[Source: Meeting is announced for Iraqi law and to activate the agreements Irbil]

Saw on another site but I think this could be really good news.

Source: Meeting is announced for Iraqi law and to activate the agreements Irbil.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Twilight / early detection, a political source said on Saturday, for an unannounced meeting between the Iraqi List and a coalition of state law tomorrow to implement the remainder of the terms of agreements Irbil, pointing out that state law gave the assurances to resolve the outstanding issues between the two sides.

It is noteworthy that the differences between state law and the Iraqi List, and reached its peak, especially after it suspended the Iraqi political blocs to attend the meetings, it accuses the Iraqi coalition of state law by failing to abide by past political and pass on the Council of strategic policies.

The source said in an interview (twilight) that "the Iraqi List and a coalition of state law Sitbagesan in an unannounced meeting tomorrow, Sunday, to establish the National Council of the Supreme policies, and implementation of the remaining provisions of agreements Erbil."

The source, who requested anonymity, that "the witness tomorrow to reach a formula for the Adoption of the National Council of the policies of the upper and the internal law of the Council of Ministers and to activate the rest of the terms of agreements Arbil," he said, adding that "a coalition of state law has given assurances to the Iraqi list in this regard."

The President of Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani put forward, in last summer's initiative to resolve the political crisis in Iraq, which resulted in the formation of the Iraqi government and the distribution of most sovereign and ministerial positions between the blocks within the project of the Government of National Partnership.

http://www.shafaaq.c...4-11-08-40.html

[Strained Relations Between Us and Pakistan Benefiting China]

Do the China-Pakistan pipeline shuffle

Something I saw that i thought was interesting. Just for reading.

From the Gwadar port complex to fighter jet sales, strained relations between the US and Pakistan are benefiting China.

Pepe Escobar Last Modified: 27 May 2011 16:34

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Gwadar is Pakistan's first deep water port; constructed with Chinese investment it will play a crucial role in moving Middle East oil to energy hungry China for decades to come [EPA]

China is adamant that the West "must respect" Pakistan's sovereignty.

The message was delivered during Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani's recent four-day visit to Beijing, which celebrated no less than six decades of strategic relations - involving, among other issues, nuclear collaboration and support over the ultra-sensitive Kashmir question.

The Times of India reconstructed the message as a stark warning that: "any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China."

Chinese diplomacy dwells on too much sophistication for such a crude outburst; but even enveloped in red velvet, the message - in view of the non-stop US drone war over Pakistan's tribal areas, not to mention the "get Osama" raid in Abbottabad - was indeed a bombshell.

Whatever the merit of charges that Islamabad helps some Taliban factions - such as the Haqqani network in North Waziristan - the Pakistani politico-security-military establishment has had enough of being treated by Washington as a mere satrapy, or worse, a bunch of punks.

Pakistani popular opinion, from urban centers to tribal areas, roundly abhors Washington's drone war. And even before the Navy SEALS raid to get Osama the sordid Raymond Davis case was configured as the ultimate humiliation.

Davis, a CIA asset, shot two Pakistanis dead in broad daylight in Lahore; an American "extraction team" killed another one who was trying to save Davis from arrest; and then the CIA paid blood money to finally extract Davis out of the country. Sovereignty? What sovereignty?

Strategic ports

There's frantic spin in the US especially among the right that Pakistan must be taught a lesson because it "harbors terrorists". The mighty conceptual leap would be for these righteous, misinformed, armchair warriors to advocate teaching China a lesson.

Gwadar is an ultra-strategic deepwater port in the Arabian Sea, in Pakistani Balochistan, not far from the Iranian border and only 520 km away from the hyper-strategic Strait of Hormuz. Beijing financed close to 80 per cent of the construction of the port via the China Harbor Engineering Company Group. The port is currently managed by Singapore. The lease will end soon - and it will go to China.

Islamabad now wants the Chinese to build a naval base at Gwadar. That will be a monster geopolitical earthquake in a crucial node of "Pipelineistan" as well as the New Great Game in Eurasia.

Sleepy (for now) Gwadar has been building up for years as the key node of the IP (Iran-Pakistan) pipeline, which used to be the IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) or "peace" pipeline, before New Delhi got cold feet. For Washington, the prospect of a steel umbilical cord linking Iran and Pakistan has always been anathema.

What Washington wants - and has wanted badly since the Bill Clinton years - is the TAP (Trans-Afghan) pipeline, which then became TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India). Even millennial rocks in the Hindu Kush know TAP or TAPI will only be built when the war is over in Afghanistan, with the Taliban an inevitable part of the government.

In this ongoing, epic IP (or IPI) versus TAP (or TAPI) battle, what is never mentioned is that the winner after all may be... China.

New Delhi knows a pipeline crossing Afghanistan is, well, a pipe dream. But still it has not committed itself to IPI - in part because of relentless Washington pressure, in part because it does not trust Pakistan.

