jte70

What is the point of this post?

Thanks for the translation, Jzar.

what do KEMA and TATHBEET mean?

Even on my worst days I wouldn't post a naked pic of myself, and I don't weigh 400 lbs.

That picture is offensive.

Wonder if he was a general under Saddam. I realize that may be a stupid question.

I don't know how OPEC works or why oil prices go up or down. Seems if there is more supply and less demand, the price would go down! Is Iraq part of OPEC now?

OK with me as long as it's in silhouette with the garbled voice thing! LOL

Probably because a loaf of bread in Iraq would cost 10,000 dinar. I guess.

He seems to follow trends of activity in Iraq as far as government formation, sanctions being lifted against the country, and other factors that lead to an Iraq that would lend itself to an RV. That's what he bases his meter on. It's a numerical representation of a speculator's confidence in the factors that will cause an Rv.

I'd give you more pluses if I could. If it's really so few of us private investors that hold dinar, then why the hell would the USGOVT mess around with a delay for tax purposes. I don't think it would make that much difference... not vis a vis the 9 TRILLION dollars lost by the Fed Reserve.

A guy who posts as Just Hopin. You can find him on Facebook and of course the web site where the RV meter is located.

Ever think why the newly appointed oil minister made this announcement NOW? They are definitely trying to show themselves as on the mend!

A donkey can nail one in the eye without even thinking. And... they won't eat a whole da*n trashcan of food like a horse will.

I knew that donkey was trouble from day one.

I don't know how to attach a picture here but just google RV o meter currency newshound.

Just google Currency Newshound RV o meter

ROCK ON

That 100,000 bpd increase is just over the course of one week.

Works for me. I have one just up the street from my office.

Ordinary income is taxed at 35% after a certain amount (I think it's $250,000). That's actually good news for short term investors. Cash in as of Jan. 1, and you can invest the money and NOT pay taxes on it for 13 months (April 2012).. Cap gains tax has to be paid quarterly if I'm not mistaken.

I ordered more dinar from my bank on the 10th of Dec and they've yet to fulfil my order. HMMMM.

WSJ article Iraq's crude oil production increased by 100,000 barrels a day to 2.5 million barrels a day from Wednesday, the newly appointed oil minister said Wednesday. Abdul Kareem Luaiby, who was sworn in as new Iraqi oil minister Tuesday, said that the 100,000 barrels a day come from the southern Rumaila and Zubair oil fields which are being developed by international oil companies. Luaiby, a Shiite from the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition, said in a statement that the new increase comes on top of the less than 2.4 million barrels a day that Iraq has been producing over the last few months. U.K. oil major BP PLC (BP) and China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, have achieved an increase of 10% in the Rumaila oil field and a consortium led by Italy's giant Eni SpA (E) has also achieved an increase of 10%, Luaiby said.

