel products," added the statement.

After a decline in oil production in 2005, economic growth was estimated at nearly 6 per cent in 2006, while maintaining an average annual crude oil production of two million barrels per day since 2004.

The IMF urged the Iraqi authorities to "strengthen the protection of oil installations" and welcomed Baghdad's decision to raise the fuel price to the regional level to avoid direct subsidies on fuel products.

Inflation in Iraq is at 46 per cent in June 2007, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) allowed the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar to appreciate by 15 per cent and the CBI's gross domestic reserves increased to USD 18.7 billion by end of last year.

The Executive Board praised the Iraqi government's fiscal policy in 2007, calling on the CBI to "stand ready to accelerate the pace of appreciation and tighten monetary conditions further if inflation deviates from its downward path and dollarization is not reduced as expected".

"Key to fighting inflation would be to continue restraining public spending pressures and stepping up efforts to reduce shortages, especially by actively supporting private sector fuel imports," added the statement.

This consultation, taking over two years to culminate, advised the Iraqi government to "streamline the tax system with a view to expanding the tax base and improving incentives for economic activity", improve public transparency and accountability, and restructure the banking system.

The IMF linked economic improvement to security condition in Iraq and encouraged Iraq's effort to join the World Trade Organisation (WHO).

IMF advises Iraq to shore up reconstruction, oil investment | Iraq Updates
__________________

-- August 21, 2007 2:16 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Leaflets Said to Warn of Iran Move into North Iraq
http://pukmedia.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=722&Itemid=1

-- August 21, 2007 2:20 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

I have another question, Why would it be in other countries and Arab interest to help Russia establish it's new borders, if Russia thrusted south to the Mediterrean and to the Indian Ocean?.

This was a point that Zhirinovsky made from his book.

Laura Parker

-- August 21, 2007 2:20 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura;

Interesting perspective, thank you. :)

Time magazine, in partnership with CNN, put out an article three days ago which says, quote:

Prelude to an Attack on Iran
By Robert Baer
Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007

Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities. An awe and shock campaign, lite, if you will. But frankly they're guessing; after Iraq the White House trusts no one, especially the bureaucracy.

As with Saddam and his imagined WMD, the Administration's case against the IRGC is circumstantial. The U.S. military suspects but cannot prove that the IRGC is the main supplier of sophisticated improvised explosive devices to insurgents killing our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most sophisticated version, explosive formed projectiles or shape charges, are capable of penetrating the armor of an Abrams tank, disabling the tank and killing the crew.

A former CIA explosives expert who still works in Iraq told me: "The Iranians are making them. End of story." His argument is only a state is capable of manufacturing the EFP's, which involves a complicated annealing process. Incidentally, he also is convinced the IRGC is helping Iraqi Shi'a militias sight in their mortars on the Green Zone. "The way they're dropping them in, in neat grids, tells me all I need to know that the Shi'a are getting help. And there's no doubt it's Iranian, the IRGC's," he said.

A second part of the Administration's case against the IRGC is that the IRGC has had a long, established history of killing Americans, starting with the attack on the Marines in Beirut in 1983. And that's not to mention it was the IRGC that backed Hizballah in its thirty-four day war against Israel last year. The feeling in the Administration is that we should have taken care of the IRGC a long, long time ago.

Strengthening the Administration's case for a strike on Iran, there's a belief among neo-cons that the IRGC is the one obstacle to a democratic and friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. And what do we do if just the opposite happens — a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this Administration. There will be an attack on Iran."

— Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1654188,00.html

Quite obviously, this would indeed change things for our Dinar investment. As I intimated previously, it would be better for the situation if the Iraqi economy were on the upswing and stabilizing, rather than in the shambles it now finds itself. Heaping one crisis upon another is not a wise thing to do, in my view. The upward valuation of the Dinar (not holding it down artificially) would be a great help in bringing about help in that direction. I believe that the wisest way to proceed would be for the Dinar to have its upward valuation and begin the process toward economic repair before the attack becomes necessary against Iran.

As for "not considering" what would happen IF the Iranians unifed behind the regime.. how come the press thinks that the US runs scenerios for every situation that could happen militarily.. except for one which would be brought directly to bear upon an intentionally planned move? Do they really think the military are that lazy or stupid? Or do they think that they are the only ones who could possibly discern that this COULD be one possibility.. however remote? I am always amazed at the professed intellectual superiority those who write for the MSM think they have over military commanders whose training and jobs do encompass running such scenerios. I also marvel that such people think they have greater acumen than the people now calling the shots in the Whitehouse. Their pride is only matched by their expectation of public gullibilty and congratulation to them for pointing out such "defects".. but even public gullibility has its limits if they think they can hoodwink what they consider to be the degree infested but braindead masses into believing such utter crud.

Sara.

-- August 21, 2007 4:36 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Iraq

Information on sending a shipment to Iraq


Prohibited Commodities

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View Standard DHL prohibitions
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(Require a DHL Air Waybill) Commodities where you should contact your local customer service Department to clarify shipping requirements.

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-- August 21, 2007 5:49 PM ∞

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Sara wrote:

And a further interview of the same author as my previous post, with video from FOX's America's Newsroom which seems to indicate that the strike won't be of such a scale so as to be an interference in the fortunes of the Dinar. Plans so far say it would be quick and will not involve troops on the ground.
Quote:

Former CIA officer: US to attack Iran within 6 months
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday August 21, 2007

Fox News asked former CIA field officer Bob Baer on Tuesday whether the US is "gearing up for a military strike on Iran." Baer has written a column for Time indicating that Washington officials expect an attack within the next six months.

"I've taken an informal poll inside the government," Baer told Fox. "The feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." His Time column also suggested that "as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities."

Baer explained that what his sources anticipate is "not exactly a war." He said the administration is convinced "that the Iranians are interfering in Iraq and the rest of the Gulf" but that "if there is an attack on Iran it would be very quick, it would be a warning."

"We won't see American troops cross the border. ... If this is going to happen, it's going to happen very quickly and it's going to surprise a lot of people," said Baer. "I hope I'm wrong frankly, but we're going to see."

The following video is from Fox's America's Newsroom, broadcast on August 21: see url below

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Former_CIA_agent_US_to_attack_0821.html

-- August 21, 2007 9:40 PM ∞

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Steven wrote:

Rob N,

This is the from another site, and is the answer you want from Mr I at Warka,

This information is entirely false and we happily invite foreigners to invest in our bank as we strongly believe that they represent a big part of our bank and a leading factor behind its continuous success and groth.

We will continue to serve our esteemed foreign clients the best ensuring they receive better banking servces and care than that received at home.

Warka is your bank and that of all our foreign clients.

Best regards,
Mr. I.
Deputy Managing Director
International Affairs.

Yoo know as well as I do we get some plums that come on and say a load of B-S

I like a brain dead dum dum, sent some money by wire via the german bank, and I forgot to put my account number on it, so I sent an Email to Mr I. with what info and numbers I had, and told him I would leave it in his most capable hands, and I got an Email from him saying he has got it and has put it into my dinar account, it was for $1,278 that got me 1,585,998 dinars, so I now have a balance of 4,450,111, earning 11% and about 2,000,000 shares

The Arab world likes paper money and not coins, hence they had a half dinar and a quarter dinar
as walking around in your night shirt not a lot of room for coins.

like I said you can have cash dinars in your hand, cash in an Iraqi bank and cash in the ISX, like a three horse race and I have bet on all three, you have just bet on the one, nothing wrong with that, I went in the ISX as it looked like it would make money before the dinar is RVd.

If you have any probs send an email to, Mr I. ifrd@warksinvestmentbank.com he is a good egg

For a good read try, http://www.oilvoice.com/petrel_resources_review_of_operations_iniraq_and_jord...

Have a nice day and stay lucky, Steve.

-- August 21, 2007 9:58 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Sorry, just go on the, oilvoice.com

-- August 21, 2007 10:08 PM ∞

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Steven wrote:

All,

I am sure I will be put right, if any of this is not right.

The garden of Eden was in Iraq

Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the cradle of civilization

Noah built the ark in Iraq

The Tower of Babel was in Iraq

Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq

Isaacs wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq

Jacob met Rachel in Iraq

Jonah preached in Nineveh, which is in Iraq

Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel

Amos cried out in Iraq

Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem

Daniel was in the lions den in Iraq, (Jesus had also been in Iraq
as the forth person in the Fiery Furnace)

Belshazzar, the king of Babylon saw the, writing on the wall

Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq

Ezekiel preached in Iraq

The wise men were from Iraq

Peter preached in Iraq

The Empire of Man, described in Revelation is called Babylon, which was a city in Iraq

Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible, who is second, Iraq
However, that is not the name used in the Bible.
The names used in the Bible are, Babylon, Land of the Shinar, and Mesopotamia, which means between the two rivers more exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

The name Iraq, means country with deep roots

Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible

No other nation, except Israel, has more history and prophecy associated with it than Iraq

This was from the same guy who sent me the bit about America with the eagle and Saddam ect.

Have a nice day and stay lucky, Steve.

-- August 21, 2007 10:38 PM ∞

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Laura Parker wrote:

Sara,

Thank you for the information on the news articles. However, I believe they are wrong on the extent of the hit on Iran.

The U.S. may hit the revoluntary guard as suggested in these articles.

However, I believe the main objective of President Bush is going to be to hit the Nuclear facilities in Iran. Why would President Bush be requesting Bonker Busting Bombs from congress? This is not to go after the guard.

Laura Parker

-- August 21, 2007 11:13 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

1967: THE KREMLIN PREPARES FOR WAR -ROSENBERG-EPICENTER CONT'D:

War clouds had been building for months. The Israelis found themselves increasingly surrounded by Soviet-backed forces of the Arab and Islamic world, all of whose leaders were vowing to "throw the Jews into the sea" and the Israelis were considering striking first. The element of surprise might be their only hope of survival, they figured. But President Lyndon Johnson had warned Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol in no uncertain terms that such a move would be a serious mistake.

As historian Michael B. Oren noted in his highly praised book Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Johnson sent a secret message to Eskhol, saying, "It is essential that Israel not take any preemptive military action and thereby make itself responsible for he initiation of hostilities. Preemptive action by Israel would make it impossible for the friends of Israel to stand at your side." Oren noted that Johnson specifically "warned of the possibility of direct Soviet intervention.

Marshal Andrei Antonovich Grechko, the Soviet deputy defense minister, had told his Egyptian counterparts in Cairo that the Kremlin had dispatched "destroyers and submarines to the waters near Egypt, some armed with missiles and secret weapons" to help wipe out the Zionists. One of Israel's top experts on Soviet foreign policy told Israeli Defense Forces intelligence that "the USSR would muster all it's influence and power to maintain its Middle East position." When asked if the Soviets would intervene directly, the expert replied, "Of course." Soviet premier Aleksey Kosygin, meanwhile, sent a cable to Prime Minister Eshkol, warning "If the Israeli Government insists on taking upon itself the responsibility for the outbreak of armed confrontation then it will pay the full price of such an action."

But at 8:44am on the morning of June 5, 1967, Eshkol sent an urgent message back to President Johnson informing him that the it was too late. War had begun.

Explaining his rationale for the preemptive strike Israel had just launched, Eshkol wrote:

After weeks in which our peril has grown day by day, we are now engaged in repelling the aggression which (Egyptian president) Nasser had been building up against us. Israel's existence and integrity have been endangered. The provocative (Arab) troop concentrations in Sinai, now amounting to five infantry and two armored divisions; the placing of more that 900 tanks against our southern frontier;...the illegal blockade of the Straits of Tiran;...the imminent introduction of MiG-21 aircraft under Iraqi command (into the theater); Nasser's announcement of "total war against Israel" and of his basic aim to annihilate Israel...All of this amounts to an extraordinary catalogue of aggression, abhorred and condemned by the world opinion and in your great country and amongst all peace-loving nations.

Eshkol also noted that three Israeli towns had been bombed that morning by Arab forces, citing these as the last straws that led to war. He thanked Johnson for America's support and expressed hope that "our small nation can count on the fealty and resolution of its greatest friend." But he also had a request: that the U.S. "prevent the Soviet Union from exploiting and enlarging the conflict" at this, Israel's greatest "hour of danger."

"Eshkol knew and feared the Russians," noted Michael Oren. "War with Syria (and Egypt) was risky enough; with the USSR, it would be suicidal." But Eshkol calculated that without U.S. support, the Soviets would find themselves compelled to get involved directly. Moscow had "invested massively in the Middle East, about 2 billion in military aid alone--1700 tanks, 2400 artillery pieces, 500 jets, and 1400 advisers--since 1956, some 43 percent of it to Egypt.

Sure enough, as the Israelis demolished the forces of the Arab coalition over the next three days and captured the Sinai, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights, reunified the holy city of Jerusalem, and began an offensive against Damascus, Moscow saw itself staring into the face of a geopolitical disaster. Those were Soviet-made arms being seized and distroyed. Those were billions of dollars in Soviet funding to their Arab client states being poured down the drain. And--it would later be learned by the U.S. and Israeli intelligence--the Egyptian war plan itself (code named Operation Conqueror) had actually been written in 1966 by the Soviets. As a result, the Soviets feared their prestige was quickly unraveling.

U.S. intelligence was already picking up signs of this fear in the Kremlin. In the "President's Daily Brief" on June 9, for example, the CIA informed President Johnson that "the Soviets are finding it hard to conceal their shock over the rapid Egyptian military collapse. A Soviet official (identity still classified) could not understand 'how our intelligence could have been so wrong.' He asked desparingly, 'How could we have gotten into such a mess?'"

So the Kremlin decided to dramatically up the ante.

On June 10, at 8:48am Washington time, Soviet premier Aleksey Kosygin used the "hotline" to call President Johnson in the White House Situation Room. His message was as blunt as it was unnerving: "A very crucial moment has now arrived which force use, if (Israeli) military action are stopped in the next few hours, to adopt an independent decision. We are ready to do this. However, these actions may bring us into a clash which will lead to a grave catastrophe...We propose that you demand from Israel that it is not fulfilled, necessary actions will be taken, including military."

The Soviets quickly broke off diplomatic relations with Israel, and the Soviet-bloc government of Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria soon followed.

CIA Director Richard Helms would later recall that the conversations in the Situation Room for the next several hours were in "the lowest voices he had ever heard in a meeting of that kind" and that "the atmosphere was tense" as the president and his most senior military, diplomatic, and intelligence advisors contemplated the possibilty of a direct Soviet strike at Israel.

Johnson, a devoted friend of Israel and an ardent anti-Communist, was not prepared to kowtow to Moscow or let Israel be destroyed. He immediately ordered the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterrean to turn around--it was heading west toward the Strait of Gibraltar--and steam toward Israel as a show of solidarity and to warn the Soviets not to get directly involved.

He did the right thing, for according to Isabella Ginor, a Russian born correspondent for the BBC World Service and other international news services, "new evidence reveals that the Soviets were indeed posied to attack Israel...and had been preparing for such a mission all along."

On June 10,2000--thirty-third anniversary of Kosygin's ominous hotline threat to Nixon--Ginor published an article in The Guardian (London) entitled "How the Six Day War Almost Led to Armageddon: New Evidence of the 1967 Soviet Plan to Invade Israel Shows How Close the World Came to Nuclear Conflict." In December of that year, she published a longer and more detailed article in the Middle East Review of International Affairs entitled "The Russians Were Coming: The Soviet Military Threat in the 1967 Six-Day War." In these and other articles, she quoted Soviet military officials who paint a fragmentary but still disturbing picture of the attack that was being prepared.

Ginor noted that "in his recently published memoirs, Nikita S. Khruschev asserts that the USSR's military command first encouraged high-ranking Egyptian and Syrian delegations, in a series of 'hush-hush' mutual visits, to go to war, then persuaded the Soviet political leadership to support these steps, in full knowledge they were aimed at starting a war to destroy Israel."

Soviet acting defense minister Andrei A. Grechko and KGB Chairman Yuri V. Andropov, meanwhile, "were pressing for the immediate dispatch of Soviet forces to the Middle East." Retired Soviet air force lieutenant Yuri V. Nastenko confirmed in 1998 that bomber and fighter jets, such as the MiG-21s that were under his command, were put on full operational alert on the evening of June 5, 1967, and that he was convinced this was in prepartion for "real combat."

Yuri N. Khripunkov, a former Soviet naval officer who was serving on one thirty Soviet warships that had been moved from the Black Sea southward to the Mediterranean in June 1967, told Ginor that he and his colleagues were preparing to unleash Soviet forces onto the Israeli mainland. His own platoon, he said, was "ordered to penetrate Haifa--Israel's main commercial harbor and naval base." Russian professor Alexsandr K. Kislov, who was stationed in the Middle East in 1967, told Ginor that the strike force the Soviets had prepared for insertion into Israel included "desant (landing) ships with well-prepared marines."

Some respected historians and diplomats have disputed the notion that the Soviets were planning to attack Israel in 1967. But while the evidence available from declassified documents and interviews with direct participates may not yet be conclusive, it is compelling. What's more, Soviet premier Kosygin's threat of direct military intervention into the 1967 was with Israel alone stands as chilling evidence of Moscow's historic and recent animus toward the Jewish state--as as a warning of things to come.

---end of chapter---

I have given the history of Russia's threat to middle east to show that this threat has been ungoing. In 1991, Russia's economy collapse. Since then, the Russians have been trying to recover. I did a little research and found that Russia's economic budget is composed of: 55% natural gas; 19% oil; 6% Hydro energy; 5% nuclear; and 16% coal. Russian has the larges natural gas reserves.

Russia's economy in my own opinion, could probably recover, if Russia was not providing arms out of her national economy because of it's current foreign policy. While it is true that Russia's economy is vulernable to the rise and fail of natural gas and oil, Russia could be pursuing other industries to get cash reserves.

Russia's continued foreign policy of forming alliances with terrorist organizations, Arab/Moslems and in particular Iran is most troubling.

Laura Parker

-- August 22, 2007 9:18 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

The Kurdish miracle

Haaretz - By Zvi Bar'el

ERBIL, NORTHERN IRAQ - All the important people in Iraqi Kurdistan can be found in the Charwa Chra hotel restaurant, in the center of Erbil. The director-general of the new airport; the communications minister, there with his family; senior officials from the Kurdish government; and some rich Iraqis who have found temporary refuge in the hotel, until they decide whether to invest in Kurdistan or continue on to some European country. Rawand Darwesh, a senior Kurdish official, and Hamin Hassan, who was partner to the civilian social revolution in Kurdistan, are among the guests.

Darwesh was a member of the first group of outstanding students who received a Fulbright scholarship to study for a year in the United States. When he returned home, he quickly became involved in government activity. Hamin Hassan helped found the institute for human and civil rights in Kurdistan, in 2002, and later went to specialize in election supervision, in Jordan.

"Here the parliament has passed a law that stipulates that any murder is a murder," Hassan says. "There is no longer leniency for murdering women in the pretext of preserving family honor. This is not Iraq, where people who murder over family honor enjoy special privileges under the law. Moreover, our prime minister has called for setting up a hotline at police stations for abused women."

The police academy has begun accepting female cadets to assist women and victims of domestic violence. "They have an address here," Hassan says. But when he says "here," he is referring to the region of Kurdistan, which so far has only three sub-districts - Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimaniya. Residents hope that by next November, if and when a referendum is held, another three sub-districts will join the district. "This is not the Iraqi government," says Hassan. "I am referring only to the Kurdish law."

This is the heart of Iraq's anomaly. The Kurdish region is run as if it were a completely independent state. The Kurdish flag flies over the huge parliament building, not the Iraqi flag. At night, lights in the shape of the Kurdish flag light the streets of Erbil. The Iraqi flag cannot be seen here, and people even decline to use Arabic, the official language of the state.

A friend of Darwesh's explains that the Iraqis, particularly the Shi'ites, still consider the Kurds to be Israeli allies, even though Israel turned them a cold shoulder more than three decades ago. "One day, while traveling north from Baghdad, we were stopped at a Shi'ite roadblock," his friend says. "Three of the passengers said they were headed for Mosul. The fourth said, by mistake, that he was going to Erbil. The Shi'ite guard shouted out to his commander: 'Three of them are okay. One is going to Israel.' As you can understand, they consider Erbil Israel, because it is the capital of the Kurdish district."

At the table, laden with Kurdish delicacies, the conversation returns to women and human rights. "We still have a long way to go in this respect," Hassan says. "We have to educate an entire nation to new principles - particularly those outlying villages, which have fewer western influences."

Hassan, who was a Peshmerga fighter and an announcer on the underground Kurdish television network, admits that even he sometimes finds it difficult to live by all those new values he preaches. "If my sister wants to marry someone of a lower standing, less worthy of her, I'll try to persuade her, perhaps pressure her, to accept my values. Our women received freedom too quickly, as if in an explosion," he says.

Two days later, Abdel Salaam Barwary explains the problem. Barwary is one of Iraq's most influential analysts, the former bureau head for Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, and currently the director of the Kurdish center for advancing democracy and human rights. "People want to know whether democracy means we will lose all our old values, if it means we will lose control of our wives and daughters, if democracy means sexual freedom," he says. "We still have a great deal of work to do in this field, particularly given that some of our ministers do not exactly understand what we are doing and are not exactly convinced that this is the best thing for the Kurdish state."

In my prior trips to Kurdistan between 1995 and 2004, there were no conversations of this type. The excitement generated by the war and the victory over Saddam Hussein, the relative quiet, the still-"reasonable" number of dead for a war, and especially the uncertain future all led to questions and conversations about physical survival and livelihood. This kicked off the gradual process of commemoration and remembering. People felt the fight was over, victory was assured and the Kurds were on their way to a state of their own - or at least to taking a healthy bite out of the Iraqi regime that tried to destroy them.

Now, things look totally different. The signs of a revolution are evident at the border crossing between Turkey and Iraq. The long lines of trucks, stretching for kilometers, are not waiting to enter Iraq to smuggle out oil. Instead, they bear bags of cement, building iron, food products, textiles, electronics - everything a rehabilitating country needs. These goods will not reach Baghdad or Basra. The trucks will stop at the new stores in the Kurdish district, at Erbil's glittering New City commercial center, or by the cranes building the "Italian colony" or the "English village" - single-family homes slated for rich locals or foreigners.

Traffic at the crossing moves quickly and efficiently - so long as the computer does not break down for an hour (like when we were supposed to get a stamp allowing us to cross into Iraq) or if the clerk does not take another hour-long lunch break. That, after all, is acceptable in Europe, and a country that aspires to be part of Europe must ensure its clerks have a suitable lunch break.

We finally receive our two stamps, and a minute later, we cross into Kurdish Iraq. We hear the same questions we heard last time: "How can we visit Israel? Is there work for us there? Do only Jews get entry visas to Israel?" The transit station director has friends in Israel, immigrants from Duhok. He would very much like to visit them, but does not know how to get a visa. Here, Israel is considered a land of dreams. We later learn that not only Israel, but also the Israelis - at least the Jewish Israelis - are viewed here as superior entities.

Economic boom

The trip from the border crossing to Erbil takes three hours. The temperature outside is above 40 degrees Celsius, but our air conditioning is effective. We sit back, watching the small commercial centers that have sprouted up over the past two years in the town of Zakho , on the way to Duhok. Shomal, a customs employee who drives me along Duhok's main road, explains how prices have risen. Three years ago, a dunam plot in Duhok sold for $1,000-$5,000. Now, 200-meter apartments can sell for $150,000, while private homes cost as much as $300,000.

Rich Iraqis fleeing the war and Kurds from abroad are buying these houses, Shomal says. But there are also local residents who have earned a lot of money in this economic boom, and can afford the houses, too. The growth is evident on the outskirts of Erbil, where new clusters of single-family homes have popped up. "All of the houses were bought before the building began and now people are searching for new plots to build on," says Darwesh, who bought a large apartment in one of the beautiful towers next to the Italian Colony.

The buildings in this neighborhood are not yet finished. There are many building foundations and frames, stylized steel balustrades, and a few touches of finishing. But the purchasers are not worried. The company has promised that the apartments will be ready in a few months. This economic boom becomes even more amazing to behold when one remembers that in Kurdistan, like the rest of Iraq, there is no such thing as a mortgage or a bank loan. Everything here is bought in cash. Iraqi dinars that are worth 1,200 to the dollar - houses, cars, trips, furniture. You cannot pay by check, credit card or bank order.

It is hard to say how prices compare here. A new Land Cruiser sells for a mere $30,000, but the New City supermarket has European-level prices. Ice cream costs $1, but a meal at a middle-class restaurant can cost as much as $25 per person - almost five times more than it did three years ago.

Erbil district governor Nawzad Hadi Maulud says the main problem facing his region is electricity. An electrical engineer by training, the governor finishes work at 9 P.M. Some of the region's electricity comes from Turkey, which sometimes cuts the current on a political whim. Other suppliers include small stations set up by the government, but these are too small, and too far from the city. Most of Erbil's electricity comes from private generators.

People do not pay for the state-supplied electricity. "How can I charge money for a bad service?" the governor says. "After all, I can provide electricity for only a limited number of hours per day. First I have to prove that I can provide excellent service, and only then can I begin collecting money for it. The main problem is that I have to deal with the memories of the Saddam Hussein era. His administration provided very good services for free or cheap. Now, if I provide a service that is not very good, people will compare it with what they had during that period, and conclude there is no good reason to pay for it."

All municipal services - medical services, university education, water, sewage and more - are free. However, in this state where the government provides everything for nothing, there are no welfare services or national insurance. There are also no health maintenance organizations. But most of all, there are no bank fees - because there are no banks. Life is carried out in cash, and businesses use banks in Turkey or Jordan.

"We do not have a real infrastructure for business," says an adviser to Barzani, the regional president. "There is money but there is no strategic thinking. We aspire for a well-balanced and independent economy, and the Kurdish region has adopted an excellent investment law. We have a great deal to offer investors, especially security and tranquility, but meanwhile, everything is being conducted in a tribal fashion, with written notes."

If the building impetus one can see here is the result of written notes, one could imagine how far Kurdistan could get with an organized administration.
(http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc082007BZ.html)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 22, 2007 9:51 AM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

DNO says two Tawke wells confirm oil deposits

Norwegian independent oil producer DNO said two new wells at its Tawke field in northern Iraq have both confirmed oil deposits.
(www.noozz.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 22, 2007 9:53 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

US 'frustrated' at situation in southern Iraq: general 45 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) - The United States is frustrated at the deteriorating security situation in southern Iraq, a retired senior US general said Wednesday amid continued talk about a British pull-out from the region.

ADVERTISEMENT

In an interview on BBC radio, General Jack Keane, a former vice-chief of staff of the US Army, agreed with recent media reports that Washington was dissatisfied at the increased violence in and around the port city of Basra.

"There is some frustration with the troops being out at the airport primarily training the Iraqi 10th division and not as engaged as they had been in the past in what is taking place in central Basra and the surrounding communities," said Keane, who was an adviser to the US Iraq Study Group.

"They have never had enough forces to truly protect the people, a mission similar to what the coalition forces are taking on in Baghdad. But I think there is a general disengagement from what the key issues are around Basra.

"I would imagine that's where the source of frustration is."

Britain has about 5,500 troops currently based at Basra Airport and Basra Palace, although the small contingent at the latter is due to move out within weeks.

There are plans to reduce numbers by 500 in the coming months but Prime Minister Gordon Brown has resisted calls for an immediate withdrawal.

Brown is expected to make a statement on British involvement in Iraq when parliament returns in October and after a report by US General David Petraeus to Congress in Washington on the progress of this year's US troop "surge".

The surge saw 30,000 extra US troops sent to Iraq from January to quell bloody sectarian violence in and around Baghdad.

Many British newspapers in recent weeks have focused on the increasing number of daily mortar attacks on Basra airport, amid concern at mounting British death and casualty rates.

They have also carried anonymous quotes attributed to US officials expressing concern at the situation in the south.

Keane, who recently returned from Iraq, suggested that there was a case to say that neither the British nor the Americans have had sufficient troops in the troubled Gulf state to be effective.

Asked whether that was a military or political failure, he said it was a combination of both as well as a general lack of ground troops to face the challenges of the 21st century.

US military commanders were keen to avoid sending reinforcements to Basra but that was a possibility if the security situation did not improve if and when the British pulled out, he added.
(www.news.yahoo.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 22, 2007 9:59 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura;

Perhaps it may be the Revolutionary Guard who are WITHIN Iraq that will be hit:

Iran Threatens military operations inside Iraqi Kurdistan
(Voice of Iraq) - 22-08-2007

Demanded the release of Kurdish villages

Irbil d b a : Iranian authorities asked residents of border villages in Iraq's Kurdistan region evacuate their villages to avoid any losses incurred as a result of military operations by land, air intends Iranian forces carried out during the coming days against the Kurdish fighters who oppose the Tehran government.

