Return to Samarra: Imminent Victory in Iraq
August 31st, 2008
by Gary Larson Vets for Freedom (VFF) revisit former battle stations in Iraq . . . and find victory is at hand. Not good news for the defeatists and news media.
It has mostly vanished from front pages, a battle nearly won — at least in Iraq, with more to do globally and in Afghanistan. News on inside pages now tell of homicide bombers' attacks by young females, so desperate is al Qaeda. But it is mostly quiet on the Iraq Front. Unless capitulation as sought (yet!) by the irresolute, victory is at hand.
Reason for popping the cork? Not yet. But indisputably, the U.S.-led coalition is winning. Even the well-meaning anti-war crowd (as opposed to “crazies”) might not like to admit it's close to over, and how that must hurt that cut-and-run crowd. Shall we all shed a tear for them?
False premises abound. Slogans such as “He Lied Us Into War” and “No WMDs” and the granddaddy of them all, “No Blood for Oil!,” take the place of cold hard logic and stubborn fact. Whoppers, yes, but like most mindless slogans of a ranting mob, these are articles of faith for the myopic, usually intensely partisan anti-war clique.
Truth be told, success leaves the anti-war folks a rather gloomy bunch. Think of the America First supporters after Pearl Harbor, when reality hit, and the turncoat Copperheads during the Civil War. Short-sighted losers all, selling their nation and its military short, they became intractable prisoners of a limited worldview, a sort of time warp, suffering from vision impairment. Like that “S” word on bumper stickers, it happens.
Winning battles is somehow bad news also to mainstream American media (MSM). Many a liberal Democrat and their media allies are reluctant to acknowledge imminent victory, let alone celebrate it. Today a fragile, hard-won new democracy exists in Iraq. Bad news?
Silence of the left-liberal class suggests an unwillingness to admit they were wrong. Big fat egos get in the way, and the baggage of past utterances. Nay-sayers even to coalition's surge, a most logical thing, the vision-impaired folks insist, as did their hero John Kerry, this war is the “wrong war,” at the “wrong time” and “unwinnable.” Oh?
Imagine a bloodless, 100% politically correct war, and a splendid time for one. Try never? In this case, a regime which shot at UN aircraft, ignored UN sanctions, subsidized terror elsewhere, provided shelter for al Qaeda, invaded and raped its neighbors, murdered its Kurds, etc., brought it on. The Saddam-led force was sworn to evil. Remember Iraqi SCUDS raining down on Tel Aviv? Opera-goers going to concerts with gas masks on their belts? Like the horrors of 9/11, how soon we forget. Contrast this to World War II when the rallying cry was “Remember Pearl Harbor!”
Accepting defeat willingly, putting down our nation's military as inept or worse, as criminal, is emblematic of the new hard Left. To those doggedly pessimistic, “Amerika” can do no good. The tawdry blame-America syndrome strikes. It seems to pop up in every generation. Could it be, ah, a result of the nation's educational structure? Just a not-so-wild speculation, that . . .
Such negativism, such passivity in the face of darkness, would trump the requisite war victory, possibly with an eye to the next election cycle. Laying down one's arms would leave the field open to enemies by declaring neutrality rules. Shameful, yes, but hardly new. Such cowardice, shall we say?, in the face of evil, can come back to bite the rear-ends of the peace-at-all-cost types.
Devilishly shrewd Machiavelli described it this way in 1513: “One who is not your friend will want you to remain neutral. Irresolute princes, to avoid present dangers, usually follow the path of neutrality, and are mostly ruined by it.” (The Prince at Chap. 21). Who needs Nostradamus?
House Speaker Nancy (“Save the Planet”) Pelosi and nasty slanderers of our military, such as Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), tried their damnedest to bring the troops home in ignoble defeat, leaving the field to the enemy, and good Iraqis dangling in the wind.
When the “pull out now” stance of the anti-war crowd is pointed out, or even hinted at, their sole refuge is to hide behind a claim that they are being labeled unpatriotic, not truly American. It's a bogus claim. How about calling them . . . naive? Geopolitically challenged? Clueless? Obtuse?
Against this dreary backdrop, a patriotic group of ex-Iraq and Afghanistan war vets is seeking to showcase imminent victory in Iraq. Their message goes largely ignored by the liberal MSM, not really a surprise, considering the selective reporting and liberal-left agenda pushing.
They call themselves Vets for Freedom (VFF). Theirs is a non-partisan group out to set the record straight about where they served, in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are led by U.S. Army Capt. Peter Hegseth, a decorated combat veteran from Minnesota and a Princeton University grad ('03).
Hegseth and other VFFers returned this summer to their former duty stations. Hegseth went back to Samarra, Iraq. What he found and reported on did not get a lot of ink back home, or air time, with a few exceptions. (C-Span interviewed him!) Blogs, bless them, reported extensively on his and colleagues' return to war zones. Thank God for responsible blogs's truth-telling.
“What I’ve seen in Samarra,” Hegseth writes, “and [what's] happening throughout Iraq, is enough to make Americans of either party proud. After years of getting it wrong — or at best, only partly correct — today we are winning the war and setting the conditions for an enduring peace in that country, even in perpetual al Qaeda cesspools like Samarra.
“Faced with a determined enemy, hell-bent on bringing America to her knees in Mesopotamia, American military will, its adaptability, and might, are carrying the day,” he writes at the well-designed VFF blog. (Check it out at www.vetsforfreedom.org.)
To those who say al Qaeda was not in the forefront, he responds: “I challenge anyone to walk the streets of Fallujah, Baqubah, Samarra, or elsewhere in Iraq, and tell the locals that their city — their neighborhoods — have NOT been al Qaeda battlefronts.
“Every Samarran I spoke with — every single one — brought up al Qaeda, pronouncing the name with a guttural disdain distinct in Iraqi accents. Most have had a family member killed by al Qaeda’s indiscriminate tactics, and have no desire to live in their seventh-century fantasy world.
“A few months ago, a raid south of Samarra uncovered the primary administrative hub for al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The bunker complex — piled high with medical records, travel documents and pay stubs — was where foreigners were sent before receiving their suicide assignments. Al Qaeda literature and videos littered the underground headquarters.”
(Why wasn't this data-rich raid given more attention in MSM? Did it not fit a preconception?)
Party-line defeatists argue Iraq is a “distraction” from the real war. (Afghanistan apparently is the real deal.) One-sided war critics also claim, without evidence, that the presence of coalition forces perpetuates new-breed hatred for Americans, thereby creating more radical Muslim jihadists.
But Michael Moore's lie-laced 9/11 film probably produced more hatred, and it's drawing SRO audiences lapping up his anti-American, Bush-hating diatribe in Middle East cinemas. (One wonders how many U.S. “troops” Moore has killed or maimed by his anti-American rhetoric. That question is off the table to Democrats, who attended its premier in droves, and the MSM. Shhh.)
Peacekeeping? In Iraq? Who said anything about that? Soldiers serving are more than tolerated for the peace they bring to once-embattled neighborhoods, reports Hegseth. Some GI's are adored, and given spartan gifts, for bringing peace and hope to reclaimed neighborhoods. In some places they are now celebrated as heroes, a dastardly fact the MSM are loathe to report.
As to “distraction,” anti-war pundits have it backwards, argues Hegseth. “Iraq has actually proven to be a distraction for al Qaeda,” he says. On the run, losing badly, it throws the evil-doers off track. How many lives have been saved by al Qaeda attacks NOT executed in Iraq and elsewhere? That will be forever a matter for speculation — another question the anti-war mavens would prefer not engage.
Hegseth calls al Qaeda's decision to go full-bore into Iraq in 2003 a “strategic blunder.” His assessment is validated by intercepted letters between al Qaeda leaders. They bemoan their huge losses, their loss of control. This fact, too, gets scant mention in MSM.
It would have been a “strategic blunder” if coalition forces were withdrawn before victory, in accordance with some politician's timetable. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory would seem especially stupid to some, but not to the anti-war freaks.
Some still naively insist, Hegseth observes, that if we left Iraq high and dry — but not, for some inscrutable reason, Afghanistan — everything will be hunky dory. And the tooth fairy exists?
What particularly bothers Hegseth (and yours truly) is “the self-aggrandizing notion that opposing the Iraq war then [at the beginning] automatically devalues the importance of the endeavor today.”
A member of the New York National Guard, Capt. Hegseth stresses the incongruity of the war critics' stance with today's reality: “Today’s hardcore Iraq war detractors — politicians, pundits, polemicists alike — all use the same lines of argument to smear the importance of the Iraq war at every turn.”
“My experiences in Samarra,” he adds, “and facts of the new counterinsurgency strategy [of General Patrias, or “General Betrayus” to the anti-military Left] directly refute this. As we have surged into neighborhoods — to protect the Iraqi people, earning their trust, and benefiting from their help — violence has dropped, and locals have turned against the jihadists.”
Terrorist and weapons caches are being singled out by local Iraqis now, reporting to coalition forces to scoop them up. The decline in violence may not sit well with war protesters, or enhance their candidates' chances, but it's quite true. Even The New York Times says so, and every fair-minded person knows its stridently anti-war, anti-”W” bias.
Reluctantly, some anti-war pushers are brought kicking and screaming to a realization “we” (now including them, as Johnny-come-Latelys) are winning. Still puzzled, though, by “our” war aims, they continue to pile on the administration they so despise (hate is not too strong a word), which merely spared the nation of another 9/11. Such is the nature of true irony.
Thanks to political courage and military will and self-sacrifice, Americans can, if they will, take pride in victory in and for 25 million Iraqi citizens and, coming later with NATO help, victory also in mountainous Afghanistan. Freedom is not free, we are constantly reminded, by combat deaths and the wounded, and the immense debt. But then, freedom never did come on the cheap.
The world is watching. “Whether Americans like it or not,” Pete Hegseth concludes: “What ultimately happens on the streets of Samarra — militarily, politically, economically — will reverberate through the Middle East and the world. Will our allies and our enemies see a strong America that wins its wars and stands by its friends?” Or not? Aye, that is the question.
* * *
Author's note: Vets for Freedom's efforts to tell Americans about their realities of war in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been much reported. Capt. Peter Hegseth's VFF was denied an educational platform even in his hometown, Forest Lake, Minnesota. At the 11th hour the local American Legion post stepped forward to give local citizens an opportunity to hear from the touring Vets for Freedom. My article on this city's effrontery to our military, as also reprinted in Hegseth's local newspaper, was first published here as “Outrage in Minnesota: Spurning Our Military Heroes.”See:
Vets for Freedom ad: Acknowledge our victory!
August 26, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
Vets for Freedom has a new ad released that demands acknowledgment from Democratic Party officials that the surge succeeded in stabilizing Iraq. VFF makes the lack of recognition personal in this spot, with Iraq War veterans making the point that they comprised the surge, and that they deserve the recognition that comes with victory:
Vets for Freedom Chairman Pete Hegseth, a decorated former Army infantry platoon leader in Baghdad, said in a statement: “Vets for Freedom will not stand by and let the incredible progress of our troops go unnoticed by the American public and lawmakers from either side of the aisle.
Hegseth is at the convention to tell lawmakers, delegates and the press about his observation during a recent return to Iraq.
“It is essential that our top legislators — regardless of party — understand the importance of victory in Iraq, the consequences of defeat and the success of the surge,” Hegseth said. “Sen. Obama has said that he would still oppose the surge if given another opportunity and has pointed to every outside factor but the surge to explain improvements in Iraq. We hope he will listen to the veterans who have served there and support this important resolution for the sake of the troops.”
===end quote==
VFF focuses on one particular Democrat in their pursuit of recognition: Barack Obama. Even the New York Times reports that the surge “clearly” has succeeded; why can’t Obama? Just as clearly, any acknowledgment that the surge succeeded would serve as an admission that Obama got it wrong in January 2007 and continued getting it wrong ever since.
In other words, political considerations outweigh the truth for Barack Obama, and outweigh the right these veterans have to the recognition not just of their service, but of their victory.
You can add your voice to the Vets for Freedom effort to have the people who would command our military acknowledge the fruits of their efforts by calling or writing Obama and other Democrats.
War on Terror Update Confidence in War on Terror and Iraq at Highest Level Ever
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Voter confidence in the War on Terror is at the highest level ever recorded since Rasmussen Reports began regular tracking in January 2004. Fifty-four percent (54%) of American voters now think the United States and its allies are winning the war. The previous high-water mark for optimism--52%--was reached a handful of times in September and October 2004.
Optimism about the situation in Iraq is also at an all-time high. Forty-eight percent (48%) now expect the situation in that troubled country to get better over the next six months. In addition to being the most optimistic assessment ever recorded, these numbers reflect a remarkable turnaround over the past year. Last August, just 27% thought things were going to get better while 47% were pessimistic. Now, only 17% expect things to get worse
Looking longer term, voters are evenly divided as to whether history will judge the mission in Iraq as a success or failure. Thirty-eight percent (38%) offer an optimistic assessment while 41% say the opposite. Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans think history will look kindly on the effort in Iraq while 63% of Democrats disagree. Unaffiliated voters are divided on the question.
These numbers also reflect an amazing turnaround over the past year. In August a year ago, 57% thought history would judge the U.S. mission in Iraq to be a failure. At that time, just 29% thought it would be viewed a success.
Voters remain divided on whether or not the country is safer today than it was before September 11, 2001. While 41% of voters believe it is safer today, 40% disagree.
I was hoping to find the board had a new page.. so yes, I was checking for it. :)
TY.
NEIL wrote: "Sara: Great article on Palin. This is a woman who sounds a lot like you Sara and has my 100% support from this point forward."
Thanks, Neil for the compliment. She is a Sara after all. ;)
She is a good candidate.
A key point I take from it all is that she is more qualified to be VP than Obama is to be President. Any time they attack her "readiness" the argument can be made against Obama. It is like pointing out with an accusing finger - only to have the other four pointing back at you. Hypocrisy is very apparent in this.
Zogby Poll: Equilibrium in the POTUS Race! McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden. Brash McCain pick of AK Gov. Palin neutralizes historic Obama speech, stunts the Dems' convention bounce
8/30/2008
UTICA, New York - Republican John McCain's surprise announcement Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate - some 16 hours after Democrat Barack Obama's historic speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination - has possibly stunted any Obama convention bump, the latest Zogby Interactive flash poll of the race shows.
The latest nationwide survey, begun Friday afternoon after the McCain announcement of Palin as running mate and completed mid-afternoon today, shows McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden.
This came from another forum Proof lop can jumpstart economy
Let's assume we do not get any instant profit rv, should we bail on the investment?
Graphs from Turkish Lira situation not only indicate lop stimulated growth but also disclosed funds (investing in Turkey) that were available in the US also gained in correlation.
Funds would minimize exposure to the volatility of individual stocks. Those waiting for US based Iraq investment funds may have opportunity sooner than they realize.
[size="2"]
These graphs are very telling.[/SIZE]
DELIVERED AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE HELD ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCHING OF THE YTL PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN, ANKARA, ON
23 SEPTEMBER 2004
Distinguished members of the press and dear guests,
We have now approximately three months before seeing the realization of our wish that we have long dreamt of. Welcome to the publicity conference held on the occasion of launching the information campaign for removing six zeroes from our currency. I salute you on my and my friends’ behalf.
VIEW "ISE3yr" graph- notice when the ISE (Istanbul Stock Exchange) 100 Index began its upward climb.
September 2004- same time Lop officially announced
Steadily gaining 4x over the next 2 years.
Morgan Stanley had a Turkish Investment Fund at the same time
VIEW "TKF" graph
Clearly indicates we can still make considerable returns on investment. But how much? As the graphs only went thru Oct 06, I assumed it probably was the end of the gain (typical of charts to show positive info) and pulled the Oct 06 chart to current of the "TKF".
VIEW "Turkish investment fund" graph.
As expected, a steep decline followed. Those who took some profit at/near the apex may also have been able to benefit by buying again when Index bottomed.
It is impossible to always buy at the lowest point and sell at the highest point but the bottom line is a lop does not rule out profitability.
We need to keep an eye out for an Iraq Investment Funds popping up.
One name to watch for is Auerbach Grayson Global. I read an article in Trader Daily- they have brokers in every country imaginable...
US hands over former Sunni rebel hotspot to Iraq
Sept 1 2008
RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi forces on Monday took control of the Sunni Anbar province, once the most explosive battlefield in Iraq, from the US military, symbolising the growing security gains in the war-torn country.
The transfer ceremony at the governate building in the provincial capital of Ramadi marked the handover of the 11th of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Anbar, once a flashpoint of anti-American insurgency and later an Al-Qaeda stronghold, is the first Sunni province to be returned to Baghdad's Shiite-led government.
"I would like to announce that the (Anbar) transfer from the US to Iraqi forces is done," said Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor, at the handover ceremony.
US President George W. Bush said the transfer of Anbar was a defeat for Al-Qaeda.
"Today, Anbar is no longer lost to Al-Qaeda -- it is Al-Qaeda that lost Anbar," he said in a statement.
"Anbar has been transformed and reclaimed by the Iraqi people. This achievement is a credit to the courage of our troops, the Iraqi security forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them," Bush added.
Police said tens of thousands of Iraqi and US troops were on alert for the handover across the vast desert province in western Iraq, home to some two million people.
US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker and the top commander of American forces, General David Petraeus, said Iraqi forces had already been operating independently for the past two months in Anbar.
"The provincial and military leadership in Anbar will have to work cooperatively in order to attain the sustainable security necessary for long-term economic prosperity," they said in a joint statement.
The US military said the transfer of security "does not necessarily mean that the security situation is stable or better."
"It means the government and the provincial authorities are ready to take the responsibility for handling it."
After the transfer, US forces are to withdraw to their bases and take part in military operations only if requested by the provincial governor.
Sunni Arabs in Anbar were the first to turn against US forces after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-led invasion forces in 2003, mounting a raging insurgency that tore through the world's most sophisticated military.
In the first years after the invasion, Iraq's biggest province became the theatre of a brutal war focused on the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, while a string of towns along the Euphrates valley became insurgent strongholds and later safe havens for Al-Qaeda.
Mamoon Sami Rashid, the governor of Anbar, said the security transfer was achieved after a "lot of sacrifices and shedding of blood."
"Al-Qaeda has committed some of the biggest massacres in this province. We have lost some big personalities," he said, singling out Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha, the Sunni sheikh who launched the first anti-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) group in Anbar and was killed a year ago in a car bomb attack.
Around one third of US fatalities, or 1,305 troops, have been in Anbar which borders Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.
The brutal Al-Qaeda-led insurgency also killed around 6,000 civilians in the province, according to independent website Iraqbodycount.org.
The violence in Anbar began ebbing only after local Sunni Arab tribes -- weary of Al-Qaeda's extreme brutality -- revolted against the jihadists in September 2006 and sided with US forces.
Sunni tribes formed Sahwa groups and within a year the province became the safest in Iraq.
Security officials, meanwhile, told AFP that Iraq's death toll in August was down by around seven percent from the previous month.
Bahrain King names first ambassador to Iraq
8/31/2008
Xinhuanet
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on Sunday officially named Salah al-Maliki as its first ambassador to Iraq since the Year 2003, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported.
The report said that al-Maliki, 34, will head to Iraq after taking the oath before the king, and he will be stationed in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone compound housing Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy.
Maliki, who has also served at the United Nations in New York, will be the Gulf state's youngest ambassador.
Early in March, Bahrain announced the reopening of its embassy in Iraq as part of its efforts to boost ties with Baghdad. The decision came after Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had named their ambassadors to Iraq.
No Arab country has had a permanent ambassador in the Iraqi capital since Egypt's envoy was kidnapped and killed in 2005.
However, the United States has been pressing the Arab governments to help the Iraqi government by forgiving debts and establishing high-level diplomatic representation.
Iraq largely free of foreign fighters: police
AFP - Monday, September 1, 2008
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - Counter-offensives by the security forces over the past year have largely rid Iraq of foreign fighters recruited by insurgent groups such as Al-Qaeda, a top police commander said on Monday.
"Arab fighters have left Iraq and we are done with them," interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP.
"Before, there were dozens and Diyala was one of their strongholds," said Khalaf who is also acting police chief for Diyala, a province northeast of Baghdad that has long been regarded as an Al-Qaeda stronghold.
"The reason behind this is security in the country and the growing strength of the state," he said.
"Now there is no possibility that insurgent fighters can control one government office as they used to do in the past when they were attacking police centres.
"This does not exist any more. In addition to that, they have lost safe houses."
Iraqi security forces have launched a series of offensives against Al-Qaeda strongholds this year, notably Diyala and the main northern city of Mosul.
Some 50,000 Iraqi security personnel have been deployed in Diyala with US backing since July.
More than 800 people were detained in the offensive before the government suspended military operations last month giving insurgents a grace period to turn themselves in.
How prosperity helps keep the ground won in the war in Iraq.
The boom also is strengthening ties between the Supreme Council — al-Sadr's main rival — and Najaf's merchant class, which takes pride in the city's famous entrepreneurial spirit.
It is that spirit, say residents, that has cost al-Sadr support here back in 2004 when his militiamen controlled Najaf, driving visitors away and forcing most businesses to shutter down.
The people choose prosperity and peace, instead of supporting radicals like Sadr - backed by Iran.
===
Iraq's holy city of Najaf witnessing a boom
By HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA,
AP/ Aug 27, 2008
NAJAF, Iraq - The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good.
Four years ago, Najaf was an urban battlefield with American troops fighting Shiite militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Today, the Shiite holy city is a hot spot of a different kind thanks to improved security, a free-for-all market economy — and a direct pipeline to the Shiite-led government.
Najaf may point to some of the same ambitions for wider autonomy by the most powerful Shiite party — with possible far-reaching implications for the country.
The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council hopes to maintain its domination of Najaf's local government in provincial elections expected late this year or early 2009.
Its broader goal is a self-governing region in Iraq's Shiite south — with its oil wealth and important religious shrines.
Shiite rivals oppose such a move, fearing it would cement the Supreme Council's sway over Shiite affairs. Sunni groups, meanwhile, argue that a Shiite autonomous region would fall under Iranian influence and lead to the eventual breakup of Iraq.
"We already are making every effort to win Najaf" in the provincial elections, said Ridha Jawad Taqi, a Supreme Council lawmaker. "We may well make it the capital of a future region."
It's already getting a major facelift — even as plans to build new commercial towers and hotels in Baghdad remain little more than blueprints. Other ideas, including a giant Ferris wheel bigger than the famous London Eye, are even farther out the fringes.
But in Najaf, the rumblings are real. Construction crews race to keep pace with millions of Shiite pilgrims — some from as far away as India and Britain — who visit the shrine of the revered Imam Ali or bury their dead in the massive "Valley of Peace" cemetery.
The city's ancient bazaar stays open until around 11 p.m., quite late for a market in most parts of Iraq these days due to security concerns. Shoppers fill narrow alleys to buy gold and silver jewelry, spices, worry beads and perfumes sold in small ornate bottles.
Ahmed Redha, head of the state Investment Authority in Baghdad, estimated that US$38.8 billion in projects are on the drawing board for Najaf and many will be undertaken by private companies. The core of the plans call for new luxury hotels and more than 200,000 housing units, he said.
It's all a far cry from 2004. Then, the city's cemetery and old quarter were front lines between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia until the city's Shiite clergy mediated an end to the fighting.
A dramatic improvement in security has persuaded more Iraqis — as well as Shiites from abroad — to travel to Najaf.
Police patrols and checkpoints fill the city of about 1 million people on the edge of Iraq's western desert, but local authorities say they plan to greatly reduce the number of security forces on the streets by installing security cameras around the Imam Ali shrine and other busy parts of the city.
The locals are happy to see foreign visitors returning, particularly big-spending Arabs from the Persian Gulf.
"Everyone is doing good business," gold jeweler Aitan Abdul-Hussein said after he served two Iraqi women in black flowing abaya robes in his tiny shop. "I sell a kilogram of gold every day. That used to be my monthly average a year ago."
The $55 million airport on the southeastern edge of the city is giving everyone hope that even better days are ahead. A ceremonial opening took place in July and the anticipation of commercial flights has pushed land prices up by as much as 60 percent, according to the airport's manager Karim al-Abdali.
Tour operator Ali Abdul-Hussein says most of the 11,000 Shiites he has brought to Najaf over the past two months flew to the southern city of Basra and traveled north by bus. Most came from Gulf nations as well as Iran, India and Pakistan.
"The airport will help our work," said Abdul-Hussein as a Bangladeshi worker dusted air conditioners in the marble-and-glass lobby of Najaf's newest hotel, Qasr al-Dur. "Najaf will become the most important city in Iraq after Baghdad."
The boom also is strengthening ties between the Supreme Council — al-Sadr's main rival — and Najaf's merchant class, which takes pride in the city's famous entrepreneurial spirit.
It is that spirit, say residents, that has cost al-Sadr support here back in 2004 when his militiamen controlled Najaf, driving visitors away and forcing most businesses to shutter down.
Al-Sadr still enjoys some support in Najaf, but his mix of street politics and violence is deemed by many as bad for the city's economic well being.
Najaf residents appear happy over the jobs and money that have flowed into their city.
Pentagon Says Iraq Withdrawal Must Be Based on Conditions
By Al Pessin
Pentagon
27 August 2008
The U.S. Defense Department says it wants to turn over security responsibility to Iraqi forces as quickly as possible, but that the timing should be based on conditions. A spokesman repeated the position in response to a statement by Iraq's prime minister calling for a full U.S. withdrawal by 2011. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
As public jockeying continues in the final stages of U.S.-Iraq negotiations on the future presence of U.S. forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Makiki weighed in, saying he wants all U.S. forces out by a fixed date in 2011. It appeared he was referring to all troops, not just combat units. Officials have usually been careful to differentiate between combat units and non-combat troops, who handle such missions as supply, logistics, medical services, air support and a variety of other tasks that the Iraqi military is not close to being able to provide for itself.
Later, other Iraqi officials were quoted as saying that even if the agreement calls for all U.S. troops to be out of Iraq, the government could later decide to invite some support troops to remain.
At the Pentagon, Spokesman Bryan Whitman had this response to Tuesday's statements in Baghdad.
"We share the same common goal as the Iraqi government, and that is to turn over more and more of the security responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces," he said. "That's proceeding well. But at the end of the day, nothing changes from the fact that we believe strongly that the withdrawal of U.S. forces, of coalition forces, ought to be based on the conditions on the ground. And what we are seeing is a dramatically improved situation in Iraq, with respect to security, and an ever increasingly capable Iraqi security force."
Whitman said it is that increasing capability that is making it possible to even discuss the withdrawal of U.S. forces. He also said Prime Minister Maliki's statement outlined "some aspirational goals that are fairly far into the future." And he said there is still no final agreement on all the terms of the pending accord.
Iraq changes team negotiating on US withdrawal: report
Sun Aug 31, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has reshuffled a negotiating team working on an agreement on withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website.
The newspaper said the reshuffle was disclosed to it by a senior Iraqi official close to Maliki, who also suggested that the two sides remained deadlocked on key issues.
According to the report, Maliki dismissed the delegation headed by the Foreign Ministry and picked his national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie, chief of staff Tariq Najim and political advisor Sadiq Rikabi to conduct the negotiations in their final stage.
The three report directly to the prime minister.
The sides are also still negotiating a withdrawal date, the official said.
Only a cuple of weeks ago, I started doing daily missions into Sad'r City, one of the last insurgency, strong holds.
I gave a pretty grim description of that city, and how it looked. It is still a slum city, and have far far to go, but piles and piles of rubble, old cars, garbage and concrete stones lying around have been shoveled into trucks and brought out. The streets still have a lot of face lift to do, but openess starts to be present, I can see more and more spaces that are cleared out, and even if the city is a bona fide slum, the streets that I have traveled, compared with about two weeks ago have opened up dramatically.
