Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Iraq PM announces plan to unite parties By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer
38 minutes ago



Iraq's prime minister announced a new plan Monday aimed at ending the deepening crisis between Shiite and Sunni parties in his government and uniting them behind the drive to stop sectarian killings that have bloodied the country for months.

The four-point plan, which emerged after talks between both sides, aims to resolve disputes by giving every party a voice in how security forces operate against violence on a neighborhood by neighborhood level.

Local committees will be formed in each Baghdad district — made up of representatives of every party, religious and tribal leaders and security officials — to consult on security efforts. A Sunni representative, for example, could raise a complaint if he feels police are not pursuing a Shiite militia after an attack. A central committee, also made up of all the parties, will coordinate with the armed forces.

"We have taken the decision to end sectarian hatred once and for all," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters. "We have vowed before Almighty God to stop the bloodshed."

In a possible boost to the effort to rein in the violence, a radical cleric who heads one of the most powerful Shiite militias, Muqtada al-Sadr, has ordered his followers to put aside their weapons temporarily, a Sadr spokesman told The Associated Press.

Al-Maliki announced his plan hours after gunmen abducted 14 computer shop employees in a bold, midday attack in downtown Baghdad, the second mass kidnapping in as many days.

The bodies of seven of the 24 captives seized Sunday were found dumped in southern Baghdad. Sunni politicians blamed Shiite militias for both mass kidnappings and demanded the government take action.

Al-Maliki is under increasing pressure to stop the violence, which has killed thousands since February. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned this week that al-Maliki must make progress within the next two months to avert a crisis.

But al-Maliki's administration has been plagued by growing mistrust between its Shiite and Sunni members, who each accuse the other of fueling the bloodshed.

Al-Maliki announced a 24-point reconciliation plan when he took office in May, which laid down ways to tackle violence — including an amnesty for militants who put down their weapons as well as security crackdowns. So far, the plan has done little to stem the daily killings.

Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led security forces of turning a blind eye to killing of Sunnis by Shiite militias — some of which are linked to parties in the government. Sunnis have accused al-Maliki, a Shiite, of being hesitant to crack down on the militias.

Shiites, meanwhile, accused Sunni parties of links to terrorists after a bodyguard of a Sunni party leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, was arrested by U.S. forces on Friday and accused of plotting al-Qaida bombings. Some Shiite politicians demanded a government reshuffle to push out Sunni parties.

The local committees aim to resolve these disputes.

"We will spare no efforts to succeed in this great initiative which we agreed on today to stop the violence and killings in Baghdad and in all Iraq," al-Dulaimi said at a news conference with al-Maliki. The two men signed an agreement with other Sunni and Shiite politicians on the four-point plan.

In addition to the local and central committees, the plan calls for establishment of a media committee and a monthly review of progress, al-Maliki said.

However, the new plan does not directly tackle the issue of cracking down on Shiite militias, a step Sunnis demand but many Shiites oppose.

In theory, the committees would give Sunnis a venue to press security forces to take action against militias. But Shiites on the committee would have an equal chance to try to prevent action.

The top parties are to meet Tuesday to work out the details of how the committees will work, but already divisions were showing — even over wording. Shiite parties want the new plan to be focused on "terrorism," which would suggest insurgents, while Sunnis want it to address "violence," which would include Shiite militias.

The most well-known of these militias is the Mahdi Army led by al-Sadr, who on Friday ordered his fighters to put aside their weapons temporarily. He told supporters "the resistance (should) be political. ... He does not want to see a single drop of (Iraqi) blood shed," said Sadr spokesman Amir al-Husseini.

The Mahdi Army has been blamed for many attacks on Sunnis since the bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad in February sparked the wave of sectarian violence. But U.S. commanders have suggested that since then some militants have split from al-Sadr, saying he is not radical enough and carrying out attacks on their own.

Violence has not slowed in the wake of al-Sadr's orders. A curfew slapped on Baghdad on Saturday after the arrest of al-Dulaimi's bodyguard brought a day of calm. But as soon as it was lifted, violence explode.