This came in the Kurdish language publication distributed Monday night in the border areas near the Choman northeast of the city of Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan and got German news agency (d. B. A) a copy of it.

He said the publication : to our enemies, especially America trying to disrupt the security situation in our country (Iran) and aided by the range of clients in the Qandil and Khunera (within the territory of Kurdistan), and will operate authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran to cleanse the region of whom.

The leaflet telling villagers border saying : To restore security and stability in the border areas will Iranian forces military operations land and air in the region to pursue customers and ask you to move away from the area of operations sake of your safety.

For his part, said the official spokesman for the government in Kurdistan Jamal Abdullah correspondent (d. B. A) Kurdish authorities have not yet confirmed whether the Iranian authorities are already published the letter because it did not bear the signature of any.

The spokesman added Kurdish saying But if the letter had been issued by the Iranian authorities, we believe that the Iranian forces in any military operations inside the territory of Kurdistan does not serve the interests of security and stability in the region will be accepted by the Iraqi government.

The Iranian forces and then, shelling the border areas in Kurdistan Iraq under the pretext of the existence of Hezbollah fighters life free Kurdistan, of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party in Ankara, there. The Iranian bombardment during the past few days has led to the events of considerable material damage border villages and the displacement of more than A person from the people of these villages.

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sotaliraq.com%2F&langpair=ar%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

I think I mentioned before about a further escalation of war.

Sara.

-- August 22, 2007 12:00 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Bush: History to prove Iraq war worth it
President cites South Korea and Vietnam as examples
Aug 22, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - President Bush wants a nation running short on patience with the Iraq war to take a long view, comparing it to U.S. involvements in Asia that lost popular backing but eventually proved their worth and led to lasting peace.

"The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq," Bush said in advance excerpts of a Wednesday speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"The defense strategy that refused to hand the South Koreans over to a totalitarian neighbor helped raise up an Asian Tiger that is a model for developing countries across the world, including the Middle East," Bush said.

Bush often uses historical comparisons in urging patience on Iraq, but White House aides hope a specific focus on Asia will get skeptics to rethink their positions on Iraq and get beyond the daily, violent setbacks there.

Bush even cites Vietnam as a cautionary tale for those urging troop withdrawals today.

"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left," Bush said. "Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields.'"

Bush's speech at the VFW is the first in a planned two-punch combo.

After comparing the current war against extremists with the militarists of Japan and the communists in Korea and Vietnam in Wednesday's speech, he plans to discuss the war in Iraq in the context of its implications for the broader Middle East in a speech next Tuesday at the annual American Legion convention in Reno, Nev.

In the aftermath of Japan's surrender, many thought it was naive to help the Japanese transform themselves into a democracy, Bush will tell the VFW conventioneers. He said critics also complained when America intervened to save South Korea from communist invasion. And in Vietnam, Bush said, people argued that the real problem was the U.S. presence there, "and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end."

"The advance of freedom in these lands should give us confidence that the hard work we are doing in the Middle East can have the same results we have seen in Asia - if we show the same perseverance and sense of purpose," Bush said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20387818/

-- August 22, 2007 12:20 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Interesting note in this article, below...

Iraq's Prime Minister Rebuffs U.S. Criticism
NPR.org, August 22, 2007

[...]

Bush's statement on Tuesday was a marked change in tone from his endorsement of al-Maliki in November 2006 at a meeting in Jordan as "the right guy for Iraq."

In recent months, Bush has continually prodded al-Maliki to do more to forge political reconciliation before the temporary U.S. military buildup ends. But his statements Tuesday were the sharpest he has made about whether the Iraqi prime minister will survive.

"The fundamental question is, Will the government respond to the demands of the people?" Bush said. "And, if the government doesn't demand - or respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government. That's up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians."

Al-Maliki has faced numerous defections from his ruling coalition in recent months. Nevertheless, it is unclear that any group has the political leverage to push him aside and put in place a new government.

Ousting al-Maliki would require a majority vote in the 275-member Iraqi parliament. As long as the Kurdish parties and the main Shiite bloc stand beside al-Maliki, his opponents lack the votes to do that.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13861513&ft=1&f=1004

It seems that there are those who are demanding the government of Maliki respond to certain demands, and unless he does so, "they will replace the government." This must mean that there is a real way in which there could be a swing in the vote so as to topple the majority vote into ousting Maliki. Perhaps the litmus test for these votes is whether Maliki can deliver on certain laws passing which prove progress is possible... such as the oil law?

Sara.

-- August 22, 2007 12:56 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Dear Mr. XXXXX

There is no need to be upset and this procedure was simply to assist
our clients in ensuring that there funds arrive safely to their accounts at
our bank. You are still entitled to send your funds by FedEx this was
just a recommendation and you are free to choose the way in which you send
your funds.

Best and kind regards,

Deputy Managing Director
International Affairs

-- August 22, 2007 1:10 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

The following is posted on another forum. How about commenting its validity, if any.
____________________________________________________________
Possible Connection between RV and Contracting Costs????

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have seen a lot of threads regarding the RV being connected tothe HCL, security, etc. I'm an independent contractor in Baghdad. I have experienced the increase in pricing of what we provide for the coalition due to the lower exchange of the dinar. The closer the dinar gets to 1:1, the higher the cost of the war. Could it be that the political arrangements would include slowing down the increased value of the dinar so that what costs the equivalent of $100 today, won't be $1000 tomorrow?

As a business manager, I fear this time arriving. We already have financial pains with certain contracts we established when the dinar exchange was better. Can you imagine the craziness with the approved budget from Congress if everything from the local market here were to drastically change in value to the forces, just because the dinar value changed? We cannot establish a stable price list now, because prices from the Iraqi's change with the wind. Many of them tell us, "Oh, the dinar value went down 1 dinar. We now have to charge this much more." Of course, the difference is not appropriate. So much time is spent constantly getting new prices on things we get frequently. We have adapted to this, but I don't know if we could adapt to a drastic/overnight increase in a dinar value.

I can't help but feel that the cost of the war is part of, or the core reason behind the slow drop in the dinar value. Why? Because we all know that logically, the economy would flourish beyond the dreams of Iraqi's if the dinar value were better. No need for Iraqi's to turn to killing each other for money, or the IPs stealing it from everyone at the checkpoints. We wouldn't get shaken down at the airports either. Instead, it gets pinned on "security". Security would improve! So, this is no excuse or reason. The delays in the laws and such don't make sense either. If it were up to the Iraqi's, they probably would just love to see something implemented and agree to work out the kinks later.

In the meantime, we'll continue to plod along with the constant changes

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 22, 2007 5:56 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

Thanks for all the info, I have followed your recommendation and took step ONE, and asked for the procedures on the e-mail addresses you provided, no reply yet, but I know that they are overwhelmed over there.

I must say that at first I was a bit worried about the proxy ownership of the shares, but found out that you can actually get the shares in your own name and have the stock certificates either sent to you, or to be held at Warka.

Ownership of stocks in proxy, IS the most commonly form of owning stocks, and is a world wide acceptance.

Don't know what you have in the UK, but over here we have something called a 401K.

It's a retirement fund most employees are setting up and some portion of the pay is deposited into the account.

The fund is owned by investor companies, and there are many plans available.

I'm pretty sure that even though you have a more solid government retirement program than here in the US, that you have some similar retirement funds over there.

When buying into one of those funds, you never get a certificate of ownership of the stocks, you are holding them in proxy.

What you get is a statement on how good or bad your fund, or funds, are doing, and how much it have payed out, and how much you now have in your account.

So it is not a source for concern. I did found out though that you have a choice of either holding it in proxy, or getting a certificate of ownership.

I would probably get a certificate of ownership, but are thinking that as a stock might go up in value (hopefully) , stock will split, and wonder if you know if Warka can set it up in such a way, that I do own the certificate, but they can hold it, and thus facilitate the needed paperwork in case of a stock split?

One new fact you told me got me amazed, you are getting 11% APR on your Dinars, that are sitting in your account.

That IN ITSELF is an investment.

An investment return in the very safe bond and securities will yield usually under 10% annually.

A stock investment should yield about 10% to be a decent thing to be invested into.

Above that, and the different investment bureaus, are using different degree of the word "risk" in their language.

So a bank account with 11% interest is a snap better than a conservative investment in stocks.

Who ha.

Ok Steven, as I go, I will tell you the steps and mishaps (hope not), until this is done.

Rob N.

Placing investment into cash, and sit on it, placing investment into an account in Iraq, and placing an investment into the ISX, is a preference, based on your own idea of how the world is working.

None of them are wrong, and none of them is a competition to the other.

I doubt that I can challenge you in any knowledge about Iraq, we probably know about as much.

So we have the same base of knowledge for our reasons, you and I.

For the same reason you are saying that you would never invest in Iraqi stocks, I say that's why you should invest in Iraqi stocks.

You want bad news, THAT is the time to invest.

We are waiting for a good and stable regime, an up and running, government, a pacified population that have food, cars, jobs, and a happy life, oilfields that are explored to the corners, and lines of oil tankers waiting in port to be loaded, lots of money in the Iraqi state coffers, lot of construction going on, lot of cellphones, nice cars, and a tourist Mecca in Baghdad.

That is not the time to invest in Iraq, by then you're too late. You want to invest when the darkest clouds are hanging over the enterprise.

You have already invested, but choose to sit on the Dinars, so on that point we are all the same. The investment is done.

How to do it, well I'm doing it in one way, and you do it in your way, both for the exact same reason.

I can not force you, but at least I can ask you to look into it.

With the Dinar stashed in the mattress, you will get the (hopefully) benefit from a raised value of the currency, and even perhaps an RV.

With the same Dinars in work in Iraq, you will get, ownership in the Iraqis companies, and possibility to double, triple or possibly increase the value a lot more, from your invested Dinars.

You will get 11% APR, for those Dinars you decide to keep in an account,

.....AND you will get the benefit from an increasing value of the Dinar and RV.

All I am saying is, to not close your mind about this.

Just kick it in your head a couple of days, and if you see the light, as I see it, fine, if not, well, then we can only acknowledge that, in your universe, as you perceive it, you have already seen the light, and came up with a decision you are happy with, and are going to stick with.

You should know that whatever way you are going, I really wish you well.

Any statement that says that an individual can never change a decision, is false.

-- August 23, 2007 6:26 AM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(993)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 993 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Thursday 2007/8/23 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 12 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1238 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1236 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 65.175.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.080.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 65.175.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.080.000 -----

-- August 23, 2007 6:46 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

I can see that you have a big concern about the Russian Bear.

Sure the Cold War seem to be glooming again if they continue on the course they now have chosen.

I just don't think it is in the cards right now.

Germany and Japan was portrayed in comics during and just after WW2, as stupids, ...well they might have been a lot of things, but stupid, no, far from.

Russians the same, they are clever. They've got a lot of smart people over there, and smart people draws from history.

It's a crisis of another nature that are showing itself right now, and is not based on a whole nations coming together, but more of a temporary faction of politicians that are in a phase right now where they sincerely don't see the US as an enemy, but are flexing their muscles because of their own internal pony show.

I had an opportunity for just a couple of days ago to talk with an Air Force Embassy attache, and brought up this particular subject.

He concurred pretty much with my own assessment. I don't know all he would know, but had an idea after speaking with him for a couple of minutes that he was very well informed and was very much on top of this issue.

There MIGHT be a slight escalation of the provocative flying with their bombers, but that's about it, then the internal voices in Russia will be starting up asking if the current regime wants to go back to the Cold War.

Something they (current regime) absolutely don't want to be associated with, and that will probably be the end of that affair.

What it is, is the big bad boy on the corner saying...don't mess with me.

Since the Cold War, the living standard have not increased much over there, and basically they think that they are living in a great Russian society, but the average Russian don't even have a clue how much he is missing out from the life we are living in the west.

They need the Russians attention elsewhere other than internal problems.

It's a very corrupt society, and to get something done you have to be part of, what in the US are called "The Good Ol Boys Network".

The Russians have just lost a very big war, the Cold War, and they lost out, big time.

It's not fun to be a loser, and they are trying out different "how are we going to be a winner instead".

Wait a minute, the US was tough with us, and gave no quarters...maybe if we are starting to be tough, like the US was, when they won ....that will make us being the winner, they were.

The difference here is, when we were though with them, we had reason.

When they are tough now, they forgot that part about reason.

I simply think that this will melt away, and vanish, it might be a few more years, but a dramatic Cold War escalation is off the table.

-- August 23, 2007 7:09 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Chris, thanks,
1238, in exactly 3.3917808 years from now, the Dinar will be 1:1 assuming they do 1 Dinar a day.

-- August 23, 2007 8:16 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Roger/Steve:

Both of you know have a better working knowledge of Warka than I do. My question has to do with the requirement by Warka that a depositor have a dual Dinar and Dollar accounts.

Lets say I bank wire Warka $1,000.00 USD. Based upon Warka's requirements, I am assuming $500.00 will be deposited into to a Dinar account and the other $500.00 will be placed in the USD account. Is this correct? Do both accounts earn interest?

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 23, 2007 9:58 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Breaking bread in Iraq
8/22/2007

An Anglican priest is getting Iraq's religious leaders to talk to one another – a step toward reconciliation.
This week, key Iraqi religious leaders are meeting in Cairo to discuss what they can do about violence shredding their country. The press was not invited, since a certain amount of cover was required to assemble this diverse group. That they're gathering is itself remarkable, and welcome.

The coming together is largely thanks to the persistent effort of an Anglican priest, Canon Andrew White, who has lived in Baghdad for nearly a decade. Not illness, death threats, nor lack of funds has deterred Canon White from his drive to involve Iraq's clerics – from Muslims to its dwindling minority faiths – in unifying the country.

Religious and political issues in Iraq are inextricably linked, and it makes sense to find a way to formally engage Iraq's spiritual leaders in reconciliation.

Not that the Cairo gathering will delve into the theological divide of whether Shiites or Sunnis are the rightful heir to the prophet Muhammad.

White's goal for this week is far more modest and sensible: to get Iraq's senior clergy to endorse a pledge to reduce violence, denounce Al Qaeda, and deny terrorism, and to support democratic principles, the Iraqi Constitution, and national unity.

Such a commitment was made in Baghdad in June by less senior religious leaders that included Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians, some of them antagonists and perpetrators of violence. The June meeting was the largest such gathering in Iraq in nearly four decades, and it took more than two years for White (with the eventual help of the Pentagon) to pull it off.

An effort such as this sometimes falls into the category of "it can't hurt," and "better to try it than not." For while Iraq's religious leaders can't be disregarded, their influence over events on the ground has its limits.

Shiite leaders, notably the powerful Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have a better chance of influencing their followers than do Sunni leaders – there is no single Sunni leader in Iraq, and many Sunnis turn to tribal chiefs for guidance.

At the same time, religious leaders on both sides of the Shiite-Sunni divide have publicly denounced violence in the past, and yet it rages on. Either religious leaders say one thing publicly and another privately, or, more likely, they have less control than is assumed. Once factional fighting takes off on a wide scale, it's indeed difficult to bring under control. Self-interest, self-protection, fear, anger, and revenge become the motivators.

And yet, there's intrinsic worth in the ongoing religious dialogue envisioned by White – and agreed to in June by the religious delegates themselves. At the least it keeps clerics talking to one another. That could eventually lead to greater religious tolerance and, as White hopes, to both sides addressing loss (at the hands of Saddam Hussein and in today's sectarian war).

This effort also has the potential to influence political unity if religious leaders themselves begin to promote and endorse the kinds of compromises necessary in Iraqi politics – agreements that necessarily involve sacrifice on all sides.

Compromise appears to be elusive. In a country where a struggle for political power is being fought in the name of religion, a united plea for compromise from society's moral voice could help achieve it.

Breaking bread in Iraq - Source
(www.safedinar.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 23, 2007 10:02 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Ex-U.S. General: Brits Failing in Iraq
Associated Press | August 23, 2007
LONDON - Britain has allowed the deteriorating security in southern Iraq to get worse, a retired U.S. general said Wednesday, warning that American troops may need to plug the gaps if Prime Minister Gordon Brown withdraws significant numbers of British soldiers.

Former U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, who was vice chief of staff at the time the Iraq war was launched in 2003, said Britain never deployed enough troops to properly stabilize the region around the southern city of Basra.

His criticism, which follows other sharp comments from U.S. and British military officials and analysts, could be aimed at pressuring Brown as he weighs a winter withdrawal of troops. Such a move which would increase his popularity when some speculate he may consider a national election.

"I think there is a general disengagement from what the key issues are around Basra," Keane told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "The Brits have never had enough troops to truly protect the population and we have found that out painfully in the central region as well."

Britain was in charge of security in southern Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, but it has since handed over responsibilities to Iraqi forces in three of four provinces. Officials say London hopes to pass control of Basra, the remaining district, to local forces by the end of the year.

Keane said security in Basra "has been gradually deteriorating, with almost gangland warfare and the lack of ability of the police to control that level of violence."

The retired general, who recently returned from a trip to Iraq, said there was frustration among U.S. commanders, who fear they may have to deploy troops to the south if Britain decides to withdraw its forces. The recent buildup of U.S. forces in Iraq was based on a joint proposal made last year by Keane and Frederick W. Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute.

Around 500 British troops will be pulled out of Iraq once Basra Palace, Britain's remaining base in downtown Basra, is handed over to local forces, defense officials have said.

The withdrawal will leave around 5,000 British soldiers in Iraq, based almost exclusively at an airport camp on the fringes of Basra.

Brown plans to make a decision on any additional troop withdrawals once U.S. Gen. David Petraeus delivers his report on Iraq in the autumn, the prime minister's office has said.
(www.military.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 23, 2007 10:08 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura;

I concur with Roger in his statements about Russia where he says, "What it is, is the big bad boy on the corner saying...don't mess with me.... a dramatic Cold War escalation is off the table." They do have a lot of internal problems and as Roger said, "The Russians have just lost a very big war, the Cold War, and they lost out, big time. It's not fun to be a loser, and they are trying out different "how are we going to be a winner instead"."

I think they have done a lot of going BACKWARDS lately because what they knew before under Communist oppression is comfortable to them to do again. The new way forward would take courage and Putin has no courage for that. He likes what is safe. If he does what was done before, he gives the old guys a comfort zone and gets their approval, seems a tough guy, and gets in the news (focus off internal problems). Also, he has Communist friends in China who wish to encourage him to do this and they are doing "joint exercises", so he has support in his repressing the Russian people, and redoing old Cold War alliances and tactics.

This isn't a good way forward for Russia, but the Bible seems to indicate that they will not choose an open and free society in the end as a country. This is presuming the endtimes depicted in the Bible are near and not a thousand or more years away (with a lot of peace and change in attitude inbetween) and it is kind of expecting a pessimistic view to prevail instead of peace, harmony and progress, I realize. I refer you to history within current memory where the Russian bear had a Christian Czar running the country for some time, with peace and relative prosperity. (He even sent an expedition of Russian scientists to Mount Ararat to find Noah's Ark.. and classified what they found. Some say Russia has actual pieces of the ark from that expedition... the point being the Czar was a true Bible believing Christian or he would not have sent the expedition in the first place, would he?)

This proves to me that Russia can have relative respite and peaceful times before the endtime scenerio comes into fruition, since they have had such times in recent memory. IF the Russians were to move toward reformation and openness, this would be an indication of the prophecies not being for our time, but since the alliances are forming and the repression and backward movement is evident, it is prudent to consider that the endtimes could be near - within a generation or two, perhaps. But that time is not yet.

I would prefer for the Russian people and their satellites to experience reform and have years of peace and prosperity and openness like they did under the Christian Czar. Then, some distant day in the future, the endtime scenerio.. but I think it prudent to take note of your viewpoint and keep eyes open on us possibly being close to the final endtimes.. and see how it goes along.

I just do not wish to take all the "doom and gloom" prophetic events as being applicable to our times without considering all angles and possibilities. Remember that the Christian Church has been around and trying to fit these endtime events into the current news for over two thousand years now.. without a successful fit. We must be careful not to make the mistakes of previous generations and prudently consider all facts before us before rushing to a conclusion that this is it. Christians who sold all they had and sat on a hill waiting the return of Christ in 1,000 AD did eventually have to come down (to poverty) and acknowledge their endtime scheme as incorrect (just one instructive example from history). I think it prudent not to repeat those kinds of errors in our time - while keeping an open mind in case we, or our decendents, are actually and truly close to the final Apocalyptic Bible events coming to pass in history.

In all liklihood, the prophetic event discerners of today, like those in 1,000 AD, are very sincere in their belief that this is it. But sincerity and truth are not synonymous (exactly the same thing). They can be mistaken, even if they are popular and their books and movies about this being the endtimes sell very well. We must be cautious, lest we end up on a hill, having sold all our possessions and the windfall from the Dinar (and given it to the poor, we won't need it in heaven anyway), waiting for events to unfold we are convinced will soon be.. which will not come to pass in our lifetimes.

Remember, it is not that I do not believe these things will be.. just that I think that Good Christian men and women have often mistaken their own times for those depicted in the Apocalypse of the Bible in the past, and we should take instruction from their examples about how the Church can be gravely mistaken and certain about it being the end when it is not.

Sara.

-- August 23, 2007 12:49 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dwindling of the Iraqi Stock Exchange .. The continuing circulation for Arab investors

Source : Voices of Iraq - 21/08/2007

Market index has declined Iraq securities, in a meeting Sunday, a rate (1.104%) from the previous meeting, the market index closed at a point (41.367) ... To implement the three decades of investors, the shares of non-Iraqis الوركاء Bank and the real world.

The analysis showed that the daily market has been trading of more than (444) million shares, valued at more than (898) million dinars (718) thousand dollars) ... The implementation (247) contracts, and the index closed market (ISX Price Index) (41.367) to a point ... To implement the three decades of investors or non-Iraqis, they carried out a one (Bank الوركاء) the number of shares amounted to (200) thousand shares, and two decades on the (real estate company globe) exceeded the number of shares (900) thousand shares.

The meeting deliberated in the Iraqi Stock Exchange today, the seventh meeting during the August current shares (32) joint-stock company, of which (13) banking company, and (11) industrial and service companies, four, two فندقيتان, and one insurance company, and other farmland.

Among the (13) banking company has been mentioned, rates rose two shares : (North Bank) rate (6.8 %)... The highest rise today (Sunday), and (Economy Bank) .. Per (1.9%).

The decreased rates contributed ten other banking companies, are : Bank of Dar es Salaam ... Per (7.2%), Gulf Bank .. (5.8%), Commercial Bank Sumar (4%), Bank of Kurdistan (3.8%), Bank of Babylon (3.5%), Bank of Basra (3.3%), the Iraqi Investment Bank (3.2% ), the Bank الوركاء (2.7%), Commercial Bank (2.6%) and, finally, bank credit .. Prices fell by shares (2.5%).

With Hafiz (Islamic banking) at the same rate price astray at the previous meeting, the banking index closed b (38.294) point low rate (0.7%) from the previous meeting. Achieved (الوركاء Bank), where the highest proportion of the number of shares traded in the banking sector rate (23.7%), after having been handling more than (83) million shares ... The value exceeded (144) million dinars.

With the north bank achieved the highest proportion in terms of the volume of transactions in the banking sector rate (40.2%), having been handling more than (64) million shares ... The value exceeded (303) million dinars.

Today the shares were trading nine industrial companies, rising rates shares of five companies are : modern dyes ... Per (8.1%), and chemical industries (5.4%), Crescent Industrial (4%), light industry (3.7%), Mineral Industries Company and motorcycles ... Per (3.5%).

The decreased rates contributed two industrialized, namely : beer East .. Per (17.3%), the Company Baghdad for carbonated beverages .. Per (3.4%). With the company maintained : electronic industries and industry cartoons on the same transaction rates at the previous meeting.

The industrial index closed at the point (11.905), a high rate (0.117%) than in the previous trading session, where the company achieved Baghdad for carbonated beverages highest .. They (50.6%) and (49.1%), respectively, in terms of number of shares traded and the volume of the industrial sector, having been handling more than (38) million shares ... The value exceeded (53) million dinars.

Among the three companies handled in the hotel and tourism sector, the rate of price company shares (Sadeer Hotel) per (3.2%), with decreased rates contributed two : tourist investments .. Per (1.1%), and the Baghdad hotel .. Per (0.6%). The hotel sector index closed b (15.759) points, a high rate (1.993%) from the previous meeting.

An outcome and final meeting of the Iraqi stock market today (Sunday), the shares were trading (31) Company ... Out of (93) is a company listed on the market, rising rates (15) shares of the company ... While rates contributed seven other companies, nine companies maintained the same rates of the previous prices.

Still (20) defunct company trading on the Stock Exchange because the bodies of the annual general and the implementation of its decisions, and five companies to a standstill, by the circulation of securities Iraq for failing to deliver the final accounts for the year (2004), and eight companies to a standstill, by the circulation of securities Finance for not submitting the final accounts for the year (2005).

-- August 23, 2007 1:41 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

American economic : to be an investment results International Covenant

She stressed the need for Iraq to be integrated with the world economy.

Source : Sabah Al-21/08/2007

Alija diplomacy (Alice كلبريث) working in the Office of Economic Affairs at the American embassy in Iraq structural imbalances suffered by the Iraqi economy to the long separation from the international economy due to the political circumstances over Iraq for decades long time.

She said : must invest the outcome of the Sharm el-Sheikh International Covenant which is substantial international support for Iraq, stressing the need that Iraq take serious steps to build balanced economic relations with all countries supporting him under the International Covenant after a rupture which lasted for more than three decades.

She added, "كلبريث" : to promote closer economic ties to Iraq with the various countries in the world situation is optimal for integration with the global economy and benefit from the experiences of other countries, particularly liberated from totalitarian economy controlled by the central State and the merits of all-oriented mechanisms of the market economy.

كلبريث focused on the need to create ways to ensure Iraq's accession to the World Trade Organization in an effort to create an active movement of trade exchange between Iraq and other countries as well as the exchange of expertise and experiences, ideas and the commercial and economic relations of finding the actors of the Iraqi economy.

She commended the Investment Law No. 13 of 2006 passed by the House farewell at the same time the importance of the activation of this law and opening the door to foreign companies in investment, pointing to the need to give the role of public investment UN affirmative action adopted by the Iraqi government in creating climates ideal for accelerating the implementation of projects investment budget for the year the current 2007 confirmed the activation of the private sector in the investment process.

American Economic alluded to the presence of U.S. support dedicated to investing in small and medium enterprises in the industrial and commercial fields and providing soft loans at five million dollars each project a higher pointing out that the amount had falls short of the five million dollars depending on the nature of the project, which is subject to the technical measurements and global standards.

She stressed the importance of awareness as an important source of tax would support the Iraqi economy and the achievement of additional income to the State's general budget, pointing out the importance of diversifying sources of income in order to the Iraqi economy freed from excessive reliance on oil and the trend towards activating other productive sectors (agriculture and industry) and the upgrading of the political reality in Iraq.

-- August 23, 2007 1:44 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Iraq Plans WTO Membership, Trade Minister Says
http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4405

-- August 23, 2007 1:54 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Petrel says has advantage over others if Iraqi hydrocarbon law is passed
08.22.07, 9:26 AM ET http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/08/22/afx4043265.html

-- August 23, 2007 2:00 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

US ‘ready to strike Iran in six months’
Web posted at: 8/23/2007 4:13:8
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Americas&month=August2007&file=World_News200708234138.xml

-- August 23, 2007 2:05 PM ∞

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Sara wrote:

This is good news:

Overall, the report finds that Iraq's security will continue to "improve modestly" over the next six to 12 months, provided that coalition forces mount strong counterinsurgency operations and mentor Iraqi forces.

===

New report doubts Baghdad government but finds progress in military campaign in Iraq
AP, August 23, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The report represents the collaborative judgments of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the intelligence organization of each military service.

The estimate says that Iraqi Security Forces, working alongside the United States, have performed "adequately." However, it says they haven't shown enough improvement to conduct operations without U.S. and coalition forces and are still reliant on others for key support.

The findings could provide support for the Bush administration's argument that coalition forces need to stay in Iraq in order to avoid letting security lapse, should they withdraw from certain areas.

The report predicts that the Iraqi government "will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months" because of criticism from members of Iraqi Shiite parties, Iraq's top Shiite religious figure Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Sunni and Kurdish factions.

