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

Originally Posted by Adster

Over and out for the night. Sees ya folks.

Imposing Law enters week III

Operation “Imposing Law” continues in Baghdad. In contrast with previous operations to secure the city, this one is managing to not only keep the initial momentum, but the operation’s effects seem to be growing as well.

A few days ago the government announced a more traffic-related measures to support “Imposing Law” in Baghdad. Under the first order, it will be forbidden to park any private vehicles in the main streets of the city.
Under the second - a reinstating of an old order- vehicles with odd and even numbered plates would only be allowed on the streets on alternate days. This means that only half of the several hundred thousand of private vehicles will be on the streets on any day. The order applies to private vehicles only, but cuts the work involved in screening vehicles approximately in half.

While many Iraqi families are returning to the homes they once were forced to leave, there are also Baghdadis who are reopening their stores, ending the months they spent out of business because of violence and intimidation. Some streets that were virtually deserted a few months ago are slowly showing signs of returning to life.
The reopening stores even include some liquor shops! There are two stores on one street that I used to shop that closed early last year when their owners received death threats from the insurgents and the militias. Yesterday I walked through that street and, to my amazement, I found both stores open and back in business.

more
IRAQ THE MODEL

Dang, I miss the 'thanks' buttomn. Thanks Adster.

Scott Paye

Originally Posted by Adster

Over and out for the night. Sees ya folks.

Imposing Law enters week III

Operation “Imposing Law” continues in Baghdad. In contrast with previous operations to secure the city, this one is managing to not only keep the initial momentum, but the operation’s effects seem to be growing as well.

A few days ago the government announced a more traffic-related measures to support “Imposing Law” in Baghdad. Under the first order, it will be forbidden to park any private vehicles in the main streets of the city.
Under the second - a reinstating of an old order- vehicles with odd and even numbered plates would only be allowed on the streets on alternate days. This means that only half of the several hundred thousand of private vehicles will be on the streets on any day. The order applies to private vehicles only, but cuts the work involved in screening vehicles approximately in half.

While many Iraqi families are returning to the homes they once were forced to leave, there are also Baghdadis who are reopening their stores, ending the months they spent out of business because of violence and intimidation. Some streets that were virtually deserted a few months ago are slowly showing signs of returning to life.
The reopening stores even include some liquor shops! There are two stores on one street that I used to shop that closed early last year when their owners received death threats from the insurgents and the militias. Yesterday I walked through that street and, to my amazement, I found both stores open and back in business.

more
IRAQ THE MODEL

Feels like home again! Just need Mike (OSW) to give us some goodies from his contacts in the north!!

Originally Posted by OrangeBlood

Feels like home again! Just need Mike (OSW) to give us some goodies from his contacts in the north!!

Yeah Mike! Anything new from the north end?

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

Draft Legislation Seeking Peace With Oil?
Iraq Oil Law Would Attempt Balance Between Regional, Central Control