Shahristani article I thought this was an interesting article about Shahristani and his promotion. May answer some HCL questions people have been posing. IRAQ-SHAHRISTANI/ (NEWSMAKER, PIX) * Oversaw deals that could make oil rival to Saudi Arabia * Seen as guarantor of international oil deals * Man of integrity, but has enemies By Rania El Gamal and Barbara Lewis BAGHDAD/LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Iraq's Hussain al-Shahristani, who was promoted from oil minister to the broader role of deputy prime minister for energy, faces an uphill struggle to achieve ambitious oil output targets and allay fears within OPEC over the scale of Iraq's plans. Parliament confirmed Shahristani in his new role on Tuesday. His former deputy Abdul Kareem Luaibi was elevated to to oil minister. A nuclear scientist by training and a survivor of torture under the regime of Saddam Hussein, Shahristani's integrity and determination helped him to forge deals with foreign oil firms that could quadruple Iraq's oil output. Iraq has ambitious plans to boost production capacity from 2.5 million barrels a day to 12 million bpd over the next six or seven years, but sceptical analysts say 6-7 million bpd is a more realistic target. Even that goal, however, would give it much more weight in OPEC, currently dominated by the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, and prompt some hard negotiations in the oil producers' cartel about the level of Iraq's output quota. Within Iraq, obstacles to Shahristani's plans include a lack of security, decades-old laws, crumbling infrastructure and sectarian divides. "He was the right person to be in charge during the bid rounds because he was not going to be bought by anybody," said Bill Farren-Price of Petroleum Policy Intelligence. "But is he the right person to be in charge for the implementation phase, where you need someone who understands the industry and gets things done?" For international oil companies, his presence in the oil ministry amounts to a pledge that contracts he agreed will be honoured in the absence of any formal guarantee as Iraq still lacks a new oil and gas law. For the Kurds, who have signed oil deals that Baghdad has declared unconstitutional, he is enemy number one. "Shahristani looks like a guarantor of continuity from the point of view of the companies investing in the south of Iraq," said Samuel Ciszuk, senior energy analyst at IHS. "(He) has built himself a reputation as a capable technocrat and ally to (Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki, but has also become the nemesis of Iraq's Kurdish factions for pushing hard to extend national control over the oil and gas resources in the Kurdistan region." JAILED, TORTURED UNDER SADDAM Born in 1942, Shahristani studied in Britain, Russia and Canada and became senior scientific adviser at Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission, where he was arrested in 1979 by Saddam Hussein's agents for his activities against the regime. By his own account, he was stripped, hung from the ceiling by his wrists and subjected to electric shocks and beatings. He has said he recited mathematical formulae to help him survive. After seven months in jail, he was taken to Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, who he said offered to free him if he would work on Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme. "Anybody who refuses to serve his country does not deserve to be alive," Shahristani quoted Tikriti as telling him. "I agree with you that the person must serve his country but what you are asking me is not a service to the country," Shahristani replied, he said in his book Escaping to Freedom, which he wrote in 1999. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years and spent 11 in prison, some in solitary confinement. Shahristani escaped the notorious Abu Ghraib prison as bombs fell during the 1991 Gulf War and fled with his children and Canadian wife to Iran where he ran a group helping Iraqi refugees. He returned to Iraq in 2003 and turned down a chance to head the interim government before being made oil minister in 2006. KURDISH DEALS Those who have worked with Shahristani have divergent opinions of a man who, although lacking experience in the industry, took a tough line with firms queuing up to develop some of the world's most promising oilfields. Politicians and oil officials said he also took a firm stance in fighting corruption when he took over the oil ministry, and has been praised for leading a largely transparent auction process. A devout Shi'ite Muslim, he lives a simple life and in some ways has not been altered by his time in office. "I met Mr. Shahristani in 2006 in London and he wasn't smiling then. That was before we won any contracts," said a foreign oil executive. "I met him this year again in Baghdad after we won the contracts and he's still not smiling." Critics say he is not receptive to advice. The central government and the regional Kurdish government have been at loggerheads for months over deals Kurdistan signed with foreign oil firms. Shahristani has repeatedly said the contracts are illegal and has made many enemies. Kurdish officials hope the formation of a new central government will lead to a deal to pay the firms and restart exports from their region, despite doubts Shahristani will change his stance. "When he says no, it is no," said an oil official who works closely with him. "They will reach a compromise, but he will not back down completely from what he said before." OPEC POLICY Shahristani has said he expects an OPEC output limit of no less than that of the group's most influential member, Saudi Arabia. Emerging from the shadow of war and sanctions, Iraq is exempt from the targets the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries uses to set supply levels. But as Baghdad embarks on unprecedented development, OPEC will at some point need to bring Iraq back into the fold to stop millions of barrels of new supply from destabilising markets. The rise of Iraq as an oil power would rattle Sunni Saudi Arabia, already suspicious of the new-found political supremacy of Iraq's Shi'ite majority since the fall of Saddam, a Sunni. Iraq's development is also likely to stoke tensions with Iran, OPEC's No. 2 producer. Higher output from Iraq could lower oil prices and steal market share from others. Shahristani has said there was no need for OPEC quota talks before output reaches 4 or 5 million bpd, which could be in two or three years' time. "The issue of an Iraqi OPEC quota will clearly be of strategic importance to Iraq," said Ciszuk. "I think we should expect negotiations to become quite complex when we get there, but then that depends on what Iraq's potential will look like at that point."

.85 to 3.80 or averaged, 2.33