China, on the other hand, has already proposed itself for an IP expansion. This means that starting at Gwadar, another pipeline would be built, by the Chinese of course, crossing Balochistan and then following the Karakoram highway northwards all the way to Xinjiang, China's Far West.

Those who have already traveled the spectacular, 1,400 km-long Karakoram highway from Kashgar in Xinjiang, Western China, via the Khunjerab pass to, of all places, Abbottabad in Pakistan, know it for what it is - a graphic example of strategic Sino-Pak collaboration. Further on down the road, Beijing engineering will connect the Karakoram highway with a railway across Balochistan towards Gwadar.

Pakistanis involved with the development of Gwadar love to bill it as the new Dubai. Well, it might as well become Western Hong Kong.

No wonder Beijing's strategic analysts are tasting what could be the geopolitical equivalent of the finest shark-fin soup; the Chinese Navy positioned at the heart of the Arabian Sea, a stone's throw from the Persian Gulf; a great deal of its Middle East oil imports shipped to nearby Gwadar - and then by pipeline or railway all the way to Kashgar; and the Chinese economy profiting from extra gas supplied by Iran and, in a near future, Qatar.

Keep on truckin'

It's not only China possibly winning a crucial "Pipelineistan" chapter plus an Arabian Sea base to add to its "string of pearls" network. In terms of its AfPak vulnerability, Washington may be contemplating a triple X defeat.

For obvious reasons the Pentagon cannot use Chinese or Iranian seaports to supply no less than 100,000 US troops, 50,000 NATO troops and over 100,000 private contractors in Afghanistan - legions of mercenaries included - which dabble in over 400 military bases all across the country. Nearly 80 per cent of this monstrous quantity of supplies transit through Pakistan. And that means, essentially, Karachi.

So one cannot imagine the "kinetic military action" (White House copyright) in AfPak without a non-stop serpent of trucks leaving Karachi and entering Pakistan via Torkham or Chaman every single day.

All the stuff Kabul - and the immense Bagram Air Base close by - needs goes through Torkham, at the end of the fabled Khyber Pass. All the stuff Kandahar needs goes through Chaman, in Pakistani Balochistan, not far from Quetta, where Mullah Omar theoretically lives when he's not being pronounced dead by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon of course could rely on alternative routes such as the interminable Northern Distribution Network (NDN) from Riga in Latvia to Termez in Uzbekistan, which connects via a bridge over the Oxus to Afghanistan. But NDN is not only long but also impractical; it does not allow too much cargo; and the Uzbeks forbid the transport of lethal weapons.

As for the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan, that's only for troops coming in and out, and for storage of jet fuel.

The bottom line is that Islamabad knows the Pentagon simply cannot conduct the AfPak war without the Karachi-Torkham (300 trucks/tankers a day) and Karachi-Chaman (200 trucks/tankers a day) routes delivering like clockwork.

So if you break the balls of the Islamabad establishment to a tipping point and Taliban networks will have a free hand at attacking US/NATO convoys to Kingdom Come. Compare it with Beijing acknowledging Pakistan's "contribution and sacrifices in the war against terrorism".

On message

Beijing actively helped Islamabad's nuclear weapons program. Next August, China will launch a satellite into orbit for Pakistan. Roughly 75 per cent of Pakistan's weapons are made in China. Soon 260 Chinese fighter jets will become the core of the Pakistani Air Force.

Even before Beijing delivered the message that Pakistan's sovereignty shouldn't be messed about, the Pakistani military had already delivered their own message.

It concerned that most photographed rotor of the stealth Black Hawk helicopter that crashed beside Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad. The Pakistanis threatened they would let the Chinese tinker with it - and that would certainly yield some ace reverse engineering.

It didn't happen. But still they didn't get the message in a Washington whose leeway over Islamabad is a strategic rent that goes basically to Pakistan's military. If the US congress would cut it - threats abound - there's no question Beijing would be delighted to make up the difference.

Washington may still have a sterling opportunity to get the message next month, when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meets in Astana, Kazakhstan. There's a strong possibility that Pakistan may be enthroned as a full member, upgraded from its current status of observer.

This means, in practice, Pakistan as a member of the still embryonic Asian answer to NATO. An attack on any NATO member is an attack on them all, according to its charter. The same would apply to the SCO. Ladies and gentlemen, draw your conclusions - and start dancing to the sound of the Sino-Pak shuffle.

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times . His latest book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

[WTO - Iraqi - RV]

I found this on another site. Hope you dont mind if I brought it here, but it is the article you were looking for. Thanks

Maliki Announces assignment file corruption in judiciary commercial bank

03/06/2011 10: 59 am

MY LINK

“ Gateway ” Baghdad-Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, on Thursday, refer to corruption in the Central Bank to take action, while describing the financial institution, b ” ” heart throbbing for vital reconstruction and investment, called for preserving the global reputation of the Iraqi bank of Commerce, and address flaws in all banking institutions.