Two weeks ago we came in, in the middle of the night, and had IED's and small arms fire, meeting us.
By reasons related to organizational issues, we had to change around the schedule and go in just after dark lately.
That is the time when kids are still up and awake.
Gun trucks mark the roads with chem sticks, and kids being kids, picked up the markers, first as an annoyance to the mission, but more and more kids got the idea that this is really a fun thing, and started to pick up the sticks wherever they landed.
Soldiers, also being kids, started to throw these sticks to the kids lining the road in the darkened Sad'r City, , and very soon a whole peace concept was born.
Older people are standing with a very reserved posture when we pass by, but kids are not into the adult moode at all, so today when we went through Sadr City, we had a light show.
Tonight the word had got around and the kids were lining the streets, and waiting for the convoy, with he hope that they perhaps would be lucky enough to catch one, and sure enough here we came.
Big dusty armored trucks and gun carriers that looks threatening, mean, evil, intimidating and not friendly, came rumbling down the streets.
We had it arranged in such a way that we didn't want any kids to run into the convoy, so the very last gun trucks did all the tossings of the lights sticks, and they tossed out bundles to every group of kids they could find.
Bundles and bundles, there was no lack of light sticks tossed out.
Very soon the whole street was lightened up with kids that ran beserk , and with every kid there was a light stick or two, proudly waiving, all on the street had a great time, and it was a very big light show, as we did the trick all along the route.
Block after block lightened up with lights from running kids.
Those kids have NOTHING, and whatever happened tonight, they will remeber forever. They did something they have never done before, the whole citys kids running around in dark streets ligtening up the place, screaming with joy.
This action, a very small amount out of a budget, ( and probably not approved by higher ups) have made a change, it is a small step, but something changed tonight in Sad'r City.
Grown ups didn't do it, kids did it, our kid soldiers, and their kids on the street.
Thanks, Roger, an inspirational telling of the story which puts a face on a hard fought .. and won, war. Life is getting better in Iraq, and the kids - both the soldiers and the children in the streets, are the hope of that nation as well as ours. God bless and look after you - and keep you and your mission companies safe.
Our very best to you and yours from our side of the pond..
Our thoughts are with you.
That's quite a story about the kids of Sadr city. I think you are right, the kids have nothing...probably not even electricity. The light sticks will work on the streets and probably in their homes too at night. The one thing I kept thinking in hearing your story was 'What about those IED'S?.' Could many of these children get hurt in waiting for the convoy-- if IED's were planted or other possible dangers.
I hope these light sticks aren't attracting kids to possibly get hurt by all these potential dangers. I know the feeling of goodwill you fellows are trying to give the children and this is terrific. Many times, influencing goodwill in the parents is best by going through the children.
In any case, it is really good to hear from you. Are you at camp Victory in Baghdad?. I do not know much of the various camps-- but I read somewhere that this camp is in Baghdad and you seem to be in that area. You described your new base as small. I do not know if camp Victory is small or not.
Iraq's Anbar needs cash to keep out insurgency
Mon Sep 1, 2008 6:04pm BST
By Tim Cocks
RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq must invest heavily in Anbar province's crumbling economy if it wants to ensure a bloody insurgency that once raged there does not return, the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said on Monday.
Speaking to Reuters as the U.S. military handed control of the former insurgent heartland to Iraqi security forces, Major-General John Kelly said Iraq's government should inject urgently needed cash to build on recent security gains.
"How confident am I that this (insurgency) is over? I'm only as confident as I look to Baghdad," he said. "It's not really up to the police or Marines any more, it's up to the government. They know what the reconstruction needs of the province are."
The handover of Anbar, the 11th of 18 provinces to be ceded to Iraqi control, is a milestone for Iraq given that only two years ago it almost lost the vast desert region to Sunni Arab insurgents and Islamist al Qaeda militants.
But while Anbar now enjoys relative peace, Kelly said the government must act to alleviate both the impact of the war and the previous U.N. sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime, which he said had ruined the region's agriculture-led economy.
He had seen a $450 million reconstruction budget, he said, put together by Anbar's local councillors and other politicians.
"We've articulated it. If they (the central government) fund it -- and they certainly have the funds -- agriculture and jobs will take off. ... These people will be too grateful to do anything other than salute with pride their country," he said.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government has been accused of promoting the sectarian interests of Shi'ites while neglecting Iraq's Sunni Arabs. Critics say services like roads, water and electricity were improving more quickly in Shi'ite than in Sunni areas.
But Maliki has reached out to Sunni Arabs in the past few months, cracking down on Shi'ite militias and successfully wooing the main Sunni Arab bloc back into government.
Kelly said agriculture once provided 60 percent of jobs in Anbar and that small-scale industry in the city of Falluja -- which was devastated by two U.S. military assaults in 2004 -- employed three-quarters of the people there. Both needed to be revived, he said.
DON'T LEAVE YET
As Iraq's government becomes more confident in the abilities of its own security forces, it has become bolder in demanding that U.S. troops wind down their presence in Iraq. Negotiations on a security pact defining the future U.S. presence are ongoing.
Baghdad wants U.S. forces to leave the country by 2011, with an end to routine U.S. patrols of towns and cities by mid-2009. But Kelly said Anbaris did not want the Marines to leave yet.
"If you ask any of these people that live in Anbar ... the feeling is the police can more or less stand on their own but ... don't be too far away," he said. "They want us here."
But he added they were already winding down their presence.
"We're still in the cities but never on our own, without them (police). They do a lot of operations without us."
Anbar saw fierce battles between U.S. forces allied with Iraq's government and insurgents at the height of the troubles.
Much of the province, with little oil wealth but strategic importance in its borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, was once in the grip of al Qaeda until Sunni tribes sick of their brutality joined forces with the Americans to kick them out, forcing them to regroup in northern Iraq.
Kelly said al Qaeda would struggle to regain a foothold, but keeping that depended on continued reconciliation with Baghdad.
"In Anbar, they are no longer an insurgency. They're a loosely organised bunch of murderers," he said. "Could they come back? Sure, if the Iraqi central government did something to enrage ... to alienate these people," he said.
Al Qaeda aside, tensions are simmering in Anbar between Sunni tribal leaders who helped fight al Qaeda and local council leaders ahead of provincial elections. Kelly said he was confident these disputes would be resolved without bloodshed.
"They disagree a lot (but) ... they're learning how to settle disputes without shooting at each other."
Maybe a RV of the currency in line with its actual value as a world class currency would inject the necessary funds they are so desperately needing to fund this endeavor.. and many others like it? :)
I found this interesting.. that Obama once had a 210-165 advantage, but it has now narrowed to only ten votes.
I thought it worth mentioning.
===
Election 2008: Electoral College Update Electoral College Update: Obama Lead Narrows to 10 Votes
Friday, August 22, 2008
The latest wave of state-by-state polling, market data and national trends have pushed the Rasmussen Reports' Electoral College projections as close as our daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
The latest numbers from the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator show Obama leading in states with 193 Electoral College votes and McCain ahead in states with 183 Electoral College votes. Previously, Obama had enjoyed a 210–165 advantage.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Barack Obama attracting 47% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 49%, McCain 46%. Those figures are unchanged from yesterday and little changed over the past several days.
Obama is now viewed favorably by 58% of the nation’s voters, McCain by 57%.
Obama receives favorable reviews from 85% of Democrats while McCain is now viewed favorably by 90% of Republicans. Both men are viewed favorably by 60% of unaffiliated voters. Enthusiasm among Republicans for McCain is up significantly since the announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Fifty-one percent (51%) of GOP voters now have a Very Favorable opinion of McCain, the first time he has ever topped the 50% level in that measure. On Friday morning, just 43% were that enthusiastic about McCain.
Obama’s answer on experience: But I’m such a great campaigner!
September 2, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
Anderson Cooper asked Barack Obama last night to answer the claim that Sarah Palin has more applicable experience than he does. In response, he completely ignores Palin’s status as governor, and then makes the claim that a campaign counts as executive experience:
QUOTE:
AC: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?
BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.
===end quote==
Let’s take the last point first. Did Barack Obama pass legislation bearing his recommendations for emergency management? A list of “actions” taken by Obama in the wake of Katrina compiled by a supporter doesn’t exactly lend itself to that conclusion. Once one strips out all of the speeches, the actual legislative actions appear to mostly consist of adding his name as co-sponsor to the bills of others, and it’s unclear whether any of the bills Obama did introduce ever passed.
Even if they did, it gives him no experience at managing disasters. Governors and mayors have to manage disasters, and when they succeed, they save lives. When they fail, as we saw in Katrina, it costs lives. Legislators have no role in disaster management itself, although honestly, disaster management isn’t usually a resumé point when voting for mayor, governor, or President. Whatever impulse exists now to make it one stems from the irrational blame heaped on George Bush for the failures of Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco in Katrina, although FEMA certainly had its failures as well.
But the main point here is that Obama didn’t really answer the question, and he set up a straw man argument in response to Cooper. Governor Palin is, well, governor, and not currently the mayor of Wasila. As Governor, Palin operates a $9 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue. Furthermore, she runs a government that employs 25,000 people.
Obama blithely pretends that she’s still the mayor of “Wasilly” in order to boost himself. However, running for office isn’t executive experience, for one good reason: Obama isn’t the campaign manager. He has a CEO actually running the campaign, handling the budget, and managing the people while Obama makes the speeches.
If this is Obama’s best response on the experience question, the attacks on Palin’s experience will have to stop, unless the campaign wants Obama to keep embarrassing himself while making it.
Abdul Madhi : General Mouth project in Dhi Qar will reclamation six million acres of farmland
02 September 2008 (Iraq Directory)
The Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, who arrived to the city of Nasiriyah on Saturday, announced that the draft of general downstream in Dhi Qar will reclamation six million acres of farmland, pointing out that the project will be opened after the holy month of Ramadan.
Abdul-Mahdi added in a joint press conference with Minister of Water Resources Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid, and Dhi Qar governor Aziz Kadhim Alwan : "There are tens of thousands of broaching and millions of subsidiary rivers which the project will treat when it will be inaugurated after the month of Ramadan."
On a question regarding the functions of local governments, Abdul-Mahdi replied by saying: " the local governments must be given broad powers in coordination with the federal government to expedite project implementation services and investment mission."
On the other hand, the Minister of Water Resources, added during the conference, "The project of general mouth will collect the small rivers and it is one of the largest in the world, with capacity to reach 200 to 230 cubic meters per second."
The Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, visited on Saturday the city of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar Center to observe the function of reconstruction projects and investment, and met upon arrival the governor Aziz Kadhim Alwan, as the media source in the administration of the province.
Iraqi businesswomen discuss involvement in business projec
Baghdad, 02 September 2008 (Voices of Iraq)
The Baghdad based Center for Economic Development and Progress on Monday organized a discussion session for Iraqi businesswomen, in a pioneering step that aims at obtaining evaluations from Iraqi women on economic projects in Iraq.
The session was attended by a number of Iraqi businesswomen who talked about their sufferance, and tried to learn more about how to improve their experiences.
A Provisional Iraq War Balance-Sheet
It may not be too early to draw up a provisional balance-sheet of the Iraq war, especially since Iraq is still likely to be at - or close to the - top of the next US President’s headaches, says Patrick Seale.
02 September 2008 (Middle East Online)
America’s catastrophic involvement with Iraq is drawing to a close. It has been a fiasco on a colossal scale -- devastating for Iraq, immensely costly for the United States and destabilizing for the entire region.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says US combat troops will leave Iraq by 30 June 2009 and all other US troops by 31 December 2011. That, at least, is the substance of the draft security pact he will present to his government and to the Iraqi parliament for ratification. Its implementation will inevitably need US approval as well.
It may not, however, be too early to draw up a provisional balance-sheet of the Iraq war.
• Iraq has been shattered. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and some 4.5 million driven into exile, or been internally displaced by the Sunni-Shia civil war, triggered by the US invasion. Material destruction has been incalculable.
• The Shia (60 per cent of the population) have replaced the Sunni (20 per cent) as the dominant community in government and in the army and security services. But sectarian passions have by no means cooled and Iraq’s future as a united country remains in doubt.
• The Kurds have achieved virtual autonomy but dare not move towards full independence for fear of a Turkish invasion. Their hopes of including in their domain the oil-rich region of Kirkuk are unlikely to be realized.
• The destruction of Iraq has upset the regional power balance to the great benefit of Iran, which has emerged as the leading power in the Gulf region, able to extend its influence into Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
• The US armed services have suffered the loss of 4,300 men killed and another 40,000 wounded. The financial cost of the war has been put at trillions of dollars. The damage to America’s reputation and to its moral and political authority has been severe.
• The US ambition to turn Iraq into a regional ally -- allowing it to project power far and wide from permanent bases in Iraq -- seems doomed. The vast US embassy under construction in Baghdad -- the largest in the world, the size of Vatican City -- is likely to remain a white elephant.
• Israel and its friends pressed hard for the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s regime in order to remove any Arab threat to Israel from the east. This ambition was realized, and the Arab world has been correspondingly weakened. Apparently unforeseen, however, was that the rise of Iran would create an enemy of the Jewish state more formidable than Iraq ever was. Israeli efforts to get the United States to attack Iran have so far been unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Iraqi nationalism seems to be making a timid resurgence, encouraged by swelling oil income and the increased confidence of the Iraqi armed services. Iraq is shortly to take control of Al-Anbar province from American troops, a highly symbolic transfer of power since this vast but sparsely populated province, largely inhabited by Sunni tribes, has been the fief of Al-Qaeda.
Another sign of Iraqi resurgence is the recent oil agreement with the China National Petroleum Company said to be worth $3billion -- the first such agreement with a foreign oil company since the 2003 invasion.
Many problems remain, however, including the vexed question of the tense relations between Maliki’s essentially Shia government and the Sunni tribal al-Sahwa (‘Awakening’) movement, organized, financed and armed by the United States to fight al-Qaeda.
This network of local militias -- each man receiving $300 a month from the United States -- now boasts some 100,000 members. It is beginning to be seen as a dangerous rival to the government’s forces, which have recently moved against Al-Sahwa, arresting hundreds of its most prominent members. A government’s pledge to incorporate into the national army 20 per cent of these “Sons of Iraq” -- as they like to call themselves -- seems unlikely to be realized.
The United States will undoubtedly be leaving Iraq but -- such is the continuing instability -- it is by no means certain that the withdrawal will be orderly. One way or another, Iraq will remain at or close to the top of the next US President’s headaches.
Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire.
In my view, a lop can only be beneficial to the iraqi economy in the following way. For simplicity sake, lets say you have 1 million dinars in 25,000 notes and the Central Bank decides to make those 25,000 notes into 25 notes. If you have 1 million dinars in 25 dinar notes then in this way the lop can have a positive effect on the Iraqi economy as long as their is a revaluation or reversion of the dinar to accompany it.
That anti-Iraq war viewpoint you posted with all its vitriol (words and phrases in the article include, "America’s catastrophic involvement with Iraq", "a fiasco on a colossal scale -- devastating for Iraq, immensely costly for the United States and destabilizing for the entire region", "Iraq has been shattered", "Material destruction has been incalculable", "Many problems remain", "A government’s pledge -- seems unlikely to be realized", "continuing instability -- to top of the next US President’s headaches") each of these would undoubtedly be the view of these protesters, however mistaken and uncertain that pessimistic viewpoint may be:
===
Anti-War Protest at GOP Convention Turns Violent
by Stephen Clark
Monday, September 1, 2008
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A protest near the site of the Republican National Convention gave way to violence Monday as demonstrators attacked members of the Connecticut delegation, smashed windows, slashed car tires and threw bottles during an anti-war march, St. Paul police said.
Up to 256 people were arrested by police using pepper spray in some confrontations, police told FOX News. Police were determining on a case-by-case basis how to process them.
Five people were accused of setting fire to a trash bin and pushing it into a police car, St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh said.
The violent demonstrators were mostly dressed in black and described themselves as anarchists. Most of the violence occurred in pockets of a neighborhood near downtown, several blocks from the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention was taking place. At the request of police, 150 Minnesota National Guard soldiers helped control splinter groups near downtown long after anti-war marchers had dispersed.
Protesters attacked members of the Connecticut delegation when they got off their buses near Xcel Center, delegates told FOX News.com and a local TV station.
A group of protesters came toward the delegation and tried to rip the credentials off their necks and sprayed them with a toxic substance that burned their eyes and stained their clothes, delegate Rob Simmons told KMSP-TV.
One 80-year-old member of the delegation had to be treated for injuries, and several other delegates had to rinse their eyes and clothing, the station reported.
“These knuckle-heads crossed the line,” Christopher Healy, head of the Connecticut State Republican Party, told FOX News.com. “We’re for free speech, not free bleach. We respect their right to protest, but do it civilly. Pushing, shoving, spitting, throwing harmful chemicals — it’s not the American way.”
The Maryland Republican delegation was also greeted by a bold protester who stormed onto its charter bus shouting as they returned from a trip to the circus Monday afternoon.
“There were protesters laying on the ground, giving us the finger,” Schoeller, of Baltimore, said. “One got on the bus and ‘thanked’ us profanely, saying ‘Thank you for (expletive) up this country’ or something along those lines.”
Organizers anticipated 50,000 protesters but police estimated 8,000 to 10,000.
Demonstrators blamed Republicans and the Bush administration for paying more attention to war than to domestic issues.
“The demonstration will be voicing opposition to the war’s prioritization above human needs, such as building levees, the economy and health care,” Meredith Aby, a coalition member said.
Up to 200 people from a group called Funk the War nosily staged their own march. Wearing black clothes, bandanas and gas masks, some of their members smashed windows of cars and stores. They tipped over newspaper boxes, pulled a big trash bin into the street, bent the rearview mirrors on a bus and flipped heavy stone garbage bins on the sidewalks.
At one point, people pushed a trash bin filled with trash and threw garbage in the streets and at cars. They also took down orange detour signs. One of them used a screwdriver to puncture the back tire of a limousine waiting at an intersection and threw a wooden board at the vehicle, denting its side. Another hurled a glass bottle at a charter bus that had stopped at an intersection. The bottle smashed into pieces but did not appear to damage the bus.
Some onlookers were displeased by the march. Former U.S. Marine Bryan Haglund, who served in Iraq in 2005, 2006 and 2007, said the march “sickened” him.
Others were supportive.
“That’s what this country is about: freedom of speech,” Janet Lowe said.
On the weekend, authorities seized weapons and devices from a self-described anarchist group called the RNC Welcoming Committee, which was not among the organizers of the march. The devices were designed to disable buses, the sheriff’s office said. Five people from that group were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, conspiracy to commit civil disorder and conspiracy to damage property, the sheriff’s office said.
Certainly, the viewpoint of that article is shared by these "protesters", whose protests were not peaceful in any way no matter how much they say they are for "peace". (Do as I say, not as I do? - hypocrisy on display at its finest and best.)
However, for those of us who see a bright and hopeful future for Iraq and the fortunes of the Dinar.. I think that viewpoint is erroneous and has been proven false by the fact we are on the cusp of complete victory in Iraq and the people of Iraq have been liberated from the tyranny of Saddam and are significantly taking over their own country's management (Anbar, the 11th of 18 provinces being ceded to Iraqi control, above), with the prosperity that will accompany that increasing responsibility for them, their families and their future.
In response to that article, it is hardly a catastrophe for the Iraqis, nor "a fiasco on a colossal scale" it is proven NOT to be "devastating for Iraq" and will pay dividends to the US for many future years, including in increasing stability for the region. Iraq has NOT been shattered, and like any war, though there was destruction to remove the terrorists and the corrupt regime of Saddam, rebuilding is happening and the Iraqis have a bright future. No country is perfect, so it is true that "many problems remain", but the Iraqis are working toward resolving them together and it is unfair to say that the "government’s pledge -- seems unlikely to be realized" when the prognostications of the pessimistic leftist bottle-and-chemical-throwing peaceniks has been such an utter failure in predicting the future to date. Indeed, following their previous predictions and desires for Iraq would have resulted in a complete disaster for Iraq and the future stability of the region (pullout, enriching the terrorists with oil money, genocide, etc). Their laughable prediction of "continuing instability" topping "the next US President’s headaches" will also be unrealized when the electorate wisely choose John McCain over the young whelp Obama to responsibly manage the next stage of steadying and solidifying the gains made for this newly erected, free and Democratic country of Iraq.
Iraq's current government has been staggering badly under the pressure of growing violence and widespread infrastructure failures. As a result, government consolidation is taking place, including dismissals, arrests, and the emergence of strong personalities. Yet still, most government participants appear to lack the will to stick their neck out and make bold moves that would ultimately help the Iraqi people.
The Iraqi Dinar
Economically, according to my estimates, the Iraqi dinar is hopelessly undervalued, and should have been revalued long ago. The dinar is held down artificially by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), resulting in very little buying power for the Iraqi working class. Currently, most of the day-to-day products needed by Iraqi's are produced outside of the country, but when buying it with an undervalued currency, nobody except the intrepid merchant benefits. In order to justify the costs of manufacture and import into the country, most things that we in the West take for granted are priced far beyond the average Iraqi's ability to pay for it, due in large part to the vast exchange rate differences.
Due to these currency differences, few Iraqi's can afford the items they want or need. As fewer people can afford them, the market for these items is artificially small, resulting in less competition and higher prices. This, coupled with the day-to-day disruption of goods and services due to the violence plaguing large tracts of the country, have led to high levels of inflation.
By revaluing the Iraq Dinar to it's true value towards the market, the Iraqi people will regain a measure of their buying power back. Imported goods will now be within reach of nearly everybody, helped to infuse the Iraqi economy with a new vitality.
True Dinar Value
In analyzing the true value of the dinar, many have predicted a value as high as parity with the US dollar ($1 = 1 dinar), while more conservative estimates have been in the range of a $0.01 = 1 dinar. This range, of course, can only be estimated, because the dinars true strength can only be determined, as with all currencies, once it is freely traded on the world market.
The continued lack of purchasing power of the Iraq dinar will be yet another factor in a long line of social problems, and some have the idea that those problems have to be addressed first before the economy can be fixed. The Iraqi man on the street is having a hard time feeding his family, and in such dire circumstances he may even be tempted to work against his fellow Iraqi's through insurgency, crime and even terrorism. This writer urges the current Iraqi Administration; fix the dinar.
The "Big Guys" are standing at the gate waiting to get in, but have to wait until they get assurances that the investment will not be socialized as in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, or lost completely due to a full-blown civil war. The new Iraq Investment Laws are tentative right now, but hopefully the Iraqi Government will make it a top priority when they return to session this fall. However, as with everything in Iraq these days, this supposition is a moving target at best.
With reference to your posting on 1st Sept about a zero lop possibly being beneficial, it seems to stress that a true return would only be achieved if one invested in the Iraqi stock market and the values of the shares increased. Stocks are still risky, as you never know exactly which ones will come up trumps. They could even be bloated, as in the tech stocks of the late 1990s, with no real substance behind the companies. We need a real RV on the currency itself, as not every monetary transaction revolves around the stock market.
Sara, thanks for your thoughts, I get a warm feeling in my heart.
Laura,
No I am in Taji, a base between Anaconda and Baghdad, but we go to Sad'r city every night, a suburb to Baghdad. Tonight the mission went very fast, and I got couple of hours left of the day to play around with ( well whatever is left of the night, it is 4.30 here right now.)
The Ramadan have started, and it is pretty quiet. It was some enemy activity just the weeks before, but it have been very calm now for about two weeks.
I have been told by old timers that last Ramadan and the time around it was pretty calm too, but the Ramadan the year before was heavy and raw mayhem. That is two years back, it is opther times now.
Laura, no the kids running around is in a morbid way also our safety, the insurgents in Sad'r city is not AlQaeda,( they have a tendency to bomb indiscrimintely in the name of God), but is a reminence of the Mahdi army, AlSadr's hard liners if you may call it so.
It is their own kids.
Well the light show, was cut down as (of course) higher ups considered that it was too risky with too many kids running around hysterically around the trucks., so this night there was much less of the light sticks, just enough to keep the streets happy, but nothing close to the carnival we had yesterday.
That night, oh, what a night, I will always remeber it, we had magic.
Cornish boy,
Hi you have found one of my old articles, about the Dinar, it has been spinning around in a lot of websites.
It is remarkable, when reading it today, the article was written about two and a half years back, but as not much have changed, it is actually pretty accurate even today.
I have seen that article on Arabic financial websites, Iraqi stock traders website and in numerous different forums.
Hope it made a difference somewhere.
Mattuk,
Hi there ol buddy, you have a couple of very interesting articles there, and I would like to comment a little bit about one of them that you presented. It is the article from Patric Seale.
I can't stop and reflect about one thing, it seems that the author is a British writer, and I heard on the BBC one night while I was staged in a fairly secure area, and waiting for an off load(in my combat gears, in the truck, in Sad'r City, while gun trucks was sweeping their barrels into the dark, thats right, that is exactly where I listened in on the program), that in Britain there is a new website, that will dispell a lot of myths about the US, and the British needs this websuite, because there is so much falsehoods about what US is about, in the British commonwealth, that it have almost become "fashionable" to blame the US for most of what is happening in the world.
The writer of this web page is not a US citizen, nor is he payed by any US agency, but is a true scholar that is truely tired of hearing all the miss conceptions, false "truths" and outright lies about the US in the British media.
He was discussing on the BBC that there is almost a "fad" in Britain to associate something negative with the US, and he wanted to do an honest effort to put the data right.
Some of the most blatant is beliefs that boose is free for anyone to buy, just because you can buy it in stores, that you can buy a gun without restriction, and that in some states you can have polygamic marriages.
You have to be 21 to buy alcohol in the US, an age much higher than in most European countries. Gun purchases are always back ground checked by federal law, and there are NO states permitting polygamic marriages.
Reading this article from Patric Seale, I get the feeling that he want to paint a picture of how the US have lost it all, and even if we get out of here with the tail between our legs, we will still be drawn into huge problems for eons to come, that in all essence are unsolveable.
Not so, in fact the solution is so simple that it is almost hillarious how simple it can be.
All the forces are working in that direction now, and when it is taking effect, that will be the end of the poverty state.
Give the Iraqi man a decent job, that he will be able to support his family with, and some dignity of who he is, and he will be like any other man walking this earth.
On the Britsh main island, there have been endless wars, Stuarts, Roses, well, all the factions and camps that have battled it out in the past is such a long list to fill, that it would only be an academic feat to serve it, because they are too many to list.
The Brits today are a united and proud people, even if there was deep religious battles and factions killing each other for no other reason than the enemy was of the wrong religion, faction of religion or wrong clan.
The Britsh society today are set up in such a way that clans have no chance of having power.
Everything that you have seen in the western world are here, but in smaller numbers, cellphones computers GPS, I-pods and all that.
The more the Iraqis can comprehend that the world is bigger than their clans sphere if interest, the lesser is the clan.
The more income, the more and better the Iraqi man can get in touch with the world.
MTV and rockbands are just a fraction behind here, everything is set up for a very rich society here, but it is just not there just yet.
Over the last year I have read nothing but good news about contracts, new projects and rebuilding of Iraq.
Many of them are well underway, but the projects and programs need to mature so they are giving the full impact.
Once that is in hand, you will see a very busy bunch of Iraqis pouring concrete, and building roads.
I saw today for the first time, trains running on train tracks, things are picking up.
