Thread: Iraq/Dinar News Up until April 5th 5PM CTZ.

Haider Almiali budget : reconstruction of Najaf in 2007 amounting to 111 billion dinars and ambition more than 200 billion we need huge capital to get to the level of reconstruction in the Arab countries,
Date : Monday, April 02
Topic : Local News
In the period immediately following the process of political change in Iraq had been relying on everybody to move towards the construction phase, reconstruction and the establishment of a modern state and restoring the prestige and standing of the various Iraqi cities and governorates that are miserable cities has not risen to the minimum description of modern cities because of a lot of demolition and marginalization and destruction! Will you hit the maximum aspirations photo Is felt Iraqi citizen and felt the fact ages?.


In Najaf, where specifically spent billions of dinars Was the reconstruction of the physical presence in the field of construction and reconstruction? All this and other Iraq met every engineer Haider Almiali President of the reconstruction in Najaf, which began by saying : Generally speaking, Najaf governorate was considered the first at the level of reconstruction in the framework of the measurements associated with corporate professional, and related aspects of the quality, size and measure where we were and talk to Miali in the reconstruction work such as bees and At this time, with no transfer, we have reached a stage dissatisfaction What still have a lot did not take all the regions preserve their share of the reconstruction, it is in principle we need four-five years to achieve some of the aspirations of the people of the governorate. And estimates of the need for the establishment of new projects and how to determine who was responsible for that and in the follow-up Almiali said : The executive bodies in the province is responsible for the feasibility study for the new urban projects, which are divided into two projects with the profitability and return on projects with social service projects, which include electricity, water, sewage and other infrastructure and projects that do not need a feasibility study is being obligation of the State towards the citizen, and we added as a reconstruction the advantages of our work is open to the citizen and a banner in the work carried out as well as coordination with other parties, including the preservation and the civil administration and its regulatory and operational in order to study the proposals and incorporated in the Action Plan in all projects. When asked about the vision construction Will the Najaf quantum leap in the field of construction. The ages? Almiali said : that directly at the root of the campaign Aemarih huge sums needed to be more than what we had allocated exponentially on the one hand, on the other hand, a change in modern cities need to change in the design basis and that the Ministry of Municipalities had referred the issue of changing the design basis for the town of Najaf to a British company specialized in this area that have not been implemented and what is required of them so far and was among the conditions set for the direct a new design to take into account the views of those concerned in the civil society in addition to obtaining the approval of the relevant authorities, and said Almiali even if a new design is not imagine that the implementation of these alternatives maintenance will be in the form of skyscrapers or high buildings or major economic projects, as has been found in some Arab countries and the world as this requires huge capital, I do not think that the government is capable of meeting them. The investors did not find them an audience in the arena of reconstruction so far all this is new legislation relating to the law of investment, and added : Almiali as I mentioned to you the current budget allocated for the provinces did not meet the purpose and the limitations and conditions set by the Ministry of Finance on contract with foreign agents would not be granted the power to maintain the signing of a contract for an amount exceeding one million dollars in spite of the call for an increase this percentage to be three million dollars, divide the project strategy to be a more than a year ago. The engineer Haider Almiali plans for the implementation of a number of projects of strategic and vital during the year 2007 Among those projects is the waste treatment and recycling, and a huge project for sewerage Najaf and Kufa and Mashkhab total cost amounted to 30 billion dinars. It has also revealed it has been doing more than 50 construction companies on the black list, according to regulations and instructions of the Ministry of Planning because of the poor implementation of the projects assigned to them in addition to providing some of the letters of guarantee forged and false identities. It should be noted that the budget allocated for Najaf in the year 2007 amounted to 111 billion dinars, while the ambitious officials in the province was more than 200 billion dinars in order to project power and the need to maintain balance unusual to meet its obligations to the citizen who yearn to find the reality of the construction and reconstruction.