The assessment also expresses deep doubts that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki can overcome sectarian divisions and meet benchmarks intended to promote political unity. It finds that Shiite factions have looked at ways to constrain him.

"The strains of the security situation and absence of key leaders have stalled internal political debates, slowed national decision-making, and increased Maliki's vulnerability to alternative coalitions," the document says.

But the assessment says al-Maliki will continue to benefit from the belief among Shiite leaders that "searching for a replacement could paralyze the government."

President Bush had appeared on Tuesday to be distancing himself from the Iraqi leader when he said at a North American summit in Canada: "Clearly, the Iraqi government's got to do more."

But Bush voiced encouragement for al-Maliki a day later, and an administration official said today that, despite the assessment of the limitations of the current government, there is no talk at the White House of a need for change in the Iraqi leadership.

The administration believes that anyone would face the same difficulties as al-Maliki, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to preempt an expected statement from national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

Overall, the report finds that Iraq's security will continue to "improve modestly" over the next six to 12 months, provided that coalition forces mount strong counterinsurgency operations and mentor Iraqi forces.

But even then, "levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high and the Iraqi government will continue to struggle to achieve national-level political reconciliation and improved governance," according to the unclassified judgments.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-ex-iraqreport23aug24,1,5100695.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

-- August 23, 2007 2:06 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

What is holding up the delivery of the long-awaited Iraqi oil law? http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=13600

-- August 23, 2007 2:11 PM ∞

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Sara wrote:

Women and children taken in Iraq Qaeda battle
By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children after attacking two villages north of Baghdad and killing a local religious leader who had been trying to form an anti-al Qaeda tribal alliance, police said.

Police said 32 people were killed in an hour-long battle between al Qaeda and residents. The attackers, who struck just after dawn, dragged the imam of the local mosque, Younis Abd Hameed, and three worshippers outside and executed them.

Al Qaeda's adherence to a hardline brand of Sunni Islam and its indiscriminate killing of civilians has isolated it from Iraq's Sunni Arab community, and tribal leaders in Anbar, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces have formed alliances to fight them.

Delayan told Reuters that 22 residents had been killed in the fighting along with 10 al Qaeda fighters. The attackers had escaped with eight women and seven children as hostages.

Hameed's mosque and at least three houses were also destroyed.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest_uk.cfm?id=1339502007

-- August 23, 2007 2:19 PM ∞

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madbrad wrote:

New Warka accounts (opened after 22nd July 2007) require you keep $150 in your dollar account and 300k dinar in your dinar account last I heard there is no interset on your dollar account. They are setting everybody up with online access cost 15k dinar p.a. ( it works really well you can perform online transfers between your dollar & dinar accounts and set up your bank back home to wire money back)
Warka claim to have 8500 accounts now and working flat out to give a 1st class service

cheers
Mad

-- August 23, 2007 2:58 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Cornish Boy:

Your article commenting on the ISX is quite telling. Many thought themselves near a windfall with the Iraqi Stock Exchange opening to foreign investors. Like so many things in Iraq expectations were larger than reality equaling disappointment.

I continue to believe the central investment in Iraq is in the Dinar. From my perspective the ISX continues to be anemic to yield results without a strong Dinar. The overall Iraqi economy is sluggish without a strong Dinar.

To the dissmay to the ISX only people, without a strong Dinar real gains in the ISX will continue to become unrealized.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 23, 2007 2:58 PM ∞

---

madbrad wrote:

Rob N

I'm still 25% up on the ISX, was 50% in the run up to the open the other week, i believe we will see a continued increase in the trading volume over the next few weeks conformation of the HCL will provide a major boost plus news of potential takeovers like DNO turning down $700 mil from an oil major will all help

-- August 23, 2007 3:07 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Summary of "What is holding up the delivery of the long-awaited Iraqi oil law?"

The anti-Democratic Iraq article, "What is holding up the delivery of the long-awaited Iraqi oil law?" by Munir Chalabi August 22, 2007, says, "Many international political analysts and oil experts cannot comprehend how such unprecedented pressure can fail to produce results. Analysts must not only look for external influences on any US plan in Iraq but they should also study and analyze the internal Iraqi causes affecting the success or the failure of the plan." It then gives external factors, which includes the note:

"Several international organizations which oppose the oil Law, including a number of environmental groups, anti-occupational movements and several international trade unions provide vital support to the Iraqi anti-oil law movements and had very positive media campaigns. However, their effectiveness was understandably limited, as they could not influence the international decision-making powers."

It goes on to cite "Domestic influences and factors" including, "The security crises: More and more Iraqis are questioning the wisdom of trying to rush the Oil & Gas law through parliament while the country is in such a devastating state."

This certainly seems illogical since oil wealth can only improve their lot and take them out of their misery, helping to give them jobs and stabilize the country.

Its Conclusions summarized:

The legislation of the new Iraqi Oil & Gas Law by the Iraqi parliament has become the most important benchmark of the US Administration, the IOCs, the IMF, and the other forces involved. The Bush administration wants this law to be passed as soon as possible.

The Bush Administration and their Ambassador in Baghdad had openly threatened to replace Al-Maliki's government with a new government, headed by the old Baathist, Iyad Allawi. Al-Maliki has openly accused Allawi in several speeches of attempting to overthrow his government with the help of some units of the Iraqi army and security generals including the head of the Iraqi security forces, the old Baathist general Mohammed Al-Shahwani. These generals were appointed to their positions during Allawi's appointed government by the last US official administrator Paul Bremer back in May 2004, and are still taking their orders directly from the US embassy in Baghdad.

The US administration recognized that a US-led military coup d'etat would not result in any laws being recognized as legitimate by the international community if parliament were to be dissolved. They therefore moved to a new policy, which involved direct influence in the political process in Iraq through their more reliable allies to reorganize the political alliance on which the government relied in order to achieve their goals. They finally succeeded in achieving the establishment of such a front, which was called the "The front of the moderates" on August 15, between the two main Kurdish parties (KDP and PUK), two of the Shiite parties (the SCIRI and Al-Dawa party -- the Al-Maliki wing is called the "External organization"), with negotiations still ongoing to persuade the Islamic Party/Accord front -- the main Sunni party -- to join this new alliance.

The US administration made it clear that the new Iraqi government has important targets to accomplish, and they listed the oil law as the first priority and the re-Baathification law as a second main concern.

If the formation of the new political right wing alliance succeeds, then this will create for the first time circumstances which will allow the oil and gas law together with other US benchmarks to be passed through the Iraqi parliament within the next few months.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=13600

Nice to know that the Iraqi Parliament might actually do something to help the Iraqi people and get their economy functioning politically and legislatively.. in the next few months.

Sara.

-- August 23, 2007 3:34 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Rob N.

I am just in the beginning of the process of setting up my Warka, and ISX, so I think people like madbrad or Steven is more those you want to ask, when it comes to the particulars on the account set up.

Madbrad, Steven and cornish boy, have already gone through all the hoops of setting it up and have it working and functioning.

cornish boy,

To me it looks very much like the ISX is not fully up and running.

The investors are there, but just to get in, get registered, get started is a process that is far from what we got here, where you just step into an office and fill in all the papers, and you're done.

I noticed some of the trades in the ISX was just in the vicinity of a couple of hundred bucks.

Logic tells me that this is not a real thing, because of all the internal and external investors that are there,

Warka accounts alone is over 8000, I would not know the average, account, and I don't know how many of those are in the ISX trading, but lets say that an average account holds about 5000 Dollars in Dollars or Dinars, half of them is on ISX trading.

I further assume that a "normal" spread is about 1/3 of the holdings in Dinars accumulating interest, and the rest 2/3rds is placed in stocks.

8000 accounts, half of them is signed up with ISX (I suspect it is more, but ok), makes 4000 accounts.

5000 Dollars value on each account makes a total value of 20 million, two third of it in ISX makes $13.333333 million Dollars in trade muscle, and that is from Warka alone.

As we are mostly proxy holders, Warka could very well have bought up stocks earlier, for a lower sum, and that is now what we are getting, for the today's price, making Warka a neat % on each stock they sell.

Nothing wrong with that.

That will show on the daily trade, because if a foreign investment shows zero, foreign investment might very well have been trading that day.

The electronic trading, is about to open up, they didn't get it going the first announced day, the 2nd of Aug, and I think that as in all other matters over there, they have just postponed everything important until things are functioning the intended way.

They have a tendency to go out and have a goat barbie, in time of expected results.

We are fed daily over here how FTSE, NASDAQ, and DOW is performing, and assign very big importance to it, (because they are so big, they ARE important), but remember over there, this is a small dinky little operation( and our opportunity of our lifetime).

The whole system is, as we speak, in a very infant state. The amount of dealers are probably so small that they all know each other by first name, and with the coming changes, they probably have agreed to do some token sales or buys on the market just to keep it alive, until it is operating fully with the new system.

I strongly, strongly think that the stock markets recent decline is noting more than an adjustment, just look at it, with all the millions out there, from a Warka account only...then there are other investors that are not using Warka, so it is pretty obviously that they are waiting for something.

C'mon, a trade of just a couple of hundred bucks, it's obvious that with all the money floating around there that they are in a holding mode.

This IS the time to get in.

-- August 23, 2007 6:47 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Yeah... Global WARMING..
Remember, that concept where they reinterpret the data so that ALL anomalies are explained..
so even Global COOLING means Global Warming is happening, right?

Arctic August: NYC Sets Record For Coldest Day
High Of 59 Degrees Ties Chilliest August High Set In 1911
Aug 22, 2007

"This unusual blast of cold air smashed our previous record for the coldest high temperature set back in 1999," CBS 2 meteorologist Jason Cali told wcbstv.com.

In fact, the 59-degree high tied the record for the coldest high temperature ever for the month of August in New York City, when it reached just 59 degrees in 1911.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_233143509.html

I cannot resist adding a bit of Humor quoted from down under by Glenn Reynolds, quote:

LAST month Australians endured our coldest June since 1950. Imagine that; all those trillions of tonnes of evil carbon we've horked up into the atmosphere over six decades of rampant industrialisation, and we're still getting the same icy weather we got during the Cold War.

Not that June should be presented as evidence that global warming isn't happening, or that we're causing it. Relying on such a tiny sample would be unscientific and wrong, even if it involves an entire freakin' continent's weather patterns throughout the course of a whole month, for Christ's sake.

No such foolishness will be indulged in here.

Sadly, those who believe in global warming - and who would compel us also to believe - aren't similarly constrained. A few hot days are all they ever need to get the global warming bandwagon rolling; evidently it's solar powered.

==end quote==

How true. As evidence, Blair presented a recent Associated Press piece which reported that May’s temperatures were “‘yet another sign of the widespread climate change that we are seeing unfold across the globe.’"

Blair accurately pointed out (emphasis added throughout):

If that's the case, shouldn't June's cold weather - coldest since 1950, remember - be a sign that widespread climate change isn't unfolding across the globe? We're using the same data here; one month's weather. And, in fact, the June sample is Australia-wide while May only highlights the east coast. Fear the dawn of a great "coldening"! (end quote)

Actually, those that pay attention to the many scientists claiming that solar activity might be waning leading to a coming period of global cooling are indeed more afraid of that eventuality than a continued warming. But that won’t stop the comical alarmism. QUOTE:

While Australia freezes, it's kinda hot in California. Again, local toastiness is evidence of global warming; one San Francisco Chronicle writer this week referred glibly to their "global-warming-heated summer".

What phenomenon was responsible for previous summers? Maybe they got by on the superheated fumes radiating off Lateline host Tony Jones.

Snow cone Tone hosted an in-studio discussion Thursday night after the ABC presented The Great Global Warming Swindle, and he was hotter than a Christina Aguilera video. "Welcome to our debate on this deeply flawed and utterly mistaken documentary, which is wrong in every regard and was made by a zombie," Jones said in introduction (I'm only lightly paraphrasing).

===end quote==

Actually, the e-mail messages I’ve received from skeptical Aussies quite suggest Blair was indeed only lightly paraphrasing. Blair then shared how predictions of a climate change-impacted “summer of unheard-of high temperatures” in Great Britain have yet to materialize:

As Wimbledon watchers would be aware, what with the rainiest tournament since Jimmy Connors defeated John McEnroe in 1982, those unheard-of high temperatures remain unheard-of. Someone might conclude, therefore, that the not-hot summer is not entirely consistent with predictions of climate change.

But climate change is like Michael Moore's tracksuit - it can fit anyone. In 2005, Greenpeace rep Steven Guilbeault helpfully explained: "Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with."

What we're dealing with, apparently, is weather.

==end quote==

What will the weather be like 100 years from now? Don't ask Britain's Guardian, which, like the Independent, is full of Warmin' Normans whose warm warnings never come true. "It could be time to say goodbye to defining features of British life," the paper claimed a few months ago, "like rainy picnics and cloudy sunbathing . . ."

Other defining features of British life - screaming, inaccurate nonsense from the Guardian, for example - will never be farewelled. Cue wet Wimbledon, the coldest day for Test match cricket (7.4C) in English history, and this BBC online headline: "Where has the UK's summer gone?"

Where indeed?

http://newsbusters.org/node/14098

Well, you gotta laugh. If any theory cannot be falsified, it is not a true scientific theory.

In other words, if Global WARMING means Global COOLING, then it is not a true theory because Global WARMING is not occurring. You cannot say as the Greenpeace rep Steven Guilbeault did: "Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with." Because if ALL KINDS of weather prove your point, it cannot be DISproven by any known data. An unfalsifiable theory is not scientific..

What I mean is, if you cannot falsify the theory it is no longer SCIENCE. Not that science means anything to Global Warming alarmists, but you just have to mention this rationality once in a while for those who have brains and are listening, so they can nod their heads and say.. "Yes, I see.. that makes perfect sense. Global warming cannot mean Global cooling.. that is obvious scientifically. If there are cooler temperatures, warming is not occurring. ALL weather patterns cannot prove Global warming, obviously, or you can never disprove the theory. A theory you cannot disprove is not in the realm of science."

I hope the New Yorkers enjoyed the coldest high temperature ever for the month of August in New York City, and that it made them think a little about the absurdity of Global "Warming" when the temperature is colder than any on record since 1911. I am sure that, like the Auzzies who just experienced "our coldest June since 1950" there will be other data which doesn't fit with the Global Warming alarmist agenda.. and what do they do with it? Well.. did you know either of these before I posted this? Likely not.. meaning, they ignore it. How scientific, right?

(Putting out a shingle like Lucy in the cartoon Peanuts).. "Carbon credits, anyone?" (I sure am gonna make a lot of money off you suckers! One born every minute...) Now tell me.. where do you go to invest in selling carbon credits? (The public sounds ripe for plucking, and if they are that gullible, surely it won't hurt to take a buck or two from them to line one's pocket? Just musing... and for you to think about as it is a true, yet dark, satire. Do you LIKE being taken for a ride by swindlers? Maybe you should watch and consider the other side of the debate - if you haven't yet:)

The Great Global Warming Swindle:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3028847519933351566

Sara.

-- August 23, 2007 8:23 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

OK, one more on Global Warming which warmed my heart today,
and then I will let it rest. Here it is:

===

Georgia Legislature Dismisses Gore, Global Warming Alarmism
By Noel Sheppard
August 22, 2007

An amazing thing happened in the Georgia Legislature Tuesday that national media seem guaranteed to ignore: House members dismissed claims that man is responsible for warming the planet.

As reported Wednesday by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (emphasis added throughout):

And now for a message on global warming from your Georgia Legislature: Don't sweat it.

Climate scientists and environmental activists like former Vice President Al Gore are alarmists. They use flawed statistical models to predict a catastrophic future of thawed glaciers, super-charged hurricanes, swamped coastlines and scorched crops.

While other states are looking for ways to reduce the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, Georgia officials are not convinced there's a problem they can do anything about.

"In the media, we hear the gloom and doom side," said Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White), chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee that held the hearing. "There is alternative information out there."

Georgia's hearing, held on a 98-degree day during a record-setting heat wave, showcased three of the nation's leading skeptics on climate-change science. They don't even all agree that the Earth is significantly warming, a question long considered a scientific slam-dunk. And together they ridiculed the worst-case scenarios presented this year by an international panel of more than 2,000 climate scientists.

"I believe this issue is being driven by hysteria right now," said Patrick Michaels, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank with Libertarian leanings.

==end quote==

Think Katie, Charlie, and Brian will be reporting this tonight? Nah, I don't either.

—Noel Sheppard is an economist, business owner, and Associate Editor of NewsBusters.

Comments:

1) 2000 climate scientists?? August 22, 2007 — roconnell

I have to correct you Noel, you stated....

"..........worst-case scenarios presented this year by an international panel of more than 2,000 climate scientists"

I assume you’re talking about the IPCC report published this year. It's not 2000 climate scientists, it's 23. The report is authored by 23 members who decide what is and isn't 'science'. Of those 23, 11 are climate modelers, who have a vested interest in global warming since if no warming then no reason to employ modelers..

roconnell aka climate change skeptic

http://climatechangeskeptic.blogspot.com/

2) For the Children - Ideas Have Consequences
August 22, 2007 - TruthMatters

Just get a glimpse at how successful Al Gore's movie (and the media) have been in spreading their global warming propoganda. Check out the bios of the kids on the upcoming CBS kid reality program. Simply amazing and scary.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/bio.shtml

Again, I will post my initial salvo at the school that tried to dishonestly portray global warming to my kids. Maybe I sound like a liberal "talking about the children", but these kids are those we will be handing the reigns over too and they better be able to think properly.

QUOTE:

Although I am a Professional Environmental Engineer, I admit that I am not an expert on the issue of global warming. However; to borrow words from someone else, I support the principle that young people should be educated, not propagandized -- and I know something about what that means.

One of the most important differences between education and propaganda is how they deal with great controversies.

In education, students are taught about the controversies. In propaganda, they are shielded from them.

In education, students are taught both sides of the important debates. In propaganda, they are taught only one.

In education, students are taught both the strengths and the weaknesses of the officially favored theory. In propaganda, they are taught only its strengths.

In short, education is the training of minds, while propaganda is the training of prejudices. In a democratic republic, the public schools should not propagandize, but educate.

The mandatory curriculum guidelines for Texas, called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), agree with me. As we find in the science section of these guidelines, students must learn to "analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information." - 19 TAC Chapter 112.7(b)(3)(a)

If the TEKS guidelines agree with me, then what is the issue? The issue is that although students should be taught about both sides of a scientific theoretical controversy, your assignment, based on the description in your permission request, appears to only present one side and are shielded from the weaknesses contained in Al Gore’s video. How can a 5th grade student write a critique about assertions made in a global warming video without having anything to compare and contrast the assertions to? Your permission/assignment sheet gave no indication as to how, if any, the views counter to Al Gore’s video would be taught. In addition, it is not clear what alternate assignment is available to the student should they choose not to view the video.

If the theory of global warming is to be taught in your classroom, I urge that the topic should be taught like the other sciences and like other controversial theories -- with honesty about both sides.

To the Honorable members of the Board: When classroom activities and/or textbooks are biased, you (and the Texas Education Agency) are the check and balance. If global warming is to be taught within PISD, I urge you to require that the scientific data to both sides of this controversy be taught and that not one side be suppressed. To do so would be not only good training in science, but good education in citizenship.

3) At least one state's
August 22, 2007 — the_red_state

At least one state's legislature has some brains and common sense. Too bad it's not mine.

4) I hate all these "Denialists"
August 22, 2007 — PopularTech

Scientists Disputing "Man-Made" Global Warming Theory:

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"
- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

August H. Auer Jr., AMS Certified Meteorologist, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming, USA
Arthur B. Robinson, Ph.D. Chemistry, University of California, San Diego, USA
Arthur Rorsch, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Molecular Genetics, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Benny Peiser, Ph.D. Professor of Social Anthropology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Bjørn Lomborg, Ph.D. Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Chris de Freitas, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Auckland, Australia
Claude Allegre, Ph.D. Physics, University of Paris, France
Christopher Essex, Ph.D. Applied Mathematics Professor, University of Western Ontario, Canada
David Deming, Ph.D. Geophysics, University of Utah, USA
David Evans, B.Sc. Applied Mathematics and Physics, M.S. Statistics, Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Stanford, USA
David J. Bellamy, B.Sc. Botany, Ph.D. Ecology, Durham University, UK
David R. Legates, Ph.D. Climatology, University of Delaware, USA
Dennis Avery, M.S. Agricultural Economics, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Dennis P. Lettenmaier, Ph.D. Professor of Hydrology, University of Washington, USA
Douglas Leahey, Meteorologist, Calgary, Canada
Douglas V. Hoyt, Solar Physicist and Climatologist, Retired, Raytheon, USA
Frederick Seitz, Ph.D. Physics, Princeton University, USA
Fred Singer, Ph.D. Physics, Princeton University, USA
Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus, Physics, Princeton, USA
Gary D. Sharp, Ph.D. Marine Biology, University of California, USA
Gary Novak, M.S. Microbiology, USA
George H. Taylor, M.S. Meteorology, University of Utah, USA
George V. Chilingarian, Ph.D. Geology, University of Southern California, USA
Habibullo Abdussamatov, Ph.D. Astrophysicist, The University of Leningrad, Russia
Henrik Svensmark, Solar System Physics, Danish National Space Center, Denmark
Howard Hayden, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut, USA
Hugh W. Ellsaesser, Ph.D. Meteorology, Formerly with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
Ian D. Clark, Professor Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada
Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology, University of Adelaide, Australia
Jack Barrett, Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, Manchester, UK
James Spann, AMS Certified Meteorologist, USA
Ján Veizer, Professor Emeritus Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada
John J. Ray, Ph.D. Psychology, Macquarie University, Mensa, Sydney, Australia
John R. Christy, Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, USA
Joseph Conklin, M.S. Meteorology, Rutgers University, USA
Keith D. Hage, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, University of Alberta, Canada
Luboš Motl, Ph.D. Theoretical Physicist, Harvard, USA
Madhav Khandekar, Ph.D. Meteorology, Florida State University, USA
Marcel Leroux, Professor Emeritus, Climatology, University of Lyon, France
Michael Crichton, M.D. Harvard, USA
Michael Savage, B.S. Biology, M.S. Anthropology, M.S. Ethnobotany, Ph.D. Nutritional Ethnomedicine, USA
Nir J. Shaviv, Ph.D. Astrophysicist, Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Patrick J. Michaels, Ph.D. Ecological Climatology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Petr Chylek, Ph.D. Physics, University of California, USA
Philip Stott, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biogeography, University of London, UK
Reid A. Bryson, Ph.D. Meteorology, University of Chicago, USA
Richard S. Courtney, PhD. Geography, The Ohio State University, USA
Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Meteorology, MIT, USA
Roger A. Pielke, Ph.D. Meteorology, Penn State, USA
Robert C. Balling, Ph.D. Geography, University of Oklahoma, USA
Robert Giegengack, Ph.D. Geology, Yale, USA
Robert H. Essenhigh, M.S. Natural Sciences, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK
Robert Johnston, M.S. Physics, B.A. Astronomy, USA
Robert M. Carter, Geologist, James Cook University, Australia
Ross McKitrick, Ph.D. Economics, University of British Columbia, Canada
Roy Spencer, Ph.D. Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, USA
Sallie Baliunas, Ph.D. Astrophysics, Harvard, USA
Sherwood B. Idso, Ph.D. Soil Science, University of Minnesota, USA
Simon C. Brassell, B.Sc. Chemistry & Geology, Ph.D. Organic Geochemistry, University of Bristol, UK
Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, Ph.D. Department of Geography, University of Hull, UK
Steve Milloy, B.A. Natural Sciences, M.S. Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, USA
Stephen McIntyre, B.Sc. Mathematics, University of Toronto, Canada
Syun-Ichi Akasofu, Ph.D. Founding Director International Arctic Research Center, USA
Tad S. Murty, Ph.D. Oceanography and Meteorology, University of Chicago, USA
Tim Patterson, Ph.D. Professor of Geology, Carleton University, Canada
Timothy F. Ball, Ph.D. Geography, Historical Climatology, University of London, UK
Vaclav Klaus, app. Ph.D. Economics, University of Economics, Prague, Czechoslovakia
Vincent Gray, Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, Cambridge University, UK
Wibjorn Karlen, Ph.D, Emeritus Professor of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden
William J.R. Alexander, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Biosystems Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa
William M. Gray, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, USA
Willie Soon, Ph.D. Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA
Zbigniew Jaworowski, M.D. Ph.D., Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Poland

See: The Anti "Man-Made" Global Warming Resource (url at below)

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/08/22/georgia-legislature-dismisses-al-gore-global-warming-alarmism

-- August 23, 2007 9:28 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger and Sara,

Roger,

Thank you for you response on the Russians. It was nice of you to ask the air force embassy attache for me. I am just saying that given the Russian's history with U.S. and our allies, I do not trust them. They don't have a big enough track record for that as of yet, despite have one Russian Christian Czar.

Sara,

I too do not wish for our times to be even the beginning times to head into the end times. I do not look forward to such evils. I agree with you on what you have said.

I agree, there is no way for us to know the time frame on when and how much time is between the events in biblical prophecy. But we do know some of the events. Among these are:

-The road will be built between Iraq and Eqypt.

-Iraq, Egypt and Israel will enjoy peace for a time.

-Iraq and Israel are to inherit great wealth.

**Israel's wealth will come from the great depth of the sea (sounds like natural gas or oil). I think, Israel may have already found some natural gas. However, the wealth described in the bible is that Israel becomes so wealthy that the Arabs/Muslims/Russians are to covet these spoils. And there are maybe other signs of the times that I may have missed.

However, I think it significant that when you pray that the Lord Jesus points you to his current work of Isaiah prophecy scriptures.

Laura

-- August 23, 2007 9:30 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

All,
Rod. N. You can have as much as you like in your Dollar account, and the min is $150 so I only keep the min in there, and the rest in IQDs account

Roger,
Here in the UK we have a Government old age pension that is a part of our Taxs paid each week, it is worth the thin end of naff all, and my company pension will be just as bad, I am looking on the Iraqi dinar as my pension fund

If you go on the short list i put up on getting an account with Warka, it should go easy.
Print off the list of all bits for the German Bank, as your bank staff are filling in a on screen form, and my bank staff muffed it up three times, the German bank refunded it back to my HSBC account, that is why I made up the idiot list for my bank staff, it has all the answers for them to fill in the online form.

I got my password for my online banking with Warka, Tuesday, it was about mid July I asked for it, it must have been on the bottom of the list, some people get theirs a lot quicker, so I think if you are going to wait for it, so you can transfere money from your main US bank, it could take a while, you could send an email to Mr I. at ifrd@warkainvestmentbank.com and ask that you get sent your account number and your Password at the same time, for you to transfer money into your Warka account.
Stay lucky, Steve.

-- August 23, 2007 10:28 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

MadBrad:

You say you are on the upside with the ISX, that is good. I think you are up because the Iraqi Exchange must adjust to the amount of money floating around because of foreign investors.

The other reason I speculate you are up is related to the small gains in the Dinar itself. This exchange like it or not is tied to the CBI's stated value of the Dinar.

It is my opinion, that the ISX will continue to conduct small trading until the Dinar is revalued or released to the foreign exchange market. I agree with Roger, the trading going on now is a precursor of things to come once the dinar is stronger.

While you are hoping your ISX shares leap in value, they cannot do so without a strong Dinar.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 24, 2007 12:36 AM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

MadBrad:

One other thought. Another reason you may be on the upside in the ISX relates to continual slide of the American dollar. Be careful you may not be getting a true picture of your returns. There are external forces at work influencing the ISX just as in any other economy.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 24, 2007 12:40 AM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

roger i agree with you on the isx. four anyone wonting to open up an account with walkerbank here is how it is don it is very smple. send send this email to c.accounts@warkainvestmentbank.com subject please open a usd (savings or current)account dear sir/madam I authorize you to open a savings usd and id account with warka bank on my behalf.Ihave attached a scanned copy of my passport/driving license and authorization letter.kind regards and many thanks,(your name). once the acount is open you can transfer your funds to the bank through one of their corresponding intermediary banks.for exchanging your funds into iraqi dinar you will be required send a signed authorizing letter to the warka bank,to enable the bank to exchange dollarsto iraqi dinars.The form of this authorizing letter is as follows:warka bank of investment & finance head office building 50 st.14 Q902 al-wihda baghdad iraq. your (name and address) dear sir/madam,I (your name) authorize al-warka investment bank to draw from my dollar account (current or saving account number)inthe above bank and exchangethe dollar into iraqi dinar according to pricefixed by the central bank of iraq at that day,and then deposit it in my iraqi dinar account at the said bank.kind regards and many thanks,(your name here)(your signature here.hope this is of sum help.

