Thread: Iraqi/Dinar News History 2-3-07 thru 3-5-07(at 11:30am cst)

In Baghdad, business is done almost exclusively in cash and with a careful eye on security.
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By Larry Kaplow

INTERNATIONAL STAFF


Sunday, March 04, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq — In Iraq these days, it sometimes seems as if you have to chase people down to give them your money.

As a Baghdad-based correspondent for the past four years, I have used a satellite television service that requires annual renewal. Paying the bill is difficult. The office of the satellite service moves frequently, and now, with a kidnapping threat hanging over him, the manager is running the business from Amman, Jordan.


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He doesn't take checks or credit cards. So I either had to find a way to wire him money or get money to a Jordanian who would drop off the cash, which is what I did.

Financial transactions are a way of sizing up the state of a country, its adherence to things such as laws and contracts, and the overall security and value of the economy. Like the satellite company owner, hundreds of thousands of businesspeople and professionals have fled, draining Iraq of its expertise and its secular middle class.

For those remaining, business is done almost exclusively in cash, with a careful eye on security.

Typically, if someone buys a house or a car in Baghdad, it's a cash transaction. The buyer gathers his dinars in thick blocks and takes trusted friends or family members along to help protect him and to count out the cash with the seller's friends and relatives.

While big-business owners have checking accounts or bank guarantees, the banks are too antiquated and distrusted to be of much use to most Iraqis. A couple of banks recently started issuing debit cards. But few people have them, and few businesses accept them.

For most Iraqis and many foreigners, common transactions involve risk. Paying in cash means paying in person, a potentially dangerous task.

For example, paying my mobile phone bill has become tougher. The company is based in Baghdad's Mansour area, which has grown increasingly violent in the past year. Lately, I've thought it was too dangerous to visit or send my translator with the money. We still have a little credit built up. After that runs dry, we'll have to figure out some way to get the cash there.

If you're an Iraqi who owns a home, there are property taxes to be paid, also in cash. Iraqi government employees are paid in cash. Retirees collect pensions in cash from banks.

American military officials lament that the weak banking system requires that Iraqi troops get paid in cash, requiring them to get leaves once a month and take their money home, often a dangerous trip.

Only a few Iraqi banks are capable of accepting electronic transfers from out of the country. That complicates things for people like me. I receive money through a transfer from my American company, Cox Newspapers, to a Jordanian bank. From Jordan to Baghdad, the transfer is completed by a Jordanian contact who transfers the funds based on "hawaleh," an honor system of accounting that has been moving money around the Middle East for decades.

In the police state days of Saddam Hussein, money was sometimes stolen from the government-run Rasheed Hotel, but you could walk the streets with a wad of cash and never worry about crime. Now, it's the opposite. Recently in Baghdad, heavily armed gangs have robbed armored cars transporting bags of cash between local banks and the central bank.

Though the money trucks are usually part of a police convoy, the robbers can usually outgun them with their own convoys of masked men. Many Iraqis suspect that they must have some link with the security forces to be able to act so brazenly.

When foreign banks were issued licenses several years ago to do business in Iraq, U.S. officials hailed it as a sign of progress. But the omnipresent dangers have dissuaded foreign banks from opening, and security problems have forced many Iraqi banks to close.

There is a sectarian element to the bank closings. Many people think that Shiite militias try to close down banks in Sunni areas so the Sunnis will have to leave their neighborhoods to pick up monthly pensions or make other transactions. That forces them into Shiite neighborhoods, where they are vulnerable to attack.

An American general said recently how pleased he was that after months of security and logistical work, the Army was able to help reopen a bank in a particularly bad part of the city. I asked to embed with the unit responsible, but in the weeks before the embed came through, the bank closed again.

Complicating matters, Iraq's inflation rate last year was nearly 50 percent. Iraqis found the price increases frightening and infuriating.

While dollars are accepted in Baghdad, Iraqi dinars are preferred, especially for small transactions. And lately, the dinar has rallied.

U.S. and International Monetary Fund officials worried that the value of the dinar would collapse and pressed the Iraqi Central Bank to bolster the currency and cheapen the dollar locally.