Maliki said in an interview with a number of media on the sidelines of his visit to Iraqi commercial bank, Joint Committee achieved “ body integrity, Office of financial supervision and the Ministry of finance experts reported on irregularities in the commercial bank of Iraq, stating that the “ ” report referred to the judicial bodies responsible for review ”.

Al-Maliki said that “ financial institution whether the Iraqi commercial bank, Central Bank or other banks are vital heart of vibrant investment reconstruction ”, “ Government would pursue all State institutions, particularly banks as donor and liquidity-saving facility ”.

Al-Maliki called the “ maintain global reputation of the Iraqi bank of Commerce which could be achieved through substantial efforts by many officials, also called address deficiencies which could constitute a breach of this institution obstructs development ”.

Maliki said that normality will “ things as ensures safety and continuity of the enterprise after listening to the remarks of the President of the Bank and officials ”.

The Iraqi Government in the last month, seeking accession to WTO and to ensure the protection of Iraqi assets abroad, stressed the importance of building Iraqi economy is diverse and developed economic policies by encouraging investment, facilitating and regulating trade and streamlining the State's public budget and oil and gas law.

Come talk about Iraq's accession to WTO and protection of funds abroad differently to those on the ground, as independent bodies link decisions, including the Central Bank of Iraq to the Government directly instead of the House, and not the Government's focus on supporting the private sector.

While openness to the world experienced by Iraq since the change starting in 2003, after decades of isolation, external economic relations, however, still see clearly limping for several reasons, chiefly economic recession.

Observers noted that accession to the WTO represents the target of many local economies because of the advantages of accession in the global economy integration, and provide significant opportunities for investment, as well as find markets for their products, but linked to the size and nature of competitive components owned by the national economy, to enter the global market, competitor and partner and is not available to the Iraqi economy at present

[WHATS LEFT FOR THIS TO RV....ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN]

Great post. Long overdue. Time for an RV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SteveI Executive Order 13303 Update]

Greeting don't promote other sites Members.

I would like to take a brief minute and explain this action that you are all referring to.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/17/message-president-regarding-continuation-national-emergency-respect-stab

I will try and keep this as simple as possible.

First of all, this news is very exciting to hear. If you recall, the Iraq parliament passed the strategic framework agreement last week. Now what this does is allow the current DFI funds to be transferred to the United States treasury accounts thus protecting the DFI funds only so far. This is not an extension of the initial UN resolution.

This request was made by Maliki to the United States and was granted. This additional six weeks gives Iraq protection for all remaining assets that are held in other countries until they are transferred to the United States accounts. It is estimated about on trillion or more in value.

Under this extension, Iraq can have full access to the funds currently held now without any restrictions and it is fully protected.

Folks, this is perhaps the final check box we have been looking for. This is huge and great news. This will not delay the pending revaluation, but rather move it forward.

Again, I am very happy to see this happen. I am sure this will get posted now to all of the other forums, changed a bit and they now will claim it also as positive. Whatever it takes is fine with me.

I will try and stick around and answer any questions you may have. My wife is fixing dinner and will have to leave in a little while.

Blessings,

Steve

I agree with Steve on this order, I think we are nearing the end. Whatsay Request was made by Maliki

[An eBay seller shows a picture of a 1 dinar bill.]

I bought some smaller denomination notes of ebay as well. Found out they also were not the new dinar with 3 zeros lopped. They were older uncirculated dinar bills.

[RV within 2 weeks!]

Then what in the **** are you doing here?????????? Why would you be wasting your time here is you do believe in the investment? You are a very sad, lonely person, obviously. I feel sorry for you. Please join a YMCA and make some friends. Get a hobby. Volunteer. Do something to expand your social network so you do not have to come here to try and get attention from us. Get a dog, a talking parrot, even fish seem like they like you (just feed them all the time).

Bye bye

ditto

[RV within 2 weeks!]

I have a good feeling with your thoughts. It has to happen soon. You joined this site on my birthday. Not that this is my reason for agreeing, but I do feel it will happen soon. I personally love to listen to this site as I feel you are all down to earth. No BS just the facts and that is what I love to hear. Not all the hype. Thanks for your input. Debbie

[RV within 2 weeks!]

TWO WEEKS hugh?

Well everyone seems to be making a prediction so let me be so bold also.

This month wont end before this ride ends.

either the world will be totally shocked with the rate orrrrrr

the world will real in fear because of the greatest depression ever.

I so agree with you. Cheers to a speedy rv

[My Life Since Owning The Dinar]

I am a 57 year old divorced woman, who cares for my 50 year old mentally handicapped brother with the mind of a 2 year old. I have a daughter with a 3 year old son that live with me and they are all the love of my life, but it is hard. I work full-time to take care of us all. A Christian friend of mind told me about the dinar awhile ago and I started to invest as much as I could. My one wish is be able to take care of my family to the best of my ability and maybe one day not work so I can care for my brother by myself to take a little pressure off my daughter as she cares for him when I work. Everyone has a reason for doing this, and I'm sure our prayers will be answered. Not that God owes me anything lol. Go RV