-- August 24, 2007 12:59 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Planning declare the dwindling rate of inflation (3.4%) for the month of July

Source : Voices of Iraq - 23/08/2007

Declared the Iraqi Planning Ministry, on Monday, lower inflation index for the month of July last July on the level recorded in June last June rate (3.4%).

A statement from the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation الاءنماءي Iraq, the Agency received Independent News (Voices of Iraq) a copy, Tuesday, that "the Central Agency for Statistics and Information Technology report was completed inflation for the month of July in July 2007 prepared on the basis of field data collection on the prices of goods and services components of the basket of consumer prices Sale singular in selected markets in Baghdad and other governorates. "

The report showed "low inflation index for the month of July 2007 from the level recorded during the 10 2007 also reflected the general standard figure for consumer price rate (3.4%)," according to the statement.

The statement said that "the report pointed out that the decrease was the result of the low index of commodity following totals (foodstuffs, textiles and clothing, footwear, furniture, fuel and lighting, transport and communications) rates of (5.2%, 1.0%, 1.0% , 9.1%, 0.5%), respectively, "adding that" the proportion of spending on this commodity group are (83.0%) of total domestic consumer spending. "

The statement continued, "As the totals (smoke and drink, medicines and medical services, miscellaneous goods and services and leasing) has registered an increase during the month of July compared to the previous month by (1.0%, 1.6%, 1.4%, 1.7%) respectively, and they comprise (17.0%) of total household spending. "

The report also indicated, according to the statement, to "high index of annual inflation during the period from July / 2006 until July / 2007 rate (30.2%), explaining that this was the result index increased all commodity aggregates (foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco, textiles and clothing footwear, furniture, fuel and lighting, transportation, medical services and medicines, miscellaneous goods and services and leasing) and the high rates of (8.3%, 3.1%, 7.9%, 6.4%, 90.2%, 11. 1%, 16.5%, 28.2%, 21.8%), respectively.

The report also stated that "inflation base (percentage change in the index of consumer prices calculated after excluding petroleum products (oil, gas, petrol) hit (16185.8), a decline of (0.8%) over the previous month and a high rate (15 .3%) for the month of July of 2006. "

-- August 24, 2007 1:07 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Riggle Reports: "Operation Macho Kick-Ass" http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/4051/subscriptions/splash.html

-- August 24, 2007 1:13 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraq supplies Jordan with 30 000 oil barrels daily http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4422

-- August 24, 2007 1:19 PM ∞

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madbrad wrote:

Here are the latest interest rates from Warka:-new interest rates from the 1st of February 2007 details as below:

Savings Account:

IQD Savings account: 11% per year.

USD Savings account: 3.5% per year.

Certificate of Deposits:

1- 3 months CD: 13%.

2- 6 months CD: 14%.

3- 1year CD: 15%.

4- 2 year CD: 17%.
So you do get interest on your $ account as well
cheers
Mad

-- August 24, 2007 3:22 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven, cornish boy,

I really appreciate all your input in this, I have about the whole thing scheduled out, and know now (at least pretty much) step for step how to go about.

I might stumble here and there, but I think I've got all the basics down.

I did get a fairly quick response from Warka on how to set it up, and they advised me on the slow way.

First send in my ID, and all that,

Then, wait for them to open up my account.

Then I have to send in funds.

Then they will tell me to send in the account authorization.

Then I will get my codes on how to get in on the accounts.

It's the small tricks that does it, your advice to send in the authorization together with the account application, for example, that makes this go faster.

Earlier experience from others, is the grease in the wheels.

Other than that, it is just a waiting game, because the whole affair is pretty slow. I have never heard of any rip off, or suspicion of wrong doings, from anywhere when it comes to Warka, the only issue is how S L O W everything goes.

Ok I can live with that, I would like it to go as fast as in our bank system, but the trust in Warka seem to be solid in other forums, and this.

On that part I have no problem.

So.......again.... wait....well as a Dinaroholic I'm used to that.

-- August 25, 2007 12:48 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

cornish boy,

Good report, "Operation Fluffy Bunny" didn't go over too well, I suppose.

Guys on the ground have humour about it, wishing the Iraqi Parliament Holiday crowd well wishes in a somewhat sarcastic way,..I love it.

-- August 25, 2007 12:57 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

I've got the "cheating list" for the money transfer to the German Proxy bank also. It actually came with the response from Warka.

Now, did you use the "cheating list" from Warka when they screwed up your transfer, or would you say that it is an accurate list, and it was just the personnel in the sending bank that screwed up.

Just wonder if Warka sent me a flawed instruction.

-- August 25, 2007 1:04 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Rob N,

Yes a strong Dinar and a surging ISX goes hand in hand.

However, you want to buy when the ISX is a small and dinky operation, and when the Dinar is low and crummy.

Bad news....invest.
Good news...too late.

-- August 25, 2007 1:09 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Rob N.

I read and re-read one of your recent posts, and had a thinker.

I don't know if you meant the other way, but it came across as the ISX is dependent on a strong Dinar, meaning that the Dinar have to come first, THEN the ISX will take off.

It's the other way around, business volume in all it's forms will determine the currency's value.

Currency value is an effect of business volume.

In that sense the currency value and business (or ISX) will go hand in hand, but I just wanted to clarify what portion is in cause and what is in effect.

If you meant it this way, I apologize, but if you meant it the other way, you must do ten push ups right now.

-- August 25, 2007 7:21 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Roger:

I must be honest I meant it the other way. I will do as required my ten push ups.

From my perspective, Iraq is a nation state not operating with a full fledge economy. Your argument hold true for the G8 or European Union, but we are speaking about Iraq. Without a strong Dinar the investment in the ISX will not attract the large investor.

I currently have 10 million Dinar in cash. I am seriously leaning toward opening an account at Al-Warka. Depositing my $150.00 usd in the dollar account, and sending money to fund my Dinar account.

So, how exactly does the German proxy bank work? Once I get my account from Warka, will I also have a numeric code with the German bank to know what account at Al-Warka my funds should be deposited in? Why cannot I wire transfer directly to Al-Warka from my bank in the U.S.?

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 25, 2007 7:10 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Roger,

I had a list from Warka, but it was when my bank staff were filling in the online form they did not know what they were doing, thats why the German Bank sent it back three times, then I made up my list and it had all the answers from the banks online form, like I said print it off and take it with you for your Bank staff, it has all the right info for it to go OK, Steve.

-- August 25, 2007 8:08 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Rob. N.

It is Warka Bank that has a Doller Account with the German Bank, it is just a way around sending money into Iraq, its the same as if you were transfering money from your account in US to my account in the UK. Steve.

-- August 25, 2007 8:14 PM ∞

---

Dean wrote:

Laura Parker:

I understand why you are watching Russia.

According to the Bible, The King of the North (Russia) will attack Israel in the last days, and God will Destroy them. It will take them months to bury their dead.

How God Destroys them is a mystery. Will America be involved in their destruction?

Or Will God Destroy them without America's help. (Several hundred meteors from outer space about 1 mile wide would probably take care of them.)

God Doesn't need America's help to take care of them.

.....Some are called to preach
.....Some are called to sing in the choir
.....Some are called to finacially support the church
.....Some are called to be watchmen for the church

I believe God put watchmen at the 4 corners of the Church. To watch....

All the watchmen are crying; The time is near! The time is near!

I love watching John Hagee on Sunday mornings on ABC tv At 9:00 am Central Time.
He is a fascinating speaker. I think he's the real deal. He has a message that America and the rest of the world needs to hear.

What does this have to do with the dinar?

I have 2 million dinar. I hope I never have to use them. The trumpet of God could come at any time. But if not, I believe God has lead me to this investment.

-- August 26, 2007 12:30 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Dean,

I am watching all nations that could have a potential to affect Iraq. We are dealing with a nation that all of us believe will do well on the oil front. Russia has been trying to get it's foot into Iraq via an oil deal that was made with Saddam Hussein before U.S.A. invasion in 2003.

Iran is similarly interested due to it's own economy. So is China. All three of these nations are making alliances together.

I know that Russia will lose this battle in the end days. I was simply calling attention to the possiblity that we could be seeing the beginning of biblical prophecy. However, like Sara, I hope not. In any case, these nations could cause upheaval for the U.S.A. and Iraq, none the less.

If you will notice, I wrote about Russia from the standpoint of Russia's providing material (weapon) support to the muslin world. What I believe is noteworthy is the stacking of weapons and allowing the muslim people to fight wars on the Russian front. When in actuality, it is Russia in the background that is wanting control of these oil lands and forming alliances to try and get them. This is how what I wrote about could affect the dinar.

This doesn't necessarily have to be the end times battle to cause economic, political upheaval in Iraq.

Laura Parker

-- August 26, 2007 1:12 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

Ah, ok, it was the bank tellers in your sending bank that screwed up, ok that clarifies that thanks.

Rob N.,

Reading your response I would still order you to another ten push ups, until you can say -"Business is causing currency value , currency value is effect of business".

However in the Deep Halls of the Department of Judgement of Economic and Financial Matters, I have had a meeting with my five Overlords, in a hooded session, and a decision was taken to give you a reprieve Rob N.

Fiat currency CAN be cause over business.

Fiat currency = when arbitrary and artificial currency exchange value is given.

That actually holds true for Iraq. (as well as China.)

-- August 26, 2007 6:16 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

This thing with Russia, china and their allies that are banding together with their oil, it doesn't necessarily have to be something bad.

Look at it this way, right now we have "OPEC" an inbreed price fixing organization that have been a pain in the rear for quite some time.

What is good for the oil price, is what is good for OPEC, is their seemingly standard motto.

OPEC have control of the majority of oil producing outlets and thus price control.

If Russia and China are banding together and wants to do a similar cartel, well all they are doing is starting another competing cartel, and the move WILL take OPEC out of monopoly.

If we put it this way....I'm not against it.

-- August 26, 2007 6:28 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger,

That would be great if the alliance didn't seem to have communist and Islamic parties only. But I suspect, no other countries will able to influence this new OPEC. Therefore, I think the alliances will be highly suspect.

What concerns me is that these nations will do a little price fixing of their own. Maybe it will offset OPEC prices on oil. However, I think it maybe to only countries in this new alliance.

Laura Parker

-- August 26, 2007 11:02 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger,

That is if this new OPEC is open to the free market. I have my doubts that this will be the case.

Laura Parker

-- August 26, 2007 11:17 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Sorry about second post. I did not think the first post, posted.

Laura Parker

-- August 26, 2007 3:30 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

As long as there are TWO blocks, a competition will be automatically introduced into the scenario, no matter what sympathies, religion, or political colors one block or the other are leaning towards.

It's of lesser magnitude WHAT the different blocks are.

The fact that there ARE two blocks, will set the game rules.

They can call themselves what they want, they are both doing the exactly same thing....selling oil.

-- August 26, 2007 4:06 PM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

Some good news this morning from Iraq. According to the Reuters news service "Iraq's leaders agree on key benchmarks."
(http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-29162220070826?pageNumber=1)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 27, 2007 10:39 AM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(995)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 995 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Monday 2007/8/27 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 13 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1238 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1236 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 96.935.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 96.935.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.000.000 -----

-- August 27, 2007 12:11 PM ∞

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Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(996)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 996 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Tuesday 2007/8/28 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 14 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1238 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1236 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 48.835.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 48.835.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.000.000 -----

-- August 28, 2007 7:11 AM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

Quintuple agreement important step - U.S. ambassador

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baghdad, 27 August 2007 (Voices of Iraq)
Print article Send to friend
The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said on Monday that the joint agreement signed by the Shiite-Kurdish alliance and the Sunni Islamic party is considered an important and encouraging step towards realizing the national reconciliation and end the current political crises.

Speaking to the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), Crocker said "the agreement is an outcome of joint efforts between these blocs to end the current crises."

The four main Kurdish and Shiite powers in addition to the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party signed on August 26 a new joint statement with the aim of pushing forward the political process and opening doors before the blocs that quit the government.

The agreement was signed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the leader of the (Shiite) Dawa Party, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, representing Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Party (SIIC), and Tareq al-Hashimi of the (Sunni) Iraqi Islamic Party.

"There is a tangible improvement in the government's performance despite the current challenges," the diplomat said, noting that he would present his report to the U.S. administration by mid September, in which he would clarify al-Maliki's effort to achieve the national reconciliation and to improve the political process.

He reiterated the U.S. administration's support to the al-Maliki-led government, saying "the government proved its ability to overcome crises despite challenges it faces."

He voiced belief that the Iraqi political leaderships, i.e., the presidency, the parliament, the government and other political blocs are able to overcome this critical stage and end the current political crises.
(www.iraqupdates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 28, 2007 9:08 AM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraqi dinars delivered to rural banks in Diyala

A shipment of more than 49 billion Iraqi dinars arrived by truck convoy in Baqouba, Iraq recently to be used by the Diyala provincial government to pay salaries and pensions to around 70 percent of the local residents.

The money, which equals about $38 million, was escorted by the Iraqi Army from the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad and was delivered to an undisclosed location in Baqouba. From the capital city, the money will then be transported to rural banks to be distributed to roughly 1.3 million residents of the province.

This is the first time the Iraqi Army has completed a money delivery without the help of Coalition Forces.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the resumption of money deliveries to the Diyala banking system will aid stabilization efforts in the region, energizing what is mostly a cash economy.

Iraqi dinars delivered to rural banks in Diyala | Iraq Updates
__________________

-- August 28, 2007 2:00 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Iran-Iraq trade expected to rise up to $1.8 billion http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/21133

-- August 28, 2007 2:02 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger,

It is possible that you maybe right about the Russians, Iranians, and others in this new partnership to create another OPEC. However, it is noteworthy to also understand that Russia is number one in natural gas production from their country. I do not know at present who they sell too or how their monopoly on natural gas affects the west and europe.

Let's hope the impact is for a global economy that is simply competitive.

Laura Parker

-- August 29, 2007 5:24 AM ∞

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Anonymous wrote:

it has been several days. has everyone simply quit or do we have no access???

-- August 29, 2007 7:18 AM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

Anonymous:

News is slow, September seems to be shaping up to be an active month. I would assume September will generate more activity.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 29, 2007 9:57 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Insurgents get a cut of U.S. aid to Iraq
8/27/2007

By Hannah Allam
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — Iraq's deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they've extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province.

The payments, in return for the insurgents allowing supplies to move and construction work to begin, have taken place since the earliest projects in 2003, Iraqi contractors, politicians and interpreters involved with reconstruction efforts said.

A fresh round of rebuilding spurred by the U.S. military's recent alliance with some Anbar tribes — 200 new projects are scheduled — provides another opportunity for groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq to siphon off more U.S. money, contractors and politicians warn.

"Now we're back to the same old story in Anbar. The Americans are handing out contracts and jobs to terrorists, bandits and gangsters," said Sheik Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, the deputy leader of the Dulaim, the largest and most powerful tribe in Anbar. He was involved in several U.S. rebuilding contracts in the early days of the war, but now he's a harsh critic of the U.S. presence.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad declined to discuss the allegations. An embassy spokesman, Noah Miller, said in a statement that "in terms of contracting practices, we have checks and balances in our contract-awarding system to prevent any irregularities from occurring. Each contracted company is responsible for providing security for the project."

Providing that security is the source of the extortion, Iraqi contractors say. A U.S. company with a reconstruction contract hires an Iraqi subcontractor to haul supplies along insurgent-ridden roads. The Iraqi contractor sets his price at up to four times the going rate because he'll be forced to give 50 percent or more to gun-toting insurgents who demand cash in exchange for the supply convoys' safe passage.

One Iraqi official said the arrangement makes sense for insurgents. By granting safe passage to a truck loaded with $10,000 in goods, they receive a "protection fee" that can buy more weapons and vehicles. Sometimes the insurgents take the goods, too.

"The violence in Iraq has developed a political economy of its own that sustains it and keeps some of these terrorist groups afloat," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, who recently asked the U.S.-led coalition to match the Iraqi government's pledge of $230 million for Anbar projects.

Despite several devastating U.S. military offensives to rout insurgents, the militants — or, in some cases, tribes with insurgent connections — still control the supply routes of the province, making reconstruction all but impossible without their protection.

One senior Iraqi politician with personal knowledge of the contracting system said the insurgents also use their cuts to pay border police in Syria "to look the other way" as they smuggle weapons and foot soldiers into Iraq.

"Every contractor in Anbar who works for the U.S. military and survives for more than a month is paying the insurgency," the politician said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The contracts are inflated, all of them. The insurgents get half."

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he was aware of the "insurgent tax" that U.S.-allied contractors are forced to pay in Anbar, though he said it wasn't clear how much money was going to militant groups and how much to opportunistic tribesmen operating on their own.

As of July, the U.S. government had completed 3,300 projects in Anbar with a total value of $363 million, the U.S. embassy said. An additional 250 projects with a total price tag of $353 million are under way.

None of the Iraqi contractors agreed to speak on the record — they risk losing future U.S. contracts and face retaliation from insurgent groups. Some of the Iraqis interviewed remain in Fallujah or Ramadi on the U.S. payroll; others had fled to Arab countries and Europe after they deemed the business too risky.

One Iraqi contractor who is working on an American-funded rebuilding project in the provincial capital of Ramadi said he faced two choices when he wanted to bring in a crane, heavy machinery and workers from Baghdad: either hire a private security company to escort the supplies for up to $6,000 a truck, or pay off locals with insurgent connections.

He chose the latter, and got $120,000 for a U.S. contract he estimates to be worth no more than $20,000.

"The insurgents always remind us they're there," the contractor said. "Sometimes they hijack a truck or kidnap a driver and then we pay and, if we're lucky, we get our goods returned. It's just to make sure we know how it works.

"Insurgents control the roads," he added. "Americans don't control the roads — and everything from Syria and Jordan goes through there."

Another Iraqi contractor with several U.S. rebuilding contracts said he's been trying to avoid paying off insurgents by strengthening his relationship with reputable tribal leaders in Anbar.

In one contract for a major U.S. company, the contractor said, he gave cash to tribal leaders and trusted them to buy the goods in Anbar instead of having to pay insurgents to bring the goods in from Baghdad. He said the tribesmen took photos as proof that they used the money properly and had to hide the supplies in their homes for fear insurgents would find out.

The contractor said such scenarios are extremely rare and very dangerous. More typical, he said, was a recent order he took to haul gravel to U.S. bases in Anbar.

"If I do it in the Green Zone, it's just putting gravel in ... bags and it would be about $16,000," the contractor said. "But they needed it for Ramadi and Fallujah. I submitted an invoice for $120,000 and I'd say about $100,000 of that went to the mujahedeen," as Iraqis sometimes call Sunni insurgents.

A Fallujah native who used to work for Titan Corp., the U.S. company that supplies local interpreters to U.S. forces in Iraq, said he was stunned when, from early 2004 to the time he fled to the United Arab Emirates in 2006, a parade of sheiks with known insurgent connections were awarded contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The interpreter said that on several occasions contractors pleaded with American officials for protection and told them that gunmen were shaking them down for cash.

On one project for a water-treatment plant in the insurgent stronghold of Zoba, the interpreter said, the local contractor was summoned to meet with militant leaders who threatened his life if he didn't give them at least half the contract's value.

Fawzi Hariri, a member of the Iraqi Cabinet and head of the government's Anbar Reconstruction Committee, said some U.S. rebuilding funds "absolutely" have gone into insurgents' pockets. The exception is where construction sites were guarded by U.S. or Iraqi troops.

"If you're on your own, you certainly would have to pay somebody," Hariri said.

Insurgents get a cut of U.S. aid to Iraq - Source
(www.safedinar.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 29, 2007 10:35 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Iraq oil law can pass by comfortable majority -VP

Iraq's draft oil law should pass by a comfortable majority when parliament meets to discuss it after the end of its summer break in September, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said.
(www.noozz.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 29, 2007 10:35 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Bush to request $50b more for Iraq war
(www.iraqupdates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 29, 2007 10:39 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

The enclosed article explains why we cannot leave Iraq.
____________________________________________________________

Iran ready to fill vacuum in Iraq: Ahmadinejad

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tehran, 29 August 2007 (Gulf News)
Print article Send to friend
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Tuesday that US political influence in Iraq is "collapsing rapidly" and said his government is ready to help fill any power vacuum.

The hard-line leader also defended Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, a fellow Shiite Muslim who has been harshly criticised by American politicians for his unsuccessful efforts to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference, referring to US troops in Iraq. "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on his remarks, an unusual declaration of Iran's interest in influencing its neighbor's future.

The mention of a Saudi role appeared aimed at allaying the fears of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim nations that Iran wants to dominate in Iraq. Even though Saudi Arabia and Iran have not cooperated in the past, it "doesn't mean it can't happen," Ahmadinejad said.

Iran fought a brutal eight-year war with Saddam Hussein's regime and welcomed the elimination of a deeply hated enemy. But Iran also strongly objects to the presence of America, another rival, over its eastern and western borders in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Occupation is the root of all problems in Iraq," Ahmadinejad said. "It has become clear that occupiers are not able to resolve regional issues."

"They rudely say (the Iraqi) prime minister and the constitution must change," Ahmadinejad said of US critics. "Who are you? Who has given you the right" to ask for such a change, he added.

Ousting Al Maliki, a longtime Shiite political activist, would require a majority vote in the 275-member Iraqi parliament. As long as the Kurdish parties and the main Shiite bloc back al-Maliki, his opponents lack the votes for that.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the possibility of any US military action against Iran, saying Washington has no plan and is not in a position to take such action.
(www.iraqupdates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 29, 2007 10:41 AM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Iraq : Statistical Appendix - IMF - dated 28th August 2007. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2007/cr07294.pdf

-- August 29, 2007 1:06 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

Did you all see the news that Al-Sadr is going to have his militia stand down for six months!. I wonder why. Six months is how long it's going to take for the surge to end. It's slated for 4/2008 according to testimony from the joint chiefs on the senate floor.

Apparently, the Mahdi militia is fighting another shiite group for control of Baghdad area. Their Mahdi militia men are coming up fighting with our U.S. forces and either get captured, wounded or killed.

Thought you all might want to know if you haven't already seen it on cnn.

Laura Parker

-- August 29, 2007 2:25 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraq Energy Summit closes registration early due to high demand

Registration for the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical & Electricity Summit has now been closed, as Dubai looks forward to welcoming the world's leading oil, energy and security companies.

The event will discuss the future of Iraq's energy sector with ministers, deputies and director generals from the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The summit, taking place on 2-4 September, will welcome the high level official delegation from the Iraqi and KRG Ministries of Oil, Industry, Electricity and National Security Affairs, as well as the country's Oil Commission and Parliamentary Energy Committee.

These key decision makers will be participating at the landmark summit to establish relationships and enter into contractual negotiations with international energy operators.

The official Iraqi delegation will include some of the most important figures from Iraq's energy sector, including Minister of Industry & Minerals H.E. Fawzi Al-Hariri, Minister of Electricity H.E. Kareem Wahid and KRG Minister of Oil H.E. Ashti Hawrami. It also includes Thamer Ghadbhan, a former oil minister and Chairman of Iraq's Oil Commission.

Specific focus will be placed on Iraq's oil strategy and the key requirements for the sector, while other key areas of focus will include refinery and petrochemical integration, feedstock flexibility, power production availability and the protection of power stations, pipelines, refineries and other associated energy facilities.

All attending Iraqi Ministries will be outlining the requirements for their relevant sectors in front of the senior corporate audience, before holding private consultations with some of the pre-eminent operators within the global energy sector.

These best-in-breed operators and companies will be represented at board level in order to build the relationships that will be crucial to the future of the Iraqi energy sector and include the likes of BP, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Lukoil, Statoil, Marathon Oil, Total, Shell, Kuwait National Petroleum, Annadarko, Schlumberger, ABB, ONGC, General Electric, Cummins Power, Mitsui, Aegis, ArmorGroup, Janussian, Control Risks Group, Unity, GardaWorld and Triple Canopy.

Iraq Energy Summit closes registration early due to high demand | Iraq Updates
__________________
.
v

-- August 29, 2007 4:10 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sadr 'freezes' militia activities

Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr says he is freezing the activities of his Mehdi Army militia for up to six months in order to re-organise it.

He has also called on all its offices to co-operate with the security forces and exercise "self-control".

Analysts see the move as an attempt by Moqtada Sadr to regain control over his increasingly divided militia.

The order was read out at a news conference in Karbala, where fighting on Tuesday killed more than 50 people.

Police blamed the Mehdi Army for the violence, but it denied involvement.

'Rehabilitation'

A curfew is now in force in the city, where the situation is said to be calm.
At the Karbala news conference, one of Moqtada Sadr's aides read out a statement announcing that the Mehdi Army had suspended all its activities.
"We declare the freezing of the Mehdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," Sheikh Hazim al-Araji said.

In Najaf, another spokesman said the order included "suspending the taking up of arms against occupiers, as well as others".

In April 2007, the US defence department described the Mehdi Army as the greatest threat to Iraq's security, replacing al-Qaeda in Iraq as the country's "most dangerous accelerant of potentially self-sustaining sectarian violence".

The militia has split in recent months into increasingly autonomous factions, some of which the US says are trained and armed by Iran.

However, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says past experience of attempted purges of rogue elements in the militia will doubtless lead US and UK commanders to be wary and watch for the effect of the order on the ground.

The Mehdi Army was created by Mr Sadr in the summer of 2003 to protect the Shia religious authorities in the holy city of Najaf.

The militia strongly opposed the presence of the US-led coalition and took part in major uprisings against security forces in April and August 2004. It has also been linked to many sectarian attacks on Iraq's Sunni Arabs and has frequently clashed with rival Shia militia.

The Mehdi Army has become one of the major armed forces on the ground in Baghdad and southern Iraq, with a membership of around 60,000, according to a December 2006 report by the Iraq Survey Group.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Sadr 'freezes' militia activities

-- August 29, 2007 5:02 PM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(998)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 998 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Thursday 2007/8/30 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 10 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1238 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1236 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 35.190.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 35.190.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.000.000 -----

-- August 30, 2007 7:01 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura Parker wrote: "Did you all see the news that Al-Sadr is going to have his militia stand down for six months! I wonder why..." (end quote)

Laura - Maybe it is a way of surrendering before you get beaten?

===
Sadr City under siege – eyewitnesses
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 30 /08 /2007 Time 8:09:42

Baghdad, Aug 30, (VOI)- Iraqi security forces have besieged Sadr City in eastern Baghdad and sealed off the city's main outlets, eyewitnesses said.

"Iraqi security forces closed bridges over al-Jaish Canal, which represent the main outlets to Sadr City, and banned anyone from leaving without specified reasons, however they are allowing entry into the city," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The siege came one day after the decision taken by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to freeze al-Mahdi Army for six months.

The decision was taken after recent speculation and accusations against al-Mahdi Army of being involved in the violent acts in the city of Karbala, where scores were killed and injured.

Sadr City is the stronghold of al-Mahdi Army.

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=53924&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

I suggest they knew this was what was being planned in retaliation for their violent acts and they are trying to avoid the rightful consequences on their bloodthirsty actions by pretending to be at peace after committing atrocities. You might say they are cowards trying to protect their rat skins. I have noticed that terrorists fight dirty.. from using women, children and animals rigged with explosives.. to torture which the MSM ignores, as well as rape and pillaging. If anyone buys that they are to be left alone because they called for "peace" in the MSM news just before this retaliation for their acts of cruelty, they are among the most gullible of people on the planet. (Want to buy the London or Goldengate Bridge.. cheap?)

Sara.

-- August 30, 2007 12:33 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday's agreement national achievement, IAF supports it - VP

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Tuesday , 28 /08 /2007 Time 10:53:04

Baghdad, Aug 27, (VOI)- Iraqi vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said on Monday that he supports the joint agreement signed by the Shiite-Kurdish alliance and the Sunni Islamic party on Sunday, underlining that it would not be a door for the return of the Iraqi Accordance Front to the government.

"What happened yesterday is a good achievement in the current confused political situation. It is an achievement that deserves to be supported," al-Hashemi said at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

He described signing the statement as a beginning for solving the ongoing problems in Iraq.

The four main Kurdish and Shiite powers in addition to the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party signed on August 26 a new joint statement with the aim of pushing forward the political process and opening doors before the blocs that quit the government.

