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

Originally Posted by screwball

Dinar-Excited: You are not far off the mark! I definitely think we will see a RV this month! Dates dont mean anything to the Iraqi's They have proven they cannot work to a date! So get prepared! when we least expect it!

Have you ever seen one of those major slot machines ever go off in Vegas after a winning pull? Well, after the least expected, it want take long to circulate thru the forums. lol

Originally Posted by screwball

Dinar-Excited: You are not far off the mark! I definitely think we will see a RV this month! Dates dont mean anything to the Iraqi's They have proven they cannot work to a date! So get prepared! when we least expect it!

Thanks screwball I agree with you 100% I am feeling like we could take off any day it is hard to contain the:

KITTY WIGGLE!!!!!!

Dinar-Excited

Like neno said"it will be like a major slot machine going off in vegas"ga ching!ga ching!ga ching!

58 minutes ago



BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops poured into Baghdad's main Shiite militia stronghold Sunday, encountering no resistance in the one-time Sadr City combat zones but testing the Shiites' commitment to the U.S.-promoted campaign to drive militants from the capital.

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Outside Baghdad, U.S. soldiers described a raid last week that uncovered a suspected Sunni "torture site" and the rescue of two Iraqi captives, who apparently had been spared immediate execution because the militants' video camera broke and they wanted to film the killing.

The quiet but dramatic advance in Sadr City — involving nearly 1,200 U.S. and Iraqi forces who didn't fire a shot — marked one of the most significant developments in the security clampdown in Baghdad since it took effect nearly three weeks ago.

But it only received the green light after drawn-out talks between U.S. commanders and political allies of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his powerful Mahdi Army. Both sides are watching each other for any wrong moves on the same streets where they battled in the past, including intense urban warfare in 2004.

Al-Sadr's militiamen lowered their profile under intense government pressure to give the security operation a chance to root out both Sunni and Shiite extremists. U.S. military leaders, however, must walk a fine line as part of the tacit truce. They are seeking suspected Shiite death squads leaders, but must keep from squeezing al-Sadr's militia too hard — and risk collapsing the entire drive to reclaim Baghdad from extremists and gangs.

"The indication that we are getting is a lot of the really bad folks have gone into hiding," said Lt. Col. David Oclander shortly after troops moved into Sadr City's teeming grid of low-rise buildings in northeast Baghdad.

Oclander said "not a shot was fired" as troops entered the area — which was constructed in the 1960s to house poor Shiites seeking work in the capital and was known as Saddam City until the former Iraqi leader's fall in 2003.

As the insurgency picked up steam in the past few years, Sadr City became the site of frequent battles. Among the U.S. casualties was Spc. Casey Sheehan, whose death on April 4, 2004, began the anti-war campaign of his mother, Cindy Sheehan.

Last week, U.S. and Iraqi forces began pinpoint raids into Sadr City seeking suspected leaders of Shiite death squads blamed for thousands of execution-style slayings of Sunni rivals in recent years. Since Friday, military planners have worked inside a Sadr City police station in apparent preparations to create a permanent outpost, police said.

Despite the calm crossing into Sadr City, some quickly protested the strong U.S. presence.

An al-Sadr ally, lawmaker Falah Hassan, claimed the Sadr City pact called for Iraqi forces to lead the searches and only call in U.S. units if they faced resistance. He called the front-line U.S. role a "provocative act."

Al-Sadr, too, has complained about the heavy U.S. role in the raids around the city. In a statement last week, he also decried the security plan's inability to stop car bombs and other attacks blamed on Sunni insurgent groups against Shiite civilians.

The comments raised worries that he could order his Madhi Army to confront forces carrying out the security operation. But he didn't attempt to raise the stakes — a possible sign of newfound caution from al-Sadr.

Late last year, Washington strong-armed Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki into pulling his protection for the firebrand cleric, who is based in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq and is a major political ally of the prime minister.

"We don't know if he has a change of heart, but certainly there is a change of tactic," the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told CNN.

For a third consecutive day, Baghdad was spared a car bombing or attack bringing mass casualties. But there was still bloodshed. A Shiite newspaper editor and a police officer were gunned down.

After nightfall, U.S. artillery was heard across Baghdad. In recent days, U.S. gunners have hit suspected Sunni insurgent staging grounds south of the city.

Around the capital, U.S. forces reported the discovery of a series of weapons caches.

Troops taking part in one operation that began Wednesday also stumbled upon an apparent hide-out west of Baghdad that was used by Sunni insurgents for torture and summary executions.

Lt. Col. Valery Keaveny described breaking through a double-locked door to find an Iraqi police officer and another Iraqi man who had undergone "considerable torture." The policeman had been shot in both ankles and the other man had been dangling from the ceiling and "beaten severely by a pipe for a good deal of time," Keaveny told reporters.

