Thread: Iraq/Dinar News Before Febuary 12th, 2006

Iraqi group unveils 'billion-dollar' Kurdish trade centre 1 hour, 10 minutes ago



An Iraqi consortium has completed the first stage of what was billed as the billion-dollar Nishan Trade Center in Arbil, northern Iraq and is to boast three 25-storey office towers.

Nizar Hanna, chairman of the Nasri Consortium and head of the project, said eight percent of the centre city project had been achieved since 2002, and gave 2010 as the final completion date.

Investors include his consortium, the Iraqi Trade Bank and the Al-Omar investment group, Hanna said Friday.

"We got the land from the government of Kurdistan for a symbolic price meant to encourage investment," he added.

Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani called the center an important project that would create jobs for Kurds and help local businesses.

"Iraqi Kurdistan's doors are always open to investors," Barzani said.

Hanna said the trade center would include three 25-storey towers as well as hundreds of shops, offices, restaurants and cafes.

Parking for 5,000 vehicles is also in the works.

The centre's designers were identified as the Dubai-based Middle East Company for Reconstruction.

Hanna said his group was also building a "Dream City" project that would cover one square kilometre (0.4 square miles) and include 1,600 residential units, schools, markets, gardens, and health and recreational centres.

Its cost was estimated at 600 million dollars.


Iraqi group unveils 'billion-dollar' Kurdish trade centre - Yahoo! News

US Congress incredulous at $4bn cash sent to Iraq on pallets
JEREMY PELOFSKY IN WASHINGTON
GIANT pallets loaded with cash amounting to more than $4 billion (£2 billion) and weighing a total of 363 tons were sent to Baghdad aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, it has been revealed to Congress.

The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the UN-run oil-for-food programme and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.

The notes were loaded on to military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Representative Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," the California Democrat said during a hearing reviewing possible waste, fraud and abuse of funds in Iraq.

On 12 December, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the largest pay-out of US currency in Fed history," according to an e-mail cited by committee members.

It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on 22 June, 2004, and $1.6 billion three days later. The CPA turned over sovereignty on 28 June.

Paul Bremer, who as the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority ran Iraq after initial combat operations ended, said the enormous shipments were made at the request of the Iraqi minister of finance.

"He said, 'I am concerned that I will not have the money to support the Iraqi government expenses for the first couple of months after we are sovereign. We won't have the mechanisms in place, I won't know how to get the money here,'" Mr Bremer said. "So these shipments were made at the explicit request of the Iraqi minister of finance to forward fund government expenses, a perfectly, seems to me, legitimate use of his money," Mr Bremer told Congress.

Democrats led by Mr Waxman also questioned whether the lack of oversight of $12 billion in Iraqi money that was disbursed by Mr Bremer and the CPA somehow enabled insurgents to get their hands on the funds, possibly through falsifying names on the government payroll.

"I have no knowledge of monies being diverted. I would certainly be concerned if I thought they were," Mr Bremer said. He pointed out that the problem of fake names on the payroll existed before the US invasion.

The special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said in a January 2005 report that $8.8 billion was unaccounted for after being given to the Iraqi ministries.

"We were in the middle of a war, working in very difficult conditions, and we had to move quickly to get this Iraqi money working for the Iraqi people," Mr Bremer said. He said there was no banking system and it would have been impossible to apply modern accounting standards in the midst of a war.

"I acknowledge that I made mistakes and that, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some decisions differently," Mr Bremer said.

Republicans argued that Mr Bremer and the CPA staff did the best they could under the circumstances and accused Democrats of trying to score political points over the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.

"We are in a war against terrorists; to have a blame meeting isn't, in my opinion, constructive," said Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican.

Five face charges ovet Iraq Bribes

THREE United States army reserve officers and two American civilians have been charged with taking or helping to funnel more than $1 million in cash, sports cars, jewellery and other items as bribes to rig bids on Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

The five have been indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey over a scheme said to involve the theft of millions of dollars of Iraq reconstruction money and the awarding of contracts to Philip Bloom, who doled out the bribes.

US officials said the agency in charge of reconstruction had lost more than $3.6 million (£1.8 million) because of the corrupt scheme.

More than $500,000 was smuggled into the US, with some of it going on decking and a hot tub for a house owned by two of the accused - one of the soldiers and one of the civilians are a married couple from New Jersey.

The indictment charged Col Curtis Whiteford, Lt Col Debra Harrison and Lt Col Michael Wheeler, and civilians Michael Morris and William Driver. Harrison was the provisional authority acting comptroller. Wheeler was an adviser for reconstruction

US Congress incredulous at $4bn cash sent to Iraq on pallets - Worldnews.com

Oracle confirmed as key sponsor of Iraq ICT & Education Summit

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09 February 2007 (Iraq Development Program)

Oracle Middle East has confirmed its keynote sponsorship of the forthcoming Iraq Information Communication Technology & Education Summit (ICTE) in Sharjah, UAE on 27-28 February 2007.

