Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. before Febuary 2nd 2006

any word if they conducted the 2nd or 3rd readings in parliment today?

Originally Posted by rodney ewalt

80 tons is 160,000 lbs of gold multiplied by 16 oz per pound is 2,560,000 oz of gold multiplied by oh... lets just say $400 per oz that's $1,024,000,000.

Some one correct me if I'm wrong but that's only a little over 1 billion dollars but hey.. that's still a lot of gold.

Anyway, I don't think there is any plan for Iraq to back the Dinar with gold. Is there any country today that backs their currency with gold? I'm thinking that most all if not all countries prefer a fiat system which is much easier to manipulate.

Besides all this, Iraq has the resources to develope a very strong economy not only with its huge potential oil industry but various other industries that will do much to support the Dinar. Just my opinion.

You are off by 3 zeroes....It's trillion. The amount of gold was not quoted...It was the value which was stated as $800 Billion (with a "B") at 1980's prices. So I know we are talking in the trillions today.

I am not saying they will be on the gold standard, but they were then, as were most other countries in the Mideast at that time.

[QUOTE=bob1940;160411]Papo2 could you post the details of that report. I was away freom my puter and home and did not get a chance to see it. Thanks BOB


It was only about a guy who started a Dinar dealership. The hows and whys. Nothing too specific to the dinar other than it has grown in value since Sept. Nothing earth shattering.

From the WTO site.. Dated 2004, and probably already posted, but here it is again. BTW, I am still trying to determine if the Iraqi Dinar needs to be internationally traded as a prerequisite for accession into the WTO. Any help would be appreciated...Pogo


WTO NEWS: 2004 NEWS ITEMS

13 December 2004
GENERAL COUNCIL 13 DECEMBER 2004

Accession working parties established for Afghanistan, Iraq

The General Council, on 13 December 2004, established working parties to examine, respectively, the membership applications of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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SEE ALSO:
> press releases
> news archives
> Supachai Panitchpakdi’s speeches



Find out more:
> Accessions in general






Afghanistan was invited to attend meetings of the General Council, and as appropriate, meetings of other WTO bodies as an observer.

Ambassador Assad Omer, Permanent Representative of Afghanistan, in thanking members, said that after two decades of conflict, his government has significantly improved the economic climate.

“The peaceful completion of our first direct presidential elections ... has heralded a new era of political stability”, he said.

Ambassador Omer said that his country hoped to re-establish itself as the land bridge for trans-continental trade.

“We believe that participation in the international trading system will lead to more trade, investment, technology transfer, employment and income growth throughout the economy”, he said.

Iraq was invited to continue attending meetings of the General Council and, as appropriate, meetings of other WTO bodies as an observer.

Trade Minister Mohammed Mustafa Al-Jibouri said his country viewed the decision as “yet another contribution on the part of the WTO to Iraq's efforts to reform its economy”.

He said that since the General Council's decision last February to grant observer status to Iraq, his government has started accession preparations in earnest, including the drafting of its Foreign Trade Regime Memorandum and the creation of a National Committee for WTO Accession.

“The new Iraq looks with great optimism at achieving political stability, economic prosperity and social development ... we believe that our reintegration into the world trading system is an essential element to fulfil those aims,” he said.

Regarding another membership request, that from Iran, the Chairman, Ambassador Shotaro Oshima of Japan, reported on his recent consultations. He said that although it was clear that a large part of the membership continued to be supportive of an early and positive action on this request, there was still no consensus at that stage to accept the request and to set up a working party for this purpose.


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Link WTO | News - 2004 News items - Accession working parties established for Afghanistan, Iraq

Same old song...but, nice to see a little change.

Forex Web Site "Bets" On Iraqi Dinar - Street Signs - MSNBC.com

12 minutes ago
Forex Web Site "Bets" On Iraqi Dinar
Posted By:Greg Levine

Do you feel lucky? That's the question posed by Jeffrey Pasquarella's brainchild: BetOnIraq.com -- a Web site he founded to give brave investors the chance to buy Iraq's restructured currency--the 'new' dinar.

Pasquarella told CNBC's Erin Burnett that 4,000 customers have used the site's foreign exchange service over the past three years, with the "average customer" scooping up (U.S.) $300 worth of Iraqi dinars apiece.

Little by little, the risk -- so far -- is paying off: the post-Hussein-regime currency was valued at 1,477 dinars to the Yankee greenback as of September; today, it only took 1,299 dinars to buy a dollar.

Perhaps the thrill of financial danger is as rewarding as the idea of buttressing a fledgling democracy: Pasquarella, a coin and banknote collector, declared that "if this were 1947," he'd be hungrily eyeing postwar German deutschmarks and Japanese yen...