(Well for me I had the misfortune to share a bridge with the train, because we can not use a bombed out bridge close by, it was a very narrow slit of asphalt on the side of the rail road track going over Tigris River. It is actually a railroad bridge, but traffic have to share it, because there is nothing else, if you want to cross the river...and of course, when I was running my armored truck on that small little slit of asphalt, I had to share it with a train, coming barreling down, small margins,...hey... it's an adventure every day)
I can not for the life in me see that the author of that article have been here, or done some deep research on the subject, but it seems to me that he have done the "news paper article, cut and paste" research, that in itself is very common when newspaper editors are telling stories.
News media have never, and will never be interested in the truth, because that is not what they are selling.
They are selling , death misery, catastrophe, fraud, crime, sensation and defeat.
Iraq, probably with it's resources, one of the ritches countries in the world, (yes I know, not now, but it is there) will not continue to be what it is now, but will rapidly change it's face.
Similar societies, like Dubai, Kuwait, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, all have their own quirks, and much can be said about a lot of things in those countries, but you dont see any clan fights, and religious riots.
You see good cars, good freeways, good homes, good food, and good wages.
A happy middle class is a docile society.
Iraq are experiencing very rapid changes as we speak, and for the old powers, this is a clear threat, but it doesnt matter in a few years, because the old ways will be a way they don't want to go back to, it's better to have a hot car, (you should see the lights they put on their junk cars here, green, red, yellow, all straight out of "The Fast and The Furious", if you can't have a hot car just yet, well at least you can pimp it up, to look like one) A hot chick, and a cool wrist watch, a great stereo, and some hot hits, is so much better than sitting and listen to an old smelly man that preys five hours a day.
Work and money and the future is there for him.
It is a big mistake to believe that everything will be the same, no matter how we try to change it, it will never be the same.
On that basis I give the article by Patric Seale a big C. He just don't have a clue what this is about, and he is actually a bit in the wheels of "Blame it on the US" fashion.
BritishKnite,
With all the references lately to a zero lop, the air seem to have gone out a little bit out of the Dinar prospect.
Wonder how many that have cashed in, now when they "know" that the zero lop will come.
If I would RV I would do exactly that, scare them first, make as many suckers cash in as much Dinars as possible, and then RV.
I still would recommend to have the Dinars in an Iraq account, as that is the total protection, then they can do whatever they will with the currency, and the original investment will not go down, a potential risk if they actually ARE zero loping, as there might come a very restrictive exchange regime.
So I say, cover yourself, get your Iraqi Dinars in an Iraqi account, and let any worries go.
Sara,
Have you had a hug lately....
well, here is one for you, HUUUUUUUUUUUG.
All,
My latest report describing the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army, have now changed, at least somewhat.
I described them as sitting very idly by, but apparently there have been a shakedown, they are wearing full uniforms, and are now posing more professionally when they are about. I read in Stars and Stripes (free on the base) that there have been some severe complaints from the US military, because they can not recongnize either the police or the army, if they are not dressed in full uniform. When I arrived and had my first couple of missions you could see a guy with camo pants only, a T shirt and an AK 47 at a road block, it was a bit of a stretch to figure out if he was a militia, insurgency, police or army, but they look better now.
If the mission is late, and it is on occasion, we will arrive just as the rat race starts. I hate to be stuck in traffic, but I must say that the Iraqi rat race is very amusing.
It's a mix between a demolition derby and stock car racing for amateurs.
One poor guy, have a Landroover, and old thing that have seen much better days, it is funny, I always seem to see that guy, I can recognize him because of the originality of his vehicle, the way it is dented, rusted and it general look.
Either he have ten twin brothers, or he is always on my route, but everytime I see him, he is doing major surgery to his car. Next time around he is a couple of miles from his first spot and are again doing some heavy butchering in the cars internals, and always with a bunch of pyamas dresssed guys hanging over the hood, or crawling underneath the thing.
He never seem to get anywhere, except to his next car emergency, but he faithfully keeps on going.
A big HUGGGGGG to you too. I really enjoy you dropping in and letting us know how you are and all.
I was wondering, Are you able to get your own time and leave the base and wander around Baghdad or other places in Iraq?... Or, are you stuck on bases all day until your missions take place?.
Can you tell us anything about the banking situation in Baghdad.... are the Iraqi's using ATM's, credit cards (technology in their banking situation) etc.
What can you tell us about corruption in the country (your sense of it).
Do they have postal services as of yet and is mail secure for the people?.
What about the news we have been hearing about Malika and the USA forces agreement in Iraq. What is your thoughts on this and what are you hearing about this inside of Iraq?
Also, have you gotten into the green zone to see the USA embassy as of yet?. This would be quite an experience... if you could get in?. If you do, let us know your impressions of the place.
I know, it sounds like I want you to be a tourist, but it would be great if you were able to get around and see what is happening. There was some news that the Iraqi's want USA forces to be contained in their bases and leave Iraqi cities according to news reports we have been receiving?.
Roger, are you making any Iraqi friends over there as of yet?. What are they like if you have.
Well, I am glad that you have a really nice memory of the light show with the children of Iraq. I think it went a long ways to give great impressions and fun for the children. However, I think, your higher's up are probably right. If something happened, you could have a lot of children hurt and possibly your convoy too. It is a shame everyone has to think like this. I hate what the terrorist do and therefore Roger, you guys keep fighting.
Good to hear from you. Stay safe. :)
Hugggg.. and thanks. Prayin for you every day.
Eve started the "blame someone else" syndrome in the Garden of Eden. When God came to her and asked her if she ate the apple, she pointed at Adam and passed the buck to him instead of taking responsibility for her own contribution (she ate it herself first, then gave him the apple to eat, if you remember). Even so, Britain, which has taken in so many radical Islamics as immigrants, has to own up to the problems they have created for themselves. The bombing they had was domestic. To blame the US for "stirring up" hatreds which were being preached in every mosque in town is to say that the "spark" was to blame for the powderkeg blowing up. If there wasn't any powder.. it wouldn't be able to blow up. You put a spark on sand, and guess what? It does NOT blow up in your face. (Revelation, right?) If they had been peace-loving people, nothing bad would have happened.
The underlying cause of the discontent is those who are the powder - and Britain has created a place with a lot of powder, a lot of anti-western thought. These people who do not hold the values of the West - whether Communist, Nazi, or Islamofascists - are those who undermine the fabric of society and are the potential "powder" that is just waiting to be ignited. Put a spark to those "anarchists" and you will see anarchy and terrorism. Those who blame the US for this powder are just like this.. believing that if there had been no spark, the powderkeg would never have ignited. That is incredibly naive, if not downright stupid. It is like those who appeased Hitler thinking if they just continue to be nice, he will go away or remain peaceful. It just is not true. We have long been on a collision course of war with the Islamofascists. They bombed the USS Cole long before the twin towers.. and there were more before that, too:
As documented in the above video..
Giving in or "forgiving" an unrepentant enemy who is set to kill us is not possible.
It was they who upped the ante:
Ours was a response to these provocations, as well as further threats. Who can forget the rejoicing by many on the news at the deaths of over three thousand innocent American lives? Forgiveness is for those who repent. It is not for the unrepentant. To the unrepentant belongs a face strong as flint set against their faces, until they are defeated or suffer death. That is because they are set to fight us until the death and will not turn back to before the "spark" was ignited, into peace. They must be eliminated simply because they are powder and cannot be reasoned with - any more than Hitler would be. There has to be TWO sides to peace, not one. And the USA (and free West) will not fall under the heel of Islamofascism, nor Communism and the megaspiritual forces behind them, but will make their prayers unto their God that He will strengthen and save us from them. And with His aid and in that strength we will fight, and we will win. As we are doing in Iraq.
God is not finished with America. Those who say she is filled with evil and deserves God's judgement hope for Him to do more than chastise her. He will not. He will not destroy her. They think if they can stir God up in His holiness against America, that He will turn His back to her and then leave her vulnerable not only to terrorist attack but to her complete destruction. That is why they attack the morality of the US, as roger reported above, saying that anyone can drink (obviously, the sin of drunkenness is their hope), get a gun (lawlessness is the obvious result in their minds), and have polygamist marriages by law (showing corruption in the government to allow such a transgression - a transgression of the sanctity of marriage - a sacred institution made by God). Certainly, were gay rights to go further, the enemy will use this to assail heaven with calls for the destruction of such a corrupt country. And though such calls do not have merit before men concerning "gay rights", I ask you if it does before God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and set them forth for an EXAMPLE to us (Jude). The only way the enemy can prevail against the US is through getting God to LET them attack. The only way they can have that ground.. is to have something to accuse the US with. These false accusers are more than just an annoyance, they are a strategic military attack by the powers of darkness - no matter who they are using to bring forth their agenda. They want ground to attack, kill and destroy America. They know it must be won first SPIRITUALLY before they get it in the physical realm.
There was a man who once wanted to curse God's people in the Old Testament. He tried very hard to do so, but God would not allow him to. Every time he got set to curse, blessing would come out of his mouth. The king who was employing him to curse his enemies was very angry about it in this passage:
Num 23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.
Num 23:12 And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD has put in my mouth?
But Balaam in his heart truly WANTED the money Balak would give him if he could figure out a way to curse God's people. As a result, Balaam found a way.. it was through making the people sin against God. Once they did that, then Balak and his companions could come in and kill them freely and Baalam would get all the monetary reward he was so coveting. So Baalam advised Balak to send prostitutes to the people of God and make them commit sexual sins against God. The way they were cursed and lost the war because GOD became angry with them and would not grant them victory. The people committed whoredom (adultery, fornication, sodomy, etc) and turned to other Gods. Then God was angry and they lost.
Num 25:1 And Israel stayed in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Num 25:2 And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Num 25:3 And Israel joined himself to Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel...
So these accusations in Great Britain (and the US) are a spiritual attack to try and get God to let the enemy win. The more unrighteous America is.. the more evil will be allowed by the enemy to attack her.. and her troops abroad. That is why the MSM attacks and brings out any indiscretion in the government, in the military. It isn't freedom of the press.. it is a spiritual attack. The spiritual enemy behind them is seeking ground to attack and kill.. which must first come from the spiritual. Spiritually the tactic is to tempt these people into these corrupt behaviors.. then expose them to get ground for further attack against the entire people (and their defenders, the troops). The more evil the attacks, the more demonic the things said against the US, if it has any merit.. we pay a price for it in the spiritual, then the physical.
Those nutcases who say God did 911 because of sodomy have a half-truth. The sodomy was undoubtedly part of what opened up the spiritual realm to allow the attack which happened on 911. Sodomy/homosexuality was not the only sin before God of the US which He considered in removing His hand of protection from those three thousand souls (and it is God who calls Sodomy a sin, not I - if you don't like it and think God is "unenlightened" then take it up with Him. I doubt your wisdom will prevail against His.) The Lord had ample provocation to allow 911 due to the many sins of the nation, but more than that, in His love, He also knew He must make America act before Saddam got his nukes and WMD. Again, Saddam was discussing in those ABC tapes using WMD against Washington, and also he was less than a year away from a getting a nuke. Remember?
QUOTE:
As The New York Times confirmed in their issue November 3, 2006, Saddam had complete plans for a nuclear weapon and was in the process of procuring parts when the US removed him. Quote: "nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away." [61]
Additionally, tapes with Saddam speaking on them also surfaced and certain sinister remarks Saddam made on the tapes were translated which showed that he threatened to use WMD on Washington, DC. In the article , "Saddam Translator: ABC Reinterpreted Tapes" dated Feb. 17th 2006, the FBI translator who supplied the 12 hours of Saddam Hussein audiotapes excerpted by ABC's "Nightline" says the network discarded his translations and went with a less threatening version of the Iraqi dictator's comments. In the "Nightline" version of the 1996 recording, Saddam predicts that Washington, D.C., would be hit by terrorists. But he adds that Iraq would have nothing to do with the attack. Tierney says, however, that what Saddam actually said was much more sinister. "He was discussing his intent to use chemical weapons against the United States and use proxies so it could not be traced back to Iraq," he told Hannity. In a passage not used by "Nightline," Tierney says Saddam declares: "Terrorism is coming. ... In the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction. What if we consider this technique, with smuggling?" [62]
God knew this and both the sins of America (which opened the spiritual realm to attack) and the concern and love of God for America that she must deal with this before a greater catastrophe befell her - both played a part in His Sovereign decision to allow 911. Nations are judged by God as nations, not individually, often. This was one of those "national security" issues which caused Him to judge on the larger issues concerning 911, for the nation. He was on His throne that day. He never does not see or care. Sometimes, though.. His viewpoint differs from our own.. for our ultimate good. Those who say the Iraq war was a mistake are themselves greatly mistaken. They miss spiritual realities. They simply do not understand nor see what God was doing in the nation on 911, or the necessity of the response.
It should be considered that the reason people turn to God during a time of war (as Britain did when it was being bombed by Germany) is because God will then close the spirit realm and that ends the physical attacks (and deaths). This happened when, due to the prayers (and repentance) in England, Hitler was stopped from doing what he wished to do in answer to their prayers - and, as a nation, they thanked Him for it, historically. To remain protected, we must not provoke God, and we must pray. The nation of America or Britain, must not provoke God, because if any of mankind moves out from under the protective hand of God, then evil happens to them.
911 was permitted by God, it was not a direct act of God.. just as the attacks on Job were permitted by God - and the outcome was intended for a higher purpose, for America's good. God could not have removed His hand of protection if the country of America had been righteous before Him. 911 would not have happened if there was not an opening in the spiritual realm through sin. The accusations (drunkenness, polygamy, lawlessness) are only hopes for ground against Americans in order to kill them and the homeland by the Islamofascist terrorists. Let us work to help it remain that way.. only false accusations, without substance. Or the country will pay for it.
In light of the above figures quoted..
I don't think the Iraqis have been "devastated".
Indeed, they are better off in a lot of ways than before under Saddam.
And there are a lot less terrorists in the world to murder innocents.
Such as this one who was providing bomb parts and rockets..
to target civilians (men, women and children) and the troops alike.
===
Suspected al-Qaida leader killed in Iraq
Published: Sept. 3, 2008
BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. military officials say coalition troops Wednesday killed an al-Qaida leader suspected of providing bomb parts and rockets to militants in Iraq.
The coalition troops targeted several homes in Tikrit, killing the suspected al-Qaida leader and arresting seven people allegedly linked to a bomb-making cell, CNN reported.
A weapons cache was reportedly found outside one house and other weapons were found on those arrested, CNN reported.
Senior al Qaeda operative killed in Somalia
By Bill Roggio
September 1, 2008
Al Qaeda has reported one of its senior operatives in eastern Africa was killed during fighting in Somalia more than one year ago. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior al Qaeda operative in eastern Africa, announced the death of Abu Talha al Sudani while discussing the May 1 airstrike that killed Aden Hashi Ayro, the leader of Shabab in Somalia.
The disclosure was made in a tape released last night on jihadi Internet forums. It is unclear if Sudani was killed while the fighting against the Ethiopian Army or in a US airstrike. The US military targeted both Sudani and Nabhan in an airstrike in early January 2007. Several other US airstrikes have targeted senior al Qaeda and Islamic Courts leaders over the past 20 months.
The one virtue of having the media spin her as dangerously unqualified, of course, is that it leaves McCain wide open for ads like this, treating Barry to a little vicarious ridicule for his absurdly thin record. Something like 70 percent of voters say the VP candidates won’t affect their votes in November; if Palin is deemed too green to be trusted but some of that rubs off on Obama in the process, it may well be a worthy trade.
Islamabad, 2 Sept. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, narrowly escaped capture during a raid in the tribal region of Mohmand, near the Afghan border, Pakistan's top security official told journalists in Islamabad.
The head of Pakistan's security, Rahman Malik, claimed his men came within a whisker of arresting al-Zawahiri (photo). But the the mountainous terrain with its rabbit's warren of narrow mountain paths had enabled al-Zawahiri to slip away, he said.
Dawn quoted Pakistani officials as saying on Monday their forces had killed some 560 Pakistani and foreign fighters in the northwestern Bajur tribal area on the Afghan border.
Hi, all, just checking in, on our holiday to Mexico. (isn't internet great? you can check in from Mexico or Iraq.) Good news on Iraq lately. Caught a story on the tube, at the hotel yesterday, on Iraqi Airlines spending billions on new aeroplanes and an terminal. Looks good for Iraqi future.
Great story on the light sticks, Roger. Stay safe.
The reason for the Palin bashing in the media
September 3, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
The selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has apparently deranged the mainstream media. They’ve reported that she belonged to a secessionist party for a while, but she’s been a lifelong Republican. They’ve reported that GOP convention attendees have started talking about an “Eagleton option” for her withdrawal, when the only people I’ve heard discuss it at the Xcel are the media themselves, and Palin remains wildly popular with the Republicans. What in the world has pushed the mainstream media into this kind of insanity?
The Wall Street Journal has a good analysis — fear:
QUOTE:
Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain’s veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac. …
They want a VP to be a kind of parliamentary choice, someone they have already vetted, someone who’s made them laugh with insider jokes at the Gridiron dinner. The Beltway class whines constantly about how it wants fresh voices in politics, but we guess this means a first-term Democratic Senator rather than a first-term Republican Governor from some godforsaken U.S. state few of them have ever been to.
We are instructed that Mrs. Palin isn’t qualified, because she lacks Washington experience. But until recently that was said to be a virtue in Mr. Obama, who is at the top of his ticket. Meanwhile, there’s hardly a peep of media notice that the Obama campaign is preposterously trying to remake Joe Biden into a poor scrapper from Scranton when he’s been in the Senate for 36 years. They all know Joe. But when Mr. McCain picks an authentic middle-class mother who is also a Governor, we are told she’s not up to the job.
==end of quote==
The WSJ editorial hits close to home here. The outrage from the media over choosing a first-term governor seems oddly out of place for a media that has spent the last 20 months fawning over not one but two first-term Senators running for the Democratic nomination, or at least fawning over the second until his extramarital affair finally broke into the open. The third had just been elected to her second term in the Senate. Yet none of the media seemed all that exercised about a lack of experience during 2007 and 2008.
In fact, the Democratic frontrunners all had less time in elective office than Sarah Palin. Democrats seem to forget that they nominated John Edwards as VP in 2004 after only three years in public office at all, most of it spent — like Barack Obama — running for President. Where were E.J. Dionne, Sally Quinn, Eleanor Clift, and the rest of the commentariat when John Kerry made that pick? They were too busy singing hosannas to the Democratic ticket to worry about experience then, it seems.
What had Edwards ever done that indicated he should be a heartbeat away from the Presidency? At least Sarah Palin has executive experience, which most people will understand as more applicable to the Presidency than a year of legislative experience. She has worked with a legislature, run an executive branch of government, and managed to do it successfully enough to have approval ratings in the 80s.
The outrage has little to do with experience, and almost everything to do with being outfoxed by McCain. The media expected a staid, boring, safe white man that they could pigeonhole. Instead, they got a dynamic, successful, smart conservative “hockey mom” with a record of reform that Barack Obama cannot match and that is the antithesis of Joe Biden. They got knocked out of their lane, and now they have to figure out how to explain how they could possibly have overlooked Palin in their calculations. Presto! They overlooked her because she’s so inexperienced!
Forget the Eagleton option, people. That’s an option to salvage credibility for pundits who failed at political analysis. Palin’s not going anywhere, and her presence will continue to reveal the hypocrisy of these commentators.
Personally, I don't think the Sarah Palin pick is the make or break factor in the election. I believe it comes down to who is running for President, not the VP or their private life (family, dog, grandchildren, pregnancies of children, spouse, ability to fish, load a gun or degut a moose, etc.) though those things are entertaining and interesting facts which help you understand a bit about a person, they don't count for a lot in assessing a person for the office we are seeking to have filled. It is like going for a job interview and having them ask you if your teenaged daughter is pregnant or your spouse has ever said anything nasty about America.. exactly how does that fit into your job interview? Who exactly is trying out for the job.. your teenaged daughter or spouse.. or you? What is supposed to be the primary consideration?
After praying about it, I believe that McCain won't die in office in the next four years, so it isn't a concern to me as to who his VP is, so long as they have a good conservative stance, and Palin does. The star of the show running the matter will be McCain and his judgement, not Palin. If the country were to elect Obama, the disastrous inward policies he would institute would be so lop-sided and near-sighted that a terrorist attack would almost be a cakewalk. The ability to deal with threats - foreign and domestic - is McCain's forte and that is what we need in that office. (You have to be living first to enjoy the worries about future health care, retirement or drug benefits for seniors, etc.)
I see Palin's nomination not as a big boost in the end, but not a negative, either. In the end, as I posted earlier today, about 70% say VP choice doesn't make a whif of difference to their vote and I believe it is McCain versus Obama which will decide who is voted into the Whitehouse, not Biden or Palin. This current assassination of character attempt is just a distraction and is due to the Palin pick being such a shock and the MSM not knowing if it will make any difference and worrying that it will. In the end, it won't be the main event, but will be relegated to its proper place of only being a sideshow... one with neither negative nor positive consequence. Personally, I am waiting for the hype to die down and get back to normality. This stormy event, like Gustav, will blow over with very little impact on the mainland (Presidential race). Obama will try.. and lose.. fair and square - to McCain, not Palin.
It's not going to be the Palin Administration any more than it is the Cheney Administration. The responsibility for the Administration is going to be McCain's. Though with more inter-party cooperation than the current Administration because, ultimately, McCain is one of them, a Democrat. McCain's ability to reach across the aisle is due in large part to being able to reach out to what concerns Democrats and address their concerns. So that is the real factor, above the Palin choice which McCain just made, which will help solidify his base and bring enough votes to McCain's side to make him President. It will also be the way his Administration will be run.. taking into account Democrat concerns. This should unite America and make cooperation between the camps possible on many issues, as McCain has just shown that he can compromise in a way everyone finds acceptable.
==
Fiorina presser: Democrats for McCain
September 2, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
Earlier today, I attended a press conference held by Carly Fiorina to introduce the Citizens for McCain Coalition, a group of Democrats and independents who plan to vote for John McCain in November. Six prominent Democrats joined Fiorina for the conference, including a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, two elected Democrats, and a former Clinton-era ambassador to OPEC. One by one, they explained how the campaign of Barack Obama disillusioned them and drove them to support McCain.
- Ambassador Mark Erwin
- John Coale, former fundraiser for both Clintons
- Silver Salazar, Hispanic community leader in Colorado
- Brian Golden, former state representative from Boston and an Iraq War veteran
- Jennifer Lee, a Hillary Clinton campaign worker from California
- Cynthia Ruccia, women’s rights activist and former Congressional candidate from Ohio.
This was an interesting concept, and it certainly could help the McCain campaign with centrists and independents, but the reasons these people have crossed the aisle won’t necessarily thrilll the base. Most of them talked about the untested nature of Barack Obama, and how unhappy Coale, Lee, and Ruccia were specifically about the sexism of the Obama campaign and the Democrats in general.
While those topics won’t give the base any problems at all, the rest of the reasons might. Most of them praised McCain’s moderation, and one or two specifically mentioned immigration as a reason. On the other hand, Ambassador Erwin gave a great response to my question at the end about foreign policy and how Obama is hopelessly naive. It’ll make a great soundbite.
I’ll have all of the video posted as soon as I can find a reliable Internet connection to do the upload. It may be later this evening, as the wireless has suddenly started grinding to a halt.
timbitts - Have a wonderful time off.. and do check in once in a while.. we miss you when you don't post.
Rob N.. you on vacation, too?
I miss your posts which keep us all so very well informed.
Are you wearying of the Dinar investment?
I know today looked like a red letter day for RV.. but it hasn't yet come true.
Perhaps you have been wrapped up in that rumor, too?
Whatever it is, let me know if you need me to post more Iraqi news in your stead.
I read it all, I just don't post it, leaving that up to you to do.. you do a great job of it. :)
roger thats an amazing story plucks at the old hart strings realy nice to here best of luck.allso on a good note.IMF Executive Board Completes First Review of Iraq's Stand-By Arrangement
Press Release No. 08/199
September 3, 2008
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed today the first review of Iraq's Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), which is designed to support the country's economic program through March 2009. The Board also completed a financing assurances review under the SBA. The SDR 475.36 million (about US$746.3 million) arrangement was approved in December 2007. It is being treated as precautionary by the authorities (see Press Release No. 07/301), and no purchase is planned.http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2008/pr08199.htm
As part of the completion of the first review, the Board also approved Iraq's request for a waiver of an end-June 2008 quantitative performance criterion on the government wage and pension bill.
Following the Executive Board's discussion of Iraq's economic performance, Mr. Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:
"After several very difficult years, economic prospects for Iraq are improving and the authorities are persevering with the implementation of their economic program in 2008. With the recent improvement in security, oil production and exports are increasing while inflation has been reduced. The strengthened fiscal and external positions offer Iraq a good opportunity to rebuild its institutions and infrastructure in order to achieve sustained higher economic growth. The success of these endeavors will hinge on continued improvements in security, sound management of oil revenues, and implementation of key structural reforms.
"To accelerate economic reconstruction and meet other pressing needs, the supplementary budget for 2008 provides for a sizable spending increase. The additional investment, following several years of public underinvestment, is welcome but will require vigilance to ensure that the quality of public investment is maintained. A civil service salary increase will be phased in over 2008 and 2009 in order to avoid overheating the economy. To keep inflation under control, the Central Bank of Iraq will tighten its monetary policy stance, notably by increasing the pace of appreciation of the dinar and by keeping its policy interest rate positive in real terms.
"Some fuel prices were increased in mid-2008, and the government intends to raise other fuel prices early next year to reduce still-sizable indirect fuel subsidies. The Fund stands ready to assist the authorities in developing an appropriate adjustment mechanism for setting domestic fuel prices.
"It will be important to step up the pace of structural reform. Of particular urgency are the early adoption of a comprehensive reform plan for modernizing public financial management, the finalization of the census of public service employees to eliminate ghost workers, and the streamlining of the in-kind Public Distribution System. In the financial sector, restructuring programs for two major commercial banks based on the completed financial and operational audits should be taken forward, and the set of prudential regulations for commercial banks completed. Establishment of a new legislative framework for the hydrocarbon sector will facilitate investments in the sector.
"Progress has been made in strengthening governance and fighting corruption in the hydrocarbon sector, through oil-metering and Iraq's participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. An extension of the metering system to all oil sector activities will further strengthen transparency in the sector.
"The central bank intends to continue to implement the recommendations of the IMF's Safeguards Assessment Report and the external audit report of its 2007 financial statements. The adoption of reserves management guidelines is an important step in this regard.
"The authorities are making commendable efforts to conclude debt agreements with official non-Paris Club and private creditors that have not yet provided debt relief to Iraq," Mr. Kato said.
Thank you for you're kind words. Yes, I have been on vacation in St. Louis, Missouri. I saw some family members and lurked around some old stomping grounds. I also have been involved in watching both the democratic and republican conventions.
No weariness on my part with this investment. Concerning any rumor considering a revaluation or reversion I think this will be the best remedy for Iraq. The rumors of a lop is simply to curb further speculation. In my mind, we are coming to an end to this investment. Iraq is stronger and more prosperous than under Sadam Hussein. It is now imperative that the Iraqi Parliment come together to pass the HCL. The passing of this law will open the flood gates of foreign investment. With the projected cash in reserves and the monetization of oil I think we can expect a revaluation or reversion of the dinar to the "real rate" of $1.20 to the dollar.
Thank you for your post. The first hand account on the ground is greatly appreciated. As I previously posted, I was in St. Louis, my brother is configurating a Hydrogen cell. I thought you might be interested. Stay safe.
As the media has shifted its attention to the presidential primaries, Iraq has fallen out of the headlines, just as things long last have started to go right. While the media begrudgingly admits the success of the U.S. military "surge," Iraq's "other surge" -- the remarkable turnaround in its economy -- has been all but ignored. That shouldn't come as a surprise: media types know that good news doesn't sell.