All Iraq - Majid Sudanese

The first draft law on oil and gas Higher Education organized a series of seminars and conferences addressing the issues of the day
Date : Monday, April 02
Topic : Local News
The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Wednesday, the 4th of April this, a seminar to discuss the draft law of oil and gas before the Iraqi Parliament today. A source in the research and development in the ministry, said that this symposium comes in the framework of the ministry directed to community service, and investment expertise of researchers in higher education and their potential to crystallize ideas and opinions on the issues, challenges and problems facing the Iraqi society


And some of the decision-makers can make decisions more accurately and responsibly in the public interest. He added that the symposium will discuss a draft law on oil and gas, aspects of economic, political and legal, he said, pointing out that specialized professors from the faculties of the relationship, in the universities of Baghdad, Mustansiriyah, Mesopotamia, they will be. That source said that the ministry will organize (respectively) a series of seminars and specialized conferences country this year, dealing with issues of the day, indicating that it had invited researchers and to contribute to the first country that separates over on 7-6 June next. He explained that the conference would deal with the subject ((contemporary social challenges in the Iraq / reality Treatments)), noting that his work is distributed on four axes, the first dealing with violence in fact and the reasons species, prevention and treatments .. The second deals with unemployment in fact and the reasons and its implications on the society and the treatment methods .. The third deals with the causes and spread of drugs and their dangers and means to address them .. While deals fourth axis and the brain drain and drain leakage, and the impact on higher education and society, and regulate the relationship with the expatriate. It is noteworthy that the ministry organized last December, a symposium devoted to the discussion of the report of the Baker-Hamilton and its repercussions.


All Iraq - Azza Mahmoud

This is a long OPINION piece, but well worth the read. Maliki may well be on his way out and we would do well to learn about potential replacements.

Iraq needs a strongman. Allawi is waiting
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - For four years, former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi has been a voice of reason in Iraq. He always stood out against religiously driven Shi'ite hegemony over Iraqi politics, although he himself is Shi'ite (but a secular one) and has refused the partitioning of Iraq and the sidelining of Iraqi Sunnis after the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Sunnis need to be given a bigger and more realistic and proportionate role in the new Iraq, he argues. An autonomous Shi'ite district in the south, something coveted by many fellow Shi'ites, is non-negotiable. He is in favor of strengthening Iraq's ties to the Arab world, has strong friendships with numerous Arab heads of state, and categorically opposes militia rule, which has become widespread during the reign of the two prime ministers who succeeded him in office, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Nuri al-Maliki.

Allawi makes no secret his ties to the United States, unlike Maliki, who speaks anti-Americanism at home, but cuddles up to the Americans at every opportunity. For some time now, Allawi has been silent, seeing a slim chance in making a comeback to the premiership, given the unconditional support Maliki has received from the US.

Maliki's good days, however, are nearly finished, as his relationship with the US administration strains. Sources at Maliki's office said last week that officials at the US Embassy in Baghdad had given him an early-June deadline to get his act together, or be ejected from office if he does not bring substantial security to Iraq.

Not only has Maliki's era given the Americans a bad name, he has repeatedly backed out on his promises, and refused to disarm the militias, either because they were allied to him (as is the case with the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr) or to Iran (such as the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, SCIRI).

An Iraq with Shi'ite militias is safer as far as Maliki is concerned than an Iraq with no Shi'ite militias and only Sunni ones. Allawi sees only one future for Iraq: an Iraq with no militias. Period. He does not tolerate armed violence and believes that the US occupation will not end through armed resistance.

There was talk last April of a US-backed coup in Baghdad, to oust then-prime minister Jaafari and the Iran-backed Shi'ite team that supported him (the United Iraqi Alliance that still backs his successor Maliki). Allawi, who holds 25 of the 275 seats in Parliament, would return as prime minister.

This coup, it was believed back then, was the product of a conviction that Iraq was not ready for democracy in 2003. The new system only led to chaos and sectarianism. The only solution was to replace the existing regime with a strong central government, one that cared more so for security and the rule of law than such trappings of democracy as a free press and parliamentary elections. The rumored coup of 2006 was a military one, to be carried out by pro-US elements in Iraq.