The captives told U.S. soldiers they had been convicted to death by an insurgent court at the site — about 18 miles west of Baghdad near the village of Karmah — and had the choice of either beheading or a fatal gunshot, said Keaveny.

They were spared immediate death, Keaveny said, because the insurgents' video camera didn't work and they had gone to get a new one to film the executions. "(The insurgents) said they would be back in the morning," he said. "And that's when we came in, that night."

The two men were taken by U.S. forces for medical treatment.

The site also contained a huge stockpile of more than 1 million pounds of aluminum sulfate, which can be used as a component in nitrate-based fertilizer explosives. But it also has other commercial uses, including water purification. Aluminum sulfate was among the items found in the car of the so-called millennium bomber, Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted in 2001 of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

Elsewhere, the military said an airstrike Saturday in Arab Jabour, on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, forced insurgents to flee and leave behind four Iraqi hostages — one claiming he had been held for 50 days.

On Saturday, an al-Qaida-affiliated group posted a video purporting to show the execution of 18 kidnapped government security forces. The Islamic State of Iraq said it carried out the killings — with the victims being shot in the back of the head — in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by members of the Shiite-dominated police last month.

The authenticity of the three-minute video could not be immediately verified.

The group also said it had killed 14 policemen, whose bodies were found Friday in the northeast province of Diyala. Some of the victims were decapitated, according to an AP photographer.

"It would be very helpful to the people of Iraq if civic and religious leaders, Sunni and Shia alike, would publicly denounce these horrific acts," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, commander of U.S. forces north of Baghdad. "With many influential leaders making the same statement, the population will realize that these terrorists are not the future of Iraq."

Also Sunday, a kidnapped Iraqi defense official, Lt. Gen. Thamir Sultan, was freed after Iraqi security forces stormed a house where he had been held, a government spokesman said.

Three U.S. troops were killed in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province, the military said. One Marine and one sailor died Friday, and another Marine was killed Saturday, the military said in a statement. Their names were withheld pending family notification.

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U.S., Iraqi forces enter Shiite center - Yahoo! News

It's easy to get excited and jump up and down and almost pee our pants with anticipation about a possible revaluation. We each have much to gain, but... I keep thinking about what a positive effect a revalution would have on the entire political/economic status of Iraq and all of its citizen.

Thus also, what a positive effect it could have on the political legacy of the current US administration and how it would speed up the return home of all those battle wary US soldiers, who have done their job but remain because the restructured political/economic gains have not gone into stable effect.

The revalution is the most positive action that can be taken for all concerned!!!

So...just do it baby. Make me happy, make you happy, make the Iraqis happy and make those soldiers happy.

wishing us all success(and spreading a big dose of happiness)

harrisomi

Al Maliki gives insurgents ultimatum
Baghdad, 05 March 2007 (Gulf News)
Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki gave Iraqi insurgents an ultimatum on Sunday - either accept his peace offer, or face a crack-down the likes of which has not been seen before.
"We do not need to implement security measures except against those who reject the language of reconciliation and dialogue, those who insist on restoring the past," Al Maliki said, in a reference to Sunni Arab insurgents loyal to Saddam Hussein.
"We present in our hand a green olive branch, and in the other hand we present the law ... Operation Imposing Law started in Baghdad, it will cover every inch of Iraq."
In a later news conference, Al Maliki said he will soon reshuffle his government. Al Maliki told reporters he would rearrange the 39 cabinet portfolios within the next two weeks.
The planned move comes after the Iraqi National List, a secular party representing both Sunnis and Shiites, threatened to pull out of the coalition, accusing Al Maliki of pursuing a sectarian agenda.
US officials have also been putting pressure on Al Maliki to reform the Iraqi government around a new alliance of “moderates” from both the Shiite and Sunni communities.

'Mafia-like gangs' ready to join interior ministry
By Basil Adas
Baghdad, 05 March 2007 (Gulf News)
In a controversial move more than 132,000 "Installation Guard" police members in Baghdad will finally join the Iraqi Interior Ministry after being under the responsibility of the ministries they are guarding and protecting for four continuous years.
Mezhir Razaqi, an Iraqi employee in an establishment affiliated to the Iraqi Ministry of Industry, told Gulf News: "The General Director in this bureau fears the guards, therefore his choices are limited."
Saham, an employee in the same establishment told Gulf News: "Calling the guards 'militias' does not describe all they do. They practice any felonious act, such as abduction, assassination and punching employees at the main entrance, they even impose taxes in forms of money or gifts. They are doing these acts on a large scale."
Accusations
There are widespread accusations against guards of forming mafia-like gangs and involvement in criminal acts for the benefit of terrorist militias.
"More than 40 per cent of Installation Guards are bogus who receive salaries without doing anything. Some of them are involved in terrorist operations, smuggling and looting resources themselves. They are essentially part of the financial and administrative corruption campaign in the country," Hassan Sari, an Iraqi state minister, told Gulf News.
"I am ready to testify against the guards who burgled a store's contents, valued at 150 million Iraqi dinars, in large vehicles. The warehouse and establishment's guards along with big names in the ministry are responsible for this extensive robbery," Salah, an employee in an enterprise affiliated to the Iraqi Ministry of Trade, revealed to Gulf News.
It has become imperative for any establishment to hire large numbers of security guards, due to the deterioration of the security situation in Baghdad.
Despite some measures taken by Nouri Al Maliki's government concerning the guards' violations, American and Iraqi forces have been arresting many of them for having suspected links to terrorist activities or for their involvement in direct assassinations