As gratifying as the recent fall in violence in Iraq has been, the mother of all surprises is just how well Iraq's economy is doing. Indeed, the turnaround in the Iraqi economy would make the biggest China Bull blush. At the turn of the millennium, Iraqi GDP stood at $12.3 billion. Seven years later -- the U.S. invasion and civil wars notwithstanding -- Iraq's GDP had more than quadrupled, reaching $55.4 billion. Real GDP growth soared 17% in 2006 alone. Thanks to an IMF-led policy package that included exchange-rate appreciation, monetary tightening, and fiscal discipline, inflation, which had spiked to 65% at the end of 2006, plummeted to 5% by 2007.
Evidence of entrepreneurial activity abounds. The number of businesses registered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is up fivefold during the last three years. Twelve million Iraqis now have cell phones, putting penetration rates close to 50% -- on par with other countries at Iraq's level of economic development. Financial markets have picked up on the good news. Iraq's long-dated, dollar-denominated debt has been a safe haven during the worldwide credit crisis, soaring almost 20% in the first six months after the subprime meltdown hit the headlines last August. The Iraqi currency, the dinar, soared 10% against the dollar in 2007, and the Baghdad Stock Exchange jumped almost 40%, even as global stock markets crumbled. In a sign that it had arrived into the modern world, the Baghdad stock exchange even switched to electronic trading in March of this year.
Betting on Iraq: Economic Tiger in the Making?
Oil output now is back up to pre-war levels. Thanks to that and the surging oil price, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that Iraq may earn up to $79 billion in oil sales this year. That's twice the average annual amount generated from 2005 through 2007. It would also make Iraq one of the few countries in economic history where the fiscal revenues are larger than the economy itself. The GAO estimates that the Iraqi government spent only about 1% of its budget on maintaining critical infrastructure projects and only $1.04 billion during the first six months of 2008 to increase oil production. Iraq has so much money in its coffers that it can't spend it fast enough on infrastructure, electricity, water and sanitation, education, and healthcare.
With the Iraqi government having more cash on hand since the first Gulf war of 1991, U.S. congressional committees no longer are hauling administration officials to chide them for the chaos in Iraq. Instead, they are asking why U.S. taxpayers still are footing virtually the entire bill for Iraqi reconstruction while Iraq has amassed huge budget surpluses.
Betting on Iraq: Why Iraq Will Prosper
Iraq also has had a lot of help from foreign governments. The day U.S. troops marched into Baghdad, Iraq's foreign debt approached $125 billion. Last year, the Paris Club -- an organization of 19 developed economies -- agreed to forgive 80% of the $43 billion in debt that Iraq owed to it. Recently, Iraq's more parsimonious and largely Arab neighbors agreed to write off $30 billion of the estimated $60 billion-plus owed to them. The write offs should reduce Iraq's debt to $36 billion by 2012 -- a manageable 30% of GDP. But relentless naysayers notwithstanding, at least Iraq has set out on the right path.
Developed countries' largesse notwithstanding, much like oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia or Norway, Iraq's future prospects are intimately tied to its oil wealth. After all, between 2005 and 2007, oil exports provided 94% of the Iraqi government's revenues. And that won't change anytime soon.
Recent estimates show that Iraq holds more than 116 billion barrels of oil -- giving it the world's second-largest proven reserves after Saudi Arabia. Iraq also contains 110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. But it's Iraq's future prospects that are the most eye-catching. Up to 90% of Iraq remains unexplored and the latest estimates show that the country could yield an additional 100 billion barrels of oil. Only about 2,000 wells have been drilled in Iraq. That compares with one million wells in Texas alone. Methods such as horizontal drilling have yet to be deployed in Iraq. And unlike more complex offshore developments in countries such as Brazil, production costs in Iraq are less than $2 a barrel. Iraq's government has estimated that it would need $20 billion to $25 billion of investment -- amounts it already has in the government till -- to increase production from its current rate of 2.54 million barrels a day to four million barrels per day in about five years. That would put Iraq in the top five oil-producing countries in the world.
That's not to say Iraq's future prosperity is assured. Iraq needs oil drilling expertise as much as it needs money. And the appropriate legal frameworks have to be put in place for Iraq's oil industry to attract the foreign investors with relevant technical expertise. Iraq stands at a crossroads: it could end up as the next Saudi Arabia -- or Hugo Chavez's poverty-ridden Venezuela. The roadmap is clear. Many other countries around the world -- from Central and Eastern Europe to former Latin American dictatorships -- have gotten their economic acts together, and without the benefit of record oil reserves. Iraq's road to prosperity will be a bumpy one. But relentless naysayers notwithstanding, at least Iraq has set out on the right path.
Rob N - Thanks for the reply, and I hope you have a wonderful break. I also see no reason for those "powers that be" which are involved in the Dinar not to Revalue it to a more realistic value very soon. And $1.20 is possible and not improbable, particularly in light of improved security and the reserves of oil. I am hopeful things will work out soon concerning the Dinar as well.
Take Care and God Bless,
Extradition increase staff salaries in the form of payments due to objection IMF to increase
Finance Minister told (light): strive to be better salary Iraqi employee's salary in the Arab region
BAGHDAD / light / immortality Ziyadi
BUDGET financial And the intervention of the IMF in making fiscal policy for Iraq... The increase in the salaries of state employees and their implications for the high level of inflation in the country ... The rumors about stopping the increase in salaries and allowances career, and doors exchange supplementary budget approved by the Iraqi parliament recently, questions posed (Noor) on the table and Finance Minister Baqir Jabr Al-Zubaidi in a dialogue did not prejudice the openness and clarification of what goes on in the minds wondering ..
Noor : Mr. Minister, many conversations revolve around the theme salary increases Staff, as witnessed by this increase, to be delivered to the postponement of staff per month?
Minister: increase approved by the cabinet on staff salaries are fixed in the House of Representatives and the Ministry of Finance but there is talk about postponing increases agreement with the International Monetary Fund to be delivered at once for three months in July, September and a father acknowledges before the day of Eid al-Fitr staff once and defer differences 1/1/2009 to pay for the last three months of this year, the Assembly also recognizes the one-time increases and thus give a monthly basis during the coming year 2009.
And postponements in delivery due to reasons related to the remaining debt on Iraq, and we had contacts with the International Monetary Fund to get rid of the remaining $ 30 million of debt has not been put out and there is an obstacle to him, and unfortunately there is no officials of the state to have a sense of national sincere, whether official or minister or staff I would not care about the IMF and the "go to hell" but the Iraqi citizens need to clarify the fate of the increase was added to his salary and to receive all the increases without cutting one cent, But the IMF is not satisfied with the increase Officials at the IMF that such an increase, otherwise the agreement would cause liquidity in the Iraqi street will lead to inflation which affects the lives of citizens and promised violation committed by the Ministry of Finance with the IMF which is otherwise agreed with the Minister of Finance, so we had two hours of arduous negotiations with them We have asked help extinguish debt amounting to 140 billion dollars and already has been fighting for 80% of the debt-for retaining commitment to the Convention, which contains the fight against inflation and rising prices of oil derivatives to meet smuggled into other countries and Iraq benefited from 6 billion dollars due to rising oil derivatives from 20 dinars to 400 dinars.
We agreed with the IMF to find a solution to the inflation that occurred due to an increase in staff salaries, but they insisted on installing for the irregularities SBA SBA As they say You are on the site of this agreement and must be committed not to lift inflation and succeeded in fighting inflation from 66% to 14% increase in salaries and denounce this agreement belief The talk between the sovereign decision and we talk and no solution amid $ 4 million one-time staff decided the amount and payment of retail The first six months and three months before the second instalment of Eid al-Fitr and another batch will be delivered to staff before the Eid Al-Adha for three months later.
Light: Does this mean that the IMF real participant in the formulation of the country's fiscal policy?
Minister: certainly have contributed to fund debt reduction that still surround Iraq and have owed money and economy experts working for the interest of Iraq.
Light: You had earlier that the investment industry will have priority in this year's budget allocation of 10.5 billion dollars from the budget for this vital sector for the promotion of economic reality, how was tabulated this budget amounting to 70 billion dollars invested in the Iraqi economy?
Minister: 70 billion a substantial amount already set aside 6 billion dollars from the ration card and a quarter billion and one billion for social protection network improvements that have occurred through support other non-visual such as the allocation of 200 million dollars for displaced and 250 billion dinars to the returnees and 3 billion dollars for the provinces and salaries of employees and retirees of all these disposal of the budget, as well as allocation of relatives 3 billion dollars to the ministry of electricity and oil-like 3 billion dollars as well, The same with the other ministries.
Light: Can you identify the weaknesses lie in the political and financial plan for the country?
Minister: I do not think there is a state has suffered economically size of mass destruction, which happened in Iraq and when I was minister We reconstruction through economic study that Iraq needs to be 400 billion dollars for rebuilding and reconstruction, especially roads, bridges, rail and others, this is only the size of investment funds, not salaries as the financial allocate 40% of staff salaries and 20% are distributed to ministries and provinces, then the share of a few provinces For example, "Basra received 376 million dollars while they need to be 30 billion for infrastructure, especially since they did not receive more than 25 years the reconstruction of the infrastructure of water networks, bridges and sewerage. As for the ministries it works well and distinguished officials promised during the next five years will be better salary Iraqi employee's salary in the region and has developed a strategic plan for the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, but the implementation capacity is weak, when he visits provinces find the weak performance of the conservatives, but not because of the lack of Ability or experience weakness in the construction, reconstruction and the difference can be seen in the proportions of project implementation and completion between 2003 and 2007, in the execution rate in 2003 increased 34% in 2007 to 63% .. 63% ..
Noor: How supplementary budget will be spent this year?
Minister: supplementary budget will be spent through The allocation of 3 billion to increase salaries, including 200 million to support farmers and a network of social protection and a half billion and one billion to electricity and the Ministry of Industry and municipalities as well as the necessary needs of the country.
Light: reduced taxes and insurance companies parked only you can see that the activities of weak financial circles?
Minister: already been reduced taxes on Iraqi citizens having seen oil revenues rise by up to 90% of Iraq's budget and finance a large $ 70 billion therefore been reduced level of taxes to ease burden on the citizen, while insurance companies are currently stalled "This subject is important and I believe that insurance will see Steps and developed significantly in the coming years.
IMF Executive Board completes first review of Iraq's stand-by arrangement
Press Release No. 08/199
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed today the first review of Iraq's Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), which is designed to support the country's economic program through March 2009. The Board also completed a financing assurances review under the SBA. The SDR 475.36 million (about US$746.3 million) arrangement was approved in December 2007. It is being treated as precautionary by the authorities (see Press Release No. 07/301), and no purchase is planned.
As part of the completion of the first review, the Board also approved Iraq's request for a waiver of an end-June 2008 quantitative performance criterion on the government wage and pension bill.
Following the Executive Board's discussion of Iraq's economic performance, Mr. Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:
"After several very difficult years, economic prospects for Iraq are improving and the authorities are persevering with the implementation of their economic program in 2008. With the recent improvement in security, oil production and exports are increasing while inflation has been reduced. The strengthened fiscal and external positions offer Iraq a good opportunity to rebuild its institutions and infrastructure in order to achieve sustained higher economic growth. The success of these endeavors will hinge on continued improvements in security, sound management of oil revenues, and implementation of key structural reforms.
"To accelerate economic reconstruction and meet other pressing needs, the supplementary budget for 2008 provides for a sizable spending increase. The additional investment, following several years of public underinvestment, is welcome but will require vigilance to ensure that the quality of public investment is maintained. A civil service salary increase will be phased in over 2008 and 2009 in order to avoid overheating the economy. To keep inflation under control, the Central Bank of Iraq will tighten its monetary policy stance, notably by increasing the pace of appreciation of the dinar and by keeping its policy interest rate positive in real terms.
"Some fuel prices were increased in mid-2008, and the government intends to raise other fuel prices early next year to reduce still-sizable indirect fuel subsidies. The Fund stands ready to assist the authorities in developing an appropriate adjustment mechanism for setting domestic fuel prices.
"It will be important to step up the pace of structural reform. Of particular urgency are the early adoption of a comprehensive reform plan for modernizing public financial management, the finalization of the census of public service employees to eliminate ghost workers, and the streamlining of the in-kind Public Distribution System. In the financial sector, restructuring programs for two major commercial banks based on the completed financial and operational audits should be taken forward, and the set of prudential regulations for commercial banks completed. Establishment of a new legislative framework for the hydrocarbon sector will facilitate investments in the sector.
"Progress has been made in strengthening governance and fighting corruption in the hydrocarbon sector, through oil-metering and Iraq's participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. An extension of the metering system to all oil sector activities will further strengthen transparency in the sector.
"The central bank intends to continue to implement the recommendations of the IMF's Safeguards Assessment Report and the external audit report of its 2007 financial statements. The adoption of reserves management guidelines is an important step in this regard.
"The authorities are making commendable efforts to conclude debt agreements with official non-Paris Club and private creditors that have not yet provided debt relief to Iraq," Mr. Kato said.
IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Public Affairs
Phone: 202-623-7300
Fax: 202-623-6278
Media Relations
Phone: 202-623-7100
Fax: 202-623-6772
(www.reliefweb.int)
The 3-billion-US dollar deal was sealed 10 years ago, but was suspended since the invasion of the U.S. army into Iraq in 2003. The Iraqi government and CNPC recently renegotiated the deal and changed the contract to a set-fee service deal from the oil production sharing agreement signed under Saddam Hussein regime.
(www.noozz.com)
Baghdad, 04 September 2008 (Gulf News)
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The Iraqi government will continue its crackdown on the Sunni Awakening forces in the country and will not protect its leaders, Hadi Al Ameri, the head of the security and defence commission of the Shiite coalition in parliament, told Gulf News.
Al Ameri said an agreement with the US to combat Al Qaida focuses on three issues.
Firstly, the Iraqi government plans to merge 15 per cent of the members of the Sunni Awakening into the Iraqi armed forces as individuals and not as part of a larger group.
These men will hold low-ranked positions as foot soldiers or police officers.
Secondly, they will not deal with any members accused of criminal activities.
Finally, they will not deal with any members who have refused to co-operate with the Iraqi government in the past.
Some political parties have discussed merging 100,00 members of the group into the Iraqi forces, but the government insists that only the 15 per cent will be incorporated. The Sunni Islamic Party, led by Tarek Al Hashemi, has urged the merger of at least half of the members of the Awakening's forces into the army and police.
There are at least 100,000 members of the group in Baghdad, 40,000 in Al Anbar, 30,000 in the Diyala province and several thousand in Babil and Salah Al Deen provinces, Omar Abdul Sattar, a prominent leader of the Islamic Party, told Gulf News.
"The Iraqi government must merge at least half of this number into the Iraqi forces as a reward for fighting Al Qaida and improving security in Iraqi cities," he said.
Moqtada Al Sadr's followers are against merging any of the group's members into the army.
"We were wary from the beginning in dealing with the members of the Sunni Awakening because we believe that its establishment was based on a US agenda," Salah Obaidi , one of the assistants of Al Sadr, told Gulf News. "However, we appreciate their role in fighting Al Qaida and because of this, we have not confronted the Awakening forces," he added.
Fears
There are some fears that the Awakening will become a state within a state if they are allowed to merge. The group has always tried to be independent from the Iraqi government, and most members have not accepted the authority of the central government, Obaidi explained. He warns that if the group is allowed to merge, it could lead to a military coup.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
04 September 2008 (Azzaman)
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Iran is pressuring Iraqi authorities to exclude U.S. oil majors from contracts to develop the country’s massive oil fields, sources at the Oil Ministry said.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the authorities currently favor Chinese and Russian companies to those of the United States.
Their remarks come following a contract the ministry signed last month with China’s state-owned oil firm CNPC.
The $3bn oil services contract is a renegotiated deal of the Ahdad oilfield which CNPC had agreed to develop in 1977.
China is the first country to win such a contract since the 2003 U.S. invasion of the country.
Russia had also signed a deal in 1977 to develop West of Qurna, one of Iraq’s largest fields with reserves estimated at billions of barrels.
It is not clear how much influence Iran had in persuading the government to renegotiate CNPC’s 1997 contract.
The Ministry of Oil and other key portfolios such the Ministry of Interior and Finance are in the hands of pro-Iran Shiite factions.
Analysts say it is difficult today for any major development, whether economic or political, to take place in Iraq without Iranian consent.
Iran has emerged as the country’s top trading partner. Its firms are present in the Kurdish north and southern Iraq carrying out projects worth billions of dollars.
Iranian goods are the most conspicuous merchandise in Iraqi shops.
Iraq, though occupied and administered by America, has grown to be so pendent on Iran that some analysts see it as a satellite state of Tehran.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
04 September 2008 (Iraq Directory)
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Iraqi sotck Market has achieved through the dealings that took place during the three sessions of this week, a total volume of trading amounted to 3.96 billion dinars (3.3 million), as this week witnessed a circulation on the stock exceeded 2,554 billion shares, and the banking sector formed the most voluminous circulation among other sectors , a rate exceeded the 90%.
Al Khair company for financial investment, has ranked the first in the higher list of shares during the dealings of the week, a rate 11.111, and returned to the previous rate of price after one session of decline. Baghdad Hotel, has recorded high rate of 5,556 for up to nine dinars and 500 fils after it was Nine dinars, the Iraqi Commercial Bank has achieved a rise of up to 4,167 , to be one dinar 250 fils while it was one dinar and two hundred fils.
About the most dropping companies in market transactions, it was Al Badya company for public transport with rate -15,493 per share price to fall from three dinars and 550 fils to the only three dinars, and Al Khair company for financial investment , was Secondly decline of - 10,000 to hit the share price to 450 fils after it was 500 fils per share, and finally Commercial Bank, which fell by share price – at rate of 6,452 to be one dinar and 450 fils after it was one dinar and 550 fils.
The foreign investors had achieved in the market transactions during the week, trading volume exceeded 703 million dinars (585 thousand dollars), the number of shares exceeded 468 million shares, most of them to banking sector.
There were three special orders in the market to the banks of Kurdistan, Ashur and Al Warka'a, the volume of circulation amounted to 1,365 billion dinars (1.14 million dollars) and the number of shares of 830 million shares.
Last week meetings witnessed a circulation closure of two companies shares, they were National company for investments in tourism, which was founded in 1978 with capital was of 40 million dinars to reach 1,900 billion dinars (1.5 million dollars) in late 2007, and the other was Kurdistan Bank Company, which was founded the year 2005 with capital of 50 billion dinars (41.6 Million dollars), where their public councils will be held on 31/8/2008 to discuss the final accounts in 2007 and divided the profits.
Also it has been dealing in stocks of eight companies after the administrative councils meetings, six of them did not change anything in their financial position ,which they are The Iraqi company for the Meat Production and Marketing, and Al Ameen Company for Financial Investment , and Baghdad Company shares of packaging materials and ready-made dresses, besides Karbala and Al-Sudairy Hotels.
With two companies had changed the financial position, the Iraqi company for transport of petroleum products, endorsed after its general council meeting which was held on 24/8/2008 to distribute cash dividends rate of 32% of the company's capital, which was founded in 1994 a capital of 500 million dinars to hit later in the year 2007 to 1500 billion dinars.
The second company was The Private Agricultural Company which held its general council a meeting on 8/6/2008 After completing the procedures of the company's capital increase (capitalization of profits) by 15% in accordance with Article (55 / II) from 500 million dinars to 575 million dinars, which was founded the year 1994 A capital of 110 million dinars to reach 500 million dinars year 2007, the company specialized in breeding and marketing of fish.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
04 September 2008 (Voices of Iraq)
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The Economic Consultant Kamal Al Basri ,called the Iraqi government to reform the banking sector, and "amputation of cancerous tumors that parked on the entity of debt", created by the past years, establishing a special body to reform the banking establishment and its first task is to build a sophisticated bank.
He explained in a study on the banking reform programme, the average capital of banks amounted to about another million dollars by the end of 2003, reflecting a very limited role for the private commercial banks in financing the private sector, and the ratio of its contribution to local production is closer to zero (0.1 percent) According to the estimation of the Central Bureau of Statistics, while this ratio equal to 27 percent in Bahrain.
He added that Al Rahseed and Rafidain governmental banks did not play any role in the private sector lending, which their loans did not exceed 8 percent of the volume of assets, and about 60 percent of the lending went to government institutions.
He pointed out that the two banks cash reserve of more than 80 percent of the total reserve, and are considered the largest Iraqi banks in assets and deposits, as the government sector owns 90 percent of banking activity, and 75 percent of the local banks. The World Bank estimates the sector's assets 2 billion dollars, and its contribution to local production equal to 8 percent, reflecting the limited role to play in mediating between savers and investors, and financing of capital accumulation, especially in the private sector.
He pointed out that the State banks are vulnerable to problems, particularly "Rafidain Bank" under the burden of external debt, (part of the Iraqi debts), hit with accrued interest by $ 23 billion, a debt greater than its capital of doubles, and 66 percent of its assets, and 50 percent of the assets of «Rasheed Bank» consisting of remittances treasury, issued by the Government to fund losses and provide subsidies for them.
He also explained that 90 percent of banking activity was allocated to finance public activity that burdened with incompetence and unemployment, and accumulated losses, while the private sector was deprived of the necessary financing of the capital accumulation.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
04 September 2008 (Dow Jones)
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Iraq is expected to earn around $63 billion from a contract it signed with a Chinese company to develop Al Ahdab oil field in central Iraq, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told reporters in Baghdad Tuesday.
The Iraqi cabinet Tuesday approved the $3 billion oil service contract with China National Petroleum Corp. to develop Al Ahdab oil field in the central Shiite province. Shahristani initially signed the deal in Beijing last week.
It isn't known yet, however, if the contract needs the approval of the country's parliament or not. Some Iraqi officials and lawmakers said that the parliament should approve such a big contract.
The minister said that a Chinese delegation would be in Baghdad this month to sign the final contract.
The signing makes China National Petroleum Corp. the first foreign oil firm to enter an agreement with the central Iraqi government to invest in the domestic oil industry since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
CNPC originally had an agreement with the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein to develop the Al Ahdab field, giving it a 23-year stake in profits.
However, CNPC couldn't implement the original contract at the time due to U.N. sanctions imposed on Saddam's Iraq between 1990 and 2003, which barred direct dealings with the country's oil industry.
Iraq has changed the terms, amending the contract from a production-sharing agreement to a set-free service deal.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
Nijeifi rules out submitting agreement to parliament soon 04/09/2008 11:50:00
Baghdad (NINA)- MP Usama al-Nijeifi of the 20-seat Iraqi National Slate ruled out submitting the intended Iraqi-US security agreement to the parliament during the next few days, "due to major differences in viewpoints.
(www.ninanews.com)
LONDON, Sept 4 (KUNA) -- General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, has said that declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer.
Asked in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) newspaper Thursday whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said "Conditions permitting, yeah".
His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines a potential timeline for US combat troops to leave Iraqi cities by next summer, and the country by 2011.
"The number of attacks in Baghdad lately has been, gosh, I think its probably less than five a day on average, and thats a city of seven million people", General Petraeus told the main business daily in Europe.
While declining to comment on the details of the security agreement, he said US combat forces had already pulled back from cities in 13 of Iraqs 18 provinces.
The sight of US soldiers exiting Baghdad would be highly symbolic given the scale of violence that gripped the city in 2006 and 2007, the paper said.
General Petraeus leaves Iraq later this month to become head of Central Command, which oversees US operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
Before his departure, the four-star General will give US President George W Bush his final recommendation for troop levels as commander in Iraq.
He will continue to help shape policy on Iraq in his new role.
Senior officers in the Pentagon have hoped conditions in Iraq would permit further reductions this autumn following the withdrawal this summer of the five "surge" combat brigades to reduce the stress on the military and free up troops for Afghanistan.
General Petraeus declined to outline his recommendation, but conceded that the recent unexpected withdrawal of 2,000 Georgian troops during the conflict with Russia had caused "some wrinkles".
"You have to look at various contingencies and make assumptions, and in some cases if you have an uncertainty, then needless to say you hedge your bets a bit", he said.
His recommendation will come during the closing stretch of the US presidential campaign in which Iraq remains a key issue.
Overall, General Petraeus said Iraq was a "dramatically changed country" from when he assumed command in February 2007.
He said attacks had plummeted from a daily rate of 180 in June 2007 to about 25 recently.
General Petraeus also welcomed the increased capability of the Iraqi security forces and the fact that 70 percent of Iraqi army battalions are now taking the lead in military operations. (end) he.bz.
KUNA 041336 Sep 08NNNN
(www.kuna.net.kw)
BAGHDAD, Sept 4 (KUNA) -- Unknown gunmen assassinated here on Thursday a senior Iraqi official at the state Transportation Ministry, local security sources said.
Sources said that a group of militants killed the director of project execution department at the Iraqi Transportation Ministry, Nabeel Al-Shuwaili, in the eastern part of Baghdad.
The armed group fired a barrage of bullets towards Al-Shuwaili car, killing him immediately. (end) mhg.sab KUNA 041321 Sep 08NNNN
(www.kuna.net.kw)
IMF: Iraq's Economic Outlook Has Improved Along With Security
Thursday September 4th, 2008
Dowjones Business News By Tom Barkley
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Iraq's economic outlook has improved thanks to more secure conditions in the war-torn country, a senior International Monetary Fund official said Wednesday.
"With the recent improvement in security, oil production and exports are increasing while inflation has been reduced," Takatoshi Kato, deputy managing director and acting chair of the IMF board, said in a release. "The strengthened fiscal and external positions offer Iraq a good opportunity to rebuild its institutions and infrastructure in order to achieve sustained higher economic growth."
Kato said continued progress will depend on continued improvement in the security situation, as well as solid oil revenue management and structural reform.
"Of particular urgency are the early adoption of a comprehensive reform plan for modernizing public financial management, the finalization of the census of public service employees to eliminate ghost workers, and the streamlining of the in-kind Public Distribution System," he said.
The fund also cited progress in reducing corruption in Iraq's oil sector, but said a new legislative framework is needed to attract investment into the sector.
Kato's comments followed the board's first review of the $744 million stand-by credit agreement announced last December, which is "precautionary" and not expected to be tapped.
Chairman Expresses Confidence U.S., Iraq Will Agree on Troop Status
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed confidence yesterday that Washington and Baghdad will reach an agreement before the year’s end on the future role of U.S. forces in Iraq.
“There’s actually great debate about this right now, and I think that’s pretty healthy,” Mullen said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has expressed the desire for Iraqi sovereignty and independence, which the United States encourages, Mullen said.
“That’s one of the things that we’ve encouraged as his burgeoning democracy comes forward,” he said.
The deadline for a United Nations mandate allowing the U.S. and Iraq to negotiate a status of forces deal is Dec. 31, after which American forces may not legally remain in Iraq without an agreement in place.
“We really need to make sure that that agreement is in place,” Mullen said. “And from my view -- while certainly it’s not done, because people are still working it -- it’s all headed in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, coalition forces handed over provincial control of Anbar province to Iraqis this week, a development that Mullen said indicates continued security improvement.
“Two years ago, not many of us would have thought that possible,” he said, referring to the handover of what formerly was one of the most violent regions of Iraq. “I’m hopeful we can move forward and continue to reduce our force levels there.”
On humanitarian relief, Mullen said the U.S. military’s flexibility enables it to intervene swiftly in the wake of natural or other disasters.
“It says a lot about what our capability is, what our flexibility is, and also our presence, our engagement around the world, because we’ve been able to respond very quickly, typically by air and by sea,” he said.