That ambitions idea was dismissed as nonsense back then. It resurfaces today as not a military coup, but a political one, chaired by none other than Allawi. He recently returned from a trip to regional Arab countries, all allies of the US, headed by Sunni regimes that are opposed to Iraq becoming a puppet state for the Iranians. They included Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Jordan. He sold them his vision for a new Iraq.

His fans argue that although a coup is undemocratic, Allawi's motto, when returning to office, would be "security first, democracy second".

Allawi has several serious obstacles at making a comeback to office. Prime on the list is that he does not have a parliamentary majority, and in a country torn apart by sectarianism, he does not enjoy a wide power base because of his secular views. His constant criticism of the new government, describing it as a thinly disguised theocracy, almost like the one in Iran, has created many enemies for him in Baghdad, especially within the Shi'ite community.

The Sunnis support him, however, and so do the Kurds. Last week, he spoke to the Associated Press and heated up his campaign against Maliki, saying that the Baghdad Security Plan of February had not been successful. "It seems to me even the surge, unfortunately, is not working efficiently yet," Allawi said. He added, "Security, as you can see, is still deteriorating in the country and sectarianism is unfortunately prevailing. We are witnessing wide-scale atrocities throughout the country."

The reasons for Iraq's plight, he said, can be found in its current prime minister. He criticized Maliki for refusing, despite rhetoric, to conduct serious talks with Iraqi Sunnis. Precisely because of Maliki's hostility to the Sunnis, whom he blames for the wrongdoings of Saddam's era, the Baghdad Security Plan "is not going to succeed", said Allawi.

He described the Shi'ite-dominated government and Parliament as "biased and sectarian-based", claiming they were damaging the country. He explained his future vision this way: "I'm definitely trying to pull together an alliance of moderates in Iraq. I strongly believe that sectarianism and terrorism are both signs of extremism. And really what we need in Iraq, as well as the region, is the creation of moderate camps."

The solutions for Allawi are, simply, the fall of the government and the resignation of Parliament. This would have to be done on orders from the United States, and Maliki's team would be replaced with a cabinet of national unity (headed by Allawi) that would restore order and disarm the militias. Last year, speaking to the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Allawi said a US-style democracy was not applicable to Iraq.

He said: "One cannot bring American democracy to a country that is occupied like Iraq, and whose infrastructure, as well as military and governmental institutions, have been destroyed." He added, "I warned the Americans repeatedly [against] trying to model Iraq on the social and administrative system in the United States."

Allawi was saying that a military coup was not desirable, but neither was the chaos existing in Iraq today. The chaos under Jaafari, he said, "where the government turned a blind eye to the militias ... has led Iraq to a disaster". This week he elaborated, saying: "I always thought that the first steps toward democracy were not to have elections. The first steps are [to create] the rule of law and a bill of rights for the people. That would pave the way for full-blown democracy."

Taking action
Following his words up with actions, Allawi secured the resignation over the weekend of one of his ministers from the Maliki cabinet, Hashem al-Shibli, the minister of justice. This is the first sign of rupture in the cabinet of Prime Minister Maliki since it assumed office last May.

Contradictory signs are coming out of Baghdad regarding the reasons for his resignation. Some claim it is a preemptive move, since Shibli knew that Maliki was planning a reshuffle and would not include him in the new cabinet. He stepped down before being retired from his job.

Others, however, attribute his resignation to disagreements between Maliki and Allawi, who heads Shibli's political party, the Iraqi List. Still others claim that the disagreement was personal, between Maliki and Shibli. The two men came to blows last December during the execution of Saddam Hussein. Shibli, who is a Sunni Arab, had many reservations about the execution.