Posted 1 hr. 42 min. ago

If a struggle for wealth and power lies at the heart of Iraq's sectarian violence, then a well-functioning oil industry and an equitable oil revenue policy may lie at the heart of national reconciliation. In the run-up to the 2003 invasion, U.S. officials predicted that oil finance the country's post-war development. That prospect languished as brain drain and insurgent sabotage eviscerated the oil sector.
Iraq's cabinet approved on Monday a draft law for the revival of Iraq's moribund oil industry, in a significant show of compromise among Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni lawmakers. However, key issues such as the ability of the oil producing Kurdish and Shiite regions to enter into contracts with foreign companies, and the distribution of revenues have yet to be elaborated.
Privatization or State Control?
At the heart of the bill is the provision that the governments of Iraq's oil producing regions - located in the Kurdish north and Shiite-dominated south - will have the power to negotiate production-sharing agreements with foreign oil companies.
Prevalent in Central Asia, production-sharing agreements (PSAs) generally assign ownership of the physical oil to the host country, while allowing foreign companies to manage and operate oil fields. Revenues from the oil are shared by the government and the oil company on a pre-specified basis.
Allowing regional governments to contract with international oil companies, with their abundant capital and technical expertise, "would allow the country to rehabilitate its oil sector more quickly -- thereby enriching the national coffers -- than were it to go the nationalization route," reports Radio Free Europe.
Alternet reports that the draft law, by allowing for production-sharing agreements, "would represent a u-turn for Iraq's oil industry, which has been in the public sector for more than three decades."
PSAs generally shift all financial and operational risk to the foreign oil company, and do not require the host government to invest its share of profits in further development. Depending on how they are designed, PSAs may be canceled or terminated, or they may be enacted into law to give the oil company greater security.
Writing for The Nation, Christian Parenti characterizes the legislation as "re-creating a single Iraqi National Oil Company, which will in turn dole out oil income to the regions on a per-capita basis." He takes a dim view of a proposed Federal Oil and Gas Council that would have veto power over all production-sharing agreements, noting that it will be "controlled by the prime minister" and will "effectively bypass Parliament."
The law would have "disastrous effects" by allowing for regional autonomy, Fadil Chalabi of the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London tells Al-Jazeera. "It will lead to fragmentation, it will have no central planning, no central policy-making authority - and if this is going to be the case, this law could negative effects on the oil industry in Iraq."
Sharing the Wealth
"All revenue from oil sales would go into a single national account," reports the LA Times, "but all regions and provinces would have a seat on an energy policymaking body, and provinces would receive shares of revenue and have control over how they spent it."
Voice of America reports that a not-yet-drafted "revenue sharing agreement" will determine how oil revenues are to be distributed, but it will most likely be based on "population distribution." The Nation's Parenti notes that this per-capita arrangement "might help de-escalate sectarian conflict."
Parliament Vote
The bill now goes to the 275-member Parliament, where the likelihood of its passage is "unclear," the AP reports.
Iraq and Turkey may have removed a potential obstacle to the law's adoption last week by shelving plans last week for a referendum on the autonomy of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk for another two years (see Azzaman report here).
However, Sunni lawmakers will almost certainly scrutize the bill's still-vague revenue-sharing provisions, while Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers may question the power of the proposed Federal Oil and Gas Council, with its power to veto regional contracts with foreign oil companies.
If the oil law does pass, it will by no means end the violence, incompetence, and corruption that paralyzes the oil industry and makes Iraq an abysmal investment climate for foreign oil companies - and there is little question that Iraq will need the latter's vast resources of capital, security, and technical expertise.

Sorry CharmedPiper, Did not see this post earlier. I went in and deleted my post of the same topic.

Thanks for all the updates everyone. Keep it up. We will have our day soon.

New Iraq Strategy Succeeding So Far
By Jeff Emanuel | March 1, 2007 Were there any semblance of balance in the media's reporting on Iraq, the immediate effect of the new strategy would be better-known to the American public by now.
President Bush announced several weeks ago that, in a vigorous attempt to right the leaking ship in Iraq, he was making four fundamental adjustments to the "strategy" currently being carried out there.

First, Lt. General David Petraeus, PhD, Princeton graduate, former Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), former head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (the command responsible for training Iraqi forces), and author of Army FM 23-4, "a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations" (emphasis added), was named Commander of Multinational Forces in Iraq, and tasked with putting his field manual into practice.

Second -- and perhaps most important -- the rules of engagement (ROEs) in Iraq were adjusted to provide for more effective targeting of insurgents and insurgent leaders (as well as forces from Iran). With this alteration in strategy, the troops on the ground can concentrate once again on rooting out and arresting or killing terrorists and insurgents, instead of having completely to restrict their operations, out of fear of upsetting the fragile Iraqi governing coalition (not to mention setting off a media firestorm, which is always a threat), to driving back and forth on the same IED-infested roads and performing the same "show of force" or security missions, day-in and day-out, with little to show for it except for more dead or wounded troops.

Third, more pressure was to be put on the Iraqi government to crack down on sectarian violence and on insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr, and to work harder and more quickly toward self-sufficience, both in governance and in security.

Fourth, in order to support the other three elements of his "new way forward in Iraq," the President announced that a "surge" of 21,500 more troops would be sent to the Iraqi theater, for the purpose of securing Baghdad, and to facilitate the implementation of LG Petraeus's counterinsurgency, defense training, and stabilization plan.

Immediately attacked as an "escalation of the war in Iraq," the troop surge became a hot-button issue from the moment that it was announced, and, since the advent of the 110th Congress, the situation -- with regard to the surge and to the prospects for success in Iraq with what we have there already -- has worsened considerably. Under new Democrat leadership (which campaigned largely on an anti-Iraq war platform), the House and Senate have both been increasingly vocal about their desire to derail the US efforts in Iraq. Whether out of the desire to "save the lives of future American soldiers," or simply out of the long-held yearning for defeat and to disgrace the hated President Bush, attempts to hamstring current operations, and to prevent flexibility and adjustment in strategy going forward, have moved to front and center on Congressional Democrats' agendae since taking over the legislative branch of government.