Mullen cited the U.S. relief roles following earthquakes in China and Pakistan, and a humanitarian mission after a cyclone hit Burma and a tsunami struck Indonesia.
“It’s the kind of engagement and support that has an impact not just in the disaster, but has an impact on the long-term relationships,” he said, citing the United States’ ongoing mission in Georgia as an example.
“I think it says a lot about the United States military,” Mullen said, “and a lot about the United States of America: that we care, that we are engaged in a way that has a positive impact on lives.”
I wanted to get your take on a response I posted earlier in the week to Cornishboy regarding an article posted about a lop actually being able to jump start the Iraqi economy. Will you please read those two posts and give me and the board you're opinion?
CNN Graphics Flub: McCain 'Officially Wins Democratic Nomination'
By Warner Todd Huston
September 4, 2008
As the CNN "Sky View" camera roamed the audience during the Republican Convention the screen graphic helpfully informed the viewer that McCain "Officially wins Democratic Nomination."
Psst, CNN. It's McCain wins the Republican nomination. Just tryin' to help ya out, there.
I cannot get past the announcement by those directly involved which says that a lop (if it occurs) will be currency neutral (literally "monetarily neutral"). No matter how they massage the idea of a lop into somehow increasing the value and therefore make it a "jumpstart" and of good use to the economy of Iraq - if the money people SAY it will be "monetarily neutral" if they lop, then I cannot see the point of trying to argue they are lying and it will somehow increase the value of the Dinar or kickstart the economy. The face value is all that changes. More is necessary than a face value change to make the Iraqi economy go. They need a lot more than a cosmetic change to boost the economy of Iraq. They need the money to INCREASE in value - or revalue upwards in line with the true international worth of their currency. Your view?
Video: The RNC Palin biography clip you didn’t get to see; Update: Ratings blowout — 37 million watched
September 4, 2008
by Allahpundit
What do the Nielsen ratings look like, you say? Why, For the moment, at least, with curiosity peaking, the Barracuda is an even bigger draw than The One.
They really like the moose-hunting meme, huh? Exit quotation from a former Bush official, citing panic among his lefty friends: “[T]he same reporter who first told me that ’she’d be toast by Friday’ told me after tonight’s speech that Obama must be wishing that McCcain [sic] had picked Pawlenty.”
Update: Drudge has the numbers: 38.3 million watched Obama’s speech, 37.2 million watched Palin — which is roughly 54 times the population of Alaska.
The lop talk is just that talk. I do not forsee how any lop or change in currency is beneficial to Iraq. I think it is simply a diversion to ward off more speculation. I still think that once the HCL is passed and their oil is monetized a revaluation or reversion will take place. Once it take place the Central Bank will have collected the incoming dinars to offset M2. Does this sound like a fair assessment of the situation?
By LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's top defense advisers have recommended he maintain 15 combat brigades in Iraq until the end of the year contrary to expectations that the improved security in Iraq would allow for quicker cuts, The Associated Press has learned.
Military leaders told the AP that the closely held plan would send a small Marine contingent to Afghanistan in November to replace one of two Marine units expected to head home then.
If Bush follows the recommendations, he would delay any additional buildup in Afghanistan until early next year, when another brigade would be deployed there instead of to Iraq.
That move would cut the number of brigades in Iraq to 14 in February.
The plan is aimed at taking advantage of security gains in Iraq to bolster the military effort in Afghanistan, where violence is on the rise. Several senior military and defense officials described the recommendations on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.
They also acknowledged the plan is a compromise since Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, argued to maintain the current force levels in Iraq - about 146,000 troops, including 15 combat brigades and thousands of support forces - through June.
Bush is weighing the recommendations; in the past, he has largely accepted the military's advice. If he adopts them, it would be left to the next president to execute further troop reductions in Iraq and a greater buildup in Afghanistan. Bush's term ends in January.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has advocated pulling all U.S. combat forces out of Iraqi within 16 months of taking office. GOP nominee John McCain has said he would rely on the advice of U.S. military commanders to determine the timing and pace of troop reductions. Both candidates have said more troops are needed in Afghanistan.
Obama said Thursday that the escalation of U.S. troops in Iraq, which he had opposed, has succeeded in reducing violence "beyond our wildest dreams."
But Iraq still has failed to achieve the political reconciliation and self-sufficiency that is required, he said, and he vowed to withdraw American troops and end the war.
Republicans repeatedly have accused Obama of denying the military progress being made in Iraq and of wanting to pull out when victory is within reach.
Campaigning in Pennsylvania, Obama was more effusive than usual in describing the reduction in violence that resulted largely from Bush's decision to send thousands of more troops to Iraq in 2007. But he stuck to his assertion that "the surge" has not led to the political reconciliation among quarreling factions that was its larger goal.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are to testify before Congress on Iraq on Wednesday, suggesting that Bush will have announced his next move by then. Petraeus has given widely watched updates to Congress over the past year, assessing the effect of Bush's order to increase troops. He is not scheduled to testify before he leaves his post in mid-September.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday evening that Gates and Mullen had given Bush their recommendation on troop levels on Wednesday, while also presenting the views of Petraeus and other top military leaders. Morrell provided no details on the recommendation but said it reflected agreement among the senior Pentagon leadership "after serious and lengthy discussions" about recent security gains, as well as the security threats and uncertainties that remain in Iraq.
It had been widely expected that Petraeus would recommend a faster pullback in Iraq, perhaps calling for a reduction in the number of combat brigades from 15 to 14 this fall. But several recent events may have changed the calculus.
Among the more important changes was the unanticipated decision by Georgia to bring home its contingent of about 2,000 soldiers after Russia invaded the former Soviet republic in early August.
Also arguing in favor of a smaller reduction this fall was the inability of the Iraqi government to move ahead with provincial elections in October as originally planned. No firm date for the balloting has been set, but it is generally believed that the long-anticipated elections will not happen before December.
At the same time, however, military leaders have become increasingly concerned about escalating violence in Afghanistan, and they don't want to sit idle as the winter approaches, giving the enemy more time to build its forces.
One senior military official said it was considered critical to replace the Marines in Afghanistan beginning this year.
"We believe the risk in Afghanistan is such that we need to do something, and the risk in Iraq is such that we can go into Afghanistan without risking unduly the posture in Iraq," said the official.
Pentagon officials believe the greatest challenge is to identify enough support troops to provide essential logistics and intelligence assets for the additional U.S. units heading to Afghanistan.
Without that support - which includes the delivery of weapons and food and the construction of roads and runways - the fighting forces cannot be as effective.
Looking ahead, the Pentagon's plan would require a significant increase in military facilities in Afghanistan, including forward operating bases, like those in Iraq.
Pentagon leaders have struggled to balance the two warfronts, repeatedly stressing that Iraq is the priority.
On several occasions, Mullen has said that, "In Afghanistan, we do what we can; in Iraq, we do what we must."
But a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, coupled with the improved security in Iraq has forced a greater emphasis on Afghanistan.
Violence has plunged in Iraq's western Anbar province, which until early last year was a stronghold for the insurgency. That will allow a battalion of Marines - or roughly 1,000 - to go to Afghanistan to train security forces in November rather than going to Iraq as initially planned.
They would replace a Marine unit currently training Afghan security forces, but a second Marine unit now doing combat operations would not be replaced until early 2009, probably by an Army brigade.
There has been speculation that the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, which is slated to go to Iraq, will instead go to Afghanistan. That unit, which is based at Fort Drum, N.Y., has previously served in Afghanistan.
Military leaders have insisted in recent months that over time they need to beef up forces in Afghanistan by as many as 10,000 troops - the equivalent of about three combat brigades.
More than 4,000 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.
Rob N - That is my take, too. As you said, the logical thing to do is RV. As you said, in time, "a revaluation or reversion will take place". The timing of the RV of the Dinar, though, is like trying to grab a greased pig with your hands in the mud.. it slips away from your grip every time you think you finally have a hold on it. But one day.. logically.. there will finally be a "pig roast"... :)
General David Petraeus sees huge progress in IraqFont Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Patrick Walters, Baghdad | September 03, 2008
THERE has been "enormous progress" in improving security across Iraq and there are real indications that the country is finally turning away from the endemic violence of recent years.
As he prepares to leave Baghdad within days, General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, cites a host of statistics that indicate the war-torn country is at last "spiralling upwards" towards a more normal existence.
In an exclusive hour-long farewell interview with The Australian in his office in the ornate presidential palace in Baghdad, General Petraeus sees signs of a return to more normal conditions in the capital and increasingly, across a country that only 20 months ago was still riven by horrific sectarian conflict.
General Petraeus is leaving Iraq in two weeks to become the US's CENTCOM commander, a post that will see him charged with responsibility for the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Last Sunday, there were no serious security incidents across the whole of Baghdad.
On Monday in western Anbar province, the scene of years of tough counter-insurgency warfare against al-Qa'ida and Sunni militias by US marines, the Americans formally handed over security control to Iraqi forces.
General Petraeus, the principal architect of the successful 2007-08 surge of US troops that restored security across Baghdad, says the signs of positive change are everywhere.
"I would note that obviously there has been enormous progress. We have gone from a situation where 14-15 months ago there were 180 attacks a day in Iraq. Now there are on average about 25 attacks a day.
"If you could cut down more on the number of suicide-vest and car-bomb attacks, frankly, you would be at a residual level."
Iraq's economy is also on an upswing with record oil exports, steadily increasing foreign and domestic investment and significant improvements in the supply of essential services, including electricity.
"It is encouraging to look at the metrics. It is heartening. It gives Iraq new hope, if you will.
"A country that was on the verge of civil war is now an increasingly important contributor to the global economy and to the community of nations."
In the next few days, General Petraeus will present his latest recommendations on the future of the US's 140,000-strong troop presence in Iraq to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
The report is tipped to recommend further gradual reductions over the coming months. But it will caution against any drastic cut over the next year as Iraqi forces increasingly take full responsibility for security in major towns and cities.
"We are in the midst right now of finalising the assessment. It (a US troop drawdown) is not just units on a map. It's the enemy situation. It's the growth in capability of the Iraqi security forces, which has been pretty substantial.
"It's local governance. It's local ethno-sectarian harmony or lack thereof.
"We will see in the coming week that we can get to the point where we have the confidence to make some additional recommendations."
General Petraeus pointed to the Dora district in southeast Baghdad as an example of the change in the security outlook in the capital.
"I went through Dora on a patrol the second day after I took command (February 11, 2007)," he said. "It was devastated. It was a war zone. There were no shops open and very few signs of life - deserted streets, garbage everywhere."
Dora had been torn apart by a lethal combination of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia and steady encroachment by al-Qa'ida fighters.
"It has now come back to life in a very big way," he said.
"There are over a 1000 shops open now. They just keep opening and the schools are reopening."
General Petraeus said there were many signs of renewal in Baghdad, including dozens of swimming pools and a major municipal works program.
In December 2006, there were an average of 55 violent deaths a day across the city compared with about five or less now. "Sectarian violence now as a component of violence in Baghdad is virtually nil and doesn't register on the scale that we used to show violence back in the winter of 2006-07," he said.
Asked whether Iraq had finally turned the corner, General Petraeus told The Australian: "We have to be very wary about premature declarations. I would not offer that assessment at this point. I don't think you will find any commanders on the ground who will offer such an assessment or use phrases such as 'light at the end of the tunnel'.
"I think if anything we have learned in Iraq it is wise to be cautious in assessments and to recognise that there are always surprises lurking around every corner."
General Petraeus said that besides the 30,000-strong surge in US troops last year, the 135,000 lift in Iraqi forces and the employment of more than 100,000 "Sons of Iraq", concerned local citizens, had been critical in achieving more stability.
As the future of US troop levels in Iraq is debated by the Maliki Government in Baghdad and back in Washington, General Petraeus said 11 out of 18 provinces were now controlled by Iraqi forces. With the UN mandate due to expire in December, a status-of-forces agreement between Iraq and the US is now the subject of intense discussions.
"Everyone has wanted Iraq to assert its sovereignty and, by golly, they are asserting their sovereignty," General Petraeus said.
(www.theaustralian.news.com.au)
Iraq seeks to buy 36 F-16 fighters from U.S.: report
Fri Sep 5, 2008 9:14am EDT
Reuters) - The Iraqi government is seeking to buy 36 advanced F-16 fighters from the U.S., American military officials familiar with the request told the Wall Street Journal.
This move could help Iraq reduce its reliance on U.S. air power and potentially allow more American forces to withdraw from the country than had been proposed.
The F-16, made by Lockheed Martin Corp, is the most sophisticated weapons system Iraq has attempted to purchase so far.
Late in July, the U.S. Department of Defense had approved up to $10.7 billion in arms sales for Iraq, including a $2.16 billion sale of M1A1 Abrams tanks built by General Dynamics Corp.
The U.S. recently announced F-16 sales to Morocco and Romania. Those sales, each for roughly $100 million per plane with training, related equipment and support included, offer an indication of how lucrative the Iraq deal could be for Lockheed Martin and its suppliers.
Iraq now appears determined to significantly expand the air power of its military, which has become more competent and confident in recent months but depends heavily on the U.S. for air support.
Iraq quickly has become one of the biggest weapons buyers in the world as it seeks to strengthen and professionalise its fighting force.
No one was available at the U.S. Department of Defense for comment.
(www.reuters.com)
Britain Must Disclose Iraq Intel Memos
September 05, 2008
Associated Press
LONDON - Britain's Information Commissioner ruled Sept. 4 that the government must publish memos and e-mails related to a 2002 intelligence dossier on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
Richard Thomas said written comments made by officials on early drafts of the Joint Intelligence Committee document should be disclosed.
Campaigners allege that the dossier's central claim - that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes - was inserted into a final draft on the advice of press advisers seeking to bolster the content of the document, rather than by intelligence staff.
They hope the e-mails and memos ordered released under freedom of information laws will reveal the extent to which the dossier was redrafted.
The 45-minute allegation was crucial to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's push to back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but was later discredited.
Blair presented a final draft of the dossier, called "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction," to parliament on Sept. 24, 2002.
Government weapons scientist David Kelly killed himself in 2003 after he was exposed as the source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report that accused Blair's Downing Street office of "sexing up" intelligence to make a stronger case for war.
Lord Butler's 2004 official inquiry into intelligence on Iraq did not fault Blair's government but criticized intelligence officials for relying in part on seriously flawed or unreliable sources. The inquiry concluded the government had left out vital caveats in its presentation of prewar intelligence.
A second document, published in February 2003 and which became known as the "dodgy dossier"- was criticized after it was found to have repeated verbatim parts of an academic study on Iraq's supposed concealment of weapons.
Opposition Conservative Party lawmaker William Hague has called on the government to sanction a new inquiry into the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.
"Rather than have items of evidence dragged into the public domain piece by piece, the government should set up a full-scale inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Iraq war," Hague said in a statement Thursday.
Thomas said Britain's government has 35 days to lodge an appeal against his ruling. It is not required to release the documents while an appeal is being considered.
(www.military.com)
Baghdad, 05 September 2008 (Gulf News)
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has formed a special team in the cabinet to support and encourage marriages between Sunnis and Shiites.
He has set aside a budget about $100 million for this purpose, a senior official in Baghdad told Gulf News.
He said Al Maliki believes this step will enhance the current security situation. The prime minister supports marriages between tribal notables and the sons of leaders of major political parties, along with those of leaders of the security and military services, to eradicate sectarianism in Iraq.
"Clerics strongly support this approach and we will spread the message through mosques to urge youth to marry Sunnis and Shiites. This is one of the most important means of national defence to prevent the return of sectarian violence," Saleh Al Haideri, the chief of the Shiite Waquf, told Gulf News.
Al Qaida has issued several fatwas prevent the marriage of Sunnis to Shiites. The supreme Shiite authority in the city of Najaf, Ali Al Sistani, responded at the time by emphasising the importance of such marriages.
"We have established a special assembly in the Sunni Islamic Party, led by Tarek Al Hashemi, to support marriage between Sunnis and Shiites. We believe this solution is an effective way to combat sectarianism in state institutions," Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al Qaysi told Gulf News.
Till 2003, cases of marriage between Sunnis and Shiites were limited and these did not help in confronting the sectarian violence in Baghdad in 2005 and 2006.
Abdul Zahra Khalidi, a political researcher, told Gulf News: "Marriages between Sunnis and Shiites took place in the past as well, but was limited to ordinary persons in society. Therefore, such cases did not stand against the Al Qaida propaganda in the past years. I believe Al Maliki realised that and now he wants to take the initiative politically - the state will have a policy to confront sectarianism through marriages between communities."
The Iraqi government offers incentives for marriage between Sunnis and Shiites, including jobs, loans for housing and private projects and even bears the cost for honeymooning in northern Iraq or overseas.
"I got a marriage gift from the government and a free trip for a week's honeymoon in Egypt two months ago. But what is most important is that the state has provided suitable jobs for me and my wife. I am a graduate in mechanical engineering and my wife is an electrical engineer. A job is the guarantee for success of this marriage and facing practical issues in life," Faiz Talib, who recently celebrated a mixed marriage, told Gulf News.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
IMF Press Release for Sept. 3, 2008
I see no one has commented on this article this blows the zero lop out of the window a lot of people seem to think the dinar will rv at 84 cents and then slow apparition from there it all so stops more speculative ivesters jumping on bourd.
The IMF press release just came out. It says:
"To keep inflation under control, the Central Bank of Iraq will tighten its monetary policy stance, notably by increasing the pace of appreciation of the dinar and by keeping its policy interest rate positive in real terms."http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2008/pr08199.htm
Seems you have almost got a hold on that slippery wet pig.. we can see it SHOULD RV.. at that projected good price - 84 cents being a good valuation. However.. WHEN is a question no one has yet predicted with authority. We wait. Will it be before or after the US Presidential election? Are the Iraqis in the position of making the final decision and are they waiting until they see who will be President before committing to such a drastic economic change and reform? Is it based on the HCL and SOFA passing? Is the IMF in agreement, and have they a say in the rate? Are there other players behind the scenes putting in monkey wrenches, or is everything going smoothly and as planned, just not to fruition yet? Is it some combination of the above? It would be nice to know, wouldn't it? (Psalm 131)
An interesting note today:
==
CBS Poll: McCain, Obama Tied McCain Closes Eight-Point Gap From Poll Taken Last Weekend
Sept. 4, 2008
(CBS) The presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain is now even at 42 percent, according to a new CBS News poll conducted Monday-Wednesday of this week. Twelve percent are undecided according to the poll, and one percent said they wouldn't vote.
This is in contrast to a poll conducted last weekend, where the Obama-Biden ticket led McCain-Palin by eight points, 48 percent to 40 percent.
McCain has also closed the enthusiasm gap some with Obama, but it still exists. Fifty-five percent of Obama's supporters are enthusiastic about their choice, and now so are 35% of McCain's. Last weekend, just 25 percent of McCain's supporters were enthusiastic about him, compared to 67 of Obama's supporters.
This week's polling continues to show voters waiting to decide about Sarah Palin (see yesterday's poll on Palin). But in interviewing done yesterday, 83 percent of registered voters said that spouse and family of a candidate will not affect their votes.
McCain maintains his large advantage on the likelihood of being an effective commander-in-chief - 46 percent of voters say it is "very likely" McCain would be an effective commander-in-chief, compared to 24 percent who say that about Obama.
McCain wins the support of married voters and Obama has the backing of voters who are not married.
Independents in this poll are divided. In the poll conducted over the weekend, Obama had a six-point advantage with this group, but now the lead is three points, 39 percent to 36 percent.
The poll also shows that the majority of Clinton supporters continue to support Obama - 67 percent in this poll, up from 58 percent last weekend.
McCain has seen a similar uptick from white evangelicals since the weekend - 66 percent now, up from 57 percent.
Great job, attack media: Palin more popular than McCain, Obama
September 5, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
Rasmussen’s latest tracking poll has some good news for the McCain campaign. According to the internals, Palin now has solid favorable majorities from men (65%) and women (52%). Palin also has majority positive favorability ratings in all age demographics and in all income brackets. She also has majorities among conservatives and moderates, while trailing with liberals and black voters.
One embarrassing result for Obama comes from a comparison of their experience as a preparation for the Presidency. Obama only beats her by four points overall, only by nine points among women, and trails by three among men. She runs within the margin of error in all college-educated demographics, only trailing significantly among high-school graduates and drop-outs. And of course, she’s not running for President; Obama is. It looks like the attack on Governor Palin’s experience backfired on Obama, and as long as he keeps running against the GOP’s #2, he’ll continue to lose.
The final question is very interesting. Overwhelmingly, people believe that Sarah Palin has boosted McCain’s chances to win in November with her acceptance speech on Wednesday. Obviously, this could only get asked of the people in the final day of the rolling poll, and this should give an indication how far the bounce will get. By 58%-10%, respondents felt she helped, a wide margin that appears in every single demographic of the poll.
Excellent and comprehensive Commentary/Summary with brief quotes:
=== John McCain’s presidential address
September 5, 2008
by Ed Morrissey
Yesterday, I wrote that John McCain had to give a substantially different speech than Sarah Palin did in her debut on the national stage. She needed to show that she could fight back against an onslaught of despicable smears and innuendo coming from the media without playing the victim or getting defensive. McCain needed to sound presidential. Palin needed to introduce herself to the nation; McCain needed to remind people who they already know him to be.
McCain accomplished this in a speech that took a little while to find its heart. Instead of a partisan attack on Barack Obama, McCain aimed a little higher. He sounded a message of reform that reached out to people across the political spectrum, and he challenged everyone — but specifically Republicans — to reform government and the way they do business in politics.
That’s not to say that he didn’t draw distinctions between himself and Obama, but he did so without rancor, a quality he attacked with more vigor than his opponent:
QUOTE:
I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it.
My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them. My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor. …
Senator Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucracies. I want schools to answer to parents and students.
==end quote==
Other than that, McCain didn’t focus on opposition talk at all during his speech. Instead, he focused on his own policies and put forward a positive, detailed vision of a McCain administration, based on one guiding principle: reform. That concept got applied not just to Washington, but also to education, where McCain made a surprising commitment to school choice, one not heard from his campaign for most of this cycle.
The new Republican leader did one critical thing in this speech to the national audience, too. He acknowledged the Republican failures during their control of Congress to act as a reform party. McCain used the moment to challenge his party to reclaim the mantle of reform as an act of penance for the past:
QUOTE:
I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties and Senator Obama passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust, when we valued our power over our principles.
We’re going to change that. We’re going to recover the people’s trust by standing up again for the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.
===end quote==
This, I think, was absolutely critical to establish credibility. Yesterday, I asked Mitch McConnell about whether the party would accept the challenge of becoming a true reform agent, and he replied that Republicans had always been the party of reform. I understood what he meant, but the answer didn’t acknowledge the GOP lapse when they held power for more than a few years, post-Contract with America. McCain got to the heart of voter skepticism of the Republican brand better than anyone else at this convention, and voters needed that high-level apology for the sins of the past before they could begin to reconsider giving trust again to the GOP.
McCain used this to explain his choice of running mate. Leaving the contrast of Barack Obama’s choice of running mate to the viewer, McCain told America that he needed someone outside the system with a proven record of going after corruption at the risk of party and career to help him accomplish his mission. He also needed someone who didn’t have the stench of the previous Republican failure attached to her for America to trust his desire to accomplish real reform. No other potential candidate has that kind of credibility on reform, and Sarah Palin is McCain’s way of showing American voters he means business.
Most of this, though, didn’t necessarily make an emotional impact. McCain left that to the end, when he drew another implicit but strong contrast between himself and Obama. He told the story of his POW years, not to claim some special status but to explain how the experience humbled and matured him into abandoning his selfishness. Palin talked about a “servant’s heart,” but McCain gave that an emotional timbre that underscored his desire to serve his country rather than any other interest:
QUOTE:
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.
I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.
==end quote==
He then gave a stirring call to service that transformed a quiet, workmanlike speech into something more inspiring, and recalled a spirit that had not yet been seen in this campaign:
QUOTE:
I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.
Fight for what’s right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children’s future.
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God Bless you.
==end quote==
The final third of this speech made it memorable, and challenged us — all of us, not just Republicans — to do better, be better, and serve something greater than our own desires. McCain exhorted us to never give up, just as he never gave up, not last summer when his campaign collapsed, not after the 2000 campaign, and not after he broke from the torture of his enemies in a POW camp. Keep fighting for what’s right.
In a word, McCain was presidential. And that’s what the American people needed to see from its candidate.
All in all, I’d call this a very good moment for John McCain. He stuck to his guns, he didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep, and he stayed true to his own vision of America and the policies that come from that vision. While his speech didn’t have the fire and the surprise of Palin’s, it didn’t have to after her triumph on Wednesday.
Took a holiday and thus having my first day off since I got here, and are catching up on those small thingies that you never have time to do otherwise, sew that hole in those pants, get shaving cream, and mop the floor....(imagine that). Even got a haircut today, started to have an Einstein hairdo.
Laura,
No that is not possible, I am a DoD contractor, ( Dep of Defense) and I live on base, even though I am a civilian I have to follow all the military orders and regulations that involves working for the military.
The only time I leave base (or any base) is with full battle gears, and heavy military escort.
Dod contractors can not ( at this time) get into a car, get outside the gate, and mill around in the civilian life outside the wire.
The gates to any military base is strongly guarded, and single civilian vehicles are not trafficking the bases, like in the homeland US. Everything is inside the bases, and no one is leaving for a day or so to go and do some shopping at an Iraqi bazar, or go and see mom.
The picture of a base back home in the US, is not too accurate of a comparison, when describing the bases here.
The roads in and out, is very dusty, full of potholes, and if you are approacing the gates with a civilian vehicle, you will be fired upon. ( Warning signs in many languages)
We have stict instructions on how to behave at base check points, and there will not be a second chance to make things right, if you screw up.
It has happened in the past, where a convoy driver got killed, a long series of events led up to that he was a lone truck and was returning back to camp.
He was not suppose to follow the convoy out in the first place, but only following it to the gates, but in the dust (sometimes you can only see (barely) the tail lights on the truck ahead of you)he ended up outside the wire together with the convoy. He should have been escorted back by a military vehicle, but was sent back alone. The driver was brand new, and had skimped on the lessons on how to behave at a base check point, came in far too fast, and dropped something on the floor and bend over to get it, just as he approached the check point....don't do that.
All vehicles are supposed to be enemy vehicles until such a time they are cleared, and there are no such things as exceptions.
There was a lot of heads rolling after that, everybody and his brother had dropped the ball, and ironically enough in this story, the only one that did not drop the ball, and did exactly what he was suppose to do was the 50 cal gunner at the gate.
So no Laura, I am not able to mill around or take a day off in Baghdad, no one is.
In many other countries this is possible, but in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is impossible.
I for sure would like to stroll around in downtown Baghdad, unescorted, and get in contact with the Iraq life that is happening there, and if I could, I could report back to you things that you are asking about, if the Iraqis have ATM machines and such things, so the reporting you will get from me will in that sense be a bit limited.
I do however get a lot of second hand info, and are seeing a lot when I am outside the fence, so I hope that what I am reporting back will at least have some kind of value.
All,
We have a great team here, and during horseplay I got my Convoy Commander all wet, but he got his revenge, and manage by trickery and false moves, get me even more wet.
Water bottles are everywhere.
Anyhow, the talk between the US and the Iraq Gov seem to be focused more and more on a withdrawal time schedule.
This as I see it now, may very well be possible in the, not too distant future, but as for now, for an immediate withdrawal, no, the Iraqi Army and Police, needs a bit more muscle mass, but they are getting there.