But Hashemi said the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) would not reverse its decision to quit the cabinet on August 1.

"Our previous experience with the government has not been encouraging, and we will not go back just because of promises, unless there are real and tangible reforms," he said.

He said "I attended the ceremony as a vice president not as a secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic party," the Sunni Arab vice president explained.

"What has been achieved would not be a starting point for the possible return of the IAF to government. It is a national achievement," the vice president also said.

"The Front will not return to the government unless all its demands are met," he affirmed.
The five-way agreement envisages measures to readmit former members of the Baath Party to public life and the release of many detainees, to hold provincial elections and to help security forces end the bloodshed.

Hashemi said the new rules on Baath Party members would be "a significant improvement" and would relax curbs that had barred thousands of middle class Iraqis from returning to work.

Aswat Aliraq

-- August 30, 2007 1:17 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Arab Papers Tue: The Five-Party Agreement

New Political Pact Aims to Rejuvinate Cabinet, Please Sunni Opposition http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/4102/subscriptions/splash.html

-- August 30, 2007 1:22 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Full Text: The New Five-Party Agreement

The New Document that Claims to Reestablish Iraq's Political Process http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/4106/subscriptions/splash.html

-- August 30, 2007 1:24 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Quintuple agreement important step - U.S. ambassador http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/21145

-- August 30, 2007 1:30 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Iraq oil law can pass by comfortable majority http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070829/tpl-uk-iraq-oil-law-02bfc7e.html

-- August 30, 2007 1:38 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

VP says Iraq govt must work to keep majority http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070829/tpl-uk-iraq-politics-vp-43a8d4f_1.html

-- August 30, 2007 1:44 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Approval of Iraq's oil law in sight http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=21059§ionid=351020201

-- August 30, 2007 1:46 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

LUKoil expects oil prices for Western, Central Europe to rise -1 http://en.rian.ru/business/20070828/75387301.html

-- August 30, 2007 1:50 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

President Talabani confirms the government's ability to impose law and inclusiveness in the political process

-- August 30, 2007 1:57 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Iraqi oil law set to pass with majority http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=192287&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=30163

-- August 30, 2007 2:01 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Baghdad-Sabah.
Said Abdul Razzak Al-Saadi Chairman of the Securities Commission approved the mechanism that controls the work of the approved brokerage companies in the Iraqi market for securities.

A statement issued by the body, "Al-Saadi noted that the controls were introduced to protect investors dealing in the market and the potential expansion of activity negotiable securities during the coming period due to economic growth and foreign investment in Iraq," but the statement did not refer to the date of approval of this mechanism.
The statement added that "the acceptance of any company introducing a new mediation to the market for capital must Alaigal billion dinars as well as the conversion of offices mediation of the banks licensed to a limited company (or contribution) with capital of less than one billion dinars owns most of the bank shares, which currently owns office mediation."
He Saadi, according to the statement, that "the brokerage companies to amend existing capital constantly that starting from this year, so at least any of the human capital or shareholders of (35) million dinars by the end of 2007 and continue existing brokerage companies increase capital annually to reach the same level and above during the specified period not exceeding 5 years from date
ÌÑíÏÉ ÇáÕÈÇÍ - åíÆÉ ÇáÃæÑÇÞ ÇáãÇáíÉ ÊÞÑ ÖæÇÈØ áÚãá ÔÑßÇÊ ÇáæÓÇØÉ Ýí ÓæÞ ÇáãÇá
__________________

-- August 30, 2007 2:07 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Army combs for abuses in Iraq contracts
8/30/2007

The Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts awarded over the past four years to support U.S. forces in Iraq to determine how many are tainted by waste, fraud and abuse, service officials said Wednesday.

Overall, the contracts are worth close to $3 billion and represent every transaction made between 2003 and 2007 by a contracting office in Kuwait, which the Army has identified as a significant trouble spot.

In a separate probe, a high-level team led by Pentagon Inspector General Claude Kicklighter will travel to Iraq next week to investigate how U.S. weapons intended for Iraqi security forces ended up being used for murders and other violent crimes in Turkey.

Among the contracts to be reviewed by the Army are awards to former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which has received billions of dollars since 2001 to be a major provider of food and shelter services to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats in Congress have claimed that KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root, benefited from ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, who once led Halliburton Co., the Houston-based oil services conglomerate, and congressional Republicans.

The officials did not specify which KBR contracts would be examined or their value.

The announcement, made by Army Secretary Pete Geren, comes as the number of criminal cases related to the acquisition of weapons and other supplies for forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has grown to 76. So far, 20 military and civilian Army employees have been indicted on charges of contract fraud.

"There have been reported cases of fraud, waste and abuse of contracting operations, with many of the worst cases originating out of Kuwait," Geren said.

Geren said the Army has been auditing the contracting operation in Kuwait for more than a year. He acknowledged the expanding list of criminal investigations was a factor in appointing a special task force headed by a three-star Army general.

"There is fraud," Geren said. "We have seen more cases lately and that's cause for concern."

Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson has been empowered to take whatever corrective actions he determines are necessary "to prevent any further abuse, fraud or waste," Geren said.

Thompson, the military deputy to the Army's top civilian acquisition official, said his task force will "make sure that we've identified anything that needs to be looked at that hasn't been already been picked up by an ongoing investigation."

By Sept. 30, Thompson plans to boost the number of personnel in the Kuwait office by 35, giving it a staff of 90.

"We already know from our internal looks over the last few months in Kuwait that the experience level of some of the people - not all of the people that we had in Kuwait - wasn't up to the challenge or the complexity of the contracts," Thompson said.

By Jan. 1, contracts worth more than $1 million will be handled by the Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., which has more staff able to deal with larger, more complex procurements, Thompson said.

In late 2005, the Army began audits and its Criminal Investigation Command accelerated its inquiries into contract fraud in Kuwait, according to an Army news release. The command first established an Iraq Fraud Detachment and then a Kuwait Fraud Office, both staffed with specially trained agents.

By early 2007, the Army had reorganized the Kuwait office, provided ethics training for employees and added a legal team.

Geren has also formed a special commission to examine long-term solutions to improve the Army's weapons and supply contracting process. That team will be headed by Jacques Gansler, a former under secretary of defense for acquisition, and its report is due in 45 days.

The investigation into U.S. weapons in Turkey was sparked in May when Pentagon officials learned that the Turks were concerned about American-issued weapons being involved in crimes in their country, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent the Pentagon's top lawyer, William Haynes, to Turkey to meet with Turkish officials, Morrell said. The officials told Haynes that American-supplied weapons were ending up in the wrong hands, possibly including Kurdish militants, a group known as the PKK that the Turkish military has been fighting on the Iraq border.

The situation has raised tensions between Ankara and Washington, and left open the possibility Turkey may conduct military operations in northern Iraq if the situation continue.

"We don't deal with terrorists, Morrell said. "We don't deal with the PKK. And we certainly don't arm the PKK. So if American-issued weapons have ended up in the hands of criminals in Turkey or terrorists in Turkey, that is not based upon the policy of this department or this government."

Army combs for abuses in Iraq contracts - Source
(www.safedinar.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 30, 2007 2:23 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Iraq VP opens business conference in Dubai

The vice-president of Iraq Dr Adel Abdul Mehdi opened the first Iraq Business and Investment Conference in Dubai as the head of a delegation of over 100 businessmen from southern Iraq.
(www.noozz.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 30, 2007 2:27 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Shell, Dow Chemical in talks with Iraq

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

30 August 2007 (AME Info FZ LLC)
Print article Send to friend
Royal Dutch Shell and Dow Chemical are in negotations with the Iraqi government to refurbish and enlarge a chemical plant in southern Iraq at a cost of up to $2.1 billion, Reuters reported.

The talks on creating a joint venture or reaching a profit-sharing agreement could be concluded this year, said Iraqi industry minister Fawzi Hariri.
(www.iraqupates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 30, 2007 2:32 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Bush aides hit back at bleak Iraq report by Stephen Collinson
12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Bush administration Thursday rejected a bleak draft survey by a government auditor on political and military advances in Iraq, saying it set criteria for judging progress far too high.

ADVERTISEMENT

The White House and State Department hit back after leaks emerged of a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), saying Iraq had failed to meet all but three of 18 benchmarks laid down by Congress.

The report emerged at a vital moment of the Iraq war debate, as the White House and anti-war Democrats crank up political heat ahead of a showdown over President George W. Bush's troop surge strategy in Congress next month.

White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino took pains to differentiate the GAO survey from the president's own report on the 30,000-strong troop hike in Iraq, which he must provide to Congress by September 15.

"The president must report on whether or not the Iraqis are making significant progress towards achieving the benchmarks in Iraq," Perino told reporters.

"The GAO ... is asked by Congress to say whether or not they have met them," she said, adding that the "bar was set so high" it was all but impossible for the Iraqis to meet the standards.

But the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi accused Bush of "stubbornly" refusing to accept things were going badly in Iraq.

"He insists that our soldiers sacrifice even more, and taxpayers spend billions more dollars for an Iraqi government incapable or unwilling to institute reforms required by the president himself," Pelosi said.

A law passed by Congress earlier this year requiring a report on the surge strategy gives Bush wide latitude.

It says the president must state what revisions are necessary in US strategy, if he assesses progress towards any benchmarks is "unsatisfactory."

The GAO is required by the law assess Iraq's progress in meeting benchmarks on political reconciliation, constitutional reform, building of security forces, challenging sectarian militia and sharing oil revenues.

"I would expect that if you apply different standards to the benchmarks, you might come out with some different conclusions," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.

The GAO report concludes that efforts by the Iraqi government to meet key legislation and reconstruction efforts are stalled, the Washington Post said.

Attacks on civilians have not ebbed and the Iraqi security forces have grown no more competent, the draft said, adding that US agencies were divided on whether violence had been reduced by the surge.

The Government Accountability Office, formerly known as the General Accounting Office, is the non-partisan auditing branch of the US Congress that oversees the performance and accountability of the US government.

Its findings are in stark contrast to an upbeat interim assessment issued by the White House in July, which found positive developments in eight of 18 categories.

The White House and Republican allies in Congress have been making a case that the surge strategy has been successful in dampening violence in Iraq, and making strides in the fight against extremists.

They have been pushing back against the idea that Iraqis must meet benchmarks, saying the grades do not reflect progress in the country, where 3,729 US soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have now died.

But Democratic critics have countered that the surge was designed specifically to give the Iraqi government space to achieve political reconciliation, and as that has not happened, it has ultimately failed.

Attention is now focusing on testimony to Congress next month by Iraq war commander General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker.

The White House said the two men would testify to both chambers of Congress on September 10 and 12, avoiding the emotionally charged date of September 11, the sixth anniversary of terror strikes targeting New York and Washington.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070830/pl_afp/uscongressiraqunrest_070830175413)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 30, 2007 2:34 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Shocker: Congressional Report Says Surge Failed
From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Auditors say Iraq goals not being met
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush’s Iraq war strategy, congressional auditors have determined.

The Associated Press has learned the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq are unfulfilled ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline. That’s when Bush is to give a detailed accounting of the situation eight months after he announced the policy, according to three officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public, also said the administration is preparing a case to play down the findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, “all or nothing” standards when compiling the document…

The GAO, the congressional watchdog, is expected to find that the Iraqis have met only modest security goals for Baghdad and none of the major political aims such as passage of an oil law…

An internal White House memorandum, prepared to respond to the GAO findings, says the report will claim the Iraqis have failed on at least 13 benchmarks. It also says the criteria lawmakers set for the report allow no room to report progress, only absolute success or failure.

The memo argues that the GAO will not present a “true picture” of the situation in Iraq because the standards were “designed to lock in failure,” according to portions of the document read to the AP by an official who has seen it…

“It’s pretty clear that if that’s your measurement standard a majority of the benchmarks would be determined not to have been met,” said one official. “A lot of them are multipart and so, even if 90 percent of it is done, it’s still a failure.”

At the Pentagon, spokesman Geoff Morrell previewed the administration’s response to the GAO report, comparing it unfavorably to the July findings.

“The standard the GAO has set is far more stringent,” he told reporters. “Some might argue it’s impossible to meet.” …

(end quote)

What a shock. A Democrat report claims that the Iraqis have not met their impossible benchmarks and therefore the war is lost.

Obviously the GAO’s ”all or nothing” standard was intended to guarantee this finding from the start.

The real surprise here is that for once the AP bothers to report the administration’s side.

But of course the headline and the lede are all that most people will read. And those claim that the surge has failed.

And that is what the Democrats and their media lickspittles want to drum into the public’s mind in advance of the (Democrat ordered) Petraeus report.

Comment:

1) golfmann

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public…

Another day, another leak.

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/shocker-congressional-report-says-surge-fails

-- August 30, 2007 3:48 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

News on the Warka account, I promised to keep informed how things are going.

I sent my request to Warka for opening up an account, and they returned with a listing of their needs.

I full filled their needs, and sent all the appropriate documents. Today I got my acct nbr and codes for sending over my funds in order to fill up my account.

We're living in exciting times, hope the long discussed about HCL will gain traction finally and get the Iraqi economy moving now.

It was suppose to be done last Christmas.

Oh well.

-- August 30, 2007 3:51 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Rather than listening to the impossible demands by the politicians for inhuman progress...
where, as the last article observed, even NINETY PERCENT completion is "complete failure"...
what do those on the ground think of what is happening in Iraq?
Here is one I thought you likely had not seen in the MSM:

===

The Surge is working.. more proof
Source: instapundit.com
URL Source: http://instapundit.com/archives2/008623.php
Published: Aug 25, 2007
Author: Glenn Reynolds

The Surge is working.. more proof
August 25, 2007

RALPH PETERS ON JOHN WARNER: Peters, writing from Fallujah, isn't impressed:

Although this trend has been reported, our battlefield leaders here agree that the magnitude of the shift hasn't registered back home: Al Qaeda is on the verge of a humiliating, devastating strategic defeat - rejected by their fellow Sunni Muslims.

If we don't quit, this will not only be a huge practical win - it'll be the information victory we've been aching for.

No matter what the Middle Eastern media might say, everyone in the Arab and greater Sunni Muslim world will know that al Qaeda was driven out of Iraq by a combination of Muslims and Americans.

Think that would help al Qaeda's recruitment efforts? Even now, the terrorists have to resort to lies about their prospective missions to gain recruits.

With the sixth anniversary of 9/11 approaching, how dare we throw away so great a potential victory over those who attacked our country?

Forget the anti-war nonsense you hear. The truth is that our troops want to continue this struggle. I know. I'm here. And I'm listening to what they have to say. They're confident as never before that we're on the right path.

Should we rob them of their victory now and enhance al Qaeda by giving them a free win? How can we even contemplate quitting now?

I've been sitting down with Iraqis, too - including former enemies. They don't want us to leave. They finally cracked the code. They need us. And although they've got a range of their own goals (not all of them tending toward Jeffersonian democracy), they're unified in their hatred of al Qaeda.

==end quote==

I'm not either, but for a different , or at least additional, reason. First, Warner's been saying similar stuff for quite a while, and it's funny that the press is making a big deal of it -- perhaps to overshadow the more significant about-face by Democratic Rep. Brian Baird. And Petraeus has talked about a troop pulldown already too. This looks like Warner trying to take credit for something that will probably happen anyway. In other words, Washington as usual. Warner, it's true, doesn't come off that well.

Meanwhile, notice that pretty much all the reporting from Iraq is more positive than the talk in Washington? As Damien Cave of the New York Times observed, QUOTE:

I talked to a commander the other day who said that the political debate at home is bizarro-land and something that he doesn't connect with at all. . . . it's funny, one of the things that comes up a lot here among commanders and among the press corps is the way that the debate at home seems to be mainly focused on the impact on Washington or among constituents. (end quote)

Well, that's how they look at everything, I suppose. But you expect better when a war is involved.

posted at 03:10 PM by Glenn Reynolds

http://instapundit.com/archives2/008623.php

Comments:

1) wardmama

My brand new son-in-law just came back from there - it is not the sesspool that these losers and appeasers on the left are screeding on an on about. He actually felt that they (the Marines) did not need to be where they were. Actually the worst time was their arrival and their departure (which if you track the units as I do, is always the way the terrorists, oops insurgents work).

Where was he? In al-Anbar province.

My son, when he was over there said - the reporters never leave the hotel in the Green zone, how can they report what is going on?

Another soldier said - there is only 5 or 6 reporters over here, how can they cover the entire country?

Since May of 2003, the msm has joined forces with the enemy and been against this war. Sadly the Dems (since the msm is their propaganda mouthpiece) probably directed it to be as such.

Too bad that the Troops have hated and despised the msm since they turned on them in Vietnam - damn I apologise for harkenening back to the glory days of the hippies, msm and leftists of America - and the msm has never learned that trust is a hard thing to win back. Especially when one never tries to do it.

2) Gil

Too bad that the Troops have hated and despised the msm since they turned on them in Vietnam - damn I apologise for harkenening back to the glory days of the hippies, msm and leftists of America - and the msm has never learned that trust is a hard thing to win back. Especially when one never tries to do it.

I think the MSM/Dems (same thing?) believes that the military vote is insignificant. Perhaps they think all those in the military are not voting Americans at all? But the military vote figured very prominently in putting President Bush into the Whitehouse when it came to the Florida ballots. It was the overseas ballots from the servicemen and women which gave President Bush his first term.

I suppose the MSM/Dems think they can ignore the military vote.. but perhaps their false thinking may play into a win for a Republican candidate in the next election, then.

http://sweetness-light-forum.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=945

-- August 30, 2007 4:02 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

I know you are interested in the Vietnamese Dong and got some of that currency.

My advice...take it or leave it....get out of it asap.

Got report that they have devalued a bit somewhat and read some other troubling reports. All in all you have to look at the overall possible performance of that country, it resources and its vulnerability to market fluctuations.

Iraq have oil, and as long as there is a thirsty world out there, their main product will never be in question.

Vietnam's products can most of the time be in question, as plastic toys, fish, and rice can be found elsewhere.

Vietnam's prosperity is so far in the future, while Iraq's future is when they open up the oil taps. (Very soon to come, unless they have another goat barbie, instead of passing the HCL law)

I would sell those Dongs asap and get back into IQD's.

It's all a high risk investment either way, but compare Vietnam and Iraq, and you have much higher possibility of a winning horse in Iraq.

-- August 30, 2007 4:05 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

Oh no, they will sell their oil, it's not only for their own consumption.

They will of course have oil for their own consumption but their own future is in selling it.

I have been talking with people in Western Europe, and they claim that they see more and more LUKOIL gas stations than ever before, so they are aggressively marketing their products.

If they come up with an oil producing block of their own, that is only good news. It will break the OPEC monopoly.

If they get their block together, the so common statement from Saudi Arabia :

-"In accordance with our memberships wishes, and in order to stabilize the fluctuating oil market we have decided to cut our output with 200.000 barrel a day"

.....will have less of a significance.

-- August 30, 2007 4:14 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

In one of Iraqupdates news articles for today, it is interesting that Iraq PM is stating that Iraq is looking to sign a long term security agreement to keep Iraq as a sovereign nation with the United States. This agreement is yet unsigned.

In addition, the Iraq PM warned Iran to stop shelling Iraqi territory in northern Iraq as this is damaging Iran's relationship with Iraq. He warned Iran that there will be repercussions if they continue shelling Iraqi villages. He stated that Iraq will have it's own sovereignty from neighbor countries.

--Interesting foreign policy---Signing a long term agreement with U.S. for security.

Roger,

All right. You can make fun of me. How about a truce!

All,

I also noted that there was a news article about contractors having to pay protection money to Insurgents on the road from Bagdhad to Northern Iraq. The Diala Province is especially deadly. Apparently, the reconstruction contractors in order to get equipment to places for rebuilding pay the insurgents for protection (to keep from being killed) and then use U.S.A. contractor money to buy weapons to fight U.S.A. soldiers.

So, if a job costs $10,000.00, the contractor gets 210,000. for the job and the rest of the money goes to insurgents. The contractor will not tell the U.S.A. or the contract would get cancelled.

This is ashame that our country can't hire some more security people with the amount of money that we are paying insurgents through these contracts!

Just wanted to let you all know. I think this was reported in Washington Post.

Laura Parker

-- August 31, 2007 12:57 AM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Rob,

I have only as much money as I can afford to lose in the Vietnam Dong, as all my dinar and dong were bought with the money I made on selling the dinar, its a long shot over a long time, I can wait, I will need something to do after makeing a shed load of money on the ISX and the Dinar. Thanks for the info, stay lucky, Steve.

-- August 31, 2007 1:16 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

Old age and alcohol takes it's toll, (I know), when I talk with you, you always answer me, but address me as Rob, so Henry, shape up.

Laura,

?????????? uh....I'm lost .??? no seriously, you lost me there, what making fun of, what truce???

You have to help me here...what are we doing now????

-- August 31, 2007 3:47 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

In the hospital,

RRiiiiing.....this is the Urology Department......please hold.

-- August 31, 2007 5:57 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Shell And Dow Prepare $2.1 Billion Iraqi Petro Plan
Lionel Laurent, 08.29.07, 1:25 PM ET

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LONDON - Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell is reportedly in talks with Dow Chemical to develop an Iraqi petrochemical plant for $2.1 billion, in a likely attempt to gain a strong foothold prior to the hoped-for opening up of the country's broken oil industry. But analysts believe the project itself has little hope of being profitable.

The plant is to be based in the southern city of Basra, and would therefore rely on the city's 120,000 barrels-a-day refinery for its feedstock. The problem, according to Global Insight energy analyst Samuel Ciszuk, is that Iraq is experiencing a refining shortage that would have a severe supply impact for any major petrochemical project.

"Unless the facility operates small-scale, it is hard to see it run on Iraqi refined products," said Ciszuk. "Of course, in the Gulf you don't need to look that far for feedstock, but it is still more expensive than sourcing it locally."

The real value of the reported project may therefore be political rather than financial. After all, the revelation that Shell (nyse: RDS.A - news - people ) and Dow Chemical (nyse: DOW - news - people ) were in talks over the joint venture came from Iraqi Industry Minister Fawzi Hariri, who told Reuters on Wednesday that the upgrade would help "the local market and beyond."

"The Iraqi government has repeatedly been saying that they want investments in petrochemicals," said Global Insight's Ciszuk. He added that this particular project would be a gesture of goodwill to build on, especially if it led to favorable status when Iraq's oil industry is liberalized.

A spokesperson for Shell, Alexandra Wright, confirmed the company was in talks with the Iraqi government "on a range of issues," but would not elaborate on the specific petrochemical plan. Dow Chemical declined to comment.

Shell's A shares rose 15 pence (30 cents), or 0.8%, to £18.55 ($37.41) in London on Wednesday afternoon. The company's B shares rose 19 pence (38 cents), or 1.0%, to £18.59 ($37.48).

Shares in Dow Chemical rose 37 cents, or 0.9%, to $42.07 in New York during morning trading.

Although any real long-term profitability for the petrochemical project will depend on the reconstruction of Iraq's security and industrial infrastructure, the real advantage for Shell and Dow lies in getting a favorable position ahead of the passing of the country's notorious oil law. The law will be the foremost issue to address when the Iraqi parliament reconvenes in September, and companies are hoping that the plan to unlock over two-thirds of the country's reserves of 112 billion barrels will finally get approval.
(http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/29/shell-dow-iraq-markets-equity-cx_ll_0829markets19.html?partner=yahootix)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 31, 2007 9:46 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger,

When you start a statement to me as "Oh no, they will sell their oil,..." it looks like to me that you are poking fun at me for my stated concerns on the Russians. Therefore, as I am not being taken seriously, I propose a truce. I am saying you could be right and I could be looking foolish. I am also saying I could be right. Only future history will bear out who is right. Ok?

Laura Parker

-- August 31, 2007 11:15 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Steven/Roger:

I am still contemplating the Al-Warka bank account. I have some concerns about depositing funds into a foreign bank inside Iraq. I realize buying Dinars, depositing funds at Warka, and investment in the ISX are all risky propositions. Holding Dinars is more comfortable to me because I can see and feel my investment. Depositing funds at Al-Warka via a proxy bank in Germany seems to be a recipie for disaster.

I am also not sure to what extent these deposits are actually safe from militant extremists coming to power and freezing the assets of foreign depositors.

Lets say, I deposit $500.00 usd into my Al-Warka account. I keep the required $150.00 usd in my dollar account and the remaining $350.00 buys dinars and is deposited in my dinar account. How do I know those dinars are actually in that account? I cannot see or touch those dinars. Furthermore, after the currency is revalued or released to the forex market, how are these foreign depositors suppose to withdraw those funds from Al-Warka? What is the exit strategy?

Some due dilligence on my part.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- August 31, 2007 11:49 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

I could never have guessed that, Laura, please turn down the sensitivity button, you can even turn it off.

I can assure you Laura that any idea about poking fun at you or similar intention, was far far from my original intent.

No need for a truce, there was no war to begin with.

I was just completely confused as to why you thought it would be that way.

You stated concern that the possibly new forming oil producing block would not sell oil, but keep it for themselves instead, and knowing from my experience with people I have talked to in Europe, claiming they have seen more and more LUKOIL gas stations pop up all the time, replied to you,... oh no, they're selling the oil.

From that ... to poking fun at you...still I have a hard time connecting the dots, but ok.

No problem.

-- August 31, 2007 4:05 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Rob N,

An account is as with any bank an account, and that means that there is no physical money involved, just an account, so in that sense, you don't have the currency in certified bills in your drawer no more.

The money is a number in a bank, just as your paycheck is deposited. it's just a number, but you can transform that number into certified Dollar bills any time you go to an ATM or bank teller for a withdraw.

Warka works the same.

Over 8000 people have successfully transferred money to Warka via a German proxy bank, it is pretty much daily routine.

You are not the first one asking how to get them out, and the mechanism is in place. I did follow on another forum how one guy did it, and he have by now done it successfully numerous times.

That practice is however not too often done right now, as the whole thing is in the investment mode, not the cash out mode, but by all means, you have to feel comfy yourself with what you're doing, and it might be a good idea to do some of your own research on this.

If militants will take over, well, possibility yes, likely weeeeell, it's always a risk but less likely, but in order to win, you've got to play.

If militants takes over, and you are sitting on a stash of Dinars at home, it doesn't matter, because the value of the Dinar will in that case be zil anyway.

My viewpoint, take it or leave it, it's just a matter of where will the Dinar do best for me right now, in the drawer or in the ISX or in an 11% savings account.

-- August 31, 2007 4:23 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Roger,

What I meant by not selling oil and keeping it to themselves is among the countries that have alliances in that carte. Not that a single country like Russia would not sell oil. The selling of oil would only be according to the alliance of that carte.

Hugo Chavez, from Venezula has already made it so that our own oil companies are saying that the rules imposed upon the oil company economically, would make doing business there too expensive. And you can believe me, the rules imposed upon the oil companies were intentional by Venezula. These same rules are not going to be the same for Iran, Russia. I am pretty sure about that!

I don't recall what Hugo Chavez did, but he imposed restrictive policies on the oil companies so that they could not make a descent profit from the oil business there.

My sensitively button is off.

Oh, on another topic, no dinar related: Roger, did you see the pictures of the big black hole that scientist say they found in space? I was not sure if the big white yellowish what looked like a whirlwind (hurricane) type figure was the black hole or if they meant the blackness in back of the stars. Can you clarify as you are our recent astronomer here (an interest you seem to have).

Laura Parker

-- August 31, 2007 9:20 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

I meant, resident astronomer here.

-- August 31, 2007 9:31 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

As you all have been discussing the Iraq stock market, I decided to punch in Iraqstockmarket.com and low and behold a website came up with brokers doing business on the Iraq stock market. Check it out and see what you all think. Is this a possible way for USA citizens to buy Iraq stocks from the United States of America?.

Laura Parker

-- August 31, 2007 10:55 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Hi Roger,
You are right I must have had a brain fart or something.

Rob N,
As Roger has said the Warka Bank gives you the same actions as you have with your account in
the US, and with your online banking with Warka it is no probs getting your cash out and back
home to the US.

The plan before the war started was to build a few large base;s in the dessert, out of the way
from the Iraqi's, if it all went tits up and into civel war, all the troops were to withdraw to these base's and let the Iraqi's kill each other for a while, then come back out and kill what was left, less to control.

And as for leaveing the area, no way, sunshine as, Withdrawal from Iraq would be in blatant opposition to UN resolution 1546 which calls on the multinational force in Iraq to take all necessary measures to contribute to the security and stability of Iraq, including by preventing and deterring terrorism. It also ignores the fact that the multinational forces are in Iraq with the strongest support of the democratically elected Government of Iraq.