The summit, which is organised to facilitate the Government of Iraq’s strategy for forming and strengthening relationships with leading international operators to bring best-in-breed technology, training and management skills to the country, will welcome a delegation of senior level officials from the Iraqi Ministries of Communications, Science & Technology and Higher Education & Scientific Research.

The official Iraqi delegation will be led by Minister of Communications HE Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, Minister of Science & Technology HE Raed Fahmi and Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research HE Abed Theyab. It will also host a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), to be led by HE Dr Idris Hadi Salih, Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research.

Ministerial objectives include the establishment of computer and electronic communication standards, secure communications networks, developing mobile telecommunications infrastructure and equipment, modernisation of information technology infrastructure, IT procurement, provision of computer training for government employees and planning for Iraq's IT programmes.

Oracle is ideally suited to its role as a key sponsor of the summit. It is the world's largest enterprise software company and the only vendor to offer solutions for every tier of business-database, middleware, business intelligence, business applications and collaboration.

“Oracle is pleased to be associated with this event,” said Ali El Tahtawi, Communication Manager for Oracle MEA. “The new Iraq is demanding the best in IT infrastructure to support its growth. By our involvement, we have clearly demonstrated our commitment to support the growth of Iraq through technology.”

The summit will also be attended by relevant officials from the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO), as well as a number of leading global education institutions.

All attending Iraqi Ministries will be looking to work with public and private industry, governmental agencies and educational institutions to lead scientific and technological development for the purpose of fostering the restoration and improvement of Iraq's infrastructure and industrial base.

All Iraqi officials will be attending to speak about their ministries' requirements for their relevant sectors in front of an audience of senior corporate executives, before holding private consultations with some of the pre-eminent operators in the ICT and education sectors.

Oracle confirmed as key sponsor of Iraq ICT & Education Summit | Iraq Updates

FIL - Done
Budget - Done
HCL - Maybe alrady done if not next week
ICI - ???????

R/V this month... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

just do it...

wishing us all success,
harrisomi

I understand why they would want the budget in place before the RV, but I believe someone else pointed out that it is the CBI that determines the rate. Therefore, at anytime the CBI / MOF could announce the RV but I do not understand why the HCL and others would be required before the RV. Since (and maybe I am comparing apples to oranges) Congress and the Senate can not set our interest rate or exhange rate, why would it be in the budget to begin with as some have suggested. I am not saying it could not have been. Just the thoughts on my mind as I passively watch all this and just hope to be debt free. I want to call Dave Ramesy (who by the way hates the dinar investment idea)

Originally Posted by draft138

I understand why they would want the budget in place before the RV, but I believe someone else pointed out that it is the CBI that determines the rate. Therefore, at anytime the CBI / MOF could announce the RV but I do not understand why the HCL and others would be required before the RV. Since (and maybe I am comparing apples to oranges) Congress and the Senate can not set our interest rate or exhange rate, why would it be in the budget to begin with as some have suggested. I am not saying it could not have been. Just the thoughts on my mind as I passively watch all this and just hope to be debt free. I want to call Dave Ramesy (who by the way hates the dinar investment idea)

I think why folks are saying that the rv would be tied to the HCL or budget is that it would maximize the benefits of the rv for the GoI and the people. It's a theory that makes sense. But they are known for not making sense. If you look at it in this light, reducing debt owed to other countries would also make sense prior to an rv. Actually they will do, if they are smart, everything they can to increase the positive and reduce the negative aspects of an rv.

Originally Posted by draft138

I understand why they would want the budget in place before the RV, but I believe someone else pointed out that it is the CBI that determines the rate. Therefore, at anytime the CBI / MOF could announce the RV but I do not understand why the HCL and others would be required before the RV. Since (and maybe I am comparing apples to oranges) Congress and the Senate can not set our interest rate or exhange rate, why would it be in the budget to begin with as some have suggested. I am not saying it could not have been. Just the thoughts on my mind as I passively watch all this and just hope to be debt free. I want to call Dave Ramesy (who by the way hates the dinar investment idea)

I agree with you draft. Shabibi referred to the budget as an investment budget and he said it was the CBI's job to protect the budget through interest rates or strengthening the exchange rate. That told me once we had the budget Shabibi could move on the rate if he wanted to. The HCL & FIL will only strengthen the rate and increase it. But IMO the budget was exteremely important to the CBI. We will see.

Council welcomed the Presidency, today, Friday, 2-9-2007. Palestinian agreement between Fatah and Hamas that has been P j Mecca sponsored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. , Had held the President of the Republic, Jalal Talabani, the most closely So with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, presented a congratulations to reach agreement on the formation of h stack and national Palestinian unity and the chairmanship of Mr. Ismail e faith. The Presidency and wished for the Palestinian people to the south da new phase of stability and unity, Bana automatic and renounce violence. He also praised the role of the Presidency articles to Saudi Arabia friendly and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin burden Dr. Aziz positive invitation of the Palestinian parties j table of dialogue, sponsored by the agreement.

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