Rob N,
You came up with a very interesting posting, the report from IMF where it says, that the CBI will tighten it's monetary policy, and increase the speed of the appreciation of the Dinar.
Increase in appreciation speed, of the Iraqi Dinar....I'll take it.
Any appreciation is in itself a small RV, but I guess we are all waiting for a big one to happen.
Zero lop, the latest talk about zero lop have originated from Iraqi Gov sources, an institution that is separate from CBI.
CBI is set up as our Fed Reserve, and is not subordinate on the command lines of the ruling government. That would be a conflict of interest.
Monetary laws does not follow political laws, and by having a separate Central Bank, the politicians are then set with the proposition that ..."-ok this is what we have", rather then ..."-ok lets cheat the world" (like China is doing)
When CBI say it will happen, then I will take it seriously, Iraqi politicians have in the past been running in front of lenses and microphones, and have had all kinds of opinions about how to deal with the Dinar.
It is of course a possibility that they will go that way, doing the zero lop, but IMF doesn't seem to be on that bandwagon at all.
What is especially in the face, and doesn't make sense, is that the famous article is stating that , "if it takes two years to exchange the money and get new currency implemented in Iraq, lets do it, no problem....we have got all the time in the world"....
Well that is a very big undertaking, and a very long time plan, and if it is no problem at all, and announced so freely that it will happen in that time period, then both IMF and CBI would have mentioned it, and for sure there would have been IMF reports about it, and suggesting, and laying out the implemetation plan, long ago.
Those are the powers that decides, not the Iraqi Gov, or any member thereof.
Iraqi Gov members can of course suggest, but have no saying in how to go about in this matter.
The latest IMF report, just a couple of days old, doesn't mention anythig about it, and CBI doesn't mention anything at all, the only source for this new "fact" is the famous statement from yet another Iraqi politician.
I can testify by observing this place, that competence is short handed. Any issue by tradition and culture, seem to be the affairs of anyone and his brother goat herder.
Took a holiday and thus having my first day off since I got here, and are catching up on those small thingies that you never have time to do otherwise, sew that hole in those pants, get shaving cream, and mop the floor....(imagine that). Even got a haircut today, started to have an Einstein hairdo.
Laura,
No that is not possible, I am a DoD contractor, ( Dep of Defense) and I live on base, even though I am a civilian I have to follow all the military orders and regulations that involves working for the military.
The only time I leave base (or any base) is with full battle gears, and heavy military escort.
Dod contractors can not ( at this time) get into a car, get outside the gate, and mill around in the civilian life outside the wire.
The gates to any military base is strongly guarded, and single civilian vehicles are not trafficking the bases, like in the homeland US. Everything is inside the bases, and no one is leaving for a day or so to go and do some shopping at an Iraqi bazar, or go and see mom.
The picture of a base back home in the US, is not too accurate of a comparison, when describing the bases here.
The roads in and out, is very dusty, full of potholes, and if you are approacing the gates with a civilian vehicle, you will be fired upon. ( Warning signs in many languages)
We have stict instructions on how to behave at base check points, and there will not be a second chance to make things right, if you screw up.
It has happened in the past, where a convoy driver got killed, a long series of events led up to that he was a lone truck and was returning back to camp.
He was not suppose to follow the convoy out in the first place, but only following it to the gates, but in the dust (sometimes you can only see (barely) the tail lights on the truck ahead of you)he ended up outside the wire together with the convoy. He should have been escorted back by a military vehicle, but was sent back alone. The driver was brand new, and had skimped on the lessons on how to behave at a base check point, came in far too fast, and dropped something on the floor and bend over to get it, just as he approached the check point....don't do that.
All vehicles are supposed to be enemy vehicles until such a time they are cleared, and there are no such things as exceptions.
There was a lot of heads rolling after that, everybody and his brother had dropped the ball, and ironically enough in this story, the only one that did not drop the ball, and did exactly what he was suppose to do was the 50 cal gunner at the gate.
So no Laura, I am not able to mill around or take a day off in Baghdad, no one is.
In many other countries this is possible, but in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is impossible.
I for sure would like to stroll around in downtown Baghdad, unescorted, and get in contact with the Iraq life that is happening there, and if I could, I could report back to you things that you are asking about, if the Iraqis have ATM machines and such things, so the reporting you will get from me will in that sense be a bit limited.
I do however get a lot of second hand info, and are seeing a lot when I am outside the fence, so I hope that what I am reporting back will at least have some kind of value.
All,
We have a great team here, and during horseplay I got my Convoy Commander all wet, but he got his revenge, and manage by trickery and false moves, get me even more wet.
Water bottles are everywhere.
Anyhow, the talk between the US and the Iraq Gov seem to be focused more and more on a withdrawal time schedule.
This as I see it now, may very well be possible in the, not too distant future, but as for now, for an immediate withdrawal, no, the Iraqi Army and Police, needs a bit more muscle mass, but they are getting there.
Rob N,
You came up with a very interesting posting, the report from IMF where it says, that the CBI will tighten it's monetary policy, and increase the speed of the appreciation of the Dinar.
Increase in appreciation speed, of the Iraqi Dinar....I'll take it.
Any appreciation is in itself a small RV, but I guess we are all waiting for a big one to happen.
Zero lop, the latest talk about zero lop have originated from Iraqi Gov sources, an institution that is separate from CBI.
CBI is set up as our Fed Reserve, and is not subordinate on the command lines of the ruling government. That would be a conflict of interest.
Monetary laws does not follow political laws, and by having a separate Central Bank, the politicians are then set with the proposition that ..."-ok this is what we have", rather then ..."-ok lets cheat the world" (like China is doing)
When CBI say it will happen, then I will take it seriously, Iraqi politicians have in the past been running in front of lenses and microphones, and have had all kinds of opinions about how to deal with the Dinar.
It is of course a possibility that they will go that way, doing the zero lop, but IMF doesn't seem to be on that bandwagon at all.
What is especially in the face, and doesn't make sense, is that the famous article is stating that , "if it takes two years to exchange the money and get new currency implemented in Iraq, lets do it, no problem....we have got all the time in the world"....
Well that is a very big undertaking, and a very long time plan, and if it is no problem at all, and announced so freely that it will happen in that time period, then both IMF and CBI would have mentioned it, and for sure there would have been IMF reports about it, and suggesting, and laying out the implemetation plan, long ago.
Those are the powers that decides, not the Iraqi Gov, or any member thereof.
Iraqi Gov members can of course suggest, but have no saying in how to go about in this matter.
The latest IMF report, just a couple of days old, doesn't mention anythig about it, and CBI doesn't mention anything at all, the only source for this new "fact" is the famous statement from yet another Iraqi politician.
I can testify by observing this place, that competence is short handed. Any issue by tradition and culture, seem to be the affairs of anyone and his brother goat herder.
oooops,
the stuff goes through multiple security layers and sometimes the stuff get hanged up, then I try again, and the first submisssion get approved together with the second one.
Roger
I just read a paper entitled, "Does Monetary Policy Stablized the Exchange Rate Following a Currency Crisis?" This paper is by Ilan Goldfajn and Poonam Gupta.
I believe it is on the IMF website. According to the paper, "[It] provides evidence on the relationship between monetary policy and the exchange rate in the aftermath of currency crises." The authors assert and support that a "tight monetary policy faciliates the reversal of currency undervaluation through nominal appreciation." Unfortunately, the terms nominal appreciation are not addressed. Is the policy of Iraq with a one pip advance at a time "nominal appreciation"?
They further mention, "we consider taht monetary policy has been effective if in instances where countries had tight monetary policies, we observe a significantly larger proportion of success in reversing an undervaluation.." One other interesting comment, "the average duration of the undervaluation was found to be about 27 months for the cases with more than a 15 percent undervaluation." Following this reasoning, it is understandable why it is taking five years for the CBI to significantly move the Iraqi Dinar to its current position of 1182/1. Depending on the definition of "nominal appreciation" it theoretically (not taking Iraq's abundance of natural resources into consideration) could take Iraq another 3 to 5 years using its tight monetary policy to move the current exchange rate to its "real rate". Its natural resources is a variable that must be taken into consideration.
"We define successful cases as teh ones in which nominal appreciation of the exchange rate is responible for at least 50 percent of the reversal in the real exchange rate." Iraq has certainly adpoted a tight monetary policy to correcy an undervaluation of its currency.
There are other benefits to adopting a tight monetary policy. First, "inflation starts higher in a tightly controlled monetary policy but declines more sharpley." Next, the current account balances in the tight monetary cases is lower than the average before the undervaluation but improves and becomes higher afterward." "During periods of undervaluations, the burden of debt servicing is higher tahn the average." Finally, "the recovery of output is sharper in tight monetary policies cases and results in more successful reversals and, therfore, with economies recovering with relatively less inflation and more nominal apreciations."
Some of the items mentioned above tell us that Iraq continues to follow a tight monetary policy. A few months ago they required banks to require a larger reserve. The CBI so far continues to follow the script laid out by the IMF. Though this article does not mention revaluation, reversion, or free float of a currency as a method of recovery we will see what the CBI does.
Roger - You look great with hair ala Einstein.. except his hair was black and yours isn't.. or do I only think Einstein's hair is black because all the pictures of him are always in black and white? Anyhow, your current haircut is more your 'do' than the mad scientist look. :)
Glad to hear from ya.. :) Hug!!!
Also glad to hear there is talk of withdrawl timetables. Surely this has been a goal the US has had in mind for a very long time now, though the Iraqis are acting like it is all their idea lately. I hear that is a good thing to do in negotiations.. make the other side think that they are the ones making the decisions, when it is really your ideas they are implementing. The US has wanted to get out of there for some time. Iraq isn't the favorite destination of anyone in the military. The only thing was that Obama's plan to "withdraw" is set to be a precipitously and unbending - politically set - timetable, whereas McCain has always said it must be based on the changing conditions on the ground - in consultation with the commanders there - according to what is reasonable and not a strict and unbending timetable. KEY differences which make the difference between victory or forfeiture.
A very interesting development today to note to you and the Board here. Concerning the surge, Obama said, quote, "what I’ve said is it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
However.. as noted below, when searching the "Transcripts" file in Nexis for the last twelve months, there is no place where Obama said any such thing. He apparently NEVER has said that the surge has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams" before today.
Why is that, do you think?
===
Does Obama Regularly Say Surge Succeeded 'Beyond Our Wildest Dreams'?
By Tim Graham
September 5, 2008
In the first segment of his interview with Barack Obama, FNC’s Bill O’Reilly complimented Obama for being mentally keen, even "perspicacious" in his original decision to oppose the war in his state Senate days, but "desperately wrong on the surge." Voting no on the war and yes on the surge would be an interesting legislative record. In response, Obama claimed, "I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody has anticipated, by the way, including President Bush and the other supporters." He added, "what I’ve said is it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
Obama’s answer invited two questions. If "nobody anticipated" the surge would work, why would they propose it, especially once Democrats took over Congress in 2007? Clearly, someone anticipated success.
Then: has Obama really said before now that the surge has succeeded beyond our "wildest dreams"? Would he say that as he campaigned against Hillary? Or McCain? Will the media follow up on that?
Taking a while searching the "Transcripts" file in Nexis for the last twelve months, there’s no place where Obama’s said such a thing. (History-wise, you’ll also have a hard time finding Bill saying Iraq was the "wrong battlefield" before the war.)
Obama can't honestly answer O'Reilly's toughest question: why not admit you were wrong to oppose the surge? The answer is clearly political: I couldn't support the surge and win the hard-left "anti-war" MoveOn/Code Pink vote. To the richest part of the transcript:
QUOTE:
O’REILLY: All right, let’s go to Iraq. I think history will show that it’s the wrong battlefield, okay? And I think that you were perspicacious in your original assessment of the battlefield.
OBAMA: I appreciate that.
O’REILLY: I think you were desperately wrong on the surge and I think you should admit it to the nation that now we have defeated the terrorists in Iraq and they, the Al Qaeda came there after we invaded, as you know-
OBAMA: Right, absolutely.
O’REILLY: We’ve defeated them. If we didn’t, they would use it as a staging ground. We’ve also inhibited Iran from controlling the southern part of Iraq. By the surge, which you did not support. So why don’t you say "I was right in the beginning and I was wrong about that."
OBAMA: You know, if, if you listen to what I have said, and I’ll repeat it right here on this show. I think that there is no doubt that the violence is down. I believe that, that is a testimony to the troops that were sent and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody has anticipated, by the way, including President Bush and the other supporters. It has gone very well partly because of the Anbar situation--
O’REILLY: The Awakening, right.
OBAMA: --and the Sunni Awakening, partly because the Shia militias–
O’REILLY: But if it were up to you, there wouldn’t have been a surge.
OBAMA: Well, look-
O’REILLY: No, no, no, no.
OBAMA: No, no, no, no, no.
O’REILLY: Look, if it were up to you, there wouldn’t have been a surge.
OBAMA: No, no, no, hold on.
O’REILLY: You and Joe Biden, no surge.
OBAMA: No, hold on a second Bill. If you look at the debate that was taking place, we had gone through five years of mismanagement of this war that I thought was disastrous. And the president wanted to double down and continue an open ended policy that did not create the kinds of pressure on the Iraqis that did not take on the responsibility and reconciled–
O’REILLY: But it worked.
OBAMA: Well, look.
O’REILLY: It worked.
OBAMA: What I-
O’REILLY: Come on.
OBAMA: Bill, what I’ve said is it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.
O’REILLY: Right, so why can’t you just say I was right in the beginning and I was wrong about the surge?
OBAMA: Because there is an underlying problem with what we’ve done. We have reduced the violence.
O’REILLY: Yeah?
OBAMA: But the Iraqis still haven’t taken responsibility. And we still don’t have the kind of political reconciliation. We are still spending, Bill, $10-12 billion a month.
O’REILLY: And I hope if you’re president you can get them to kick in and pay us back.
OBAMA: They’ve got $79 billion in Iraq.
O’REILLY: And I’m with you, I’ll go with you.
OBAMA: Let’s go!
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
I stand corrected.. Obama actually made the comment about the surge succeeding "beyond our wildest dreams" yesterday. Today, Palin notes in the video below that McCain actually did anticipate victory and advocate it.. even at the risk of his own career. As McCain noted last night, when people said his support of the surge strategy was wrong (and would finish his campaign), he replied that he would rather lose an election than see the country lose a war.
QUOTE:
I’ve fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq when it wasn’t the popular thing to do.
And when the pundits said — when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I’d rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.
===
Video: Palin hammers Obama over the surge in Wisconsin
September 5, 2008
by Allahpundit
Six and a half minutes of her from today’s stop in Cedarburg, followed by Maverick asking around the seven-minute mark if she isn’t, er, “the most marvelous running mate in the history of this nation.” The shot at Obama comes up front, swinging at a softball tossed yesterday by The One when he stupidly insisted that nobody anticipated the success of the surge. Meanwhile, Gallup’s three-day tracking poll sees a three-point bump for Maverick — and only one of those three days came after Palin’s speech. How much has the CW shifted? Enough that the same two Politico reporters who accused him of being desperate for picking her this weekend are now analyzing how she’s changed the race.
Senator Obama said that the surge, quote, "Succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."
"I think," said Senator Obama, "that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated."
I guess when you turn out to be profoundly wrong on a vital national security issue, maybe it's comforting to pretend that everyone else was wrong, too.
But I remember it a little differently.
It seems to me there was one leader in Washington who DID predict success, who refused to call retreat and risked his own career for the sake of the surge and victory in Iraq - and ladies and gentlemen that man is standing right next to me, Senator John McCain.
The media made a big deal out of how many watched Obama..
so it only seems fair to note:
===
Nielsen: McCain’s speech draws more viewers than Obama’s — while airing on fewer networks
September 5, 2008
by Allahpundit
Just across. BET and TV One apparently decided that with Barry O already pulling 90-95% of the black vote, they needn’t bother turning any precious airtime over to McCain. In fact, all four nights of the Democratic convention aired on both networks. The GOP convention didn’t air at all.
Do note: Palin finished just shy of both candidates in total audience running on only six networks, two fewer than McCain and four fewer than Obama. Telemundo and Univision didn’t bother with night three coverage.
"Iraq continues to follow a tight monetary policy. The CBI so far continues to follow the script laid out by the IMF. Though this article does not mention revaluation, reversion, or free float of a currency as a method of recovery we will see what the CBI does."
My thoughts?
Your thoughts on it are well articulated, and I appreciated reading them through.
Your "we will see" comment at the last of the quote is true -
It is in the court of the politicians and money people, such as these you make note of.
And ultimately in the hands of God, too, I suppose.
So we wait.. on them, and on the Lord.. to see what will be done.
The "Mad Scientist" look...well maybe it isn't such a bad look after all, if it will give me a big hug from you at the pigroast....but admit it, as much as we all can admire Einstein for his genious, he had a terrible hairdo.
Hair cut on the base ....3 bucks. One style only, but you can have it in two fashions. 1.extremely short or 2. ridicilously extremely short.
There is no reason to try to impress anyone here with style, there are very few women here, and they are mostly ugly.
The very few you see that are looking good, will induce a line to the medic for a rash of neck stretch.
Jokes aside, we have four female truck drivers here, and I have seen one female combat truck driver in the military trucks, there are actually quite a few female soldiers here, all with the M16 at the dinner table.
(The sign outside the messhall addressing the military says that they can not come in, if they don't have thir weapon with them, or documents saying the reason they can not carry it...imagine that sign in your hometown library ...or local WalMart)
One of the female drivers we have is extraordinary, she is low toned, probably a grand ma, and she looks in age and composure to be like a picture of an ad of a grandma, selling home made cookies or some other house hold product.
She is doing what we other males are doing and she is doing it good.
Good to hear from you. I was sort of hoping that you would have liberty to go out and see Baghdad or other parts of Iraq while you were there. But, I kind of suspected that your activities would keep you and all USA personnel on the bases for security reasons.
I know recently, I have been disappointed with the news from Iraq regarding oil contracts given to China and now possibly to Russia. These contracts look to be Iraqi leanings for socialist countries under the influence of Iran. What I think about is the Badr militias and thier ties to Iran. This militia supposely is composed of the higher income Iraqi's that own businesses and lands and more prominent positions inside of the Iraqi Government....like the interior ministry; fiscal banking institutions; oil ministry and defense ministries.
I am worried that our men and women in our military have gone and fought in their country for Iraqi freedom with our military personal suffering many injuries and deaths ---to in the end, for Iraq to become a satellite of Iran and Russian influence (similar to Lebanon). This would be a disgrace for our country. I hope this does not come to past.
Roger, stay safe and follow the rules for your own safety.
Love and Prayers- Laura
Sara,
Your comments about the military leaving Iraq comes at a time of the Iraqi's claiming a date of getting all USA military out of their country may in fact not really be good news. As I cited with Roger, my own concerns about how Iraq seems to be giving more precedence to foreign socialist powers than our own.
I am wondering how much Iranian influence is playing into the politics of the Iraqi people and politicians. Americans do not seem to be appreciated for all that this country has sacrificed on their behalf. I know, there was one politician that quit the government of Iraq (I read this somewhere) due to what he thought was undue Iranian influence pulling the strings about Iraqi's relationship with the USA.
He (the politician- whose name I cannot remember) stated that Iranians are pressuring Iraq to not give the USA any of the oil contracts and instead give them to China, Russia and other asian countries socialist countries. If this turns out to be the reality, then america needs to leave and start an isolationist approach to foreign policy. We simply close our borders and withdraw from WTO, United Nations, NATO etc. We could save a lot on foreign aid.
We (United States) would allow no trade with any United States company that took jobs outside of the United States (we simply outlaw products inside of our country from companies that manufacture USA products outside of USA). I think, that would help our economy from not buying products from China. And, we do what Alexander Hamilton (USA treasurer) believed, that everything that USA needs to survive is produced in its entirety inside of the United States. That means fixing our energy policy; defense grants given to USA companies; all food produced here, etc.
Maybe then, USA can fix some of these internal issues and grow stronger because we aren't trying to help the world. The world does not seem to appreciate USA intervention anyway.
I'm sorry Sara, I read your comments and I having read this other Iraqi politican quiting the government to write about Iran's undue influence upset me to no end. Prayer is needed about these issues. Hopefully, Iraq will wake up and smell the coffee.
Laura Parker
I get so frustrated over what I am see in Iraqi politics. This politician stated he is going to write some books/articles on the political situation in Iraq and Iranian influence. He is alarmed.
Israeli long-range unmanned aerial vehicle
The raids were disclosed by UPI chief editor Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is also on the Washington Times staff, and picked up by the Iranian Fars news agency. The Russian raids of two Georgian airfields, which Tbilisi had allowed Israel to use for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed the Georgian offensive against South Ossetia on Aug. 7.
Under the secret agreement with Georgia, the airfields had been earmarked for use by Israeli fighter-bombers taking off to strike Iran in return for training and arms supplies.
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that flying from S. Georgia over the Caspian Sea to Iran would sharply trim the distance to be spanned by Israeli fighter-bombers, reducing flying time to 3.5 hours.
Northern Iran and the Tehran region, where most of the nuclear facilities are concentrated, would be within range, with no need to request US permission to pass through Iraq air space.
Russian Special Forces also raided other Israeli facilities in southern Georgia and captured Israeli spy drones, says the report.
Israel was said to have used the two airfields to “conduct recon flights over southern Russia as well as into nearby Iran.” The US intelligence sources quoted by UPI reported that the Russian force also carried home other Israeli military equipment captured at the air bases.
Our sources say that if the Russians got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment, they will have secured some of the IDF’s most secret devices for spying on Iran and Syria.
When this happened before, Russian military engineers quickly dismantled the equipment, studied it and passed the technology on to Tehran and Damascus.
Putin promises an answer to NATO’s naval Black Sea presence
DEBKAfile Special Report
September 2, 2008, 8:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
On a visit to Uzbekistan, Tuesday Sept. 2, prime minister Vladimir Putin said Russia’s reaction to NATO ships “will be calm, without any sort of hysteria. But of course there will be an answer.”
Putin and Uzbek president Islam Karimov announced a deal will be finalized in the near future for a new natural gas pipeline to pump Turkmen and Uzbek gas across Uzbekistan into the Russian pipeline system for re-export to Europe.
Karimov said the proposed pipeline, with a capacity of 26-30 billion cubic metres (bcm), would be built alongside the two existing Soviet-era pipelines, known as Central Asia-Centre and Central Asia-Bukhara-Ural. The Russian monopoly Gazprom, which will operate the new pipeline, said agreement had been reached on the “price formula for Uzbek gas.”
Since the Georgian conflict erupted, Moscow has intensified its quest to undermine the Western-backed effort to lay a rival trans-Caspian route to bypass the Russian energy corridor. Russia has offered the Central Asian republics European prices for as much gas as they can sell to retain its control of westward export routes.
Cheney talks about energy, Black Sea, Georgia in four-nation tour
DEBKAfile Special Report
September 3, 2008, 6:31 PM (GMT+02:00)
US VP Dick Cheney
At his first stop in Azerbaijan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, vice president Richard Cheney was briefed on the impact of the Georgia conflict on the prospects of diversifying energy supplies and pipelines from the Caspian to lessen Europe’s dependence on Russia. With Azerberjani president Ilham Aliyev, Cheney will discuss the events in Georgia and troop contributions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tuesday, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was in Uzbekistan to clinch a deal on a new gas pipeline to pump Turkmen and Uzbek gas across Uzbekistan into the Russian pipeline system for re-export to Europe.
The vice president continues to Georgia to discuss Mikhail Saakashvili’s quarrel with Russia, the highest level US official to visit Tbilisi since the crisis erupted on Aug. 7. That crisis will also loom large in his talks with another US ally, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, on Friday.
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak - machinations behind Israel's back
Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abu Ghait met secretly with Hizballah leaders in Beirut last week, DEBKA file’s counter-terror sources report, and invited a delegation to pay a formal visit to Cairo. The pro-Iranian Hizballah is listed by the UN and many nations as a terrorist organization.
This is a stab in the back for Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and his political adviser, Amos Gilead and their policy of heavy reliance on Egyptian mediation for holding down Hamas aggression from the Gaza Strip and securing the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit.
The invitation was tendered without referring to Israel or even informing Barak when he met Hosni Mubarak only last week in Alexandria. Later he declared the Gaza ceasefire Israel accepted had proved successful, clearly ignorant of the Egyptian ruler's machinations behind Israel's back.
Egypt has therefore empowered Hizballah with a role alongside Hamas in Gaza Strip affairs and thrown its own weight behind the most radical Palestinian camp versus Israel.
For Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, who has declared all-out war on Israel, this is a major strategic boost. The leading Arab nation has recognized Hizballah’s leader as a legitimate force in and outside Lebanon, allowing him to go on flouting UN resolutions demanding the disbanding of his terrorist militia and acting as Iran's proxy arm against Israel.
DEBKAfile’s military sources cite members of Israel’s high command as taking the view that Egypt’s acceptance of Hizballah ties in directly with the establishment of a Hamas-Jihad-Islami-Hizballah situation room in Gaza City and Beirut to run the war campaign against Israel, which was first revealed by DEBKAfile on Sept. 1. To read that exclusive, click HERE
New Hizballah-Hamas pact extends anti-Israel missile range from Gaza
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
September 1, 2008, 1:08 PM (GMT+02:00)
Hizballah transfers missile technology to Gaza
The Iran-backed Lebanese terror group, Hizballah, has contracted to partner Hamas’ ongoing crash program using the month-old ceasefire with Israel to intensify combat training and arms procurement in preparation for war.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report exclusively that the two groups have signed a secret deal to establish a joint “situation room” under the direction of Hizballah’s Unit 1800 to operate from twin command centers in Beirut and Gaza City.
This unit is in charge of Hizballah’s links with the Palestinians, terrorist operations and intelligence-gathering in Israel.
Hizballah’s input under the new pact consists of enhancing the combat skills of Hamas and the pro-Iranian Jihad Islami combatants and extending the range of their rockets to 22 km. This will double the Israeli population within range of Palestinian rockets and missiles from points in the Gaza Strip and substantially improve their current range of 12-18 km.
Defense minister Ehud Barak had this information Sunday, Aug. 31 when he told the Israeli cabinet that the “ceasefire had justified itself.”
He was replying to the internal security minister Avi Dichter’s report that the Palestinian side had violated the Gaza ceasefire 38 times. Barak failed to brief the ministers on the new Hamas-Hizballah pact. It is viewed with great concern by members of the high IDF command as yet another benefit conferred on the most radical terrorist groups by Israel’s consent to withhold military action and accept a truce.
Dutch sabotage agent recalled from Iran over “impending” US attack - report
DEBKAfile Special Report
August 31, 2008, 11:04 AM (GMT+02:00)
America's largest unmanned aerial vehicle
A Dutch AIVD Secret Service ultra-secret operation underway in Iran in recent years has been halted and an agent recalled in view of “impending US plans to attack Iran,” within weeks, writes Joost de Haas, known for his good intelligence contacts, in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The AIVD operation aimed to infiltrate and sabotage the weapons [and nuclear] industry in the Islamic Republic.
According to intelligence sources in the Netherlands, the US [or Israel] was expected to make a decision within weeks to attack nuclear plants with unmanned aircraft, used to avoid risking the lives of air crews and warplanes.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report this would be the first time drones operated by remote control were used against major strategic targets, necessary in Israel’s case to hold its air fleet and flight crews ready to defend the country against reprisal from Iran’s allies. Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah have stockpiled thousands of rockets for this purpose.
The Iranian targets to be bombed would include also military installations brought to light partly by the Dutch espionage operation, described by De Telegraaf as extremely successful. “One of the agents was able to infiltrate the Iranian industry” and for years shared information with the American CIA. “Various supplies could also be sabotaged and stopped. These were parts for missiles and launching equipment.”