More than 50 bodies — most bound and many of them showing signs of torture — were found in Baghdad alone on Sunday, apparent victims of sectarian killings, police said.

Midday Monday, gunmen wearing military-style uniforms pulled up to a group of computer stores at the Technical University in downtown Baghdad and pulled out 14 employees, forcing them into SUVs and driving off, police said.

On Sunday, gunmen stormed into a frozen meat factory in Baghdad and forced 24 workers into a refrigerator truck, shooting two others who refused to get in.

Hours later, seven bodies were found in a Sunni district of the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora and were identified as workers from the factory. The fate of the other abducted workers was not known. In similar mass kidnappings in the past, the attackers have sorted out Shiites and Sunnis and killed those of the rival sect.

Lawmakers from the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political group, said the kidnapped workers were all Sunnis and called on the government to act.

"It is the time the government takes serious and urgent steps to disband these criminal organizations and to save the people from their harm," they said in a statement.

At least 20 other people were killed in attacks around Iraq, including a bomb blast in Baghdad's downtown Al-Nasir Square that killed four people and wounded 13, and mortar barrages against two Sunni neighborhoods that killed two people and wounded dozens.

The U.S command said three U.S. Marines died in Anbar province Saturday — two in combat and the third in a vehicle accident. A British soldier was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack in the southern city of Basra. One shell hit a nearby house, killing two children.

____

AP correspondent Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Iraq PM unveils "peace committee" against violence By Alastair Macdonald
40 minutes ago



Iraq's prime minister announced a broad plan to halt militia killings on Monday, as mass kidnaps by men in uniform and dozens of tortured bodies found in Baghdad fueled fears of all-out sectarian civil war.

A day after the U.S. ambassador warned he had just two more months to start curbing the violence or face catastrophe, Nuri al-Maliki met Sunnis and fellow Shi'ite majority leaders to agree a four-point plan focused on all-party local committees in the capital and unspecified new controls on the media.

Though short on detail, it bears the hopes of a nation.

"We will try to stop the bloodshed," veteran Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said as the assembled officials spoke live on television after the talks. "If this goes on, Iraq is finished."

Point number one, Maliki told Iraqis, would be forming local committees in Baghdad districts to include rival politicians, tribal leaders and the military. These would be overseen -- second point -- by a Central Committee for Peace and Security.

The third element would be new supervision of the media, and the fourth would be monthly reviews.

U.S. and Iraqi officials trying to drive militants from the city say the "Battle for Baghdad" will settle the fate of Iraq.

LITTLE HEADWAY IN FOUR MONTHS

U.S. officials are uneasy that Maliki's unity cabinet, four months after it was formed, has yet to act firmly to rein in party militias and other groups behind sectarian violence.

It is yet to be seen whether he can stop the death squads, some associated with his own Shi'ite allies and responsible for hundreds of killings a week.

"We do not need militias," Maliki said.

The appearance of gunmen in camouflage uniform and driving what looked like government-issue off-road vehicles outside a row of computer stores near Baghdad's Technology University on Monday did nothing to dispel fears the U.S.-trained security forces remain deeply infiltrated by criminals and militiamen.

They seized 14 people, mostly shopworkers, and drove off in seven trucks without license plates, witnesses and police said.

A day earlier, gunmen seized 26 workers from a meat processing plant. Such mass kidnaps have become common in recent months, and have been followed by a mixture of ransom demands, the release of some captives, and the death of many.

A Sunni party said all 26 were Sunnis and were found dead. But police said four escaped from a meat truck and the fate of the 22 others, some of whom were Shi'ites, was still unclear.

A further 30 bodies were found in Baghdad, said an Interior Ministry official -- a typical day. Many had been tortured with power drills or acid, most were bound and shot. Police pulled seven headless corpses from the Tigris downstream of the city.

On Sunday, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad reiterated a view that Maliki had only six months from the moment his cabinet it was formed to start turning around a slide toward a conflict that many fear could break the oil-rich nation into warring blocs and drag in Arab, Iranian and Turkish neighbors.