New month, lets get an RV going, a biggi would be nice.
Stay lucky, Steve.

-- August 31, 2007 10:55 PM ∞

---

Anonymous wrote:

What is RV?

-- September 1, 2007 9:10 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Australia: Our troops must finish job in Iraq, says Nelson
Foster Klug
September 2, 2007

DEFENCE Minister Brendan Nelson says the US-led coalition must not hand a victory to terrorists fighting in Iraq by leaving too soon.

After meeting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Washington, Dr Nelson said Australian troops would continue supporting the US in Iraq. When asked for how long, he said the decision would be made based on what was happening in Iraq.

"We are not about to leave Iraq prematurely," Dr Nelson said. "Progress has been made, but it's extremely important that we have the determination and the political will to see this through."

Australia has about 1600 troops in Iraq, 550 of them in combat roles.

The minister visited Iraq last week, meeting Australian and US military leaders, including the top commander General David Petraeus.

"We're starting to see some significant improvement, if not turnaround, in the security situation," he said. "The evidence at the moment is that the Baghdad security plan is working in a military sense."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/our-troops-must-finish-job-in-iraq-says-nelson/2007/09/01/118806743 0613.html

-- September 1, 2007 1:20 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Bush urges Congress to wait for Iraq report
Saturday 01 September, 2007

President George W Bush urged Congress to wait for a crucial assessment of his strategy before making any judgments about the war.

''The stakes in Iraq are too high and the consequences too grave for our security here at home to allow politics to harm the mission of our men and women in uniform,'' Bush said in a statement on Friday after visiting military officials at the Pentagon.

''This status report comes less than three months since our new strategy became fully operational and will assess what is going well, what can be improved, and what adjustments might be made in the coming months,'' Bush said.

''Congress asked for this assessment, and members of Congress should withhold judgment until they have heard it.''

Some Democrats have already called for the ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and are likely to renew calls to withdraw American troops because of reports that show slow political progress.

http://www.ddinews.gov.in/International/International+-+Headlines/bush.htm

Did you notice the switch from saying the surge has failed to "slow political progress" as being the NEW reason for calls to withdraw the troops?

Sara.

-- September 1, 2007 1:26 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

I suppose that any cessation of hostilities is good for the longsuffering people of Iraq and those forces determinedly and steadfastly continuing to defend their lives against their ancient foes.

Iraq: U.S. says Sadr order to boost fight against al Qaeda
Posted: 01-09-2007 , 11:38 GMT

The U.S. Army is planning to step up attacks against al Qaeda in Iraq. American plans were boosted this week when the most powerful Shiite militia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, ordered a halt to attacks by his Mahdi Army for up to six months to reorganize. "If implemented, Sadr's order holds the prospect of allowing coalition and Iraqi security forces to intensify their focus on al-Qaeda-Iraq and on protecting the Iraqi population," the U.S. military said in a statement Saturday.

The statement said an end to Mahdi Army violence "would also be an important step in helping Iraqi authorities focus greater attention on achieving the political and economic solutions necessary for progress and less on dealing with criminal activity, sectarian violence, kidnappings, assassinations, and attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces."

The government-run newspaper Sabah published a front-page editorial Saturday praising al-Sadr's declaration as "a correct decision" and urged other militia leaders to follow suit.

http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/216436

-- September 1, 2007 1:33 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Anonymous;

RV is the short form of ReValuation.
What it really is.. is the expectation of the Dinar moving upward in value.

We on this site (and pretty much all Dinar sites) feel the Dinar is undervalued and that it will move upward.
RV denotes a sudden upward value change (revaluation is actually a misnomer, but it works well as a shortform).

There are those who think the value change will be gradual over years, others who think it will change value overnite.
RV is a term used by those who believe in a sudden value change overnite.
Obviously, such a change in value would not be announced beforehand,
as it has not been announced with other currencies who have gone through a swift upward valuation process.
(See the often quoted example of the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam, its currency drop in value,
then the Gulf War, followed by a quick return to a larger value for the Kuwaiti currency.)

It is widely believed that the passage of the oil law should facilitate an upward valuation of the Dinar by promoting economic growth in Iraq.
The economic growth should improve the value and worth of the Dinar, both short and long term.

Sara.

-- September 1, 2007 1:45 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

What they found was a big void in the universe, a place where there is nothing, and it is huge, some couple of billion light years across.

This was not a black hole, or some other thing, it is just a big huge nothing.

They're still scratching their heads.

I guess another creational theory went out the window.

About buying stocks in the USA.

All stocks have to be be originally bought on the stock exchange by an ISX broker, in Baghdad, and if Warka bank or a stockbroker in the US buys them it is essentially the same thing, except that the US stock broker will get a very hefty fee for doing it.

If a stock split comes up, Warka will do the administrative actions to take care of that.

If you are sitting on a bunch of certificates in the US, you need to keep tab of such things yourself, and send over the papers to another broker in Baghdad, in the hope that it will get properly done.

Steven,

Do you have your ISX stocks in proxy or in your name? If you have them in your name, can you please tell me the procedure for doing so.

-- September 1, 2007 3:34 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Roger,

My stocks are in the proxy name still, as there duz not seem to be a rush on to get them in your own name, the other site has the info for doing it, the Iraq Embassey in London is putting a page up on their site all about what we will need to get the stock in our own names, have a look on their embassey in the US.

The way I read it was, if you have the stock notes in your name at home with you, to sell you only have to put the stock number and how many shares you want to sell from that one.

It looks like it may go electronic at the end of this month, gives me some more time to get some more stocks.

Stay lucky, Steve.

-- September 2, 2007 12:38 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Steven,

Thanks, yes I agree, there might not be a hurry to do so, it is just another certificate that says I am the owner.

I rather have it than not, even if it is not a too much of a panic about that at the moment.

Read CBI's report to the IMF where CBI states that they intend to do a slow growth of the Dinar value over the coming months.

That in itself sounds not too good, it takes out the prospects for an RV in the very near future, but it is in itself good for me.

Reason is, I can exchange my Dinars and get my Dollars over to Baghdad, and be less concerned about an RV in the middle of the whole thing.

It would be a bummer to exchange all the Dinars, and send them to Baghdad, and then find out that while my Dollars was en route, an RV have taken place.

Feel safer doing my operation after reading that statement.

You are doing the right thing it seems, the stocks have per report been going up 0.5%/day, and this is just the beginning.

-- September 2, 2007 1:29 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Sara,

We feel safe now, when AlSad'r is ordering his gangsters to fight Al qaeda.

What should we do if we wouldn't have AlSadr??

Still beats me why that character is not in jail.

-- September 2, 2007 1:34 AM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GIX = Gulf Iraqi Expo - 1st - 3rd November, 2007 - Manama, Bahrain

Al Warka is gold sponsor and the official bank of GIX

Al Warka Bank for Finance and Investment has joined GIX as gold sponsor since this big event will bring the Iraqi officials and businessmen together with reputable companies from the Gulf and *********.

In addition, the bank has signed an agreement with GIX organizers to be the logistic partner and the official bank of the event.
The agreement was signed by the CEO of I-vision for Public Relations and Media from the organizers part and by the Executive Manger Shaymaa Sadi Taqi from the bank part.

Al Warka bank, through its branches throughout Iraq, will provide the Iraqi businessmen who are interested in attending the event with the registration applications. The bank will also offer the registered individuals credit cards with 30% discount.

With its most efficient team, the bank is one of the pioneer banks in Iraq in the finance and investment services. Al Warka Bank works within the highest standards, using the most updated techniques of investment methods which help the customer in taking the right financial decision in the right timing.

In addition to the credit cards (Visa cards), the bank will launch Western Union services ********* and internet banking services also ATM services starting from the first of next September through its financial and investment department –HQ.

The organizers will provide the bank with promotional material and a specially- programmed software to be used for attendees registration.

http://www.gixexpo.com/Warka%20bank%20-%20English.pdf

-- September 2, 2007 8:40 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Roger;

Why isn't Sadr in jail?

Well.. there are a million people who follow him who would be interested in busting him out if the authorities were to put him in one. Statistically not a wise thing to do. So having a ceasefire from Sadr is a far better strategic move for the US military - who are fighting this war well and winning... something it would be nice for the US military to continue to do, if the Democrats (and a certain few of their GOP allies) would only allow them to.

Sara.

-- September 2, 2007 2:52 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

Check out FOXNEWS.com - Report: Pentagon Has 3-Day Plan to Knock Out Iran's Military- International.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295529,00.html

Laura Parker

-- September 2, 2007 5:01 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura Parker,

I'm pretty sure they have already made up plans, but as the invasion of mainland Europe in WW2, they had a guessing game with the Germans.

The fact that an invasion was imminent could not be hidden from anyone. Allies as well as the Axis knew it was in the works.

Then on a day that was so stormy and rugged that many of the German commanders took off a couple of days,... then they came.

I think it is exactly the same here.

We don't have a force in the Persian Gulf that is right now BIGGER than the one we had during the Iraq invasion, just to defend off, or state our presence.

No, they are there for a reason. It's like the invasion of Europe.

Where,??? when,??? how,???

Suddenly when no one expect it, it will happen.

For our investment, this will be a good shot in the arm, as Iran have been the far most biggest irritant in Iraq's internal affairs.

As the cable guy said....-"Gidd'er doooone."

-- September 2, 2007 8:41 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

CBI have a very interesting report out right now, where they for the first time are talking about what we all have talked about for very long time on this blog.

The "official" exchange rate is going up right now in an effort to find the "real" exchange rate.

This is in an effort to stem inflation.

We have turned this over and over earlier, analyzing it almost to death, and finding that the real value of the Dinar will cure Iraq's economical sickness.

So, they're trying to chase down where that point is, and as it is higher than the official exchange rate, the Dinar will go up until they're in that zone.

True value have been determined by most to be in the 1 cent to maybe 25 cents (if you stretch it) range.

However, as the economy will take off, the "real" exchange rate, will go upwards, and as long as they are artificially taking extreeeeeemely small steps, they may never catch the "real" rate.

This will then be obvious when they start trading Dinar on the Forex, but as the evolution in Iraq is extremely slow, and still today the mechanisms for doing so is not in place, they have no other choice but continue to try to get the Dinar straight with an auction.

Well it's slow and tedious, but that's what they have, and it seems to be a slow process.

Earlier this year we had a lot of signs pointing towards and RV but lately those have watered out and dissolved into nothing.

Nothing really dramatic will ever happen with the Dinar unless there is business in volume in that country, so either way, the HCL, and the reconstruction of their oil fields IS the way out, in order to get this enchilada going.

-- September 2, 2007 8:56 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Sara,

If Iran is dealt with, AlSadr will be of less significance, as his backers will be a smoldering wreck.

The fact that they will be dealt with I do consider being certain.

Perhaps Bush needs a couple of more UN statements, or he might have just enough already.

Hard to say, but I would not volunteer into the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Army right now.

The roof of those barracks are far far too thin.

-- September 2, 2007 9:05 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Roger,

If you have a million in your hand, or a million in your Warka account, or a million in the post en route to Warka, a million is a million where ever it is, so why worrey about an RV if you have a million in the post, when it got to Warka it would go into your dinar account, then you can transfer it into you $Dollar account for whatever it is now worth, as my arab guys would say, me no understand,
it is only if you are transfering $dollars to Warka, that it will not get you as many dinars as before if it RVs while in the banking system to your $dollar account with warka, so it is safer to send dinar to Warka as it will mantain its value, whatever happens to it on route.
Just reread your post, so this just clears it up for those that don't know.

Never be afraid to try something new.

Remember.

Amateurs built the Ark
Professionals built the Titanic

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more
than 500 employees and has the following statistics.

29 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad cheques
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

Its the 535 members of the United States Congress

The same group that crank out hundreds of new laws each year
designed to keep the rest of the USA in line

Have a nice day and stay lucky, Steve.

-- September 3, 2007 12:13 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

I just gotten an e-mail from panhandler in Iraq. He states it's very hot over there and that they have seen an increase in mortar and rocket attacks at his base of operations. He stated that just 24 hours earlier, he was sitting in one of the buildings that got hit by rocket.

Panhandler states that several people were killed and/or wounded in that attack. One of the rockets hit about 5 rows away from his living quarters and one of the TCN'S was killed there. He states that the Hooches look like swiss cheese. Due to security issues, the base never tells anyone what the colateral damage is and they have to get the news by word of mouth.

He states he write T & B when he goes on vacation in about 15 days. He has been very busy as of late and has not been able to monitor the site. He asked me to give his regards.

Laura Parker

-- September 3, 2007 1:17 AM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

All,

In addition, Panhandler stated that he has not monitored ISX in Iraq. However, he state that two companies he would invest in are: Al-Bassem and Bukkhave. He is unsure whether they are on ISX. He stated he would give a nice report when he comes on vacation.

My other concern raised with him was whether the insurgents are controlling the highway from Baghdad to Syria. He states "they don't stand a chance, the surge is kicking their asses..."

This sounds like good news, however, I am still concern about these rocket attacks. Pray for safety for all the contractors and soldiers.

Laura Parker

-- September 3, 2007 1:29 AM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Laura,

Thanks, and hope to hear from Panhandler when he get off.

It's reassuring to hear that we are kicking ass over there.

Steven,

No Steven I'm not afraid of doing it, it is just a risk I observed, but I will go for any risk there are, because the potential payout is so huge.

This is where the risk lies.

Lets say that you are the proud owner of a million Dinars.

As long as you own them, you can benefit from a possible RV (don't seem to be on the horizon right now, but ok, let's say it would happen)

Now, in order to get your money from the form of Dinars in your vault, to the Warka account, you first have to transfer them into Dollar, and then get back Dinars once there.

Ok, lets say you take your beloved million Dinars, and get 800 Dollars for them.

Now you don't own any Dinars, but you are back to Dollars again.

Lets say that at that particular moment, the long awaited RV comes.

All you are holding then is Dollars, either in your hands or on the way to Warka (takes about a week).

Lets say, just for the sake of the argument that THAT Million Dinars was all you had.

If you now instead have 800 bucks in your hand, and the RV comes, what are you going to do with those 800 bucks, you can't claim they went up in value, because it's not Dinars.

So yes, there is a risk of temporarily getting rid of Dinars, transferring it, and then get back into Dinars again.

The trick is probably to do it in small portions at a time.

Perhaps send a quarter of your holdings at a time, if you suspect that an RV will be imminent, if the signs are not there maybe a third or half at a time.

-- September 3, 2007 4:55 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Iraq PM says key draft law sent to parliament
03 Sep 2007 10:39:09 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Iraq's government has submitted to parliament a key draft law aimed at easing curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party joining the civil service and military, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday.

The draft is one of the key measures the United States has said was needed to foster reconciliation between warring majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03190508.htm

-- September 3, 2007 11:01 AM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraqi dinar trading permit extended

Finance minister renews permit to trade Iraqi dinar in Israel, extended validity by two years

09.03.07

A special permit for trading Iraqi dinars in Israel has recently been renewed. Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On decided on the move due to the widespread trade of the currency in the country.

Initially, the permit was issued for a period of one year; its renewal has extended its validity by two years, de****e the fact that Iraq is considered an enemy state.

According to estimates by Govev Investments, which has been trading the Iraqi currency over the past year, the currency turnover equals in value to over $20 million. The Iraqi dinar currently stands at $0.0008.

In the United States, the currency turnover has reached nearly $500 million since the Iraqi dinar began being traded there at the end of 2003, following the printing of new bills issued by the al-Maliki government, which was voted into office under the auspices of the American occupation.
The demand for Iraqi currency in Israel has increased since trading began, under the assumption that its value will also increase with the rehabilitation of Iraq and its economy.

Economists see a promising potential in Iraq to become a wealthy, modern country because of its oil and gas reserves, and its vast, fertile agricultural land.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...445047,00.html

-- September 3, 2007 1:55 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Inflation in Iraq slumps says central bank chief http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=192715&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=30167

-- September 3, 2007 2:02 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Bush made a surprise stop in Iraq on it's way to Australia.

Something tells me that the main underlying issue here is not Iraq, but Iran.

It's an historic pattern that before a war or a planned hostility, the statesmen of allies meet in person, doing their pep talk.

Don't know what he is saying to Malaki, but knowing the issues at hand in Iraq, it would not surprise me if Malakis ears will be hurting a couple of days after Bush departure.

Doctors diagnosis: The patient Mr Malaki, showed clear bruises, torn muscles and ligaments in the ear, stemming from a firm hand grip and subsequent shaking of the instrument.

-- September 3, 2007 3:51 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Iraq's leader expects favorable marks in next week's reports to Congress
ROBERT H. REID AP
eptember 03, 2007

BAGHDAD-Iraq's prime minister said Monday he expects the U.S. ambassador and military commander to give his government favorable marks when they report to Congress next week and predicted passage of a law soon that could return more Sunnis to government jobs.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters Monday that his government was making progress toward national reconciliation and that both Crocker and Petraeus "are witnessing this progress."

"I expect that the positive developments will be, for sure, reflected in the report to Congress on Sept. 15," al-Maliki said.

The prime minister spoke before leaving for al-Asad Air Base to confer with President Bush, who flew to the remote air base for a firsthand assessment of the war before the upcoming debate over the U.S. troop buildup.

U.S. officials are expected to tell lawmakers that the troop increase has brought some improvements in security but that progress toward power-sharing deals among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds has lagged behind.

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have blamed al-Maliki and called for him to be replaced.

Stung by those calls, al-Maliki said his critics have overlooked the achievements of his government, including a reduction "to a large extent" in sectarian reprisal killings.

The Shiite prime minister also said that a long-awaited draft law to ease the ban on former Saddam Hussein loyalists serving in government jobs has been completed and "I believe that the parliament will approve it."

Approval could allow thousands of Sunni Arabs to regain their jobs or receive government pensions and is among the 18 benchmarks set down by Congress as a condition for U.S. support.

In Basra, Iraqi soldiers hoisted the nation's flag over the Basra palace Monday after 550 British troops pulled out of the compound the night before. They joined about 5,000 other British soldiers at the airport 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of town.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the move was planned for months and that British troops would be available to help Iraqi forces "in certain circumstances."

"This is essentially a move from where we were in a combat role in four provinces, and now we are moving over time to being in an overwatch role," Brown told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Iraq's defense minister said he was confident his military will be able to fill the vacuum and maintain security Basra.

"We are working very seriously to fill the security vacuum and we expect in the next few days to fill it in a good way," Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi said during a stopover in Beirut, Lebanon en route to Europe.

http://www.macroworldinvestor.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=269172761

-- September 3, 2007 5:03 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Surprising drop in deaths after troop surge
By Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy, September 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - American combat deaths in Iraq have dropped by half in the two months since the buildup of 28,000 additional U.S. troops reached full strength, surprising analysts...

In May, when four of the five additional brigades were in Baghdad, there were 123 combat deaths. By June, the number fell to 93, then to 66 in July and to 57 in August, according to the Web site iCasualties.org, which keeps the most up-to-date statistics on Iraq casualties.

Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a Washington-area research center, warned that reducing the number of troops could lead to an increase in casualties.

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/090307/news_20070903038.shtml

A thought...
If it is true that we lose far fewer soldiers by having a larger US combat presence, the WRONG strategy is to reduce the troop numbers as the Democrats are advocating. Their strategy would then be responsible for greater US troop deaths; and, as both sides have agreed we will continue to have a presence in the region, it appears foolish to follow the Dem's strategy by this measure. Not that reason or logic or the value of the lives of the troops will prevail in swaying the opinions of the Democrats in the political arena, but I just thought it worth mentioning.

Sara.

-- September 3, 2007 5:12 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Sara,

Eventually the Iraqis have to deal with their own country, and ultimately we will be out of there , but until they can do so, the short term strategy have to prevail, and if it calls for more or a constant level of high troops, that's the medicine.

So Sara, are you doing the Warka deal???

-- September 3, 2007 6:04 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Yes, I agree, Roger. As long as the Iraqis need help the troops should stay.

And as far as Warka is concerned, my view is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the Warka account. :)

Sara.

-- September 3, 2007 7:24 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Sara,

You have got to be in it to win it

Nothing ventured nothing gained

He who dares wins, Rodney

-- September 3, 2007 7:45 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

One dinar on the table is better than a Dinner table

-- September 3, 2007 9:09 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

One Dinar in the hand, is better than a Dinner table on the foot.

-- September 3, 2007 9:10 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Better to flip a bird, than a flipping bird.

-- September 3, 2007 9:13 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Better a finger in the hole,than a hole in the finger

-- September 3, 2007 9:16 PM ∞

---

Roger wrote:

Rob N,

Got a Q for u.

As far as I understand you live in Salt Lake...Right?

I will in the short future exchange my Dinars so I can send them to Warka, but there are no known banks in CA that will do it, but I have heard that there are banks in S.L. as far as I remember.

Can you tell me what where and who.

Would you know if there is any restrictions like a very crummy exchange rate, or only a very small amount per day. or you have to have an account or something similar.

I was hoping to get this Warka deal going asap. I'm on the East Coast right now, but will be in CA a couple of days, will take off some days to get this taken care of.

I can drive over to S.L. in a day but could use a bit of info before I start doing this , so I don't end up in a wild goose chase.

-- September 3, 2007 9:38 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Roger:

No, I do not live in Salt Lake. I was in Sacremento on a business trip and my return flight to Texas took me through Salt Lake. If I left you with the impression I lived in Salt Lake my apologies.

Concerning the Dinar excahnge rate. The "real rate" will only be apparent with dedollarization. Until this happens the CBI will probably not catch the real rate. Once oil derivitives are bought and sold in Dinars will the real exchange rate become apparent.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 3, 2007 10:51 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Steven;

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" (Dinar). :)

I'm just busy with other baskets, I suppose.

I am content with the Dinar which I now hold in this "basket."

With further funds I have other ventures I am keen on.

Dinar isn't the only fish in the (investment) sea!

Sara.

-- September 3, 2007 11:36 PM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(1001)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 1001 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Tuesday 2007/9/4 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 17 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1237 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1235 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 108.075.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 18.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 108.075.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 18.000.000 -----

-- September 4, 2007 7:35 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura;

Thanks for the post about PH.
I will continue to pray for him and add the others he works with and the base to my prayers.
Hope we can hear from him soon, thanks.

Sara.

-- September 4, 2007 8:08 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Lack of legal framework keeps oil investors out of Iraq

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

04 September 2007 (International Herald Tribune)
Print article Send to friend
Iraqi government officials and energy experts presented detailed plans for exploiting the wartorn country's vast petroleum wealth but admitted that the absence of a law regulating the industry is a bigger obstacle than security to attracting foreign investment.

Government officials at the three-day "Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemicals and Electricity Summit" held in Dubai tempered their grandiose projects for exploiting the country's massive oil reserves by admitting that the vital, but contentious, law still needed to be passed.

"Security is not stopping investors coming to Iraq, (it is because) they have no laws to protect their investment," Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, told the Associated Press at the start of the conference.

After months of acrimonious debate, a new draft oil law will be discussed in parliament in the coming weeks, which al-Dabbagh hoped would be adopted by the end of the month.

"The majority of politicians are aware that we cannot go on without it," he said. "The oil law is the future of Iraq."

Despite being some of the largest in the world, Iraq's oil reserves are also some of the least exploited with the worst infrastructure — something Iraq is hoping foreign investors can change.

Talks have been held with Shell, Texaco and Dow Chemical companies on possible investments in various proposed projects, said Fawzi al-Hariri, Iraq's Minister of Industry and Minerals. He said the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation has also expressed interest.

Al-Hariri hoped that the negotiations would be concluded by the end of the year.

He described a plan for a US$120 million (€87.56 million) upgrade of a Basra petrochemical plant, that could be developed further with another US$1 billion (€0.75 billion).

"We are also considering a second, completely new facility, maybe in the north or central region," he told Dow Jones Newswires at the conference, putting the cost at over US$2 billion (€1.5 billion).

He said that the plant's final location would depend on the security situation.

Even more than new projects, however, it is the country's creaking oil infrastructure that has to be fixed, preferably with foreign investment, said Thamir Ghadban, chairman of Iraq Oil Commission.

Several times over the last three decades, complete overhauls were planned only to be shelved as the country was wracked by devastating wars and then U.N. sanctions.

"We think Iraq needs to bring up the oil production, but it also needs to go into oil exploration," Ghadban said, adding that the government plans to "convert 25 to 30 percent of probable reserves into proven reserves. "

If it succeeds, Iraq could raise production to 6 million of barrels of oil a day, up from an average of around 2 million barrels.

"Four million with national efforts and additional two million in cooperation with foreign oil companies," Ghadban said.

The country's former oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Olom, called for additional domestic involvement in the sector as well, stressing the need for a "balance between national and foreign investment."

"Iraqis deserve a better standard of living," al-Olom said. "The only way they will get it, is by developing oil and gas resources."
(www.iraqupdates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 4, 2007 10:07 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Iraq's Parliament Reconvenes After Break
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA 09.04.07, 9:54 AM ET

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament reconvened Tuesday after a monthlong summer break. Meanwhile, an Iraqi appeals court upheld death sentences imposed against "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and two other Saddam Hussein lieutenants convicted of crimes against humanity for their roles a massacre of Kurds, a judge said.

Al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and former defense minister, gained the nickname "Chemical Ali" after poison gas attacks on Kurdish towns in the 1980s. Under Iraqi law they must now be executed within the next 30 days.

Parliament in July shrugged off calls from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to cancel, or at least shorten, the traditional summer pause saying after putting the break off for a month that there was no point waiting any longer for the premier to deliver the legislation.

The session opened with 158 members of 275 present - enough to form quorum, but the agenda was not immediately announced.

On Monday, al-Maliki said the de-Baathification draft law - one of the U.S.'s 18 benchmarks - was ready and would be soon be taken to parliament.

"I believe that the parliament ... will approve it," he said.

The U.S. military announced Tuesday that in a single raid the day before, U.S. Special Forces and Iraqi soldiers had captured 46 al-Qaida in Iraq suspects in the northwestern city of Rabiah, breaking up a suspected terrorist cell.

"One of the targeted terrorists is believed to be linked to a brutal attack in Mosul that resulted in the death of seven Iraqi Police, while another detainee is suspected of having financial ties with Syrian intelligence to support the insurgency," the military said. The soldiers searched five buildings and confiscated bomb-making materials and a box of heavy machine-gun ammunition among other items.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/09/04/ap4078747.html

-- September 4, 2007 12:46 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Steven:

How do I know which companies are listed on the ISX? Is this information posted on the website?

Do you know if any Iraqi oil companies are listed on the exchange? If/When the HCL passes, oil stocks will probably soar. Thanks in advance for the information.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 4, 2007 5:04 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Rob N.

The info is all on the ISX site.

The companies listed, their Email address, its all there.

The only down bit is all you have to go on to make up your pic list to buy on the ISX
is from the, Daily Analysis, from the last trading day.

Trading days are, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday

I sent in a pic list on Monday and got an Email today saying it will be done on Thursday

Most days it is Banks trading for about 75% of all trading

At the top of the site it tells you how many companies are trading
and and what sections they are in, and how many are not trading for whatever reason, and why.

That should sort you out, Steve.

-- September 4, 2007 7:50 PM ∞

---

Carole wrote:

Laura,

when you communicate to PH, please tell him he is in my prayers.

Thanks,

Carole

-- September 5, 2007 2:12 AM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(1002)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 1002 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Wednesday 2007/9/ 5 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 18 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1237 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1235 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 70.450.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) -------
Total offers for buying (US $) 70.450.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) ------- -----

-- September 5, 2007 7:20 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Ministry of Industry Stresses Importance of Benefiting from Foreign Experiences in Building Iraq’s National Economy

The Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals has stressed that it is a top priority to utilise foreign experience and Iraqi dedication to work at building the national economy to reach high levels of growth
(www.noozz.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 5, 2007 10:26 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Report: Iraq Police Must Be Scrapped
Associated Press | September 05, 2007
WASHINGTON - Awaiting a visit Friday by President Bush to discuss the war, the Pentagon defended its efforts to rid the Iraqi national police of sectarian bias and corruption, even as an independent review found the force too tainted to continue.

In a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a secure conference room dubbed "the Tank," Bush was expected to hear deep concerns from leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines about strains that are building on the force - and on troops' families - as a result of lengthy and repeated tours in Iraq.