Iraq's new draft hydrocarbons law will pave the way for 'transparent and fair' competition, oil minister says
International Herald Tribune - [22/01/2007]

A new draft hydrocarbons law will pave the way for "transparent and fair" competition in bids to develop Iraq's oil wealth, the oil minister said Sunday as he seeks to restore the confidence of global oil companies in the national industry.
The oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said that new oil fields will be added as new tenders will be issued according to this law for global oil companies.

"The competition will be transparent and fair and companies will be chosen according to their modern technological capabilities to guarantee the highest benefits for Iraqis," al-Shahristani said at a news conference. "We will not consider their nationalities and we will ignore any contract doesn't achieve the highest benefits."

Al-Shahristani refused to say how long the law will take to be approved by the parliament and did not release more details about the negotiating mechanisms the ministry will adopt for dealing with global companies.

The oil minister also cautioned that attacks against oil installations and employees were increasing, saying that 289 oil employees were killed over the past year and 179 others were wounded.

"The ministry is always suffering from these terrorist attacks. I call upon all honest people to cooperate with the oil ministry in order to find those who are attacking the employees of this sector and provide us with any related information," he said.

Insurgents have frequently targeted oil facilities, pipelines and employees, disrupting exports and efforts to modernize the industry.

The new law, if approved, is expected to encourage foreign oil companies with their huge investment clout and technology to quickly modernize Iraq's oil sector and meet the country's goal of doubling the current crude production of 2.5 million barrels per day by 2010.

The oil minister stressed that all Iraqis will share in the benefits amid concern by many Sunnis that they will lose out as the country's two chief oil region — in southern and northern Iraq — are dominated by Shiites and Kurds, who want regional control over oil production and revenues.

Iraq's Sunni Muslims and much of the Baghdad government want to maintain national control over Iraq's petroleum resources as was the case during former leader Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

"The constitution states that oil and gas are for all Iraqis in all provinces and regions and according to this conception we drafted this oil law to help promote Iraq's unity and prosperity of its people," he said.

Last Thursday, the ministry's spokesman Assem Jihad told The Associated Press that the law stresses that all oil revenues will go to a central fund, then will be distributed to all Iraqis in all regions and provinces according to their populations.

Jihad added that the law provided for all oil contracts signed by Saddam's regime or by the semiautonomous northern government of Kurdistan to be reviewed and amended if needed.

Iraq's proven oil reserves stand at about 115 billion barrels, the world's third largest after Saudi Arabia and Iran.

On a technical matter, al-Shahristani said that a new metering system to track oil and gas flows from Iraq's southern export ports has been fixed.

Iraq's economy has been severely weakened by oil smuggling to neighboring countries, a problem that could be checked in part by the presence of a metering system. The smuggling has created a fuel crisis that leads to occasional shortages even though Iraq is one of the world's leading producers of oil.

Some experts believe that oil smuggling may be funding Iraq's insurgency.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3000

Bob Cesca


Unsolved Mystery: The Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law (14 comments )
READ MORE: Baghdad, Dick Cheney, Tony Snow, ExxonMobil, BP p.l.c., Virginia, McLean
Finding information about the much-discussed but barely reported Iraqi hydrocarbon law has been about as easy as finding information about which specific breed of puppy the vice president uses in his top secret ghoul smoothies. (Answer: all of them. The VPOTUS has also mentioned in private that adorable baby orangutans are "crumbelievable.") Hence, my daily search to learn more about the law has met with results ranging from brief mentions by Tony Snow to the repetition of the same information first reported by The Independent.


But TomPaine.com is now reporting that the controversial profit-sharing agreements (PSAs) have been stripped (in theory) from the law.

The PSAs, as originally reported by The Independent, would have allowed Western oil robber barons to slip into Baghdad and hork Iraqi oil for 30 years and, in the near term, the PSAs would've allowed Vice President Cheney's advisors at Shell, Exxon-Mobil and BP to keep around 75 percent of the profits.

The legislation was brokered by the financially embattled BearingPoint corporation in McLean, Virginia, and The Independent further reported that as much as $117,000 was donated to both Bush campaigns, in addition to other contributions to several ranking Republicans on the House defense appropriations subcommittee. BearingPoint's Iraq contract from your federal government? $240 million, according to The Independent.

The president's escalation plan and the passage of the hydrocarbon law, which is expected by March, are converging in a spooky yet well-lubricated coitus and all but confirms many of our suspicions that the president's most excellent adventure has, indeed, been about oil profits and his own 2004 re-election plans (see his remarks regarding war presidents). Reuters reports:

"Passing an oil law to help settle potentially explosive disputes among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian communities over the division of oil reserves has been a key demand of the United States in providing further military support to the government."
That'd be your escalation-slash-oil "coincidence." In the same article, which primarily reported on the passage of the law in the Iraqi Oil Committee, Reuters buried the following quote on page four of their story:

"If the legal problems are solved by the oil law, that's good news," said a senior Western oil executive.
"But security issues are a much bigger issue. The big money will not go to Baghdad unless it's convinced that employees and contractors won't be abducted, shot or killed."