A few months ago, a dollar was worth about 1,450 dinars; now, it is worth about 1,300 dinars. It's probably smart policy, but it makes things tougher on my employees, who get paid in dollars.

Finally, while Iraqis in Baghdad want to be paid in cash, they don't want to be paid in just any cash. They want the bills to be crisp and new. Any that are worn or torn will be rejected.

[email protected]. Larry Kaplow has been Cox Newspapers' Baghdad-based correspondent since early 2003

Originally Posted by inquisitive1

WOW!!! An Iraqi official announced the return of 85 thousand of the former Iraqi army to the ranks of the new army on the eve of the National Reconciliation Conference. Sotaliraq.com - ÕæÊ ÇáÚÑÇÞ

" The conference will witness the participation of the broad spectrum of the Iraqi people and nationalities and from all military ranks and the higher echelons of the army former. He explained that the conference will include the Nasserite workshops activated, and several of its success. The theme will be national reconciliation and the role of the officers in support of one of the major themes of the conference. It is the role of interlocutor other officers in the promotion of security and counter-terrorism, in addition to participating in the development of the economy and reconstruction."

It could very well mean that with 85 thousand more Iraqi troops a lot of the USA and coalition soldiers can return to their homes and families with their Revalued Dinar!!!!

6 Sunnis Slain for Talking With Shiites

Saturday, March 03, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen rounded up a Sunni family under death threats for joining U.S.-organized talks with local Shiites, hauling away the men and boys and killing all six Saturday as suspected insurgents expand a campaign of fear against opponents.

U.S. forces, meanwhile, reported airstrikes and raids on what it called Sunni militant bases linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The recent wave of Sunni reprisals appear linked to increasingly high-profile attempts to stir popular momentum against Sunni extremists trying to drive out the Shiite-led government and its American backers.

Among those targeted include a range of fellow Sunnis raising their voices against violence: imams, clan-based vigilantes and activists trying to bridge deep rifts with majority Shiites.

"We are seeing more people beginning to challenge the insurgents," said Marine Brig. Gen. John Allen, who oversees units in the militant heartland west of Baghdad.

The two families gunned down at sunrise Saturday had received death threats for weeks after attending gatherings of Sunni and Shiite leaders, police said.

The first meeting, organized by U.S. military officials on Feb. 13, brought together leaders of prominent clans from both sides, said a military spokesman Maj. Webster M. Wright III.

The clan chiefs held another round on their own about a week later and appointed a joint council "to discuss the terms of reconciliation" around Youssifiyah, a Sunni-dominated area about 12 miles south of Baghdad, said Wright.

At dawn, gunmen stormed the home of two families belonging to the influential Sunni Mashhada tribe, said police 1st Lt. Haider Satar. Two fathers and their four sons were separated from their wives and sisters. They were executed at point-blank range.

In the morgue in nearby Mahmoudiya, Associated Press Television video showed at least two victims had their hands tied bound behind their backs.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is under strong pressure from Washington to take a stronger hand against Sunni insurgents and the Shiite militia that forms part of his power base.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he will reshuffle his 39-seat Cabinet "either this week or next" and pursue criminal charges against political figures — and even members of parliament — linked to extremists.

"There has been coordination between us and the Multinational Forces ... starting at the beginning of this year ... to determine who should arrested and the reasons behind arresting them," he said.

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced. But some officials said about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads the powerful Mahdi Army militia.

U.S. officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds.

Al-Maliki has won some breathing room in recent days with a notable — but perhaps temporary — drop in bloodshed in Baghdad. It comes as a U.S.-led security crackdown concentrates on areas considered staging grounds for Sunni insurgent car bombs and mortar attacks.

The Mahdi Army also was strong-armed by al-Maliki to pull back. Its suspected death squads once left dozens of Sunni victims around the city — a figure that has fallen off significantly.

For the second consecutive day, just one major explosion rocked the capital. The latest — a roadside bomb — killed three U.S. soldiers on patrol in central Baghdad, the military said.

In western Baghdad, meanwhile, a top adviser to Iraq's Defense Ministry was kidnapped in western Baghdad, said an aide to Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament.