Two independent assessments of the situation in Iraq already have been previewed this week - the latest finding that Iraq's national police are so corrupt and influenced by sectarianism that the corps should be scrapped and replaced with a smaller force.

An independent commission established by Congress to study Iraq's security forces will recommend starting over and reshaping the troubled 25,000-member police organization with a more elite force, a defense official said Friday. He said the report was more positive about progress being made by the Iraqi army.

The report from a commission headed by the former commander of U.S. troops in Europe, retired Gen. James Jones, is to be presented to Congress next week but Gates and other officials were briefed about it this week, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been publicly released.

Asked the Pentagon's view on this, press secretary Geoff Morrell said there already is a program under way to fix the problem of sectarian influence in the national police. He said he had not seen the Jones report.

"It should come as no surprise to anyone that there have been problems with sectarianism within the Iraqi national police force, and we have been working on it along with the Iraqi government for some time to fix that problem," Morrell said.

"We believe we now have a program in place which is showing progress, and that is by what we like to call `reblooming' the Iraqi national police force. We are revetting, retraining and then reintroducing forces into the Iraqi national police force," he added. "The intent of the program is to rid the Iraqi national police force of their sectarian biases that have been present from the get-go."

At least five of the nine police brigades have been taken off duty and sent to be retrained and reintegrated into the force, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman. He said the Iraqi government also recently approved a plan to hire some 2,000 internal affairs personnel to investigate problems in the force.

A senior general in Iraq, meanwhile, said in an AP interview Friday that he agrees the Iraqi national police should undergo retraining, adding that their biggest problem is a lack of experienced leadership.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said by telephone that sectarianism had been a problem in one of the two main national police units in his area, but that has since been corrected.

"Certainly some retraining would be beneficial," Mixon said, but he did not endorse the idea of scrapping the current force and starting over. "There is no question that the government of Iraq needs some type of police force that is mobile, that can move into certain areas that require police strengthening for selected periods of time. If that's the way they reshape them I think that would be a good idea."

The Iraqi National Police, a paramilitary organization run by the Interior Ministry, has long been feared and distrusted by the Iraqi people and is considered the weak link in the Iraqi security system. Many of its early senior officers were veterans of the Badr Brigade, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia formed in Iran from among Shiite refugees who had fled Saddam Hussein's rule.

The national police are separate from the far more numerous local police.

The U.S. has been working to weed out corrupt members, taking whole police units out of service and retraining them, as well as removing a number of commanders.

The report on Iraqi forces follows circulation earlier this week of a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress that found the Iraqi government has failed to meet political and security goals.

A third report - by the nation's intelligence agencies last week - found there has been some progress, but that violence remains high, the Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months and its security forces have not improved enough to operate without outside help.

Training and equipping an Iraqi Army, police force and border corps is key to handing over responsibility for Iraq's security and bringing U.S. troops home. Commanders have said they hoped to have a 390,000 security forces trained by the end of this year, but that they are not yet capable enough in some areas for the U.S. to reduce its troop levels.

Bush's Friday meeting with generals is likely to include an assessment on the long-term impact on U.S. forces of maintaining a heavy troop presence in Iraq in 2008 and beyond. There are more than 160,000 Americans in Iraq, up from around 130,000 before the escalation Bush ordered in January.

The Army and the Marine Corps have shouldered most of the burden in Iraq, creating strains that service leaders fear could hurt their recruiting as well as their preparedness for other military emergencies.
(www.military.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 5, 2007 10:29 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

McCain Says U.S. Now Winning Iraq Fight
Military.com | By Christian Lowe | September 05, 2007
Presidential hopeful and steadfast Iraq war proponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said Tuesday that the "surge" strategy launched in March is succeeding and that the U.S. military is turning the corner in Iraq.

Saying all other issues "pale in comparison" on the campaign trail, McCain told Military.com in an exclusive interview that fellow lawmakers pushing for a withdrawal are setting "a date for surrender."

"I not only believe it is winnable, but I think we're succeeding - I think we're winning," McCain said in the Sept. 4 interview. "For us to bail out now would bring on chaos and genocide - the region would deteriorate into chaos - and we would be back and they would follow us home."

"I am as convinced of that as anything I have ever been convinced of in my life," said the former Navy pilot and nearly six-year Vietnam prisoner of war.

Breaking with statements from the British government, which has bristled at criticism of their recent withdrawal from Basra, Iraq's second largest city, McCain said the security vacuum left with the departure of British troops might have to be filled with U.S. and Iraqi troops to "restore some order."

"Basra is a cautionary tale about the failed strategy that Rumsfeld tried to employ and that was not having enough boots on the ground to bring about a secure environment," said McCain, a frequent critic of the former Defense Secretary.

But McCain added that a potential "surge" to Basra would not be a significant strain on U.S. forces since they could be shifted from areas pacified by the surge.

"Ramadi is basically secure today," McCain explained. "It's got some problems. But it's basically secure. ... It's just a fact."

Despite his firm support of the current strategy in Iraq - or perhaps because of it - McCain's standing in the race for the Republican nomination has slipped over the last several months as the debate over withdrawal grows more heated on Capitol Hill.

Some political analysts say it is McCain's emphasis on the importance of the Iraq war that has accelerated his decline in the polls, particularly among an American electorate that has grown weary of a bloody war roiling through its fifth year.

But the candidate doesn't see it that way.

"We've had some bumps in the road - some ups and downs that happen in every campaign," he said.

McCain said that although initial setbacks in Iraq may have tarnished America's reputation around the world, recent policies have begun to turn the tide. The election of pro-American leaders in France and Germany - whose governments were previously outspoken foes of America's invasion of Iraq - are positive signs that the world opinion of the United States is improving.

America could increase that momentum, however, by immediately closing the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ban all torture of terror suspects, embrace curbs on global warming, and increase opportunities for national service for Americans at home and overseas, he said.

"We're still the strongest nation in the world, the greatest nation in the world ... we still are a beacon of hope and liberty for people around the world," McCain said.

"We can refurbish our image," he added "We've still got a little bit of work to do."
(www.military.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 5, 2007 10:31 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

U.S. forces arrest Iranian-linked agent in Iraq
Wed Sep 5, 2007 7:15AM EDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers detained a "highly sought individual" suspected of links to senior officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guards in a predawn raid on the Iraqi Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

U.S. commanders in Iraq have repeatedly accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards force of training Shi'ite militias in Iraq and supplying them with increasingly sophisticated weaponry to kill American soldiers.

The U.S. military said in a statement that the detained man, an Iraqi, was suspected of liaising with high-level officers in the Guards' elite Qods Force to arrange the transportation of Iraqis to training camps in Iran.

"It is likely that the affiliate is closely linked to individuals at the highest levels of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Qods Force," it said.

The U.S. military statement said troops had confiscated computer equipment, communications devices, documents and photographs from the suspect's home.

"As Iran continues its proxy war against the people of Iraq, Coalition forces will continue to build on recent operations to disrupt the flow of illicit, lethal materials from Iran to Iraq," said military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.

U.S. generals say Iran is also trying to influence debate on the war in Washington by boosting its support for militias.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSCOL52581020070905

-- September 5, 2007 11:47 AM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Analysis: Industry eager to see passage of Iraq oil law
By Ben Lando
Coming 'in its own time'
By Ben Lando
UPI Energy Editor

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The question is simple on the third and final day of a major Iraqi energy conference where hundreds of oil men and women broke bread with Iraq's industry chiefs, politicians and technocrats: When will Baghdad set the ground rules for the international oil communities?

The answer, evenly nuanced, is clear: A version of the Iraq oil and natural gas law was agreed to by most of Iraq's political leadership last week, and when Parliament resumes this week it will, possibly, debate the law and, perhaps, maybe vote on it soon.

"They have a deal on the government level. Once it comes to the Parliament, it is the Parliament who has to have the say," Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, deputy head of Parliament's Energy Committee, said on the sidelines of the summit, though he hasn't seen the latest version of the bill yet.

"This is really a discussion taking place between all expertise, members of Parliament, economists, government officials," he said, adding the balance between Iraqi and investor interests isn't a quick resolve. "I wish it could have been passed yesterday. We need it. But simply it has to take its own time to come through maturely."

Law seen certain to pass

Officials United Press International spoke to said if it wasn't the first item on Parliament's agenda, it could be high up there. Ramadan begins next week, but that's not expected to stop debate.

"After the deep discussion among the Council of Ministers and among the political leaders they agreed they would pass this," said Sami al-Askari, a member of Parliament and a top adviser to Maliki. Parliament, he said, is a "reflection" of the membership in the council and those at last week's meeting.

"We all follow the leaders," he said. "This is a formality, to discuss it" in Parliament, where a few minor things will be changed but the law will be passed after a "few weeks talking about it."

Robert Fryklund, vice president of industry relations for energy consultant firm IHS, told UPI last week Parliament must both reconvene and then approve the oil law, "and then anything that's being worked on from the preliminary standpoint would be able to move forward."

Many oil officials refused to talk on the record about Iraqi prospects, but all admitted that getting a law in place, and possibly an improvement in security, is all they are waiting for.

"Iraq is the only country in the world with great reserves, it's not developed," said Orhan Duran, general manager of Genel Enerji, the Turkish company that joined with Canada's Addax Petroleum to sign a production-sharing agreement with the KRG in May 200, and is now preparing a $1 billion development plan for their find. "On the other side, the quality of oil is very good. Plus a lot of exploration potential still is not touched."

http://wpherald.com/articles/5851/1/Analysis-Industry-eager-to-see-passage-of-Iraq-oil-law/Coming-in-its-own-time.html

QUOTE: The law will be passed after a "few weeks talking about it"???
A few WEEKS?
I certainly had hoped for sooner.

Sara.

-- September 5, 2007 12:21 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Germany Stops Massive 9/11 Attack on US Sites
From a shocked AFP:

Germany foils ‘massive’ attack on US citizens
by Juergen Oder

KARLSRUHE, Germany (AFP) - Germany said Wednesday it had foiled a "massive" attack with the arrest of three Islamic extremists who were planning to bomb airports and nightspots popular with Americans.

"They were planning massive attacks," Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said.

“As possible targets … the suspects named discotheques and pubs and airports frequented by Americans with a view to detonating explosives loaded in cars and killing or injuring many people,” Harms told a press conference.

The men, two Germans and a Turk, had amassed more than 700 kilogrammes (1,500 pounds) of hydrogen peroxide, the same chemical used by suicide bombers in the 2005 attacks on London’s transport system which killed 56 people, Harms said.

The chemicals had been stockpiled in a town in the Black Forest and drums of it had been moved to a rented holiday home recently.

Harms said the men, who were arrested on Tuesday, belonged to an organisation with ties to Al-Qaeda called Islamic Jihad Union, which German authorities have suspected for several months of planning attacks.

The men were aged 22, 28 and 29.

One of the three had been arrested for spying on a US military base in December but was released soon afterwards, federal police chief Joerg Ziercke said.

All three of the men had attended a training camp in Pakistan in 2006.

There was no confirmation of media reports that the men had been targeting Frankfurt international airport and the giant US military base in Ramstein.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the men were “very dangerous terrorists”.

“They obviously planned these attacks on the orders of an international network,” Schaeuble said.

The minister said one of the men arreseted had links to the Islamist scene in Neu-Ulm in southern Germany. German investigators have suspected for several years that a mosque in Neu-Ulm is used as a base for extremists planning attacks.

A leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, Wolfgang Bosbach, said the men had probably been planning attacks to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“We have succeeded in preventing these attacks at a highly sensitive time,” Bosbach told N24 television.

The mayor of Medebach-Oberschledorn, the town where the suspects were arrested, said one of them had been shot by police, although this was not confirmed by prosecutors…

==end quote===

Mind you, this is just a bumper-sticker war.

We should just leave it to the police.

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 8:27 am

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/germany-stops-massive-911-attack-on-us-citizens

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070905/ts_afp/germanyattacks

-- September 5, 2007 12:47 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

The targets were the Frankfurt International Airport and the nearby U.S. Ramstein Air Base:

German Police Arrest 3 in Plot to Attack Americans
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Fox News, AP

BERLIN — Three Islamic militants from an Al Qaeda-influenced group nursing a "profound hatred of U.S. citizens" were arrested on suspicion of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks targeting Americans in Germany, prosecutors said Wednesday.

In Washington, a senior U.S. State Department official said German investigators had determined the Frankfurt International Airport and the nearby U.S. Ramstein Air Base were the primary targets of the plot but that those arrested may have also been considering strikes on other sites, particularly facilities associated with the United States.

The three men, two German converts to Islam and a Turkish citizen linked to a group based in Central Asia, had some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide — enough to make a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT, prosecutors said at a news conference.

It was the second time in as many days that European officials said they had thwarted a major attack. On Tuesday, Danish authorities arrested eight alleged Islamic militants with links to senior Al Qaeda terrorists. No direct connection between the two groups has been established, officials said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked security officials for foiling the attack, and called the arrests a "very, very great success."

"This shows that terrorist dangers, in our country as well, are not abstract but are real," she said.

Germany's elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two of the suspects Tuesday at a vacation home in Oberschledorn, a town of some 900 people in central Germany. A third suspect fled through a bathroom window, but was caught about 300 yards away, authorities said.

The suspects, appearing behind closed doors Wednesday at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, were ordered held pending trial.

Prosecutors said the three had undergone training at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, and had formed a German cell of the Al Qaeda-influenced group. The Islamic Jihad Union is described as a Sunni Muslim group based in Central Asia that was an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist group with origins in that country.

"This group distinguishes itself through its profound hatred of U.S. citizens," Ziercke said.

The three had no steady work and were collecting unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said.

The arrests were another alarming report following a failed train bombing last year. In July 2006, two gas bombs were placed on German commuter trains but did not explode. Officials said that attack was motivated by anger over cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. Several suspects are on trial in Lebanon, and a Lebanese man has been charged in Germany.

Additionally, three of the four suicide pilots involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, once lived and studied in Hamburg.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a top legislator from Merkel's Christian Democrats, noted the upcoming sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295753,00.html

-- September 5, 2007 1:21 PM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

Sara:

Let us hope the combined pressure being applied from the Oil companies and by GWB will have some positive effect toward passage of Iraq's HCL.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 5, 2007 3:00 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Rob N.

I am of the opinion that Iraq does not necessarily move due to the pressure of the oil companies to put pressure on the Iraq government. In reading an article from iraqiupdates, the oil minister is stating that oil sharing is being disputed in Basra for who will control the oil. This is a sectarian situation over this resource.

In addition, Maliki has now turned for advice to Imam Sistani and this article is interesting. Maliki is thinking about replacing his cabinet with technocrats. At present, his cabinet is defined by sectarian politicians. He states the lack of people willing to fill vacanties is based on sectarian bias.

I noted that Maliki and the Oil minister are saying the same message. We need to fill positions on the basis of expertise. My thought on this is this is our normal way of filling jobs in the United States. Iraq lacks this ability at present to fill positions in government on the basis of expertise. These articles, to me, give me a sense of hope that Iraq maybe coming around. I think President Bush was right to visit with Maliki and his government at this time. I believe, the visit may have been beneficial to encourage Maliki to make some really important decisions regarding how his government is going to function.

Also noted, is the parliament's concern over Iran's recent comments to fill the power vacuum in Iraq. I don't think parliament or the defense minister appreciated Iran's comments toward their country of Iraq.

In all, I think things are coming along. In creating a free nation, Iraq has had it's problems. So did America in our early days of creating a nation. I believe I agree with the oil minister's view, that everyone involved in Iraq has had some missteps but eventually everyone will work out how the country is going to function. This is not an exact quote, but close to the message he was trying to get out.

Laura Parker

-- September 5, 2007 5:03 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Rob N;

I think the article you posted yesterday says it best, QUOTE:

After months of acrimonious debate, a new draft oil law will be discussed in parliament in the coming weeks, which Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, hoped would be adopted by the end of the month.

"The majority of politicians are aware that we cannot go on without it," he said. "The oil law is the future of Iraq."

The country's former oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Olom, called for additional domestic involvement in the sector as well, stressing the need for a "balance between national and foreign investment."

"Iraqis deserve a better standard of living," al-Olom said. "The only way they will get it, is by developing oil and gas resources."

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/21383

There is no free lunch in this world. The Iraqis have a resource they can sell. Developing oil and gas can make them to have a decent standard of living. I think they know this and will act to preserve their land and heritage by getting their oil laws up and running, and people working and making them wealth.

As for those who think the Iraqis may wish the US to leave right now.. we all know that the Iranians are just hoping for that so they can swoop down and steal all the oil and gas for themselves. That is why the Iranians are behind the ongoing attacks in Iraq. As the Iraqi religious council said today:

Iraqi Religious Council: Iranian Regime behind sectarian fighting in Iraq
Wednesday, 05 September 2007

NCRI - Vice President of the Iraqi Religious Council, Ayash Alkabisi, considers Iranian regime as the main threat to Iraq. He said, “As part of the resistance we announce that the Iranian regime is targeting our country’s unity, wealth and destiny through a dangerous plan.”

He told the Iraqi TV on September 1, “There is no Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Undoubtedly, whatever there is has to do with the extensive plot by the Iranian regime. The threat that people feel in their mosques, streets, markets and homes, especially in Sunni areas have nothing to do with the Al-Qaeda, but the Iranian regime’s conspiracies.

Alkabisi added, “The Iranian Counsel who was kidnapped earlier was freed by Al-Qaeda. All our brothers in resistance and everybody are aware of that. This proves that Al-Qaeda in Iraq is not working for an Islamic agenda but it clearly works for the Iranian regime and has become a strong arm of that regime.

Alkabisi noted that the sectarian difference between Sunnis and Shiites is the outcome of the Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq. He said, “Throughout the history, there has never been any sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq unless caused by the Iranian regime.”

http://www.ncr-iran.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4054&Itemid=128

I think the Iraqis will do their oil laws and get the workers into Iraq to develop their oil and gas in order to earn the Iraqis wealth. They can be as prosperous as the Saudi Arabians have been. The average person living in Iraq should be able to do as well as those living in Saudi Arabia - once they get their oil and gas industry up and running. The only one ticked off will be Iran, and as Roger observed when he spoke about the buildup in the Gulf, etc - it is very likely the US will not leave the Iraqis to face their fate alone against such wolves - wolves who are only seeking to eat their resources for lunch.. or as Carl put it, to extend their Persian Empire to encompass the lands of Babyon once again.

Sara.

-- September 5, 2007 5:06 PM ∞

---

Laura Parker wrote:

Sara,

Good article on the Iranians. It would appear that the Sunni Iraqi's are aware of Iranian intentions too. The first day of Parliament showed that Iraqi politicians wanted to speak with Maliki on the comments of Iran and to get updates on where the country is on what is going on in the Iraqi nation.

I am really hopeful that Iraq is starting to get it's act together for political reconciliation. This process may take a little time but I am starting to see signs of the country coming together.

Laura Parker

-- September 5, 2007 5:20 PM ∞

---

Sara wrote:

Laura;

I am seeing evidence from many sources of the Iraqis coming together in unity against these forces seeking to destroy their union and nation, too. I think the Iraqis understand that they are facing enemy nations seeking to undermine their country and take their resources and lives. I think they are far better off united than divided, as the saying goes, "United we stand, divided we fall" and the Iraqis wish to stand against their enemies, not fall/lose. One such development of hope was this one mentioned in the news yesterday noting MAJOR PROGRESS towards setting out a "roadmap for peace" for Iraq:

Groups report progress in 'secret' Iraq peace talks - Summary
Posted : Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:32:03 GMT
Author : DPA

London - Participants in secret peace talks between warring Sunni and Shiite Arab factions in Iraq Tuesday reported that major progress has been made towards setting out a "roadmap for peace" for the war-torn country.

Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein politician and deputy leader of the regional government of Northern Ireland, said Tuesday that "huge strides" towards peace had been made during four days of talks at a secret location in Finland.

Participants had committed themselves to a 12-point plan outlining principles of non-violence and democracy, and dubbed the Helsinki Agreement.

The Guardian newspaper described the plan as a "roadmap for peace."

McGuinness, who co-chaired the seminar together with reformist former South African government minister Roelf Meyer, described the talks Tuesday as a "major stepping stone towards a resolution of conflict in the troubled region."

"There is no doubt whatsoever that the message from these talks is that we need to do things differently, we need to come together, we need to recognize that, whatever our differences, the only way forward is to unite," said McGuinness.

He described the participants from Iraq as "power-brokers and people with enormous influence in that country."

It was attended by about 30 representatives of Iraq's warring Shiite and Sunni Arab factions, according to the reports.

The 12 points contained clear echoes of the principles of non- violence and democracy proposed by former US Senator George Mitchell, which paved the way for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace agreement in Northern Ireland.

In addition to pledging to resolve political differences peacefully, the agreement commits the Iraqi parties to consider the creation of a disarmament commission, and the formation of a group to deal with the legacy of Iraq's past.

They also seek an end to international and regional interference in Iraq's affairs. (READ "IRAN" - Sara)

Among the groups reportedly represented at the talks were representatives of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the largest Sunni Arab political group, Adnan al-Dulaimi, and Human Hammoudi, the Shia chairman of the Iraqi parliament's foreign affairs committee, the Guardian reported.

Participants agreed to "deal with militias" by arming and training security forces to become an "effective national force," while also fostering economic development.

Members of armed groups that "are classified as terrorists" would be encouraged to adopt "peaceful political means" and given jobs within the state administration.

McGuinness said that while the political situations in South Africa, Ireland and Iraq were "quite different," there were key lessons to be learnt.

"The important lesson to learn is that if people are serious about bringing about peace in their country, that can only be done through an inclusive negotiating process," he said.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/101946.html

The Iraqis, including these ones, appear to understand the need for security (an "effective national force") and for prosperity ("fostering economic development") as part of the many pronged approach to winning the war for Iraq.

Sara.

-- September 5, 2007 6:10 PM ∞

---

chuck wrote:

this will be my only post, I have followed here for about a year,love to read but never post my question to all is why none of you have ever posted that the national bank of kuwait...NBK.com has for the last year given an avg. of 75-100 Dinar more to the dollar compared to Iraq's own banks CURRENT EXCHANGE RATE.....9/5/07.....1129 DINAR to 1 U.S. DOLLAR ANSWERS????????????????

-- September 5, 2007 11:54 PM ∞

---

Steven wrote:

Chuck,

The way I read it is, in NBK one US dollar buys 1127.6125
CBI one US dollar buys 1238.000

If you are changing dollars into dinar then you want
a lot of dinars for your money, buy from CBI

But if you are changing dinars into dollars
you want less dinars for a dollar sell to NBK

Best you go buy a load of dinars from the CBI
then go sell them to the NBK for you to make money

Well thats about as clear as mud, best we wait for Roger to make sense of it.
Stay lucky, Steve

-- September 6, 2007 1:19 AM ∞

---

Chris wrote:

Announcement No.(1003)

D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control

The 1003 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Thursday 2007/9/ 6 so the results were as follows :

Details Notes
Number of banks 18 -----
Auction price selling dinar / US $ 1237 -----
Auction price buying dinar / US $ 1235 -----
Amount sold at auction price (US $) 103.050.000 -----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) 15.000.000
Total offers for buying (US $) 103.050.000 -----
Total offers for selling (US $) 15.000.000

-- September 6, 2007 7:22 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Iraq economy heading for 6 pct growth: US official

The economy of Iraq is doing better than expected and is headed for growth of over six percent this year, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
(www.noozz.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 6, 2007 10:37 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Iraqi Forces Not Ready for Prime Time
Associated Press | September 06, 2007
WASHINGTON - Critical to U.S. plans for redeploying American troops from the battlefield, Iraq's security forces appear far from ready to take over the fight against al-Qaida and insurgents, an independent report concluded.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, who led the 20-member panel studying Iraqi security forces, was to testify before Congress on Thursday. His report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said the Iraq's security forces would be unable to take control of their country in the next 18 months.

The readiness of Iraq's security forces will be an important element in the congressional debate over the war. Republicans see success by the Iraqi forces as key to bringing U.S. troops home, while an increasing number of Democrats say the U.S. should stop training and equipping such units altogether.

The study found that the Iraqi military, in particular its Army, shows the most promise of becoming a viable, independent security force with time. It predicted that an adequate logistics system to support these ground forces is at least two years away.

Worse off is the Iraq national police force. The study, which described the police force as dysfunctional, corrupt and infiltrated by militias, recommended that the force be scrapped and entirely rebuilt.

These units "have the potential to help reduce sectarian violence, but ultimately the (Iraq Security Force) will reflect the society from which they are drawn," according to the report. "Political reconciliation is the key to ending sectarian violence in Iraq."

The United States has spent $19.2 billion on developing Iraq's forces and plans to spend another $5.5 billion next year. According to Jones' study, the Iraqi military comprises more than 152,000 service members operating under the Ministry of Defense, while the Ministry of Interior oversees some 194,000 civilian security personnel, including police and border control.

The review is one of several studies that Congress commissioned in May, when it agreed to fund the war for several more months but demanded that the Bush administration and outside groups assess U.S. progress in the four-year war.

A senior Pentagon official said Wednesday that the U.S. military does not believe the Iraqi national police should be disbanded but acknowledges that getting the Iraqi army up to speed will take a while.

"We've always recognized that this was a long-term project," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

Several lawmakers - many of whom face tough elections next year - said they would be unswayed by the Jones report and other independent assessments. Congress would fare better by finding a bipartisan solution that would bring troops home, they say.

"No matter what these reports suggest or what Congress infers from them, it is clear that it is time to develop a post-surge strategy," 13 lawmakers, including three Republicans, wrote on Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

According to the study, the panel agreed with U.S. and Iraqi officials that the Iraqi Army is capable of taking over an increasing amount of day-to-day combat responsibilities, but that the military and police force still would be unable to take control and operate independently in such a short time frame.

"They are gaining size and strength, and will increasingly be capable of assuming greater responsibility for Iraq's security," the report states, adding that special forces in particular are "highly capable and extremely effective."

The report is much more pessimistic about Baghdad's police units. It describes them as fragile, ill-equipped and infiltrated by militia forces. And they are led by the Ministry of Interior, which is "a ministry in name only" that is "widely regarded as being dysfunctional and sectarian, and suffers from ineffective leadership."

Accordingly, the study recommends disbanding the national police and starting over.

A group of liberal Democrats said Wednesday the U.S. should stop supporting these forces entirely and withdraw U.S. troops.

"How can we be sure we are not putting guns into the hands of a future enemy and empowering them for generations to come?" said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

Other Democrats say party leaders have set their sights on the $147 billion President Bush requested for the war as a means of forcing a drawdown of U.S. forces.

Rep. James Moran, D-Va., a member of the House panel that oversees the military budget, said an option being considered is a bill that funds the troops, but in three- or four-month installments, and directs that the money be used only to bring them home.
(www.military.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 6, 2007 10:45 AM ∞

---

Rob N. wrote:

All:

Basra Pullout Will Test Iraqi Forces
Associated Press | September 06, 2007
BAGHDAD - The aftermath of this week's British pullout from Basra will demonstrate whether Iraq's nascent security forces have what it takes to keep the peace in a major city where Shiite militias and gangs have held sway.

If the Iraqis can keep rival Shiite militias at bay in the country's second-largest city, that would significantly boost the confidence of the Bush administration in Iraqi capability.

But failure would raise serious questions about Iraq's army and police as President Bush and leading Democrats prepare for a showdown over the future of the U.S. mission during congressional hearings next week.

British soldiers withdrew Sunday from their last base in Basra and moved to the local airport about 12 miles to the north. The move ended the British military's permanent presence in the city and paves the way for further cuts in the 5,500-strong force.

Iraqi soldiers and police now have responsibility for security in the city, with a population of about 2 million. So far calm has prevailed in Basra, which lies 340 miles southeast of Baghdad near the Iranian border.

The Iraqi army has about 4,000 soldiers in Basra province, according to an Iraqi Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

That number, he said, was insufficient for such a large area that is not only one of Iraq's most populous but also includes much of the country's oil wealth.

"Iraqi forces and security agencies will face difficulties because there is a major lack of equipment and numbers," said Hakim al-Mayahi, head of the security committee at the Basra Provincial Council. "In order to control security in Basra, we need at least two army divisions and all we have now is a brigade."

For years the city's police force has been under the influence of Shiite militias. To minimize militia influence, the government in Baghdad plans to send troops from outside the city, fearing local troops will be intimidated and their families threatened.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement Wednesday the British departure from Basra shows the growth of the capabilities of Iraqis and their preparedness to face major challenges. But that is yet to be seen.