This frustratingly political -- in the most pejorative sense possible -- process began with the introduction, first in the Senate (where Republicans used a procedural move to block the vote) and then in the House (where it easily passed), of non-binding resolutions condemning the President's troop "surge."

Were there any semblance of balance in the media's reporting on Iraq, the immediate effect of the new strategy -- more specifically, the influx of new troops, the changing of ROEs, and the move to secure Baghdad -- would be better-known to the American public by now.

For example, were the media as aggressive in reporting the good news from Iraq as it is in reporting the bad, the American public would know that the operation to secure Baghdad has been wildly successful thus far, with "attacks and killings" in the city having "dropped by 80 percent" since the implementation of the security plan. Traffic moving through the city is being stopped in areas where security checkpoints have long been nonexistent. People are learning to live with more restrictive security measures because of the noticeable result.

"Omar" and "Mohammed," two Iraqi bloggers who have done yeomen's work in getting the truth from the region out on the internet via their site Iraq the Model (ITM), have posted several updates since the Baghdad operation began, and have provided eyewitness accounts of both the good and the bad. "We are hearing fewer explosions and less gunfire now than two weeks ago," wrote Mohammed last week, "and that, in Baghdad, qualifies as quiet."

Muqtada al-Sadr, murderous leader of the Iran-funded Mahdi Army and thorn in the side of the coalition since shortly after the conclusion of major combat operations, saw the writing on the wall and fled Iraq for Tehran shortly after President Bush announced his new strategy. The stated change in ROEs, geared toward more aggressive pursuit of insurgents and sectarian fighters, has had more success than forcing a preemptive cutting-and-running of a major militant figure, though -- in implementation, it has also given the insurgents fewer places to hide. As ITM's Omar wrote ten days ago:

"The most significant raid conducted yesterday [Feb. 14] was the one on Buratha mosque, one of the most important Shia mosques in Baghdad, which is considered SCIRI (Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) territory.

"The raid ended without blood but the preacher of the mosque…expressed his dismay about the raid "because it was American soldiers who searched the mosque," [which] seems to be one of the changes in rules of engagement. [In the past] there was a rule that only Iraqi soldiers or police were allowed to walk into places of worship while American troops had to stay outside.

"This raid is also of political significance, as it [proves] that the operation is impartial and not directed against one sect [and not] the other."

Apparently gone are the days when American soldiers were forced to halt their pursuit of insurgents -- and to cease returning fire -- when the latter fled into mosques which doubled as safe houses and arms caches. This change in ROE could not have come soon enough.

All four aspects of the President's new plan seem, at this early stage, to be working well, and the difference is already being seen and felt by the people of Baghdad. As Mohammed wrote days ago:

"The best part…remains the return of displaced families to their homes; the latest count for this shows that more than 600 families have returned so far.

"More occupied mosques are also being returned to their original keepers, and earlier today Sunni and Shia worshippers gathered to hold joint prayers in several places in Baghdad."

The President's new strategy has thus far produced results which can only be viewed as good by all who seek anything but our failure and defeat in Iraq, and it only makes sense to allow the plan to proceed with the full support of the American people and the American government. Unfortunately, though, the "anti-war" left and their allies in Congress, both of whom have invested so much in pursuit of an American failure in the Middle East, are anything but willing to give the President a chance to make a success out of the current situation. As the blogger known as "California Yankee" so aptly noted at conservative weblog RedState.com, "Al-Sadr has fled or is in hiding, arrests of bad guys are up, and attacks are down. No wonder [the Democrat] party is so opposed to the so-called surge" and the rest of the President's newly-enacted plan. "It seems to be working."

It does indeed seem to be working, and we may use this early progress as a reason for more optimism in the Iraqi front of the war on terror. As Omar so eloquently put it only days ago:

The progress made so far invites hope and optimism, but it's still too early to celebrate. Terrorists will keep trying to carry out attacks... They want sow as much death and destruction as they can in order to shake the people's confidence in the security plan. Such criminal attacks are still quite possible in Baghdad, but even if they happen we must not let that stop us from pursuing the objectives of our efforts to stop the death and deterioration, and to turn the tide and make progress.

His words are absolutely true. If America can only hold together her fractured populace, and hold at bay those in government who seem to be working as hard as they can to ensure what they see as a Bush failure in Iraq (never minding that it would be an American failure, and one which would come at a terrible price in terms of our national security), long enough for a strong final push, then success in Iraq will not only be possible, but may be within our grasp. Our soldiers and our military leaders have the desire, the drive, and the know-how to win in Iraq. All that we have to do is pull together enough to let them do it.