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

WoOT!!! excellent find ducky!!!
they are opening up the market for foreign investors, weeeeeeeeeeee
were in the moneyyyyyyy!!!!!

100% of the bank sector showed positive movement in trading for todays session of the ISX! www.isx-aman.com
( click markets)

I can't figure out whether that is good or bad news. It seems a little decieving To me. But then again-----

Industry being revitalised in Iraq: US official by Bryan Pearson
Sun Mar 4, 5:35 PM ET



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Industry is being revitalised in Iraq, despite the raging violence, and creating lucrative openings for entrepreneurs brave enough to do business here, a top US official insists.

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Paul Brinkley, the Pentagon's deputy under secretary for business, has been touring Iraq for the past week with some 45 US business executives.

He told AFP in Baghdad that many dormant state-owned factories would start firing up again "within months."

Already a plant producing vehicles has reopened in Iskandiriyah, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Baghdad, providing valuable job opportunities for locals. "Others will soon follow," he promised.

Brinkley told journalists, who donned helmets and bullet-proof vests to make the trip out of Baghdad to the US military's Camp Victory on Saturday, that economic growth could help quell the city's chronic sectarian violence.

"There is a recognition that security and economic prosperity go hand in hand, and that unemployment in Iraq is contributing to the frustrations of people and creating sympathy for insurgents," Brinkley said.

Since a US-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, most factories have been lying idle or operating at very low rates of production, he said.

Many of these possess modern equipment, while others have machinery at least as good as many enterprises operating efficiently in India and China.

"They can quickly be revitalised," Brinkley said. "The factories served as the engine for the Iraqi economy and must be restarted."

The US government, he added, is working with the ministries of finance and industry as well as with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh "to get this economic engine running again so that thousands ... can regain employment."

Enterprises that could be restarted fairly easily, he said, included upstream and downstream oil activities, textiles, heavy machinery, chemicals, minerals and electronics, among others.

At the same time, he added, his department is involved in efforts to connect international entrepreneurs with Iraqi business leaders so private concerns and factories can also be jolted back to life.

He and his group had travelled around Baghdad and the provinces or districts of Anbar, Iskandiriyah, Arbil and Diyala, meeting business leaders, farmers and others from across the social and economic spectrum.

Those travelling with Brinkley said they had been surprised at the potential that exists in the embattled country but also at just how far Iraq's dormant industrial capacity has decayed or fallen into disuse.

"The industry ministry controls 200 factory sites, but these factories are running on average at only 10 percent of capacity," said Fred Cook, a US government specialist in labour affairs.

"The ministry has 196,000 workers on its payroll but only a small fraction of these are actively employed in factories. Most are under-employed and paid only a small fraction of what they were previously paid," he explained.

"Our goal is to restart industry and to put people back to work."

Mahdi Sajjad, of British-based Gulfsands Petroleum, said the potential for upstream and downstream activities linked to Iraq's lucrative oil industry -- the country's dominant foreign exchange earner -- is enormous.

His company has already made an offer to deal with Iraq's flared gas -- the burn-off which most other oil producers in the developed world have long been converting to dry and liquid gas.

"We have proposed that we do the processing for free. We will deliver the dry gas to the Iraqi government and then sell the liquefied gas on the open market," Sajjad said. "We are just waiting for the go-ahead."

Julian Burns, vice president of BAE Systems North America, which makes trucks as well as defence and aerospace systems, said he had found in the Iraqis a "resourceful and proud people who are ready to do business."

He was not concerned, he said, about talk of Iraq sliding relentlessly towards civil war.

"I'm a retired army general and I'm here to do business in Iraq," he told AFP. "That in itself is a message."

US official Brinkley, too, shrugged off talk of civil war.

"It's been good to have come here and to have spoken to the people. All say they just want to live in peace.

"In any case, many multinationals do business in other dangerous places in the world. There is no reason they should not do so in Iraq as well."