Of course reducing the violence in Baghdad should be a huge priority... so civilians can walk the streets and eat and go to work and worship without, you know, dying. But dammit, securing the streets of Baghdad with American blood so Rich Western Oil Executive White Guy X can breathe easier? Sorry, no.

And now, even without the thievery of the PSAs, it looks like there's still language in the law that will allow the oil companies to get what they were (allegedly) promised in those secret energy policy meetings with Vice President Cheney.

Antonia Juhasz, a visiting scholar at Institute for Policy Studies, reports for TomPaine.com that no-one really knows the actual specifics of the law, including and especially the Iraqi people. Secrecy, after all, is the hallmark of Bush-style democracy (secretive democracy is not unlike, say, pro-Jew Nazism). What is known, however, is:

"[The hydrocarbon law] also grants foreign oil companies "national treatment," which means that the Iraqi government cannot give preference to Iraqi oil companies (whether public or privately owned) over foreign-owned companies when it chooses contractors. This provision alone will severely cripple the government's ability to ensure that Iraqis gain as much economic benefit as possible from their oil."
So here's a thumbnail of what we could be facing in the coming months and years.

--After the hydrocarbon law is passed, an enormous influx in Big Oil lobbyists and negotiators will certainly ride into Baghdad like well-dressed ticks clinging tenaciously to the necks of our soldiers -- thirsty and driven to apply an onslaught of coercive pressure on the weak and vulnerable Iraqi government. Their goal: to attain epic deals not unlike the ones previewed by the apparently defunct PSAs

--As huge oil profits are fleeced from the Iraqi people by Western multinationals, insurgents will be further motivated to continue the civil war. Presuming that security will dictate Big Oil's level of activity in Baghdad, the violence won't be as significant there but you can count on continued and increased bloodshed in Anbar province and elsewhere.

--The Sunnis, who lack any real oil, and their allies in al-Qaeda will be further motivated to seek revenge on Western and Shi'ite targets inside and outside of Iraq. American soldiers and Iraqi civilians will continue to be caught in the middle of it all -- at least until 2009, with blowback stretching deep into the future.

Tell me again, Bush Republicans, how this isn't about oil. Tell me again, Bush Republicans, how this helps to end the civil war and prevents further terrorism.

Tuesday night, in his State of the Union address, the president might comment about the Iraqi oil law and he'll do his very best to make it taste just like a peach -- wealth and unity for the Iraqi people and such. Two years ago, in his 2005 State of the Union, it was all about the purple fingers. Two years ago, he predicted great victories for our soldiers and the Iraqi citizens as the result of the purple fingers. Congressmen embarrassed themselves by strutting around with purple fingers as if they had personal blood invested in the effort for the Iraqi vote. Two years later, things are worse. The destruction and secrecy and the back-room deals continue. The civil war and occupation and profiteering escalates. And the mainstream press continues to ignore this law: a disgusting and perverse side of the Iraq story. In her article, Antonia Juhasz mentioned an opportunity to make some news tomorrow:

On January 23, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will hold a hearing to investigate "oil and reconstruction strategy in Iraq." This offers a critical opportunity to demand a cessation of all U.S. government and corporate influence over Iraqis as to the future of their oil.
The Blog | Bob Cesca: Unsolved Mystery: The Iraqi Hydrocarbon Law | The Huffington Post

hi' thank you for this info. and the web- site; it really help me to understand. the currancy conver. was not sure where to exchange my dinars are when. thanks

Municipality prepares program to improve services


The Baghdad Municipality has prepared a wide program to rehabilitate and upgrade the municipality services in hot neighborhoods in Baghdad in cooperation and coordination with security and services committee headed by Dr. Salam az-Zobai' the Iraqi deputy prime minister.

The informational spokesman of the municipality told as-Sabah that the work program will be synchronized with the security plan, the Iraqi government determines to implement over the next days, indicating that the program will include dividing Baghdad neighborhoods to 4 sectors, 2 in Karkh and 2 in Rusafa.
Source: Al Sabaah




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Posted on Monday, January 22

Kirkuk committee agrees on compensating displaced people


An authorized source in the higher committee of applying item 140 said that the committee has issued during its last meeting important decisions on the aspect of normalizing Kirkuk situation.

Source showed that the committee has gathered and headed by minister of law head of the committee and agreed on returning evacuated people of all sectors to their original areas with the allocation of pieces of land for each family and compensation of 10 million diners with recommendation for returning discharged employees to their work.
Source: Al Sabaah




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Posted on Monday, January 22 @