The original article can be found at Family Security Matters

Iraq 'close to partition', says French FM
Fri Mar 2, 10:13 AM



PARIS (AFP) - Iraq is nearing partition, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Friday as violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims raged on in Baghdad.


Following talks with his counterpart from Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, Douste-Blazy on Iraq told reporters: "We are clearly in agreement on one unfortunate fact: We are close to partition."


The French foreign minister said the only solution to Iraq's descent into more chaos was a withdrawal of international forces in 2008 and restoring the rule of law.


"Even the Iraqi officials are unable for the time being of making plans for Iraq," said the Qatari foreign minister, referring to the chaos.


"Of course, the neighbours can be of help or not be of help, but the Iraqis must above all depend on themselves by making decisions to restore justice, create equality, combat militias and reassure the whole of the Iraqi people," he said.


An international conference on security in Iraq is scheduled for March 10 in Baghdad, with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France set to attend along with Iraqi neighbours Syria and Iran.


Ten people died Friday when a bomb exploded in an open air car market in an east Baghdad Shiite bastion that has been a regular target of Sunni extremists.

Talabani says he is getting better

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

02 March 2007 (Aljazeera)

In his first interview since he was admitted to hospital after collapsing, Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, said he was in good health and would return to run his country, but gave no date.

"I enjoy good health, despite the rumors you've heard," Talabani, 73, said in an interview at a hospital in Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Thursday.

Talabani collapsed in northern Iraq on Sunday and was flown to Jordan for treatment later the same day.

Government spokesman said he was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration caused by lung and sinus infections.

He was rumored to have suffered a heart attack, but this was denied by his doctor and spokesman.

Wearing a light blue shirt and navy blue dressing gown, Talabani spoke in his normal tone of voice and smiled repeatedly during the interview.

"God willing, I will return safe and in a very good health to my country to continue my task with the Iraqi people," he said.

Talabani, a one-time leader of Kurdish guerillas who fought against Saddam Hussein, said his illness had perhaps been useful because it ensured that he received a full medical checkup.

He vowed to continue working for "a new, free, democratic, federal and united Iraq."

Doctor gives verdict

Yedgar Hishmat, Talabani's personal physician, said earlier on Thursday that the president was in "very good health and recovering rapidly."

"He is in a convalescence phase, but he still needs to finish his antibiotic course and is expected to leave the hospital within days" said Hishmat, who accompanied Talabani from Iraq.

Talabani is the first non-Arab to become president of a mostly Arab state.

However his position as president is mainly ceremonial and real power lies with Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, who is a Shia Arab.

Turkey, Iraq, U.S. to meet on Iraq oil

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

ANKARA, Turkey, 02 March 2007 (UPI)

Turkey's energy minister said Ankara was asked for help developing oil in northern Iraq and will meet with U.S. and Iraq officials this month.

But Hilmi Guler said the negotiations will be with the central Iraqi government, not the Kurdish leaders that control the oil rich north and are at odds with Turkey.

The meeting this month will be the first step in talks on developing Iraq ' s northern oil, the Turkish Daily News reports. Investment in Iraq's oil sector will be governed by a hydrocarbons law that has been approved by the Iraqi cabinet but hasn't reached the Parliament yet. Negotiations have been heated and took nearly a year. At issue is who has control over development, the regions or the central government.

The meetings, which will take place in Turkey, were instigated by Iraqi officials, Guler said.

Turkey has said it could invade Kurdistan if the Kurdistan Regional Government attempts to break away from the rest of Iraq. Turkey, along with Iran and Syria, fear an Iraqi Kurdish move would empower their Kurdish populations.

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, of which the KRG controls a large share, though not the majority.

Turkey is deciding whether to form diplomatic relations with the KRG.

Analysis: Kurds the winner in Iraq oil law
By BEN LANDO

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

WASHINGTON, 01 March 2007 (UPI)

After nearly a year of negotiations, deadlocked on crucial issues of revenue sharing and control of oil fields, the Kurds seemed to have gotten what they wanted from Iraq's central government in the hydrocarbon law approved by the Iraqi Cabinet Monday.

The passage appears to have ended, at least for now, the most difficult phase of creating and passing legislation aimed at governing all of Iraq's vast oil and natural gas reserves.

The Iraqi Parliament still needs to approve the hydrocarbon law, backed by the majority Shiites, which is likely now that the Kurdistan Regional Government has endorsed it.