That left the premier just two more months, Khalilzad noted: "The government, in the course of the next two months, has to make progress in terms of containing sectarian violence."

BUSH UNDER PRESSURE

President Bush, under pressure over Iraq in next month's congressional elections, has vowed to back Maliki if he stays on a course for reconciling the opposing factions.

But many Americans are keen to bring home the 140,000 U.S. troops whose presence may be holding back civil war. Four more were killed, the military said, along with a British soldier.

The faultlines are complex, but a key factor is that Sunnis, dominant under Saddam Hussein, fear Kurds and Shi'ites want to grab the oil located in northern and southern Iraq respectively.

Sectarian rhetoric among political leaders has grown louder, notably since U.S. troops arrested a bodyguard to a Sunni leader on Friday and accused him of plotting suicide attacks on behalf of al Qaeda.

Sunni leaders have hit back, accusing the government of turning a blind eye to Shi'ite militias, notable the Mehdi Army of young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Several Sunni lawmakers tried to block a monthly renewal of the government's emergency powers in parliament on Monday, saying they were applied unfairly.

It is unclear what media supervision the government plans.

Iraqi officials from all factions routinely accuse the media of exacerbating sectarian tensions. Al Jazeera television is banned from Iraq and rival pan-Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya was forced last month to close its Baghdad bureau for a month.

Much of Iraq's print and broadcast media is controlled by one or other of the competing political groups, and journalists have been frequent targets for kidnap and killing.

(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla, Mariam Karouny and Aseel Kami)

whats the math on that 10million dinar how much are we talken usd just want to know ???

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International Oil Companies are Rushing to Invest in Iraq

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02 October 2006 (eDinar Financial)
Minister Ashahristani officially stated: "I met with representatives of big oil companies during the meeting of OPEC in Vienna and they were ready to negotiate with us about developing our oil fields before the legislation of the gas and oil law is finished. However, the minister did not name these companies. He added that the Iraqi Oil Ministry is currently responsible for running the Iraqi Oil sector and will bound itself to one type of contracts only. This, clearly points out to the dispute over the production process and the sharing agreements. Ashahristani did not comment on what kind of contracts the Ministry will sign with these companies.

International Oil Companies are Rushing to Invest in Iraq | Iraq Updates

-- October 2, 2006 9:34 AM ∞


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Originally Posted by iswtnot

whats the math on that 10million dinar how much are we talken usd just want to know ???

Less than 7K. US.

cig your to fast

Originally Posted by Adster

Good to hear from you Mike. You're right though, we need more Kurds on board, they kick ass and know what they're doing and saying!

Changing the subject slightly I was looking closely at one of my many dinar notes. Now I've said this before, why would there have been so many bank jobs and robbers stealing worthless money? Why would you risk jail for a currency worth nothing!?

Also, looking at the notes, why would they have spent so much on a reprint with so many security features on notes that are worth bugger all????

Answers on a postage stamp to the Rolclub Forum...........winner will be picked out by Neno and get a free weekend for 2 in Baghdad, LOL.

Just what I needed. Another Job..

October 01, 2006
U.S. Congressmen’s visit adjourned to Monday-U.S. embassy
By


Baghdad, Oct 1, (VOI) – The U.S. Congressmen’s visit to Iraq was adjourned to Monday for security reasons, said a source at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
“The visit by a U.S. Congress delegation was adjourned to Monday for security reasons,” the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) over phone.
A number of congress delegations would arrive in Baghdad over the next week, the source added.
Earlier, a source at the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office said a U.S. congressmen delegation arrived in a surprise visit to Iraq.

Originally Posted by ezcash

Can anyone comment on this question

Originally Posted by chouchou:


Am I right to say that Iraq lost 14.9b from USA because of the deadline is gone.?


Thanks...

iraqi funding from the usa expired on september 30th as that was the deadline. basically they are funding themselves currently.

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

iraqi funding from the usa expired on september 30th as that was the deadline. basically they are funding themselves currently.

Wouldn't you think now they better hurry up and reval because they need to be generating some revenue....???