Lt. Gen. Thamir Sultan hails from Saddam Hussein's tribe and had been mentioned as a possible defense minister when the current government was organized last year. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In U.S. raids north of Baghdad, nine suspected insurgents were captured, including two believed to be responsible for recruiting and helping foreign militants in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The suspects were also accused of harboring Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders, it said, but gave no further details.

U.S. warplanes also struck a suspected car bomb factory in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, the military said. Seven suspected insurgents were killed when two precision-guided bombs destroyed the structure where they were hiding, the military said.

In a statement posted on an Islamic militant Web site, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq said it has abducted and killed two groups of Iraqi security forces.

The group, calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the deaths of 14 policemen whose bodies were found Friday in the northeast province of Diyala. It also said it has killed 18 other members of the security force, who were shown in a photograph on the Web site on Friday.

It gave no other details about the 18 captives.

Iraqi leader: Cabinet shakeup in 2 weeks By ROBERT H. REID and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 52 minutes ago

Iraq's prime minister said Saturday he will reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists as a sign of his government's resolve to restore stability during the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also told The Associated Press during an interview at his Green Zone office that Iraq will work hard to ensure the success of a regional security conference.

The conference in Baghdad, tentatively set for next weekend, is expected to bring together all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, as well as the United States and Britain to find ways to ease this country's security crisis.

Iran has not announced whether it will attend, but Iraqi officials believe that Tehran will send a representative.

Al-Maliki has been under pressure from the U.S. to bring order into his factious government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds since it took office last May. Rumors of Cabinet changes have surfaced before, only to disappear because of pressure from coalition members seeking to keep power.

Nevertheless, al-Maliki said there would be a Cabinet reshuffle "either this week or next."

After the changes are announced, al-Maliki said he would undertake a "change in the ministerial structure," presumably consolidating and streamlining the 39-member Cabinet.

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced. But some officials said about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.

Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, and his support for al-Maliki has been responsible for the government's reluctance to crack down on the cleric's Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the Shiite-Sunni slaughter of the past year.

U.S. officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds. Al-Maliki had been stalling, presumably at the urging of the powerful Shiite clerical hierarchy that wants to maintain Shiite unity.

But pressure for change has mounted since President Bush ordered 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq last January despite widespread opposition in Congress and among the U.S. public — weary of the nearly five-year-long war.

Last month, U.S. and Iraqi troops arrested Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr ally, for allegedly diverting millions of dollars in government funds to the Mahdi Army and allowing death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

During the interview, al-Maliki said other top officials would face prosecution for ties to insurgents, sectarian militias and death squads — including members of parliament.

"There has been coordination between us and the Multinational Forces ... starting at the beginning of this year ... to determine who should arrested and the reasons behind arresting them," he said.

Al-Maliki did not elaborate on the U.S.-Iraqi coordination but said Iraqi judicial authorities were reviewing case files to decide which to refer to an Iraqi investigative judge, who must decide whether there is enough evidence to order a trial.

Al-Maliki said he was encouraged by Iraqi public response to the new Baghdad security operation — which has led to a sharp drop in violence in the capital.

He also defended his government, saying it managed to "achieve a lot of harmony and stability" despite attacks by al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The prime minister did not say how many politicians and officials might be targeted for formal investigation, an Iraqi legal step that corresponds to a grand jury probe.

But five senior Iraqis — two of them generals and three from Shiite and Sunni parties — have told the AP that up to 100 prominent figures could face legal proceedings.

The five spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject to the media. All five had direct knowledge of the case review.

U.S. officials have said privately that a number of prominent Iraqis were believed to have ties to armed groups.

One Shiite parliament member, Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, is believed to have fled to Iran after U.S. authorities learned that he was convicted by a Kuwaiti court in absentia and sentenced to death in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

Mohammed fled Kuwait for Iran before he could be arrested and returned after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. U.S. officials have alleged he was a conduit for Iranian weapons and supplies smuggled to Shiite militias.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern over alleged Iranian weapons shipments and financial support to Shiite parties allied with al-Maliki. The Shiite-led government hopes the upcoming regional conference will ease tensions between the U.S. and Shiite-dominated Iran — and allay Washington's fears of Tehran's influence here.