According to DEBKAfile’s sources, the expectation disclosed by the Dutch newspaper would explain the fresh spate of threats from Iran.
Thursday, Aug. 28, Iranian sources told the London-based Arabic al Quds that Tehran had recently transferred to Hizballah new long-range rockets capable of hitting every inch of Israeli soil with great accuracy.
They were to be fired if Israel or the United States attacked Iran.
Dep. Chief of General Staff Masus Jazairi said Saturday, Aug. 30, that any attack on Iran would mean the beginning of a new world war. He said the “greed of the US and Zionists” is gradually leading the world to collapse as demonstrated in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Caucasus.
DEBKAfile’s Iran sources report a shakeup is in progress in the Islamic Republic’s top military command.
Amir (Maj. Gen.) Seyed Abdollrahim Mousavi was named acting chief of staff
of the armed forces – a new post created as backup in case the army chief comes to harm in combat.
Amir Mohamad Hosseyn Dadras becomes deputy chief of staff for coordination.
Amir Reza Pourdastan is the new commander of the army’s ground corps.
Someone on this forum asked me if I believed the Russians about their claim to help a USA presidential contestant win the USA election and I responded no. However, with the lastest Israeli news articles that I have just provided, it looks like the white house and Israel were going to time an attack on Iran within a month or a month and a half from now. This attack would have been Israeli from Georgia and it looks like the USA was helping in this endeavor.
The Russians now look like hero's to the Iranians. Of course, USA are still the villians. I do not know about the Georgian attack on South Ossetia-- I still hope we (USA military) did not sanction this attack on these civilians.
Sarkozy in Damascus backs away from US-led condemnation of Iran’s nuclear program
DEBKAfile Special Report
September 3, 2008, 12:10 AM (GMT+02:00)
French and Syrian presidents at one on Iranian nuclear program
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said in Damascus Wednesday, Sept 3: “Obviously there is a lack of confidence between Iran and the nations involved in this issue. We [the French] will continue our efforts for dialogue.”
In a clear departure from Washington’s position and in breach of his promises to Israel not to accept a nuclear Iran, Sarkozy omitted to refer to sanctions or any other penalties and clearly avoided recriminations against the Islamic Republic.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that the French president was preparing for a discussion on the Iranian nuclear program taking place in Damascus Thursday with Syrian president Bashar Assad, who will speak for Iran as its closest ally, Turkish prime minister Tayyep Erdogan and the Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
For the purpose of this conference, Sarkozy is presenting himself as the rotating president of the European Union, although his participation in the Damascus summit and his new policy departure on Iran has not been approved by any responsible EU body. The Qatari ruler will speak on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council of which he is president.
The purpose of their discussion will be to generate conditions that make an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear installations impossible, so degrading the US-Israeli stance on the issue.
When Sarkozy took office as president a year ago, his aides said they had intelligence evidence that Iran was making a nuclear bomb and could only be stopped by military action.
He is singing a different tune in Damascus, after hearing Assad state Wednesday that an attack on Iran would spell disaster. “No one in the world,” said the Syrian president, “will be able to bear the consequences of a non-peaceful action,” He echoed the dire threats coming from Tehran in the last week. One Iranian said an attack on Iran would start a world war.
Terrorism: Late Al-Qaeda leader in posthumous video warning
Dubai, 5 Sept. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda's late commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, warns 'Crusader' countries against offending Islam in a posthumous video released by the terror network's media arm.
In the undated video posted by Al-Sahab to extremist websites, al-Yazid refers to the deadly suicide attack in June against the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
"What happened at the embassy is only the beginning," al-Yazid says.
The attack killed six people, all Pakistani, purportedly in revenge for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first published in 2005 by Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten, and republished by scores of newspapers worldwide.
"We warned you in the past and now we are warning you again, especially Crusader countries," he continues.
"If you offend the Prophet and the Koran in your media, and continue to occupy our countries and plunder our natural resources, we will take revenge, in the right time and place."
Before he died in clashes with Pakistani troops near the Afghan border last month, Al-Yadiz said Al-Qaeda had carried out the attack against the Danish embassy in Islamabad.
He claimed the attack in a rare interview with Pakistan's Geo TV network in July (photo).
Al-Yazid announced that the video would be released before he was killed in early August in the Bajaur tribal area in Pakistan's northwest.
In the interview with Geo TV, Yazid says Al-Qaeda is expanding its areas of operation beyond southern Afghanistan to the northern provinces and would be "able to wrestle Afghanistan free of foreign occupation very soon."
St Paul, 4 Sept. (AKI) - Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has claimed that if elected in November, he will capture fugitive Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden (photo).
"President Clinton had opportunities to get Osama bin Laden. President Bush had opportunities to get Osama bin Laden. I know how to do it and I'll do it," McCain said.
He was speaking from St Paul, capital of the US state of Minnesota, during an interview with US commercial network ABC on Wednesday.
McCain also hinted that his Democratic opponent, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, is not up to this task because he lacks foreign and military experience.
McCain's remarks came ahead of the 7th anniversary of Al-Qaeda's attacks against US cities which killed around 3,000 people on 11 September, 2001.
Bin Laden and his second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding in the border area between northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mr Cheney aims to strengthen ties with Russia's neighbours
US Vice-President Dick Cheney has said Ukraine has the right to live without fear of invasion, adding that the US stands by its bid for Nato membership.
Mr Cheney met both the prime minister and president in Kiev, the last stop of a tour aimed at underlining support for US allies in the former Soviet Union.
Mr Cheney reassured the president that the US had a "deep and abiding interest" in Ukraine's security.
Analysts fear Ukraine could be the next flashpoint between Russia and the West.
"We believe in the right of men and women to live without the threat of tyranny, economic blackmail or military invasion or intimidation," Mr Cheney said, in an apparent reference to Russia's military intervention in Georgia.
'Hostage'
Mr Cheney arrived in Ukraine just days after the country was plunged into political turmoil.
Mr Cheney arrives to meet President Yushchenko
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's party blocked a motion condemning Russia's actions in Georgia, and sided with the opposition to vote for a curb on the president's powers.
Members of President Viktor Yushchenko's party walked out of the coalition government in protest, leading the president to warn that he could be forced to call a snap general election.
Mr Cheney urged the politicians to heal their divisions and be "united domestically first and foremost".
"Ukraine's best hope to overcome these threats is to be united," he said following separate meetings with Mr Yushchenko and his former ally turned political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.
Solidarity
Mr Cheney expressed support for Ukraine's bid to become a member of Nato.
Ukraine: Torn in two directions
A tenuous double act
Ukraine voices
"Ukrainians have a right to choose whether they wish to join Nato, and Nato has a right to invite Ukraine to join the alliance when we believe they are ready and that the time is right," he said.
Russia is strongly opposed to any further expansion eastwards of Nato, and is furious that Ukraine and Georgia have been told that, one day, they will be offered membership.
But Mr Cheney - recognising Ukraine's contributions to Nato missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo - said that no country beyond Nato would be able to block Ukraine's membership bid.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, in Kiev, says the remarks - which come at the end of a three-country tour of former Soviet states - were designed in part with a Russian audience in mind after Moscow's military action in Georgia last month.
Strategic state
But at a summit of six ex-Soviet states in Moscow on Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that leaders had expressed unanimous support for Russia over its military action in Georgia.
"The position of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation) heads of state on Georgian aggression against South Ossetia were in solidarity (with Russia)," he said.
"The member states are deeply concerned by Georgia's attempt to solve the conflict in South Ossetia by violent means which led to numerous deaths among civilians and peacekeepers."
The member states are deeply concerned by Georgia's attempt to solve the conflict in South Ossetia by violent means
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
The CSTO's seven member states include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
President Yushchenko says Ukraine is a hostage in a war waged by Russia against ex-Soviet bloc states.
The strategically-located country is important to Russia, with pipelines that carry Russian gas to European consumers and its Black Sea port, home to a key Russian naval base.
Russia has a powerful tool at its disposal, namely the large ethnic Russian population in Ukraine's southern province of Crimea.
Mr Yushchenko has restricted Russia's naval operations, and insists Moscow must leave when an inter-state treaty expires in 2017.
Ukraine has said it is ready to make its missile early warning systems available to European nations following Russia's conflict with Georgia.
Mr Cheney's visit comes at an awkward time for President Yushchenko, with the country's largely pro-Western ruling coalition divided in its attitude toward Russia.
Our correspondent says the leaders' faltering relationship has now boiled over into open aggression, with Mr Yushchenko threatening to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.
The president has been a staunch supporter of his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili.
But Ms Tymoshenko has avoided outright condemnation of Russia, leading analysts to suggest she may be hoping for Moscow's backing in a possible bid for the presidency in 2010.
All, From BBC News
----------
Saakashvili a 'political corpse'
President Medvedev said Russia did not fear calls for its isolation
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has described his Georgian counterpart as a "political corpse", saying Moscow does not recognise him as president.
"President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse," he told Italy's Rai television.
He said US support for Mr Saakashvili had helped provoke the crisis, which has seen Russian troops invade Georgia.
He said Russia did not fear isolation by Western countries that have condemned the Russian intervention.
Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force.
Russian forces launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia has since recognised the independence of both regions, though no other country has.
'Carte blanche'
The Russian president blamed the US for helping provoke the crisis by supporting Mr Saakashvili.
"Unfortunately, at a certain point they gave Saakashvili carte blanche for any actions, including military," said Mr Medvedev in the Rai interview.
Russian forces are still present on Georgian territory
In a broadside aimed at international calls for Russia's isolation, he said Moscow did not fear being expelled from the G8 group of rich nations nor did it fear Nato cutting ties with his country.
He said Nato had more to lose than Russia by a severing of relations.
Earlier, Mr Medvedev had mixed praise for the European Union, which on Monday decided to suspend talks on a strategic pact with Russia until its troops were withdrawn from Georgia, but declined to impose sanctions.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who stepped down as president earlier this year, praised the European Union's "common sense".
But he warned that Moscow would respond to the growing presence of Nato warships in the Black Sea, where Russia's navy fleet has a huge presence.
Aljazeera News is reporting this article and blog comments.
---------
US to send $1bn in aid to Georgia
Gori in Georgia was repeatedly bombed by Russian warplanes during the conflict [EPA]
The United States has announced at least $1bn in aid to help its ally Georgia to rebuild after its conflict with Russia over the separatist enclave of South Ossetia last month.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said on Wednesday the package would help reconstruct Georgia's economy and infrastructure that was destroyed by the Russian military during the fighting.
"We have been determined to help Georgia to sustain itself during these difficult times," Rice said.
She said the funds were a significant contribution to Washington's long-term commitment to Georgia, which would "survive, rebuild and thrive".
Rice said that the package included no military aid and that it was not yet time to look at military assistance to Georgia.
The first tranche of $570m is set to be delivered by the end of 2008 and the rest by a new US administration that takes over in January 2009.
"We are also confident that the United States will keep a commitment that has strong bipartisan support for a second phase of support, an additional $430 million," said Rice.
She said Russia was not achieving its objectives through its actions in Georgia and that Georgian democracy was "thriving".
It was not immediately clear whether any of the package would require congressional approval.
But aid to rebuild Georgia already enjoys broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
Cheney visit
Rice's announcement came as Dick Cheney, the US vice president, said during a visit to Azerbaijan on Wednesday that his country has a strong interest in the security of its allies in the region.
Cheney, centre, arrived in Baku ahead of visits to Georgia and Ukraine [AFP]
Speaking in Baku, the country's capital, Cheney said: "President Bush has sent me here with a clear and simple message for the people of Azerbaijan and the entire region: The United States has a deep and abiding interest in your well-being and security."
Cheney, whose trip comes in the shadow of the recent fighting between Russia and Georgia, is also due to visit Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, and Ukraine as part of a tour of the Caucasus.
The vice president said that the US believed it must work with Azerbaijan on increasing energy export routes out of the country.
He said: "The United States strongly believes that together with the nations of Europe, including Turkey, we must work with Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia on additional routes for energy exports that ensure the free flow of resources."
Russian stranglehold
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, which are all former Soviet republics, are increasingly wary of Russian intentions after its conflict last month with neighbouring Georgia
Azerbaijan pumps nearly one million barrels a day of high quality crude, equivalent to about one per cent of the world's oil supplies, through a BP-led pipeline that passes through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
However, it has said that it is re-routing some of its production to a rival route through Russia, citing the conflict in Georgia as part of the reason.
Azerbaijan pumps nearly one million barrels a day of oil to Europe [EPA]
Ukraine and Georgia have both angered Moscow by seeking membership of the Nato military alliance.
Tbilisi, which was backed by the US during the fighting, has been weighing its next move in its relations with Russia which may include cancelling a lucrative civil nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, the US and the European Union are attempting to break Moscow's stranglehold on the transit of central Asian gas to Europe with the planned Nabucco pipeline which will pass around Russia's southern flank.
'Political corpse'
Cheney's visit to a region that Russia sees as its backyard has brought renewed attacks from the Kremlin.
Russia accuses Washington of helping to trigger the recent conflict by backing what it says is a pro-Western Georgian government bent on aggression.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, said it was time for the US to re-evaluate its policy of supporting Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president.
Medvedev described the US-educated lawyer as a "political corpse" and said Moscow wanted nothing to do with him.
The president's remarks contrasted with the more conciliatory language he used about the EU, which on Monday threatened to suspend talks on a partnership pact but rejected sanctions on Russia, the bloc's biggest energy supplier.
Source: Agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 13
Vera Gottlieb
Germany 04/09/2008
US to send $ 1bn in aid to Georgia
And this '1 billion dollars help' in the form of more military armament?
jACK
Russian Federation 04/09/2008
FOR WHAT??
That much money would feed many people. There are only 2 million people in Georgia, you do the math. This "tie chewing rodent" will do like in the past and spend 40% on new modern equipment for his Army, just to throw down and run away like the thieving cowards they are. USA how stupid are you? Soon the USA will see Russian ships and planes in Cuba and south America. Remember those days? I do What does Georgia have anyway, wine? no industry, no money system? Stay home USA,
Barry S.
United States 05/09/2008
From a USA Citizen
Coming from a USA citizen please know that a lot of Americans are fighting for change in our own government and that we mostly agree with what a lot of you are saying! Please also note that the majority of Americans are wonderful, loving, giving people! I understand that our government has made a number of poor choices and I hope that we as people can come together and fix the problems that face our world. Much Love, B. Stieb
D. L. GRAHAM
United States 03/09/2008
PREEMPTIVE IRAN ATTACK (PART TWO)
the arms and weaponry supplier, selling and exporting ($200M) two hundred million dollars or more in military equipment to the former Georgia Government, in offensive weapons, which included the sale by Israel of at least eight different models of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) and Israel also sought to export main battle tanks to Georgia. As Israeli Mossad Intelligence Agents and CIA worked together with the Pentagon in the operation of an important intelligence station in Tbilisi.
D. L. GRAHAM
United States 03/09/2008
PREEMPTIVE IRAN ATTACK (PART SIX)
Soviet Russia is expected to move forces into northern Iran after using its control of the former Soviet Republic of Georgian pipeline to compel the Azarbaijanis to permit them to cross their territory, into strategic Northwest Iranian territory, with gas pipeline into Turkey, and refinery at Tabriz. There are currently 4 million Kurds in Iran, concentrated in the western part of Iran, waiting to declare a Kurdish state, with Russian peacekeepers in place to protect the new formed Kurdish state
k.
Afghanistan 04/09/2008
$1bn is not fair market value for loss of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Fritz Schenk
United States 04/09/2008
Is the charge of Genocide appropriate
for the actions of the United States during the last 7 years destruction of life and culture.
umit altay
Turkey 04/09/2008
US to send $1bn in aid to Georgia
The USA fooled georgia to attack the seperatists just so it could justify the antiballistic missile ramp in poland but there's a saying in Turkish don't go down the water well with Americas rope.The enemy of the USA is using americas hunger for oil to there advantage thats why they got the USA stuck in Irak it was all planned and one by one the USA is falling in to the trap looks like theres more to come.
Mohammad
Lebanon 04/09/2008
This reminds me of the Bush Administration's aids during the Zionist aggression year 2006... little humantarian supplies to us, and a lot of precision targetted bombs and nuclear heads to 'Israel'... "die, with love"
Abu Aman
Pakistan 04/09/2008
Lust has no limits !
This $1bn is in actual fact not for the bread & shelter but for armaments & again US made....Ground reality is an excuse to pave ways for oil hungry uncle SAM!
Chawki
United States 04/09/2008
US Aid to Georgia
Anyone at all familiar with the disregard for the "will of the international community" continually exhibited by the Empire (USA) in the United Nations, should be flabbergasted to hear VP Dick Cheyney using that statement when referring to the actions of Russia in this "conflict". The Empire's neglect of the UN's condemnation(s) of it's blockade of Cuba and it's support for Israel's violations of Palestinian rights, are but two you should research.
AK209
United States 04/09/2008
Dont worry, well just print more
They may want to send $1B to Georgia, but I'd like to know who are they going to borrow it from. We are now the biggest debtor nation in the world, where is this $1B coming from. I love my country and I love my people no matter where they came from, but my government is not what it should be. I pray that my countrymen will wake up before it is too late.
john sancx
Afghanistan 04/09/2008
1 billion dollars.........
? 1 billion dollars?...When we have a mortgage crisis ,health care issues,and financial crisis with the middle class !! Give me a break, Mr President!
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----------------
Another article and blog from Aljazerra.
----------------
Palin's connection to 'big oil'
By Rob Winder in St Paul, Minnesota
Palin says the US should drill its way out of dependence on foreign oil [GALLO/GETTY]
Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska who has shot to prominence as John McCain's choice as running-mate, is best known as a passionate believer in new oil and gas exploration, including in Alaska's National Widelife Reserve - something McCain himself rejects.
But campaigners say she has a mixed record on her dealings with the oil corporations to which the Republican party has so many historic ties.
"There is no question that Palin's appointment as the Republican vice-presidential candidate cements the fact that John McCain is the candidate of big oil," Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress, a Washington-based think-tank, told Al Jazeera.
"She supports the agenda of big oil - of more drilling - and she opposes investments in clean and renewable energy," he said.
Palin has presented herself as a challenger to corporate interests in Alaska, although that is because she believes the major energy companies have not acted swiftly enough in carrying out drilling and pipeline projects in the state.
Ending dependence
McCain and Palin have considerable
ties to big oil firms [EPA]
The Alaskan governor also sees more drilling of US oil reserves as a way of ending US dependence on oil imports from the Middle East and elsewhere.
"I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she told Investor's Business Daily magazine earlier this year.
In 2006, she acted to renegotiate a deal with Exxon, BP and Conoco Phillips to build a pipeline carrying natural gas from Alaska's North Slope region across Canada to the US.
Palin also pushed for legislation to provide $500m in state funds to the companies to act on the project and eventually agreed to give the contract to TransCanada, a Canadian firm.
She also introduced a new tax on oil companies operating in Alaska and went as far as saying she supported Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, when he proposed a windfall tax as part of his energy policy earlier this year.
However, her husband, Todd Palin used to work for the British Petroleum oil corporation in Alaska's North Slope region and she has collected almost $13,000 from lobbyists connected to the oil industry, reports say.
And Matt Gonzalez, environmentalist Ralph Nader's running-mate for his presidential campaign in 2008, says Palin has characterised the windfall tax in different ways depending on the audience and that she has not taken on oil corporations in the way she has claimed.
"We know that the oil companies have been making profits that have never been seen before, and the taxes that Palin has introduced are trivial in comparison," he told Al Jazeera.
Environmental concerns
Palin has opposed rulings on designating
polar bears as endangered [EPA]
Environmentalists have expressed concern about Palin's views on the causes of climate change.
"A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made," she said in an interview in August this year.
Palin, a keen hunter, has also threatened to sue the US government over its ruling on having the polar bear designated as an endangered species and opposed protection for salmon threatened by pollution from the mining industry.
The Palin connection has worried campaigners already concerned about McCain's ties to large oil firms that have led to him being dubbed "Exxon John" by Democrats.
McCain has received more than $1.5m from oil and gas interests for his presidential campaign, nearly four times more than the amount Obama has taken, according to figures up to July from the Centre for Responsive Politics.
Lobbying power
At this year's Republican National Convention, the power of the oil lobbying firms was on display.
In focus
In-depth coverage of the US election
Haly Barbour, the governor of the state of Mississippi, hosted a lavish party for executives from the American Petroleum Institute to meet Republicans on Tuesday, an event targeted by protesters and activists.
Randa Fahmyhudome, a former Bush administration energy official, said Palin was right to call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"In America, we are world's number one consumer of petroleum in the world and no-one knows better than Alaskans themselves what is good for environment. We ought to look to Alaskans and Governor Palin on this issue," she said.
"New technology will help us protect the environment while we develop these resources," she added.
Source: Al Jazeera
Feedback Number of comments : 17
Tim Sexton
United States 04/09/2008
Palins oil ties cause concern
The only people concerned are the members of OPEC, who are soiling themselves as American ingenuity leads to a new energy revolution that will have a very deversified foundation & minimal international reliance. If we follow through energy prices will dive. Tim Sexton
Paul Gruber
United States 04/09/2008
This article is just plain wrong, it's blatant disinformation and of the basest kind.
Joe
Australia 05/09/2008
Re: Tim Sexton
I read your comment and cannot stop but think about how blind you are. It is not about OPEC or money but the environment and the preservation of endangered areas and animals. However, as someone from USA your total disregard towards everything but yourself is to be excused. People like you will drive us all to extinction.
Jack
United States 05/09/2008
Palins connection to "big oil"
americans will never weed themselves off oil because the biggest oil consumer in the world is the Pentagon... the military machine runs on oil...
Mr. Smith
United States 05/09/2008
Oil by association.
I can understand Palins stance on the oil issue, when your state has one of the worlds largest reserves on earth. She is doing what is best for Alaska and the lower 48, which is her job. OPEC has a strangle hold on the U.S. and it will get ALOT worse before it gets better, unless we start doing something about it now. If those opec countries stopped the oil to the U.S. our country will come to a halt. And the U.S. would become a third world country in a week.
Jan Weisensee
Germany 05/09/2008
Alaskas oil resources ridiculous
Why Palin suggests that Alaska's oil will help the US to become independent from the OPEC? According to numbers from Wikipedia, US oil resources would cover its consumption for only 6.5 years. Then Americans would have the same problem as before - not very sustainable, isn't it?
Gagan deep chaswal
India 04/09/2008
Depends on sitauations
First time i have heard from any american that US should leave dependence on the middle-east countries for oil resources...quite impressive but she knows or not but this is all-in-all problem with US..that it is standing as a power in the world due to support from oil-rich countries..and i m very much confident one day palin will also get to know that she was wrong..but as being a govt official she will duly acquire knowledge by the time & will follow the same route like other intelligent's did.
glen roberts
United States 04/09/2008
"I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," (Palin) told Investor's Business Daily magazine earlier this year. This is typical Republican ignorance. The fact is we can't drill ourselves out of any problem that is continually exacerbated by still explosive population growth. Glen Roberts nottalkradio.com
Richard Faith
United Kingdom 04/09/2008
Anybody believing that drilling newer resources is some "new energy revolution" (ahem) is exactly the kind of deluded individual the Republicans snare. Anybody that hasn't noticed we've been drilling oil for decades simply isn't paying attention.
Richard Faith
United Kingdom 04/09/2008
The sad irony is that the Alaska/Canada/Russia/arctic melt renders the seabed there easily accessible for more prospecting - so that we can pump more fossil waste into the air - this human species really isn't concerned about its long term survival.
dave
Ireland 05/09/2008
US cant use their own oil and heres why-
gull island fields in Alaska have been available since the early 70's but a reciprocal deal with the Saudi’s was done to take some of their oil profits and buy US govt T-Bills (U.S. treasury notes) in order to support the U.S. national debt and continued deficit spending as well as that all their oil was to be traded in USD which the fed printed generating a cyclic petro dollar flow. The US could never use their own oil reserves as it breaks this flow. Alaskan oil is knee jerk politics. D
Alex
Germany 05/09/2008
Oil prices will dive?
@Tim: The oil price will "dive" because of extensive drilling in Alaska? Very unlikely. The reserves in Alaska are not big enough.
Carl B
United Kingdom 04/09/2008
same old story
She is a classic proponent of the 'shock doctrine' - use the current problems to scare people into letting go of their environment, and handing their resources over to big business. You can just see the sleeping directorships rolling in. It will not change US foreign policy though, big business needs weakened, vulnerable markets, protected by limited democracies that do what they're told. She is business as usual.
Tim Brown
United States 04/09/2008
Dangerous Demagogue
Sarah Palin fits right in with the neo-conservatives who have taken control of the Republican Party and the nation. She believes in authoritarian rule, that her religious beliefs should take precidence over science and her speech on Wednesday evening showed that she can play to the fears and prejudices of an uninformed electorate like the Rove-puppet she really is. It is a scary prospect that someone with such a slim resume could be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
bill baker
United States 05/09/2008
palin oil
I don't know about you but I draw a blank when a supposed expert can only speak rudimentary english Randa Fahmyhudome, a former Bush administration energy official, said Palin was right to call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "In America, we are world's number one consumer of petroleum in the world and no-one knows better than Alaskans themselves what is good for environment. We ought to look to Alaskans and Governor Palin on this issue," she said.
Robert Vine
United States 05/09/2008
Energy from oil
This article is incorrect. McCain/ Palin have not stated that more oil is the solution to America's energy needs. It is one needed element with wind, nuclear, biomass, energy inovations and other renewable energy sources all playing a role in a healthier economy and enviornment.
Bill Corcoran
United States 05/09/2008
Palin
Can someone identify the lapel pin she wore during her speech. Is it a flag of another country? It is not the state flag of Alaska.
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I printed this out of interest for what others are saying about Palin. The last entry is from a USA soldier who has his own blog. Corcoran, served in Iraq.
Top News
Presidential vote opens in Pakistan
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AMERICAS News
Death toll rises after Haiti storm
Iraq seeks answers on US spy claims
Canada PM to call election
US unemployment hits new high
Cheney visits Ukraine amid crisis
Most emailed articles
What Palin says about McCain
Ron Paul's 'counter-convention'
Palin's connection to 'big oil'
Rwanda's female touch
Kremlin critic 'shot in custody'
All, another article from Aljazerra news.
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Iraq seeks answers on US spy claims
The new book claims the Bush administration spied on al-Maliki [GALLO/GETTY]
Iraq is to seek an explanation from American officials over a report asserting the US spied on Iraqi officials, including Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister.
The claim comes in a new book by Bob Woodward, a US journalist, the Washington Post newspaper reported on Friday.
"If it is true ... it reflects that there is no trust," Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said in a statement.
He also said that Iraq would ask the US for an explanation.
Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, declined to comment on the claims made in The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008, Woodward's fourth book on the administration of George Bush, the US president.
'Good relationship'
"We have extensive co-operation with Prime Minister Maliki. Our ambassador sees him almost daily," Perino said.
"To the extent that they [the Iraqi government] have any concerns, because we have the good relationship that we have with them ... I'm sure that they'll be talking about it."
Woodward's book asserts that the surveillance of the Iraqi prime minister caused concern among several senior US officials, who questioned whether it was worth the risk given Bush's efforts to earn al-Maliki's trust, the Washington Post reported.
The book also questions whether the US troop build up ordered by Bush in 2007 and known as the "surge", was not the primary reason for a drop in violence in Iraq.
Instead Woodward says it was only a factor alongside others such as the emergence of the Sunni Awakening forces and the decision by Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Shia leader, to rein in his al-Mahdi Army.
Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser,
issued a sharply worded statement countering a number of claims made in the book but his statement said nothing about Woodward's assertion that the Bush administration spied extensively on Iraq.
Feedback Number of comments : 1
Globan Citizen
Canada 06/09/2008
Iraq seeks answers on US spy claims
If Mr. al-Maliki or his staff really were surprised to hear that the Americans were spying on them, then they are either very naïve to extent of idiocy or putting up a show for the world. Americans spy on everyone including their closest allies.That is what makes them so strong not just weaponry.
An article from Heritage Foundation.
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August 28, 2008
Russia's Recognition of Independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia Is Illegitimate: They Are Not Kosovo
by Sally McNamara
WebMemo #2037
Russia has signaled its intention to continue escalating the crisis in Georgia by unilaterally and illegally recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
After both failing to abide by the terms of the formal ceasefire negotiated by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and vetoing attempts to resolve the crisis in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he "now felt obliged to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as other countries had done with Kosovo."[1]
Comparing the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Kosovo is not only duplicitous, but it is also a calculated move by Moscow designed to show the West that it was serious when it threatened reprisals for Kosovo's declaration of independence in February.[2] Russia successfully engineered this crisis to suit its broader geopolitical ambitions, and unless the West pushes back in unequivocal terms, it is more than likely that Russia will pursue similar policies in other neighboring states, particularly Ukraine.
Russia Does Not Keep Its Word
After more than a week of disproportionate military activity by Moscow, including multiple incursions into sovereign Georgian territory, Russia signed a French-led ceasefire agreement on August 16, agreeing to six key points. Moscow has shamelessly flouted the ceasefire at every turn, thereby exposing the weakness of Sarkozy's shuttle diplomacy. However, despite the ceasefire's general shortcomings, the agreement was clear on one particular point: both sides' commitment to international talks regarding the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.[3] Emboldened by the fact that Russia previously endorsed United Nations (U.N.) resolutions affirming the territorial integrity of fellow U.N. member state Georgia, Sarkozy took Moscow's word that the final status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be resolved through international negotiations.
Although Europe has shown itself to be weak and ineffective in resolving this crisis, it has been unified around the idea that Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. Moscow's illegal and immoral recognition of the breakaway regions is both a personal humiliation for Sarkozy and a political humiliation for the European Union's (EU) policy of unfettered engagement with Russia.
Russia's Illegal Actions
Through its recognition of independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia is attempting to set as precedent the redrawing of borders by the use of force. This move has been condemned by Germany, France, the U.K., NATO, the Council of Europe, the United States, and Russia's neighbor Ukraine. Representatives of these nations and organizations have issued strong statements of condemnation, including the following:
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has denounced Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as "unjustifiable and unacceptable";[4]
Georgia's deputy foreign minister, Giga Bokeria, has described Russia's decision as "an unconcealed annexation";[5] and
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated that the U.S. will veto any attempt to legitimize Russia's actions through the UNSC.[6]
At present, UNSC resolutions recognizing the Georgian borders inclusive of South Ossetia and Abkhazia—resolutions of which Russia has previously voted in favor—remain in force.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia Are Not Kosovo
The current situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia bears no resemblance or moral equivalence to Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008. Kosovo spent seven years as a U.N.-administered protectorate and was denied Security Council recognition only when Moscow wielded its veto power. U.N. Special Envoy on Kosovo's future status Martti Ahtisaari, who proposed Kosovan independence, enjoyed the support of the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), NATO, the United States, the Western Members of the Kosovo Contact Group, the U.N., and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Ahtisaari united the majority of the international community on Kosovo's future, and thus far 46 U.N. countries have formally recognized Kosovo, with seven recognitions still pending.[7] The near-universal support for Kosovar independence stands in sharp contrast to the unilateralism exercised by Moscow over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Kosovo's independence was gained through the U.N. process with prior consultation and widespread unity.
The head of OSCE, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, has accused Russia "of trying to empty South Ossetia of Georgians."[8] As a result of either force, fear or a combination of both, thousands of Georgians have fled the region. South Ossetia, with Moscow's assistance, is cleansing the area of ethnic Georgians, thereby essentially copying Serbia's effort to ethnically cleanse Kosovo. The West should not countenance such a policy.
Russian claims that Georgia has engaged in Serbian-like ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia are preposterous. The systematic and brutal atrocities committed by a Slobodan Milošević–led Serbia in the Balkans are incomparable to the situation between Georgia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. When the majority of the European Union and the United States recognized Kosovo's independence, they acknowledged that such independence was the result of tough, tragic, violent, and unique circumstances. As Lady Margaret Thatcher said in 1999, "It would be both cruel and stupid to expect the Albanian Kosovans now to return to live under any form of Serbian rule."[9] Apart from Moscow, even the most ardent critic of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili would be at pains to compare him to Slobodan Milošević.
Unlike Kosovo, which wants to enjoy true independence and ingratiate itself into Euro-Atlantic institutions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia will become enclaves of Russia, de facto subservient to the will of Moscow. Indeed, Moscow is currently considering basing a permanent military facility in Abkhazia.[10] Russia argued that the principle of self-determination was null and void in Kosovo but has now turned around and used it as an excuse to back South Ossetia's and Abkhazia's independence, which it ultimately has no intentions of respecting. Moscow remains intellectually bereft in this argument, lacking any sort of consistency with regard to the principle of self-determination.
In Defense of Our Values
Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko is correct in stating that the Georgian-Russian War has exposed the weakness and ineffectiveness of international bodies like the U.N.[11] Russia has shown itself more than ready to have a showdown with the West and is blatantly testing the resolve of both Europe and the Unites States.
Europe must quickly recognize that the Georgian situation cannot be undone and that more aggression is to be expected from Moscow. Russia has pledged that it will go to any lengths to protect its gains in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the West must not underestimate Moscow's determination to make good on that commitment.
In a stirring article in the Daily Telegraph, British Conservative leader David Cameron and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek stated that "we should not forget that the lessons of 1968 apply still in 2008—that we must be strong and vigilant in defence of our values and not look the other way when a small independent country is invaded by its neighbour."[12] Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Georgia next week, following an emergency EU summit to discuss the Caucus crisis. It is important that Europe stands with the United States in confronting Russian aggression.
Sally McNamara is Senior Policy Analyst in European Affairs in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation. The author is grateful to Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, for his advice and suggestions.
[1] "Russia Recognizes Georgian Rebels," BBC News, August 26, 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7582181.stm (August 28, 2008).
[2] "West ‘to Pay for Kosovo,'" The Sunday Mail (Australia), February 24, 2008.
[8] "Russia Recognizes Georgian Rebels," BBC News.
[9] Margaret Thatcher, "Speech to the International Free Enterprise dinner," April 20, 1999, at www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?
docid=108381 (August 28, 2008).
[12] David Cameron and Mirek Topolánek, "Russia Cannot Limit its Neighbours' Liberty," Daily Telegraph, August 26, 2008, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=
/opinion/2008/08/26/do2602.xml (August 28, 2008).
Remember what Robert and I said 4 years ago.....it will take 7-10 years to bring the dinar into its true value...
I believe the IMF has set that course for Iraq and unless the CBI does something different, the track of the dinar is as certain as a hurricane track in the gulf striking land somewhere...
I still have my wood cut and stacked for the pig roast...but I hate to admit it...it may have the chance to dry a little longer....
This is from August of 1999 but I think it is worth the read. One statement that stands out in the below article: "Governments do, occasionally, take such measures, often in response to unusual market pressures". Is Iraq the exception that would allow the CBI to take measures to revalue its currency.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Currency Devaluation and Revaluation
Under a fixed exchange rate system, devaluation and revaluation are official changes in the value of a country's currency relative to other currencies. Under a floating exchange rate system, market forces generate changes in the value of the currency, known as currency depreciation or appreciation.
In a fixed exchange rate system, both devaluation and revaluation can be conducted by policymakers, usually motivated by market pressures.
The charter of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) directs policymakers to avoid "manipulating exchange rates...to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other members."
At the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, international leaders sought to insure a stable post-war international economic environment by creating a fixed exchange rate system. The United States played a leading role in the new arrangement, with the value of other currencies fixed in relation to the dollar and the value of the dollar fixed in terms of gold—$35 an ounce. Following the Bretton Woods agreement, the United States authorities took actions to hold down the growth of foreign central bank dollar reserves to reduce the pressure for conversion of official dollar holdings into gold.
During the mid- to late-1960s, the United States experienced a period of rising inflation. Because currencies could not fluctuate to reflect the shift in relative macroeconomic conditions between the United States and other nations, the system of fixed exchange rates came under pressure.
In 1973, the United States officially ended its adherence to the gold standard. Many other industrialized nations also switched from a system of fixed exchange rates to a system of floating rates. Since 1973, exchange rates for most industrialized countries have floated, or fluctuated, according to the supply of and demand for different currencies in international markets. An increase in the value of a currency is known as appreciation, and a decrease as depreciation. Some countries and some groups of countries, however, continue to use fixed exchange rates to help to achieve economic goals, such as price stability.
Under a fixed exchange rate system, only a decision by a country's government or monetary authority can alter the official value of the currency. Governments do, occasionally, take such measures, often in response to unusual market pressures. Devaluation, the deliberate downward adjustment in the official exchange rate, reduces the currency's value; in contrast, a revaluation is an upward change in the currency's value.
For example, suppose a government has set 10 units of its currency equal to one dollar. To devalue, it might announce that from now on 20 of its currency units will be equal to one dollar. This would make its currency half as expensive to Americans, and the U.S. dollar twice as expensive in the devaluing country. To revalue, the government might change the rate from 10 units to one dollar to five units to one dollar; this would make the currency twice as expensive to Americans, and the dollar half as costly at home.
Under What Circumstances Might a Country Devalue?
When a government devalues its currency, it is often because the interaction of market forces and policy decisions has made the currency's fixed exchange rate untenable. In order to sustain a fixed exchange rate, a country must have sufficient foreign exchange reserves, often dollars, and be willing to spend them, to purchase all offers of its currency at the established exchange rate. When a country is unable or unwilling to do so, then it must devalue its currency to a level that it is able and willing to support with its foreign exchange reserves.
A key effect of devaluation is that it makes the domestic currency cheaper relative to other currencies. There are two implications of a devaluation. First, devaluation makes the country's exports relatively less expensive for foreigners. Second, the devaluation makes foreign products relatively more expensive for domestic consumers, thus discouraging imports. This may help to increase the country's exports and decrease imports, and may therefore help to reduce the current account deficit.
There are other policy issues that might lead a country to change its fixed exchange rate. For example, rather than implementing unpopular fiscal spending policies, a government might try to use devaluation to boost aggregate demand in the economy in an effort to fight unemployment. Revaluation, which makes a currency more expensive, might be undertaken in an effort to reduce a current account surplus, where exports exceed imports, or to attempt to contain inflationary pressures.
Effects of Devaluation
A significant danger is that by increasing the price of imports and stimulating greater demand for domestic products, devaluation can aggravate inflation. If this happens, the government may have to raise interest rates to control inflation, but at the cost of slower economic growth.
Another risk of devaluation is psychological. To the extent that devaluation is viewed as a sign of economic weakness, the creditworthiness of the nation may be jeopardized. Thus, devaluation may dampen investor confidence in the country's economy and hurt the country's ability to secure foreign investment.
Another possible consequence is a round of successive devaluations. For instance, trading partners may become concerned that a devaluation might negatively affect their own export industries. Neighboring countries might devalue their own currencies to offset the effects of their trading partner's devaluation. Such "beggar thy neighbor" policies tend to exacerbate economic difficulties by creating instability in broader financial markets.
Since the 1930s, various international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been established to help nations coordinate their trade and foreign exchange policies and thereby avoid successive rounds of devaluation and retaliation. The 1976 revision of Article IV of the IMF charter encourages policymakers to avoid "manipulating exchange rates...to gain an unfair competitive advantage over other members." With this revision, the IMF also set forth each member nation's right to freely choose an exchange rate system.
(www.newyorkfed.org)
WASHINGTON - The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced. Government may soon back troubled mortgage giants
WASHINGTON - The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced. Government may soon back troubled mortgage giants
WASHINGTON - The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080906/ap_on_bi_ge/mortgage_giants_crisis
Am I to understand in that article "While the Cats Away, European Mice Will Play" that the europeans are selling all other currency but the dollar and thereby prompting up the value of the dollar?. Why would they do this if I am correct in my understanding of that article?. Anyone else have any ideas on this question?.
Sarah Palin's credentials to be President are being questioned. What has so done? What's her background, that qualifies her to be President?
Well, she is an extremely successful governor of a small state. Isn't that enough? It was, for Bill Clinton. No one ever questioned Bill's qualifications. Yet being a governor was the only real accomplishment of his life.
The way I look at candidates, I look at their all round life experience.
In Alberta, we recently had, for over a decade, a premier (equal to American governor), Ralph Klein, who was one of the most successful premiers in Canadian history. He's also a grade 10 drop out. (After finishing his political career he finished high school and a university career)
Prestigious Wall Street credit agencies, that rank government performances around the world, gave him the highest rating of any governor or premier, in North America, at one point. He retired with very high approval ratings, and Alberta's financial house in order. Thanks to him, Alberta is in great shape. The fellow who was premier before him, who graduated with honours from university, left an absolute financial mess in Alberta, that Ralph had to clean up. And clean up he did.
Thankfully, the people of Alberta were down to earth and common sensical enough to see he was qualified, and hired him. Myself, I try to judge people on the basis of who they are, regardless of education. I try to judge on character. This leads sometimes to odd conclusions, when you try to be objective about people. For instances, one of the finest, and most intelligent men I ever met was a native Indian man I met while hiking on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. He had been to school one year, hadn't travelled much. He was running a series of cabins, one of which we were renting. I got to know him the summer we went their, and once you looked past the job he had, and started talking to him and watching him interact with people, I quickly concluded he was downright brilliant, and an extremely good man.
I've met and listened to a lot of brilliant people in my life, including Jane Goodal, the famous biologist, and I'd have to say this Indian I met out in the bush was the smartest person I ever met.
So, my hope is people will judge her for who she is, and use their own judgement, and not listen too much to the twits on TV, in the media who criticise her.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is she is extremely smart, determined and capable, and would make a fine vice-president, and President, if the worst happens.
I did download the translation language item, but I was unable to get the article to come up. The window said, could not find url. I am not that great at technical computer items and maybe it is me. I am learning a little at a time. Could you tell me what this article is about on the interest rates and why you found it significant?.
An article from Iranian News about their currency.
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Iran to Introduce Toman as New National Currency
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Central Bank of Iran plans to lop four zeros off the country's national currency and rename it to toman, a CBI official said.
"The Central Bank is planning to replace the rial with toman by removing three zeros from the end. However, we are still open to any expert suggestions on this matter," the official, who refused to be named, told FNA on Tuesday.
The rial has been used as Iran's official national currency since 1932. However, in more recent years the term toman has replaced the rial in daily practice as an unofficial unit.
A toman, in its current form, is worth 10 rials, but now the CBI plans to slash three zeros off the unit - or in other words four zeros off the rial - and turn it into the country's official currency.
"The CBI will announce its final decision after studying all proposals for the name of the new currency," the source added.
Iran's money shortage problem has led the CBI to include a change of currency in its major monetary reform package which encompasses various sectors of the Iranian economy.
The current bank notes do not correspond to the living costs, as a result customers and consumers have to carry a lot of cash everyday.
As a temporary remedy for the problem, the CBI has recently printed two new Travelers Cheques (worth 500,000 and 1,000,000 rials equivalent to around USD 52 and USD 104 respectively).
These new Travelers Cheques, which function quite similar to a banknote, are seen as the first step toward a new currency, as they have the figure 50 and 100 written on their top right hand corner.
What the lost of Azerbaijan territory for oil is impacting the situation with Iran.
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Iran transits Azerbaijan oil to Europe
Sep 1, 2008
Iranian.ws
Azerbaijan has delivered its first oil cargo for transit through Iran after exports were disrupted by the recent Georgian conflict. The Republic of Azerbaijan will export between 5 and 10 thousand barrels of crude oil via Iran daily, according to an Iranian oil ministry official.
Azerbaijan delivered the first cargo to the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company (OTC) last week, said Moosa Suri, OTC managing director, Shana news agency reported on Saturday.
According to news reports, Azeri oil is delivered from Sangachal Terminal in the south of the capital Baku to the Iranian port of Neka in the Caspian Sea. An equivalent amount of crude oil is then will be swapped at Khark Island in the Persian Gulf.
The current level of the crude swap by Central Asian countries via Iran has increased from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, and it is expected that this will soon surpass 200,000 barrels per day.
Azerbaijan oil supplies through Georgia were cut due to the recent military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi, prompted by a Georgian attack on the independence-seeking South Ossetia.
The military conflict between Russia and Georgia led to the closure of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline which normally transports 90,000 barrels of crude daily from the Azeri capital to the Georgian port in the Black Sea.
Azerbaijan recognizes that Iran has strategic benefits which make the new arrangements advantageous. Most important of these are the location of Iran with its ability to access free waters via the Persian Gulf, and the existence of oil terminal facilities in the ports of Neka, Amirabad and Anzeli.
Laura Parker Government knows that if they don't do this, that the FDIC will fail. They don't want the people of this country to know the truth that the FDIC is a farce.(hi taxes)By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writer
1 hour, 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some of the details of the intervention, which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, the companies' chief regulator, met Friday afternoon with the top executives from the mortgage companies and informed them of the government's plan to put the troubled companies into a conservatorship.
The news, first reported on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, came after stock markets closed. In after-hours trading Fannie Mae's shares plunged $1.54, or 22 percent, to $5.50. Freddie Mac's shares fell $1.06, or almost 21 percent, to $4.04. Common stock in the companies will be worth little to nothing after the government's actions.
The news also followed a report Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association that more than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, a record 9 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June.
That confirmed what investors saw in Fannie and Freddie's recent financial results: trouble in the mortgage market has shifted to homeowners who had solid credit but took out exotic loans with little or no proof of their income and assets.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost a combined $3.1 billion between April and June. Half of their credit losses came from these types of risky loans with ballooning monthly payments.
While both companies said they had enough resources to withstand the losses, many investors believe their financial cushions could wither away as defaults and foreclosures mount.
Many in Washington and on Wall Street hadn't expected Paulson to intervene unless the companies had trouble issuing debt to fund their operations.
This summer, Congress passed a plan to provide unlimited government loans to Fannie and Freddie and to purchase stock in the two companies if needed.
Critics say the open-ended nature of the rescue package could expose taxpayers to billions of dollars of potential losses.
Supporters, however, argue the Bush administration had little choice but to support Fannie and Freddie, which together hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages — almost half the nation's total.
Representatives of Fannie and Freddie declined to comment on the government assistance plan.
Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said officials "have been in regular communications" with Fannie and Freddie, but refused to comment saying, "We are not going to comment on rumors."
Concern has been growing that a government rescue of Fannie and Freddie could not only wipe out common stockholders, but also be costly for scores of investment, banking and insurance companies that hold billions of dollars in their preferred shares.
Paulson has been in contact in recent weeks with foreign governments that hold billions of dollars of Fannie and Freddie debt to reassure them that the United States recognizes the importance of the two companies.
The two companies had nearly $36 billion in preferred shares outstanding as of June 30, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mudd, the son of TV anchor Roger Mudd, was elevated to Fannie Mae's top post in December 2004 when chief executive Franklin Raines and chief financial officer Timothy Howard were swept out of office in an accounting scandal. Syron was named Freddie Mac's CEO in 2003, replacing former chief Gregory Parseghian, who was ousted in after being implicated in accounting irregularities.
He formerly was executive chairman of Thermo Electron Corp., a Waltham, Mass.-based maker of scientific equipment, served head of the American Stock Exchange and was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the early 1990s.
Fannie Mae was created by the government in 1938, and was turned into a shareholder-owned company 30 years later. Freddie Mac was established in 1970 to provide competition for Fannie.
A government takeover could cost taxpayers up to $25 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
But the epic decision highlights the size of the threats facing the housing market and the economy. On Friday, Nevada regulators shut down Silver State Bank, the 11th failure this year of a federally insured bank. And earlier this year, the government orchestrated the takeover of investment bank Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase.
sorry Laura i posted the wrong article lowering the interest rate is very good four the rv. Reducing the rate of interest on funds deposited
09:25:37 AM 09:25:37 AM
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 Wednesday, 03 September 2008
كشف مصدر مسؤول في الشركة العامة للاتصالات والبريد بوزارة الاتصالات عن تخفيض نسبة الفائدة المقررة على الاموال الثابتة المودعة لديها بنسبة تقل عن 10%، وذلك بعد ان اعلن البنك المركزي العراقي تخفيضا يتراوح بين 10% و12% ابتداءاً من 1/7/2008. An official source with the General Company for Post and Communications Ministry of Communications on reducing the rate of interest on funds deposited with the fixed rate of less than 10%, after the Iraqi Central Bank announced a reduction of between 10% and 12% starting from 1/7/2008.
واهاب المصدر بالمواطنين المودعين مراعاة ذلك داعياً في الوقت ذاته الراغبين الى مراجعة الدوائر البريدية من اجل ايداع اموالهم الثابتة اذ تقوم الدائرة بالتخفيض عن الودائع بنحو 2% للمشتركين عن النسبة المقررة من البنك المركزي العراقي. The source called on citizens to take that into account depositors calling at the same time wishing to review postal services for fixed deposit their money with the Chamber reduction of deposits by 2% of the participants is set by the Central Bank of Iraq.
Thanks, Carl.. unfortunately, your 7-10 year projection is continuing to prove itself to be true.. ughhh. :)
timbitts - I agree with you on Sarah Palin. She has more qualifications for the Whitehouse than Barack Hussein Obama does.
Laura - I found amusing the article and blog from Aljazerra. I consider them spokesmen for Iran and the terrorists in all the articles they put out, and so I take anything they publish with a fair amount of salt. The article you quote which they put out could be taken from the leftist attack talking points, as per usual. The "Palin's connection to 'big oil"" headline made me laugh.. since she fought corruption against the Alaskan oil companies, demonstrably. I suppose they can conspiracy theorist everything and their assertion that anyone involved in bringing more oil to the American consumer is "in the pocket" of "big oil" (corrupt) appears to me stupid and self-defeating. Energy independence must be the aim of America and increasing the domestic supply is crucial to weaning the US off foreign oil dependency. Those who deprecate that and put conspiracy theorist ideals up to prevent it (along with absolute environmentalism, where the polar bears are of far more value than stopping funding terrorist nations with our oil purchases) - these people are making far fetched assertions that there must be corruption involved upon one who has worked all her career to stop it - particularly in the oil patch. It amounts to nothing more nor less than slander to bolster wrong-headed policy which continues to bring us more defeat. What do the terrorists we sponsor with our oil purchases do with that money? Must we continue to fund our own defeat? Is it more important to save every polar bear and salmon stocks down to the last minnow - or can we strike a deal which will not critically endanger all the fish and wildlife in Alaska and still manage to drill a few oil fields to help us become energy independent? I think the answer is obvious and am delighted to have an advocate for normality in Sarah Palin's stance on the issue. It will be for the good of America, and the defeat of her enemies. Which is likely why Iran's stooges from Aljazerra dislike it so.
Interesting posts, Laura - all of them. Intriguing about the idea that Georgia was to play a part in a strike on Iran and Russia played a counter move for Iran by this invasion. It hardly seems to have been in US interests to begin the Georgian confrontation, therefore, if it sets that critical security issue backward in that region (as is so often asserted). hmmm..
Rob N - good posts lately, thanks - I liked the 1999 post about currency revaluation.. good read, thanks. :)
Cornish_boy - I, too, would like to see your thoughts on Laura's question. (Chances are you will have replied by the time I post this, will read, thanks.)
Roger - Thanks for the reply. Yes, Einstein hairdo or not, you will get a big hug from me when I see you. :) Though Carl just said that may be years away.. sighhh.. Oh, well.. virtual Hugg for now.. :) Take care and be safe, too.
Interesting story about your "Grandma" truck driver.. service knows no gender, creed, religion, political affiliation or age boundaries. I bet some of those you serve with are even Democrats, though that is the party which is seeking defeat militarily (forfeiture under Obama) and is the party that tends to compromise our collective security by the mistaken and wrong-headed measures (overly idealistic and not according to reality policies) they would wish to impose.
I guess Democrats can have their hearts in the right place, and just be wrong about how to go about attaining those goals. Peace does not always mean laying down a weapon.. sometimes it means holding the weapon more vigilantly in order to protect the fort from being overrun by the enemy. Those in your compound hardly would advocate putting down all their weapons and removing the signs you spoke of - all in the name of peace. In some places, laying down weapons is a recipe for disaster, not peace.. and Iraq is one of those places.
I guess Churchill was right when he said, "If you're not a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're 40, you have no head." The Democrat party just never grew up out of that 20-year-old idealism into what really WORKS to implement those ideals by their 40s - they do not understand the reality of the hard work and sacrifice necessary to bring about a peaceful world which the military makes. Which is why Obama does so well with the younger voters and disaffected among the military, no doubt.
I noted another Obama flip-flop which he made in a speech recently, or deception, take your pick.
The point is.. he is not to be trusted, as the faces of the skeptics in the crowd clearly show.
If he says one thing, but wishes another thing.. then it makes you wonder what he would DO, obviously.
It is easy to flip on a point if your heart is in the opposite direction, surely.
This reminds me of the post (Laura's I think) about the need to keep the eye on the prize..
the prize not just being the President spot, but the houses of Congress, too.
==
WSJ: Obama Won't Ban Guns, 'I Don't Have the Votes in Congress'
By Tim Graham
September 6, 2008
At the OnTap blog, Cam Edwards passes along a Wall Street Journal report from the campaign trail in Pennsylvania on Friday that found Barack Obama digging himself a rhetorical hole on gun control, even in front of a hand-picked crowd.
QUOTE:
“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.
So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’
==end quote==
So Obama went from saying he wouldn't take away guns...to suggesting he wanted to, but Congress won't let him. So he goes from suggesting to gun-rights voters that they should be worried about him as president, to suggesting they better elect a gun-rights Congress to restrain his gun-controlling impulses.
The national media has not really noticed the kinds of wild anti-gun proposals Obama has made in his career...
Conditions based withdrawl..
or withdrawing when the Iraqis are ready.. is key.
==
Arab League chief: US pullout from Iraq should be gradual
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sep 6, 2008 / CERNOBBIO, Italy
Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, warned Saturday the US should not withdraw took quickly from Iraq and leave the country "in chaos."
"The question is, is Iraq today ready with a national army, a national police force, a national judiciary, a national educational system," Moussa told The Associated Press.
"If they are ready, the troops have to leave," he said. "If they are not ready and the Americans are there anyway and the mistake has been committed, I am not of the view that we just call on the Americans to leave ... It would be another mistake to create chaos in the country and then leave it in chaos."
US President George W. Bush will announce his decision on future troops levels in Iraq next week and is expected to largely follow the recommendations of military leaders to reduce the number by up to 8,000 by mid-January.
I ran across an article from Iranian News that the Iranians are retaining/imprisoning in their country a man by the name of Kian Tajbakhsh and Iranian-American man. A picture was by him and I wanted to get the article but the entry said, no article existed on this topic.
I am thinking that the USA government has pulled information on this topic and I am now wondering if this man is a USA spy related to the nuclear situation. Why else would we not be able to read the article? The caption said, article did not exist. If anyone runs across any information on this man, let me know.
I think that the USA military and Israel have been really busy trying to set up an attack on Iran. Those air carriers in the gulf that we mentioned-- were probably destined to be heading to the Persian Gulf to start the fire works.
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