First, being minister of justice, he had doubts about its legality, since it was not approved by the president. Not only did it embarrass him within the Sunni community, for failing to protect their leader, but it also strained his relationship with the Shi'ite majority in power. Shibli, like most Sunni Arabs, claimed that the execution was carried out in a gangster-like manner, with masked men and chants in favor of Muqtada al-Sadr, both of which represented anything but officialdom.

A better explanation to the sudden resignation would be a combination of above. It certainly could not have been done, however, without Allawi's blessing.

Coinciding with Allawi's coup were increasing signs of discontent within the Sunni community of Iraq, which is allied to the former prime minister. Last week, members of the police, being militiamen under cover, went on a homicidal rampage in the Sunni neighborhood of Tal Afar, killing more than 70 civilians. For two hours they roamed the streets of the city, arresting Sunnis, handcuffing them, and shooting them through the head. Angry Sunnis have demanded a trial of the police officers, and the resignation of Maliki.

The sectarian attacks were in response to car bombs last Tuesday that killed more than 60 Shi'ites and wounded more than 300, also in Tal Afar. Investigations identified 18 police officers as architects of the massacre. After arresting them, government authorities surprisingly had them released. That could not have been done without the blessing of Maliki.

The government claimed that the police officers had been released to attend the funeral of their relatives who had been killed in the car bombs against the Shi'ite districts on March 27. To calm down anger, Maliki ordered their arrest once again. On Thursday, suicide bombers responded to the Tal Afar bombing by attacking a Shi'ite district in the Iraqi capital, killing 130 people. Most of the victims were women and children, since the bombing took place in a shopping area.

The Ministry of Health, run by Sadrists loyal to the government, commented saying: "It is impossible to tell the exact number of dead because we are basically counting body parts." While the government was "counting the dead", three suicide bombs went off within minutes of one another at Khalis, 80 kilometers north of Baghdad, killing 53 and wounding more than 100.

Sad as these events may be, they fit nicely into Allawi's campaign, which will concentrate, in the upcoming two months, on discrediting Maliki in every possible way.

One way is to remind the world of Allawi's virtues, without directly comparing them with Maliki's but letting facts speak for themselves. While the Iraqis watch in horror what is taking place in Tal Afar today, they are asked to remember what happened in Fallujah and Najaf in 2004, when the Allawi cabinet cracked down on the Mehdi Army. Allawi personally supervised the military operations and hit them with force, regardless of sect or objective, saying they were disrupting peace in Iraq.

In many ways, Allawi resembles Michel Aoun, the Lebanese Christian leader who is striving to become president. Both Allawi and Aoun are obsessed with returning to power and have grand, non-sectarian agendas for their countrymen. Allawi, wanting to prove his credentials as an Iraqi nationalist, and not just a Shi'ite leader, was the first to strike the Iraqi Shi'ites in 2004. Likewise, Aoun did the same with Lebanon's Christians in the late 1980s during the civil war. Both men are striving to become leaders not of their respective communities, but rather of their respective countries.

True, Aoun has lost support from onetime loyal and radical Christians, and so has Allawi among Shi'ites. But they don't want to be remembered as a Shi'ite leader, or a Christian leader. What is amazing is the amount of support these two men enjoy within their constituency, giving them great room for political maneuvering.

Aoun and Allawi do not come from traditional political families - they have not inherited their leadership roles. They are not directly supported by a certain country, whether Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia or the United States. And yet their supporters love them and want to help them reach their leadership roles in Baghdad and Beirut. No alliance is taboo to achieving that.

Aoun allied himself with unimaginable allies, the Iran-backed Hezbollah, while Allawi has cuddled up to numerous figures, including the Tawafok parliamentary bloc, which holds 44 seats, and is flirting with the Fadila Party, which was a member of the United Iraqi Alliance but broke away last month to oppose the UIA's sectarianism. He has made goodwill visits to numerous Sunni politicians and, more recently, started to court the Kurds as well. One way was to support their claims for Kirkuk becoming part of Iraqi Kurdistan. That is a price Allawi is willing to pay to strengthen his power base at home.

