Butifldrm

Draft policies council law close to completion 07/08/2011 13:56 Baghdad, Aug. 7 (AKnews) – President Jalal Talabani will submit the draft law for the National Council of Strategic Policies (NCSP) to parliament for approval within the next 48 hours, his office announced today. The leaders of the political blocs agreed last week to establish the new council – part of a bid to withdraw some of the powers of the Prime Minister and distribute decision-making across the political spectrum – without further delay. Presidential office chief Naseer al-Ani told AKnews that the preparation of the draft law is close to completion. In October 2010, the Iraqi -Kurdistan Region's President, Massoud Barzani, launched an initiative, the Erbil agreement, by which all Iraqi political leaders agreed to form a national-partnership government thus bringing to an end a 9-month political impasse over the country’s three key executive seats of power. Under the Erbil agreement, Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani – a Kurd – were to retain their offices for a second term, and al-Iraqiya List leader Ayad Allawi, who secured a narrow majority of votes in the elections, would head a new executive body called the National Council for Strategic Policies (NCSP) as an attempt to maintain balance. The council is expected to be responsible for drafting internal, foreign, economic and security policies, as well as forming strategies for managing the country’s natural resources and energy. Since the new government was formed in December last year however, the al-Iraqiya List has repeatedly accused Maliki, whose list only overcame Allawi’s by controversially forming a super-bloc, the National Coalition (NC), with the Sadrist Current following the elections, of not abiding to the terms of the Erbil agreement. With the NCSP not formed more than seven months after the Erbil accord was signed, Iraqiya leaders repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the partnership government and accused Maliki of monopolizing power and failing to implement all terms of the deal. In an attempt to broker peace between the feuding political blocs once more, President Talabani brought the leaders of the political factions together recently in his Baghdad home for a series of talks intended to resolve the outstanding points of contention between them. Reported by Haider Ibrahim RN/KA/AKnews http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/255707/

This is the reason, Shabibi's main concern is security. I remember reading a post a few months ago about such things happening during the time they were exchanging the Saddam currency for the New IQD. Because the bills were new and never been circulated they were able to identify the stolen currency. Hopefully this is the case in this situation. At least they didn't blow the bank up.

Wow, great post blonde_minx, The Ministry of Finance has developed mechanisms to counteract deficit in the 2012 budget," he said, without specifying what those mechanisms consist of. Love that statement!

Good article DRV1804, Great explanation Bond Lady. Also, I love the way Bond Lady gives credit where credit is due. That says alot about a person. Oh ya and thanks Smitty for bringing it here.

Middle Easterners playing golf. Hmm that's a good rumor.

Please don't bash Delta. He simply stated that Iraqia TV was reporting on the coins. This is what he said. IT IS NOT SMOKE ABOUT THE COINS. I WILL TALK ABOUT ON MONDAY CC IF NEEDED AND THOSE COINS WILL NOT BE WORTH 1 & 1/2 DINAR IT IS NOT BAD AT ALL DELTA FAMILY: FROM IRAQI TV "THE CBI IS READY" SO WE MIGHT SEE IT ON SUN-MON Now, you see how people twist thing and report selective reading. I have followed Delta for a long time and never once thought he was lying. He might have been wrong in his speculations as everyone else has, but he has never lied. I wouldn't judge.

This guy deserves to be publically stoned by all of the people suffering from lack of electricity. JMO

German diplomat to be new UN Iraq envoy 06/08/2011 10:51 Erbil, Aug. 6 (AKnews) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced on Friday his intention to appoint the German diplomat, Martin Kobler, as his Special Representative for Iraq and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission to the country (UNAMI). Kobler, 58, will replace Ad Melkert from the Netherlands who has held the post since July 2009. Kobler – previously the Deputy UN Special Representative for Afghanistan – has a wide experience of developing policies for areas of conflict, having served in Germany’s foreign service for 25 years. Established after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, UNAMI is a purely civilian force tasked with assisting in political reconciliation, elections, human rights monitoring, development aid and regional cooperation. A suicide bombing at the UNAMI headquarters in a Baghdad hotel, also in 2003, killed 22 people, including its mission chief, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The mission has since moved into Baghdad's highly-security Green Zone. Karl Allen (AKnews): k.allen@aknews.com http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/255483/