The U.S. also hopes the conference will encourage Syria and other Arab countries — most of them Sunni-led — to increase their support for Iraqi's leadership, despite regional unease over the Shiite-led government's ties to Iran.

"In fact the importance of the upcoming conference lies in the fact that the Iraqi government has the ability to serve as a proper venue for solving conflicts," al-Maliki said.

"So we will exert the utmost effort to find solutions to all pending questions, either among regional countries themselves or between them and Iraq, or between them and powers such as the U.S. and Britain and the international community."

Iraqi leader: Cabinet shakeup in 2 weeks - Yahoo! News
looks like maliki has finally decided he had better save his own butt and do the right thing...

Assyrian International News Agency
Iraq PM Says He'll Reshuffle Cabinet--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted GMT 3-3-2007 20:55:27

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

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday he will reshuffle his Cabinet in coming days, as his government faces mounting U.S. pressure to take greater responsibility for security and other efforts to stabilize the country.

"The reshuffle will be either this week or next week," al-Maliki told The Associated Press in an interview in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone.

Al-Maliki did not indicate the extent of the changes, including whether the overhaul would include replacing key posts such as the defense and foreign ministers.

The reshuffle could coincide with preparations for an international conference March 10 that is expected to bring together dozens of Western and Islamic nations, including the United States and members of the Arab League.

Iraq also has invited neighboring Iran, which has close ties to Iraq's major Shiite political factions that support the government of al-Maliki, a Shiite.

Washington has pressed Iraq to take steps to improve its security forces, which could help pave the way for possible U.S. troop withdrawals.

Iraq PM Says He'll Reshuffle Cabinet

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

Iraq PM Says He'll Reshuffle Cabinet

Its about time he got - - a back bone!
Leann

Scoop: Rice Remarks To Senate Appropriations Committee

Rice Remarks To Senate Appropriations Committee
Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 2:44 pm
Press Release: US State Department
Opening Remarks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Before the Senate Appropriations Committee

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
February 27, 2007

As Delivered
(3:25 p.m. EST)


Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC February 27, 2007

As Delivered (3:25 p.m. EST)

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cochran. Thank you, members of the committee, and I am honored to testify alongside Secretary Gates for the first time.

Mr. Chairman, I have a longer written statement that I would like to be entered into the record about the full supplemental request, the critical funding that will be provided by the supplemental for reconstruction and development in Afghanistan, for ongoing State Department operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, for emergencies in Sudan, for reconstruction in Lebanon and so forth. But I will restrict my comments to a few concerning particularly Iraq.

SENATOR BYRD: You may proceed as you like.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you, sir. Across the board in Iraq, Iraqis are now in the lead and we're supporting them. To support the new strategy in Iraq that President Bush announced in January (inaudible) supplemental funding for Iraq this year. These resources will enable the State Department to support the Iraqi Government and to support our counterinsurgency strategy alongside our military in order to bring a new civilian surge on multiple fronts.

We are supporting the Iraqis in an economic offensive. Iraq's Council of Representatives recently passed a budget for 2007, including a plan to devote $10 billion of its own money for reconstruction and development. This is an encouraging step, but they need our technical assistance in matters like budget execution and ministry capacity, and this supplemental will help with those matters.

We are also supporting the Iraqis in their political offensive. Yesterday, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved a hydrocarbon framework law. They will now transmit it, along with accompanying legislation, to the Council of Representatives. This is an important step and we hope that it builds momentum for the Iraqi Government to make further progress, particularly on de-Baathification, on increased support for displaced Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni, who wish to return to their homes.

When I met with Prime Minister Maliki last week in Baghdad, I urged him to waste no time in finding resolution to critical issues of national reconciliation. At the same time, we recognize that Iraq has a federal government and that its provinces have significant responsibility. And so this supplemental funding provides the funding to allow us to double the number of Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq, focusing on Baghdad but also beyond in key provinces like Anbar. We are doubling the number of personnel within our existing PRTs and our expanded PRT strategy will enable us to decentralize and diversity our civilian presence in Iraq, thereby increasing our chances of success.

Again, I would emphasize here that we're transitioning our role. This is to help Iraqis build their own democratic institutions and lead their own economic development at the provincial and local levels.