A short while ago, the former prime minister visited Kurdistan and met with its president, Masoud al-Barazani. He asked that Barazani join the anti-Maliki team, but the latter refused to commit himself, in fear of embarrassing his friend and ally Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, who is also a Kurd. With his bloc, topped with Kurdish support, and al-Fadila, Allawi hopes he can secure 140 seats in Parliament - enough to bring down Maliki constitutionally.


Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst and the managing editor of Forward magazine.

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

i dont know about a compiled list but funding runs out from the usa on the 15th of this month and there hasnt been anymore appropriated and congress went on vacation so it doesnt look like they will be getting any by the 16th.

April 02, 2007
When the money runs out


By Major Gerd Schroeder
Now that Congress has passed the Iraq Accountability Act, one of the best questions that I have heard is: "when will the lack of funds start hurting the troops?" This is not a hypothetical question. As a matter of fact it has happened before. Most have forgotten this fact. Allow me to refresh your memories.

In September 2003, the money in Iraq was frozen in a battle for the 87 billion dollars that was allocated to the war by Congress. "What fight?" You ask. Most people will not remember. The fight over funds was not advertised in the media very well at the time; but the effects on the troops were significant just the same.

One distinction between then and now must be clear. The fight then over the money was between the State Department and the Department of Defense. The argument was over who would control the funds. But the effect on the troops and the mission was immediate. Even after the money started to flow again in December 2003, the pernicious effects that the lack of funds initiated continued unabated.

I would argue that it was this lack of funds that started the slide that has until recently just reversed through the implementation of the surge.

Here is what happened in October 2003. At the time I was the commander of Forward Operation Base Regulars. One day we were building protective barriers, billets, dinning facilities, electrical system grids, motor pools, sewer systems, armoring vehicles and the like. The next day the money was "suspended."

We managed to convince some of the contractors to keep working by giving them IOUs, but most could not continue work. For almost two months the money was unavailable. Work stopped, protection improvement stopped. The daily attacks continued. The fighting continued; but we were not making any improvements.

In counterinsurgency there are no timeouts. Money is the most important ammunition of the counterinsurgent [ref. Field Manual 3-24 (Counterinsurgency), paragraph 1-153]

If the population that you are attempting to influence sees no improvement, they turn to someone else. That someone else usually is the insurgents.

Trust is lost immediately. In the Iraqi culture, failing to provide what you have promised is equal to lying. The insurgents use the lack of progress to drag the population back towards them through promises, intimidation, attacks, and lies. It is truly one step forward and two steps back. Months of forward progress were lost in days.

So, what will happen starting on 15 April 2007? Just look at September and October 2003. Better yet look are November and December 2003. (It shows how the lack of progress actually slipped into backward momentum.) The bit of progress that we have made over the last 6 weeks will immediately start to crumble. Trust that has been built over years will fade rapidly. The insurgents will use the lack of progress to convince the Iraqi population that we have lied, and quit, while simultaneously increasing attacks that will show the people that the Iraqi government and the coalition can't protect them.

If the money dries up in less then two weeks the violence will rise. Our troops will start to lose the intelligence that the population is giving them to target. The attacks will increase on our forces as well as the Iraqi forces, and the members of Congress and media that oppose the war will take the opportunity to crow about how the surge is a failure. Don't expect them ever tie it to the true friction, which will be the lack of money.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/..._runs_out.html

and this is why i feel like it is THE most critical date.

Originally Posted by Adster

April 02, 2007
When the money runs out


By Major Gerd Schroeder
Now that Congress has passed the Iraq Accountability Act, one of the best questions that I have heard is: "when will the lack of funds start hurting the troops?" This is not a hypothetical question. As a matter of fact it has happened before. Most have forgotten this fact. Allow me to refresh your memories.

In September 2003, the money in Iraq was frozen in a battle for the 87 billion dollars that was allocated to the war by Congress. "What fight?" You ask. Most people will not remember. The fight over funds was not advertised in the media very well at the time; but the effects on the troops were significant just the same.