Oil production is struggling in Iraq. Daily production last month averaged nearly a million barrels below the pre-war levels of 2.6 million barrels per day. Passage of the law is seen as the first step to the more than $20 billion of investment the sector needs.

According to the draft, revenue from oil sales will be pooled into a central government coffer and redistributed throughout the country by population, allaying concerns from the minority Sunnis they would be left with nothing.

The regions will have authority to negotiate and sign contracts, though within the contract guidelines set out in the law.

The KRG in the north, governing a region semi-autonomous since the end of the first Gulf War, has continued development of its oil sector during the current war that has stifled the rest of the country.

Claiming authority given it in the 2005 constitution, the KRG signed five exploration and development contracts with private international companies, deals made controversial when the Iraq Oil Ministry threatened not to honor them. The new law may have resolved the conflict.

The KRG also developed its own hydrocarbon law, and proposed federal legislation largely incorporated into the new law.

"If we go strictly by the Iraq Constitution, the KRG is entitled to assume much greater powers over oil and gas," KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in a statement issued Monday by the KRG. "However, to make it work for all concerned, we had to be accommodating and pragmatic in our approach. I am pleased to say that almost all our ideas are now featured highly in the draft Federal Oil Law."

The draft law is less of an end-all deal, more like a framework for and the first in a regime of laws needed to govern Iraq's 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves -- the third-most in the world -- and 111 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The "annexes" to the draft law, as Hawrami calls them, include detailing authority to territories and oil fields to the regions, the Iraq Oil Ministry and the Iraq National Oil Co.; the model and guidelines for contracts; and a law setting the terms of collecting revenues and mechanisms for redistributing them.

These issues have yet to be decided and, Hawrami said, "will also be agreed upon before submitting the whole package to the Council of Representatives," the Parliament said.

But those agreements, collectively inferred as afterthoughts in negotiations now that the first compromise has been reached, are the thorn keeping the central government and the KRG from shaking hands in the past.

The Kurds fear a strong central government could deprive them of development like under the Saddam Hussein regime. So they've demanded an automatic redistribution of revenue, away from sectarian whims, and at a percentage that appeared to have outweighed its proportion of the population (though a census will need to be conducted before real numbers can be confirmed).

And, citing historical wrongs and the 2005 constitution, the KRG demanded control over all new oil development.

"Kurdistan will be guaranteed a share of pooled revenue proportionate to its population," Hawrami said. "The Kurdistan Regional Government will, of course, retain the power to sign contracts for petroleum exploration and development in the Kurdistan Region."

A federal oil and gas council, which the KRG pushed for, will serve as a non-binding arbiter of disagreements.

Hawrami said a "panel of experts" named by the council will be allowed to review KRG contracts, though the contracts will not be stopped. The KRG will not sign any new deals until the law is passed.

As for Kirkuk, the city of 11 billion barrels of oil reserves which Kurds claim to be historically theirs but outside the official KRG border, "the Iraq National Oil Company...will continue to manage the current producing fields," Hawrami said. A controversial referendum to be held by year's end will be conducted prior to "further activities."

Despite what appears to be an agreement, Hawrami set a window of two months for action.

"If in two months time the law is still under debate by the Council of Representatives, then we will be reasonable about it and maintain support for the process being completed. However, if the oil law is still facing difficulties and the annexes and the Revenue Sharing Law have not been agreed," Hawrami said, "then that would be unfortunate as we will be facing a new situation and we will have to review our options again."

An official in the KRG's Washington office told United Press International Tuesday negotiations are ongoing.

--

Minister of Industry and Minerals discusses with major American companies the opportunities of industrial investment in Iraq

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

02 February 2007 (Iraq Directory)

Minister of Industry and Minerals, Mr. Fawzi Franzo Hareeri, discussed with major American companies the opportunities of industrial investment during his tour in the United States of America.

He called on those companies to be initiative and make the necessary surveys and the economic and technical evaluations for industrial projects during the first half of this year after to being agreed on, then start implementing them during the second half of the same year.

The Minister of Industry and Minerals had submitted a detailed explanation about the orientations of the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Industry in the area of encouraging investment, building new productive factories, reconstructing the companies affiliated with the Ministry and rehabilitating the production lines in them to take advantage of the available raw materials, the scientific expertise and the existing skills in the Ministry.

The Minister pointed out that there important regions throughout Iraq ready for investment, emphasizing that the initiative of the American companies will have a special assessment by the Ministry of Industry, since it reflects the seriousness and commitment of these companies to invest in these vital and important projects for the Iraqi economy.