Let me say one other thing about the PRTs. Our previous strategy called for 10 teams in Iraq. We have met that goal. Those Provincial Reconstruction Teams are fully staffed, fully deployed and fully operational. Under the new strategy, we will now move from 10 to 20 PRTs. We have already identified all of the Foreign Service officers who will lead these new teams and we expect them to arrive in Iraq before the end of March.

To staff the PRTs, the President has asked the State Department to recruit additional civilian specialists from other federal agencies and from the nation at large. These are people like agronomists, veterinarians, city planners and others. No diplomatic service in the world has these specialties and we have therefore asked the Department of Defense to fill the first rotation of about 100 specialist positions. Our supplemental request will then enable us to hire about 300 new civilians for this mission. It will allow us to reimburse other government agencies when we recruit their personnel and to send them out quickly to join the diplomats who are already in the field doing the political work that is so important.

So we are advancing politically, economically and of course militarily. I would like to take one moment to talk about our diplomatic offensive, the fourth leg of our strategy, to build greater support both within the region and beyond for peace and prosperity in Iraq. We are recommitting ourselves to the security and stability of the Gulf region. We have rallied our traditional partners, responsible governments like those of the Gulf states, plus Egypt and Jordan -- or, as it is called, GCC+2 -- and we are working with those governments to support embattled democratic leaders like Prime Minister Siniora in Lebanon, President Abbas in the Palestinian territories and Prime Minister Maliki in Iraq. We are also continuing to rally international support for Iraq's political and economic success in the form of the International Compact for Iraq. In March, dozens of countries will gather at the United Nations to finalize agreements on the compact. This compact outlines international responsibilities to Iraq as Iraq meets its responsibilities to its own people.

There's on additional component to this diplomatic offensive that I would like to highlight today. It is a new component. Prime Minister Maliki believes and President Bush and I agree that success in Iraq requires the positive support of Iraq's neighbors. This is one of the key findings, of course, of the Iraq Study Group and it is an important dimension that many in the Senate and in the Congress have brought to our attention and I've had very fruitful discussions about how to do this. So I'm pleased to inform you that the Iraqis are launching a new diplomatic initiative which we are going to fully support.

The Government of Iraq is preparing for an expanded neighbors meeting first at the sub-ministerial level that will take place in Baghdad in the first half of March. Invitees would include Iraq's immediate neighbors, as well as representatives from other regional states, multilateral organizations and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council including of course the United States. This initial meeting will be followed perhaps as early as the first half of April by a ministerial level meeting with the same invitees that is regional states, neighbors, international organizations and the Permanent 5 of the UN, as well as perhaps the members of the G-8.

I would note that the Iraqi Government has invited all of its neighbors, including Syria and Iran, to attend both of these regional meetings. We hope that all governments will seize this opportunity to improve the relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region. I'm pleased that the Government of Iraq is launching this new diplomatic initiative and that we will be able to support it and participate in it. The violence occurring within the country has a decided impact on Iraq's neighbors. And Iraq's neighbors as well as the international community have a clear role to play in supporting the Iraqi Government's efforts to promote peace and national reconciliation within the country.

So far from just a military campaign, our efforts in Iraq are moving forward on all fronts at the same time: security, political, economic and diplomatic. America's diplomatic corps, of course, is not an expeditionary force, but our men and women are playing their roles superbly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. They are enduring long and difficult deployments far away from their families. Many are even working on the front lines in dangerous places like Anbar and Baghdad, working shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers and Marines. Every day, our civilians are taking mortar fire, risking attacks just to do their jobs. And then they get up the next day and they go back out and they do it all again.

The men and women of the Department of State are patriots and they make us all extremely proud and I ask you to provide them with the resources that they need so urgently to be successful in the vital mission that they perform, a mission that together, with our men and women in uniform, will help us to win the war on terror and to make us safer. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN BYRD: Thank you, Madame Secretary. Thank you.

2007/143

Released on February 27, 2007

ENDS

Originally Posted by bambiebdgrl

Its about time he got - - a back bone!
Leann

he is protecting his own butt since he got caught with his hands in the sadr jar.

So is this article referring to the March 10th date that Adster mentioned earlier.
Leann