One distinction between then and now must be clear. The fight then over the money was between the State Department and the Department of Defense. The argument was over who would control the funds. But the effect on the troops and the mission was immediate. Even after the money started to flow again in December 2003, the pernicious effects that the lack of funds initiated continued unabated.

I would argue that it was this lack of funds that started the slide that has until recently just reversed through the implementation of the surge.

Here is what happened in October 2003. At the time I was the commander of Forward Operation Base Regulars. One day we were building protective barriers, billets, dinning facilities, electrical system grids, motor pools, sewer systems, armoring vehicles and the like. The next day the money was "suspended."

We managed to convince some of the contractors to keep working by giving them IOUs, but most could not continue work. For almost two months the money was unavailable. Work stopped, protection improvement stopped. The daily attacks continued. The fighting continued; but we were not making any improvements.

In counterinsurgency there are no timeouts. Money is the most important ammunition of the counterinsurgent [ref. Field Manual 3-24 (Counterinsurgency), paragraph 1-153]

If the population that you are attempting to influence sees no improvement, they turn to someone else. That someone else usually is the insurgents.

Trust is lost immediately. In the Iraqi culture, failing to provide what you have promised is equal to lying. The insurgents use the lack of progress to drag the population back towards them through promises, intimidation, attacks, and lies. It is truly one step forward and two steps back. Months of forward progress were lost in days.

So, what will happen starting on 15 April 2007? Just look at September and October 2003. Better yet look are November and December 2003. (It shows how the lack of progress actually slipped into backward momentum.) The bit of progress that we have made over the last 6 weeks will immediately start to crumble. Trust that has been built over years will fade rapidly. The insurgents will use the lack of progress to convince the Iraqi population that we have lied, and quit, while simultaneously increasing attacks that will show the people that the Iraqi government and the coalition can't protect them.

If the money dries up in less then two weeks the violence will rise. Our troops will start to lose the intelligence that the population is giving them to target. The attacks will increase on our forces as well as the Iraqi forces, and the members of Congress and media that oppose the war will take the opportunity to crow about how the surge is a failure. Don't expect them ever tie it to the true friction, which will be the lack of money.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/..._runs_out.html

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

and this is why i feel like it is THE most critical date.

Ahhh Sus, thought I'd least get a woot out of you for that article!!! LOL.

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

thanks Susie. This morning my Mom and I had to go and have my good old wirehair terrier put to rest, and that never gets any easier with time. My ex-husband of 17 years is on his deathbed as well, and may go as early as today also. I may have had weirder days, but I can't remember one right at the moment. One thing that has helped is William's post of a day or two ago, that it was a matter of days. Now that would be some good news! Do you concur with his assessment?
blessings,

Originally Posted by Adster

Ahhh Sus, thought I'd least get a woot out of you for that article!!! LOL.

wOOT!!

yes thanks for enforcing my thought process!!

Originally Posted by ourhouse37

thanks Susie. This morning my Mom and I had to go and have my good old wirehair terrier put to rest, and that never gets any easier with time. My ex-husband of 17 years is on his deathbed as well, and may go as early as today also. I may have had weirder days, but I can't remember one right at the moment. One thing that has helped is William's post of a day or two ago, that it was a matter of days. Now that would be some good news! Do you concur with his assessment?
blessings,

i do and posted as such shortly after his post!! im watching very closely between today and the 16th.

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

i do and posted as such shortly after his post!! im watching very closely between today and the 16th.

Thank you Susie for keeping us going...Kristin, I'm sorry to hear about your family--your dog, and your ex-husband...It's times like that when a ray of sun, no matter how small really seems to help.

For me, I am missing my Husband something awful today (he's at home and I'm in San Diego for work). Of course the Dinar will reval this month, April, 2007, unless it doesn't in which case I get to go overseas for 6-8 months....

Again, thanks to everyone who contributes news and opinion.

OrdinarySeaWoman