Earlier this week, 30 delegates representing various political and religious groups in Basra signed a "charter of honor" to guarantee peace in the city. The pact called for militias to give up their heavy weapons, refrain from attempting to infiltrate security forces and cooperate with security agencies in the hunt for wanted terror suspects.

Significantly, the charter was not signed by representatives of Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric whose Mahdi Army militia is blamed for many of the attacks on British troops.

Basra's other major militias include those of the religious Fadhila Party and the Badr militia, linked to the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, the country's biggest Shiite party.

Supreme Council supporters have dominated police commando units in Basra and the rest of southern Iraq. Fadhila controls the force that guards oil installations. The Mahdi Army controls the local police force and the port authority.

Columnist Elias Harfoush, writing Wednesday in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, warned that the withdrawal of British troops from Basra occurred "before the Iraqi army is ready to take over complete control of the security situation."

But Iraqi commanders speak about Basra's security with confidence.

Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, the area's Iraqi commander, told The Associated Press that people should not be pessimistic and should have confidence in Iraqi forces.

"It is true that British forces have recently had a major role as a backup force, but I believe that our forces are capable of performing their duty well," he said.

Britain has yet to announce whether it will order its entire contingent in Iraq to return home. But many Iraqis fear that a British withdrawal is imminent, feeding concern about the capabilities of Iraqi security forces to fill in their shoes.

A major British withdrawal from Iraq could pose a serious danger to Iraq's economy, security as well as the work of multinational forces in the country.

Basra province not only includes oil fields but also oil export terminals. The highway to neighboring Kuwait is a major land supply route to U.S. forces throughout the country.

U.S. officials have hinted that some American forces may have to be transferred to the south if the Iraqis can't control the Basra area.

Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of Operational Planning at the Pentagon, said last month that U.S. commanders may reposition U.S. forces if necessary "so that they don't give up gains that they've made in different areas, including in Basra and in the south."
(www.military.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 6, 2007 10:46 AM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

Missteps and Mistrust Mark the Push for Legislation http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090402190.html?hpid=topnews

-- September 6, 2007 1:56 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Analysis: Oil, security for Iraq investors

Security in Iraq is a major holdup to investment there, sometimes second only to the lack of a law governing Iraq's vast oil and gas reserves.

Various security plans, by Iraqi and U.S. forces, are intended to break the cycle of violence, but little of the ambitions for Iraq's future will take hold until its citizens face fewer day-to-day threats to their lives.

Inter- and intra-sectarian violence as well as anti-occupation attacks and the multi-national force's response keep Iraq's morgues full, people afraid and development of vital services at bay. Iraqis face both poverty and unemployment estimated at more than 50 percent, and a simultaneous crisis lacking security, fuels, electricity, healthcare, clean water and education, though these vary by region.

The energy sector, which is the bloodline for Iraq's economy, is a frequent target.

Many top executives at an Iraq energy conference this week alternately ranked the security situation and the oil law as the top reasons they aren't rushing into the country to invest. Most spoke off the record to UPI, but shared similar concerns.

"What is the main issue to me, as long as security problem is there, it is very difficult to get service companies to Iraq," said Orhan Duran, general manager of Genel Enerji, a Turkish firm. Genel and Canada's Addax Petroleum formed the Taq Taq Operating Co. to operate a field in the Iraqi Kurdish region, which is relatively safe and semi-autonomous from Baghdad.

Both will be needed for the benefit of investors and Iraqis: the oil law to outline investment guidelines for foreign and private firms; security to ensure a lower risk premium in contracts.

"Of course, the cost Â… is higher than normal countries, because of the security," Duran said, estimating Iraq's deals to be two to three times higher than if it were more stable.

"We are afraid of the present status," said a top official of a major Japanese firm at the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Electricity Summit organized by the London-based Iraq Development Program. "After improvement of security, we can move."

There's no consensus in government on what is more of a roadblock to entering Iraq's market.

"No doubt, the security situation is a fundamental part of the development process, whether the oil sector or the other sectors," said Ibrahim Bahrul-Uloom, a former oil minister who held the post twice since 2003. "We think politics and economic and security are connected together, even thought we made progress in the political process."

The oil law is stuck between various factions who either want a heavy central control or strong regional and governorate rights and either extremely limited foreign investment or the unbridled free market.

It's now up to Parliament to pass the law, though it has yet to receive a finished draft, but leaders of various sides in the highest parts of government agreed to move the law forward. Parliament resumed session Tuesday after an August recess. It didn't take up the law.

"We feel the security for the oil industry is not a crucial issue. The legislation framework is the most important," said Ali al-Dabbagh, top spokesman for the government. Though he said the energy infrastructure could be protected, by stepped up efforts from both Iraq and multi-national forces, he warned against U.S. troop reductions to fight the "devil enemies."

A sizeable amount of Iraq's violence is between Sunnis and Shiites, and among rival Shiite factions. Others, both Iraqi and non-Iraqi, are fighting against the U.S. occupation or the Iraqi government by targeting high-value energy infrastructure.

Attacks on Iraq's oil and electricity sector from April 2003 through the third week of August have been rampant and ongoing, according to an expert in threats and vulnerability to the energy sector ********* who spoke on condition of anonymity. An official with an Iraqi ministry focused on protecting energy infrastructure says that trend will turn around.

The expert's data includes attacks on more than 800 workers and more than 1,000 attacks on infrastructure such as pipelines, oil fields and wells, refineries and tankers, power lines and towers, power stations and substations. The expert cautioned that all the data rely on what is actually reported, assuredly lower than the number of actual attacks.

Iraq recently repaired and turned back on the pipeline from Kirkuk in the north to Turkey's Mediterranean Sea port of Ceyhan. The second-most important pipeline in the country, it has been largely useless since the war began because of attacks.

"All pipelines throughout Iraq are vulnerable to attack, however the levels of attacks reduced recently due to the security measures," said Issa Jaffar Jabir, director general of the Ministry of National Security Affairs.

The ministry operates the Oil Protection Force and uses special Iraqi troops, and Jabir said soon the Iraqi air force would contribute to protecting the energy infrastructure. He wouldn't say how members protect the infrastructure.

He said he won't be able to have "a security vision for the country" until the oil law is approved.

Iraq's oil exports brought in more than 93 percent of the federal budget last year, an amount that would increase if the government's long-term plans to revamp the various energy sectors, as well as other industries, fall in line. Iraq estimates the hydrocarbons and electricity sectors need more than $50 billion in investment through 2016.

Industry Minister Hariri, speaking to reporters in Dubai hours before a flight to Washington, said other industries could deliver up to 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product. That means the energy sector grows as robust as the oil and gas reserves could allow it to; private companies, domestic and foreign, start investing; and the country becomes safer, he said.

"I don't actually blame the companies for not wanting 'either risk my own investment or risk my people.' For people who are looking at it from outside, it looks gloomy. Me from the inside I can see a different picture to the situation. There are large pockets of the country where the environment is safe where potential workers or companies can actually do work."

He points to the economic development in Iraqi Kurdistan, a potential gateway into the rest of Iraq, perhaps employing Iraqis, who would be safer than foreigners right now.

"In the long term Iraq will be the next land for investment," he said. "There will not be another part of this planet that provides so much promise and so many opportunities Â… with quick, great return as Iraq will."

Analysis: Oil, security for Iraq investors : Middle East World
__________________
.

-- September 6, 2007 2:15 PM ∞

---

cornish boy wrote:

This came from another sit sounds good.

Anyone Else Get This?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting,

Recently two representatives of BB&M International attended the conference meeting in Dubai in late August. All is looking well for a Sept 28 launch of the Iraqi currency on the International market. Should delays occur there is a 90 day extension in place from the IMF International Monetary Fund and BB&M was assure by Mr Al Sistani the minister of Finance in Iraq that they hope to get this bill passed in a timely fashion. Below you\'ll find a copy of the letter received for the conference.

US Ambassadors Letter of Invitation
====================================

Dear Mr. XXXXXXXX:
We have not met, but your name came up as someone who has an interest in investment in Iraq. By way of introduction, I work for the US Embassy on economic development initiatives, where I’m currently working on an Iraq investment conference you might be interested in attending. The conference is by invitation only, but I can get you on the list if you like. The admission fee will be nominal ($100 or less, just to cover lunches, refreshments, etc). Following is more information on the conference:

The government of Iraq is holding a conference at the Radisson SAS Diera Creek, in Dubai, UAE for the period 28 – 30 August 2007 under the patronage of HE the Vice President Dr. Adil Abdul Mahdi. This is the first of three planned conferences that will address several topics related to the economic development, business and investment opportunities. The focus of the first conference will be the seven southern Iraqi provinces (namely Basrah, Muthanna, Thi Qar, Qadisiyah, Najaf, Karbala and Missan).

The objective of the conference is to bring together businessmen who have potential economically feasible projects with regional and international investors, banks and financial institutions that are willing and interested in considering business opportunities in Iraq, within the framework of the new investment law and the emerging market economy environment.

Your participation in this conference will certainly add a lot of value. Please find attached the conference agenda. I am happy to answer any questions you may have, and look forward to hearing from you. We hope to see you at the conference.

V/R,

Glenn Corliss
Economic Advisor
US Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq
Mobile: 1 (914) 360-2442
Email: corlissg@state.gov

v

-- September 6, 2007 2:22 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

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DNO up on Iraqi oil law hopes

Shares in DNO ASA rose in afternoon trade, outperforming a marginally stronger market, on hopes that the all-important Iraqi oil law could be ratified sooner rather than later, dealers said.

At 1.20 pm, shares in DNO were up 0.17 nkr, or 1.61 pct, at 10.71, while the OSEBX benchmark index was 0.12 pct higher at 480.44.

At the time of its second-quarter results last month, DNO said it expected Iraq's new petroleum law to be ratified by the central government in Baghdad in September, having already been signed off by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

While analysts have said they are sceptical that the law will come into force as quickly as DNO hopes, Orion Securities this morning pointed out that once the law is passed, it will be a powerful share-price driver for DNO.

"We see an eventual oil law in Iraq as a big trigger for DNO," the broker said, de****e the "big risk of delays".

Additionally, Orion said, once the oil law is in place it believes there will be a rise in the number of companies willing to pay handsomely for DNO's Iraqi assets.

Last month DNO said it had rejected a 700 mln usd bid from an unnamed oil firm for its assets in Northern Iraq.

Orion has a 'buy' recommendation on DNO with a 12.7 nkr price target.

DNO up on Iraqi oil law hopes | Iraq Updates
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-- September 6, 2007 2:56 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

British MPs demand Iraq oil info http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/103392.html

-- September 6, 2007 3:00 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

from muskogee
Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Houston
Posts: 14
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Iraq: Signs of a New Horizon

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Politics
Iraq: Signs of a New Horizon
By Amir Taheri
17 August 2007 (Asharq Alawsat)
Are we witnessing an all-round change of attitude towards Iraq?
Consider the following.
Several Arab powers that had tried to shun new Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 have announced a change of policy, including plans to open their embassies in Baghdad. At least four of them have issued invitations to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for official visits, reversing a policy under which the Iraqi leader was treated as a pariah.
When combined, the two events could indicate the realisation in Arab capitals of the impossibility of replacing Maliki with a man of their choice.
For its part, the Islamic Republic in Tehran has unrolled the red carpet for Maliki, ending the chill that had marked the mullah's attitude since they failed to impose their candidate as prime minister in Baghdad.
Some Iraqi politicians have criticised Maliki’s visit to Tehran. But anyone who claims that Iraq can ignore Iran, regardless of who rules in Tehran, is delusional. Some 90 per cent of Iraq’s population live in areas only 60 miles from the Iranian border. Leaving aside the trade linked to the US-led coalition’s presence in Iraq, almost half of Iraq’s commercial exchanges today are with Iran.
To be sure, the Islamic Republic will do all it can to make the Americans bleed in Iraq. But I doubt that the mullahs want the US-led coalition to cut and run before Iraq is stabilised.
This is one of those deadly ambiguities that have always marked international politics.
Two of Iraq’s neighbours, Turkey and Syria have also indicated what could amount to significant changes in their hitherto negative postures on new Iraq.
Turkey has feted Maliki with great pomp and publicly abandoned its threat of military intervention against Turkish-Kurdish terrorists based in northern Iraq. Turkish Premier Recep Tayyib Erdogan has gone out of his way to throw his support behind Maliki and promise joint action against terrorism.
Erdogan knows that stability in Baghdad would deprive his most vocal opponents within the Turkish military of their favourite nationalistic theme of intervention against terrorists in northern Iraq.
Even more surprising is what looks like a change of attitude by Syria.
For the first time, the Syrian authorities have acknowledged that Islamist terrorists fighting in Iraq have a presence in Syrian authority. The Syrians have even admitted that last week their forces were trapped in an ambush by the terrorists. Six Syrian soldiers died and 11 others were injured. The message is clear: the terrorists killing the Iraqis every day could easily expand the killing fields to Syria and beyond.
The fact that the so-called “security committee”, consisting of Iraq’s neighbours plus the United Sates and Britain appears to have become operational is also significant news.
Add to this what looks like a change of attitude by the United Nations and the new picture becomes clearer. For more than four years, the UN tried to keep its involvement in Iraq to the lowest level decently possible. Former UN secretary-General Kofi Annan always believed that he had made a deal with Saddam Hussein and that the Us and its allies were wrong in toppling the dictator. At the same time, the UN was traumatised by the murder of Sergio de Mello, its charismatic first envoy to new Iraq.
The UN’s new secretary-general, the Korean Ban Ki-moon does not suffer from Annan’s personal hang-ups about Iraq, including the involvement of his son and several of his senior UN aides in the oil-for-food scam ran by Saddam Hussein. Secretary Ban has renewed the UN’s commitment to Iraq, especially on the issue of urgently needed humanitarian assistance.
According to the best sources at least half of Iraq’s population still needs humanitarian relief along the lines established by the UN in the late 1990s.
The UN is also beginning to change its nonchalant attitude towards the Iraqi refugee problem.
No one quite knows how many Iraqis have become refuges as a result of the current violence. Jordan claims to host over a million Iraqis. But when we checked last April he Jordanians had registered no more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis in Jordan regarded themselves as temporary residents and, engaged in business, largely paid their own way.
For its part, Syria claims to have received 750,000 refugees from Iraq. But there, too, the figures do not tally. In Syria, the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered some 40,000 “displaced persons” from Iraq. These include at least 25,000 of Palestinian origin plus an unknown number of Egyptians and Sudanese who had been brought to Iraq under Saddam Hussein as part of his plan to change the sectarian balance there.
At the same time some 1.5 million Iraqis who had been refugees in Turkey and Iran for many years have returned home since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
On balance, therefore, Iraq seems to have generated some half a million refugees since 2003. These new refugees include large numbers of Christians who have had to flee their homes under pressure from both Shiite and Sunni terrorists. There are also large numbers of educated Iraqis, precisely the type of peoples that new Iraq needs to build a viable state and society.
The Maliki government has not paid enough attention to the refugee problem and the more pressing problem of displaced persons inside Iraq itself. (They number over a million people, according to the most conservative estimates.) The $25 million package that Maliki has allocated for the purpose is pitiful, to say the least. (The latest annual national budget presented by Maliki amounts to $44 billion, an all time record for the country).
As we move towards the heart of the summer it seems as if a general consensus is developing that stabilising Iraq under its new system is in everyone’s interest. For all that, however, Iraq is not yet out of the woods. Many people remained committed to destroying Iraq, and quite a few powers still wish to hedge their bets. The struggle for Iraq is far from over.

Iraq: Signs of a New Horizon | Iraq Updates

-- September 6, 2007 8:19 PM ∞

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julie wrote:

Carole,

I am interested in your advertising venture and are you still involved in it? please email me at webnwild at gmail.com

Thank you

-- September 6, 2007 9:38 PM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

From what I am reading I am not sure the GoI will ever revalue by artificial means the Dinars exchange rate; instead, I believe the Dinar is headed to the foreign exchange market.

This conclusion is based on several factors. First, continuted slow growth of the Dinar. In my opinion, this indicates the Dinars stability. Next, the GoI de-dollarization of the Dinar. Finally, oil derivitives based upon Dinars instead of usd. Once Iraq accomplishes the passage of the HCL the above factors will give us all a better sense of the Dinars "real rate". I believe that real rate will be the opening price on the forex market.

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 6, 2007 11:23 PM ∞

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VALERIO wrote:

ROB,
THE REAL RATE IS THAT WHICH THE WORLD IS WILLING TO ACCEPT. WHAT THEY WILL PAY FOR IT, AND WHAT THEY WILL TRADE FOR IT. I THINK THE RATE OF THE CBI IS ON IT. MOST OF THE WORLD IS NOT CONVINCED THAT THIS CURRENT IRAQ WILL ESTABLISH ITSELF, BECAUSE OF WHAT WE SEE GOING ON AND THE ABSENCE OF HCL ETC. WHEN THIS CURRENT GOVT OF IRAQ BEGINS TO APPEAR AS THOUGH IT CAN REASONABLY SECURE IT'S CITIZENS, AND GAINS THIS CONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE, THEN WE WILL SEE WHAT WE ARE WAITING FOR. BUT THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT SOME NATIONAL UNITY BETWEEN THE SUNNI & SHIA. THE FOREX WILL BRING SOME CREDIBILITY TO THE DINAR AND THEREFORE SOME INCREASE IN VALUE, BUT THE VALUE OF THE DINAR WILL STILL HINGE ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE STRENGTH OF THE IRAQI GOVT., AND IT'S ABILITY TO RULE IT'S PEOPLE.

-- September 7, 2007 2:48 AM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

Big Oil in Iraq: "World Class Racketeering"
By Charlie Cray

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07 September 2007 (AlertNet)
Print article Send to friend
It was clear from the start that the Iraqis would not meet the "benchmarks" that Congress and Bush have imposed on it.

But anyone who expected them to is deluded. Not simply because the timelines are unreasonable, but because those who want to hold Iraqis "accountable" (as if they are in a position to make such demands) fail to understand what the benchmarks are about to begin with.

Congress might have learned a great deal about one of those benchmarks had it paid attention to a hearing held by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs back on July 18.

As experts who have followed Iraq's oil sector explained at the hearing, one benchmark Iraq is being pressured to pass involves not one but a series of hydrocarbon laws (i.e. not just a revenue law that divvies up Iraq's oil revenues between the federal government and the different regions, but also three other interrelated laws that would also establish the oil sector legal framework, the Ministry of Oil and the new Iraqi National Oil Company).

The confusion over what Iraq is being asked to do may be a failure that critics can lay at the media's feet, but the more important issue as far as I can tell is the manner in which these laws are being pushed so aggressively -- which, as Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) put it, has the potential to "jeopardize [Iraq's] entire constitutional order."

GAO's Joseph Christoff, a key witness at the hearing, explained that Iraq is being pressured to pass the hydrocarbon laws at a time when we don't even know, for example, what regions will even exist that might lay claim to a portion of the oil revenues.

The committee responsible for drafting changes to the country's constitution has not even been formed. Thus, the role of the regions and whether or not new regions will be formed, such as a Shi'a region in the South, has not yet been determined, and defining the regions will have some bearing on how the oil revenues would be divided.

Other issues that Christoff says should first be resolved include the disposition of Kirkuk and what census would be used to define the populations for purposes of revenue percentages.

"I just can't understand the logic in terms of the sequence here," Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) gasped in astonishment after hearing all this. "It makes little sense to pass a hydrocarbon law in all of its aspects without having the work of the constitutional committees accomplished as a prerequisite."

It's not like there's any need to rush to pass the law for Iraq to produce oil. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven reserves in 80 fields (20 of which are currently in production). If it were to build up to a capacity of 10 bbd production, it wouldn't have to discover any new reserves for at least ten years.

Yet for some reason the Iraqis are under a lot of pressure to pass a law allowing for the exploration of additional oil. The reason, of course, is because the multinational oil companies, whose own proven oil reserves have been in steep decline, see Iraq's untapped reserves as the bigger prize.

And as Tariq Shafiq, one of the three-member team charged with drafting the petroleum law for the Iraq Ministry of Oil suggested at the hearing, because Iraq itself doesn't need to develop those untapped reserves for another decade, pressure to immediately implement any provision that would open them up for exploration and development "fuels the argument" that the Americans and British "are there for the oil."

There are many indications that the Iraqi people see the game pretty clearly. A Univ. of Michigan poll cited at the beginning of the hearing found that even before the framework draft was introduced, 76 percent of Iraqis believe the U.S. invaded Iraq to control its oil.

And opposition to the law has grown precipitously, as word about the specific terms of the law spreads.

By pressuring Iraq to pass the benchmark, Bush and Congress risk the perception that they have tried to locked in U.S. control of Iraqi oil before the Iraqi people learn how they were swindled.

"There's a belief that this framework draft would benefit international oil companies to the long-term detriment of Iraq and the Iraqi people…If the passage of this framework draft is interpreted to be an exploitation of Iraq's most coveted natural resource, then our reputation and prestige could very well suffer even further, and a claim that we fought to free Iraq will be rejected out of had, and our national interest will suffer in the long term," Delahunt added.

There has been a lot of obfuscation around these matters, and the oil sector shenanigans are not the only way the Americans can be blamed for fueling the violence and chaos..

But as Rep. Ackerman put it, there is so much corruption in the oil sector that "it's surprising the Iraqi people are not bringing -- are not demanding that we bring the old crooks back."

So where are Ackerman and Delahunt's colleagues on all this?

E.g. where's Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, who pushed his colleagues to hold numerous hearings on rampant corruption in the oil sector when it was managed by Saddam and the UN?

Why isn't Senator Coleman asking the administration what the 20 "paid American consultants" are doing who currently oversee the ministry of oil -- where corruption is reported to be "pervasive"?

In June, DoD reported that as much as 70 percent of the fuel processed at Iraq's key refinery was sold on the black market. Although neither the Iraqis or Americans know precisely how much oil is being produced, some 100-300,000 barrels of oil per day go unaccounted for.

So where's Norm and the rest of the Congress who raised such a ruckus before about illicit payments and black market sales of Iraqi oil?

"This is world-class racketeering that we're in charge of advising," Rep. Ackerman aptly observed.

But you don't see too many of Ackerman and Delahunt's colleagues making much noise about it.

Charlie Cray is director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, DC.
(www.iraqupdates.com)

Thanks,

Rob N.

-- September 7, 2007 9:49 AM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

Noozz.com | IRAQ

EDITORIAL
Egyptians & Gulf Investors Pump Millions into the Iraq Stock Exchange
Noozz Editorial
Sep 7 2007
Taha Ahmad Abdul-Salam, executive manager of the Iraq Stock Exchange, has disclosed that Egyptian, Gulf and other investors have pumped 2.5 billion Iraqi dinars ($2.02 million) in Iraq’s financial market.

The money has entered Iraq since non-Iraqi’s were permitted to trade in the ISX from August 2nd, who have been involved in the trade of over one billion shares, reported Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

Abdul-Salam describes these the sums pumped in as “minimal”, and considers these activities as a “feeler” for the Iraqi market, expecting more substantial sums to make their way into Iraq once investors are confident in the stability of the ISX and sporadic price fluctuations have steadied.

He stressed that in addition to the Egyptian investors, there has been interest from from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia whilst other regional speculators are still monitoring the situation. The biggest proportion of foreign money has come from the United States.

The executive manager of Iraq’s Stock Exchange expressed his hope that activity on the ISX may one day propel Iraq’s market to the top three exchanges in the Middle East. De****e his optimism he is under no illusion that this will not be possible until the security situation in Iraq has stabilised, which in turn will aid economic growth and attract large-scale foreign investment.
__________________

-- September 7, 2007 12:19 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

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Kurdistan’s Gushing Crude Spawns Conflict

A political battle brews over control of the north's substantial oil reserves http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=338513&apc_state=henh

-- September 7, 2007 12:24 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

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* Oil Law * Outlawing Unions * Iraq Benchmarks http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1553

-- September 7, 2007 12:25 PM ∞

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cornish boy wrote:

KRG publishes approved Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law in Arabic and English, updated model contract http://web.krg.org/articles/detail.asp?smap=02010100&lngnr=12&anr=20040&rnr=223

-- September 7, 2007 12:31 PM ∞

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Carole wrote:

Julie,

Not involved with advertising any more. Got too complicated. During what they called " restructuring", my family and I got out. Made a little money and invested in a big boat instead.

All: AP reported today ( in a tiny little column on page "500"), that Russia is gettng ready to deliver billions of weapons and m.ilitary might to Indonesia. The article also noted that Indonesia is the most Muslim populated region n the world.
Make of this what you will, but I believe they are ( Russia) the biggest international threat humanity faces in this generation.

AHH! I hear voices again.....Condi Rice sayig "AMEN"

Carole

-- September 8, 2007 6:45 AM ∞

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Roger wrote:

Chuck,

Can you please quote the actual number the Kuwait Bank is quoting for their Dinar exchange.

If the number is different from the CBI exchange rate, you will for sure see a bank profit, in the difference.

Not your profit, the Kuwaiti Bank gets the profit.

The Kuwait bank get the Dinar for the CBI rate, if you check in the column of "daily auction" most every second day or so there is a certain millions that was transferred abroad to outside banks, and the Kuwaiti bank may very well be one of them, or be in on a pool with other foreign banks.

I just know that you say that you get more, but you don't mention the actual figure the bank is quoting, so without knowing more than you say, I suspect that you are reading it in such a way that you believe that you get more, following the logic that if CBI quotes 1237 and the Kuwaiti Bank quotes 1175, the Kuwaiti bank is giving you a better exchange rate.

If CBI quotes 1 Dollar : 1237 Dinars, and the Kuwait bank quotes (for example) 1175, that doesn't mean you get more Dinars for the Dollar.

You get Dinars for the value of 1237, but you don't get 1237 of them for a Dollar, you get only 1175.

They are still worth only 1:1237 to the Dollar.

CBI sets the exchange value, not the Kuwait bank. The Kuwait bank only tells you how many of them you get from them, for a buck.

Your Dollar bought less Dinars, and the bank gets the difference.

However, I need to have the figures, can you please come back on this and we can look at it further, I strongly suspect that the scenario I described is what we have here, but I need the figures please.

Steven,

The nightly smuggling of Dinars into Kuwait have lead the authorities to stop the camel, mules and pack donkeys at the gate of Kuwait city, in order to avoid the ever so increasing height of manure on their streets.

An emergency session in the Cabinet, with members having dung up to their knees, have ordered that a Caravan can no longer have more than five animals at a time.

Aside from that Steven, I will be back home in about a week and a half from now, and do the bank deals getting my Dinars over to my account.

I will need to have a talk with my accountant though before doing anything, reason is that for tax purposes, there is a $10.000 "red flag" limit here in the US. Transactions above that is reported.

That in itself is very easy handled with doing this in small portions, but my time available back home is limited, and I want to do it in one shot.

It'll be as I say about another week or two, but once that is done and the money is in the account, I need to get back to you on a couple of things.

Especially the ISX, and it's doings.

-- September 8, 2007 2:40 PM ∞

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Roger wrote:

Chuck,

Sorry I got a brain fart, you DID quote the exchange rate from the Kuwait bank, and it was lower than the CBI exchange rate, yes, then you have the above described scenario.

-- September 8, 2007 2:49 PM ∞

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Steven wrote:

Roger,

We have the same thing here in the UK £10,000 and the Bank grasses you up to the Tax man.

ISX no probs, I must get down to the bank on Monday to send some over there myself.

I see on the Warka Bank account, that you can get a Credit Card for your $Dollar account, well pre paid, whatever limet you want, they take that amount out of your account, for you to use, not very interesting you say, AAAAHHH but if and when we make a shed load on the ISX or a RV, we can then contact Warka to have a $10,000,00 limet on the C.C. to spend as you please at home, so the need to have the IRS all over you like white on rice for sending home to your bank account a load of $Dollars, you won't need to, so no 40% tax gone, got this info from the other site, it sounds OK to me, but then again, what the F--- do I know about tax, naff all.

If anyone here thinks will not work, I'm all ears, never got to much info.

Have a nice day and stay lucky, Steve.

-- September 8, 2007 9:17 PM ∞

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Rob N. wrote:

All:

From what I am reading it appears the Iraqi's are on the verge of passing the HCL. I think we will no more this week whether parliment has or will pass this important law. I find it strange the GoI is selling oil tenders without the HCL. Further evidence that the passage of the HCL is soon in coming to fruition.

Whether you have 1 million Dinar or physical Dinar in hand, at Warka, and in the ISX if the currency revalues or is released to the forex market speculators stand to mak