Electricity Ministry embroiled in $1.7bn fraud 06/08/2011 15:07 Baghdad, Aug. 6 (AKnews) – Two companies that signed contracts worth a total of $1.7 billion with the Ministry of Electricity to build power plants in Iraq have turned out to be fake, said a State of Law Coalition (SLC) deputy today. Hanan al-Fatlawi told AKnews that the scam was uncovered by Iraq’s former Planning Minister Jawad Hashem after conducting his own investigation into the contracts. “The Minister of Electricity and all involved persons in this deal must be brought to accountability,” Fatlawi said. On August 2 Hashem sent a letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki outlining the details of his findings. The first contract - a $1.2bn deal signed between the Ministry of Electricity and Canadian firm Capgent in July – was discovered to be fraudulent when Hashem, a resident of Vancouver where the firm was allegedly based, went to visit its headquarters only to find that the company didn’t exist. Further investigations uncovered that the German firm Maschinebau Halberstadt (MBH) with which the Ministry signed a $5 million, also in July, was declared bankrupt on January 11, six months before formalizing the Iraqi energy deal. Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Dr. Hussein al-Shahristani is reported to have cancelled both contracts and instructed the Commercial Bank to stop all payments related to them. Electricity Minister Raed Shallal – an al-Iraqiya deputy - has faced repeated criticism since he took up the post in January due to the lack of improvement in the country’s electrical grid despite extensive budgetary allocations. Frequently the focal point of public demonstrations across the Iraqi provinces, Iraq’s electricity shortages – leaving many households without national power supplies for up to 16 hours a day – culminated on Friday with disgruntled protestors on Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square calling for Shallal’s dismissal. Demand for electricity in Iraq during the summer months when temperatures often soar above 50 degrees Celsius is estimated at around 14,000 megawatts. Because of badly damaged and neglected power generating plants and distribution networks – the result of three decades of successive wars and international economic sanctions – Iraq currently generates only 9,000 MW. In 2010, several civilians were killed in clashes with the police when angry protestors took to the streets to demonstrate against the government as national electricity supplies left them with just four hours of power a day. The former Electricity Minister Karim Washid was forced to step down due to mounting public pressure. Reported by Haider Ibrahim RN/KA/AKnews http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/2/255543/

Frattini expressed his country’s readiness to host such a dialogue, saying, “This will be wonderful, and I believe that both countries realize that Italy is a friendly country to both of them.” And his only concern is the region’s stability and conciliation. Read more: Yea and your bankrupt TOOO!

Thanks for the post Ron, I am amazed at the audacity of the left who still live in a the liberal bubble like Barney Frank. He doesn't deserve ten seconds on TV to even make a comment on this. As far as I'm concerned, he and Chris Dodd's negligence or deceit took down the US economy, and susequently the rest of the world was affected. All the TARP, Stimulus and Quantitative easing has brought us to this. What a Moron! One lawmaker offered an equally biting retort. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) angrily denounced the ratings downgrade and said the credit agency has a “terrible record.” “These are some of the people who have the worst records of incompetence and irresponsibility around,” he said on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” “I would urge people: Pay no attention to these people.” Frank, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, also said S&P was “trying to justify their reputation” after failing to spot problems in the nation’s financial system before the economic crisis of 2008. Read more: http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=reply_post&f=7&t=78516#ixzz1UDC2SskX

Yes, He's kind of a see thru guy on the right side of the pole 1/4 the way down.

I guess we better be ready to pay for everything in cash from now on. Interest rates are goin up.

I'm thinking Silver and Real Big Estate.

I like this statement. We shall see. Hmm “Iraqi banks are close to being exchange offices at the present time due to minor capitals while they are isolated from the world economic system in exception for Iraq’s Trade Bank”, Al Alwani said. Read more:

That's really cool, I saw a ghost in the photo. He's on the right of the center black pole about 1/4 the way down on the right really eerie. You have to zoom in to see him.

I know I would rather be Water Boarded.

Thanks for the post and the information. Hopefully we will see very soon, how all this plays out.

Forced to sleep with Nancy Pelosi!

IMHO, Pelosi, Reid, Franks, and Dodd ought to be tried and jailed for treason! These four could easily be blamed for the destruction of our economy and sovereignty. Obama, he's just the puppet who needed a vacation, so he became the president of the United States Definition of treason: the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

Also there has some reference to counterfeit currency being a problem during this process and coins would be much harder to counterfeit and more durable. Now the nominal value is another question. Why would they go to the expense of minting coin at the present value, if they are planning on a redenomination?

Iraq needs to move into the 21st century and Sadr still living in the 6th. This is not a good mix, IMO there will be some blood shed before this is all over.

I guess Iraq is trying to build their vending machine business with coins that are valued at 50 cents and a dollar,

She explained that "the Secretariat is keen to protect public funds and the implementation of new projects live up to reality service to the capital, especially that Baghdad is going to embrace the Arab summit conference as she was able to accomplish a large number of strategic projects in the areas of sanitation, water and net Almgesrat and other projects have reached advanced stages in the achievement" . Read more: I like these words. Means March 2012 Arab Summit is still on schedule.

I agree kittykins, but I don't think it's at it's lowest point yet. I'm gonna watch it a few more days.