ReVbo

I get the dinar salesmen who claim secret sources, because that's impossible to debunk, other than their abysmal track records, but why would someone just make up budget numbers? It's so easy to prove wrong. Also, you have your numbers backwards, Luigi. If it's 3.4 dinars to the dollar, that's roughly 29 cents as a rate, not that it matters. Dude, as long as you've been at this, you should really stop bothering with this crap. It's wasting your time and frying your brain.

My understanding is, by putting it in the budget, we have sort of a one-year HCL, which would need to be re-approved with every budget. I could be wrong, though, if anyone has a better hold on this. I don't think it's a permanent HCL, but it's good enough for me.

Both of them are kinda saying the same thing. It's every man for himself, now, and I wouldn't want to be one holding piles of dollars when it's all over. That's about as close as you're going to get to knowing how it all shakes out, though, as far as I can tell.

This guy isn't talking about a Global Currency Reset like Dinarland gurus pitch. He's talking about a series of uncoordinated moves, by various central banks, that accomplishes something similar, but unpredictable, as a coordinated reset would not, theoretically be, Tex. He's saying the Swiss took the first move, but we should expect others, and the de-pegging of the yuan to the dollar would be the biggest move we could possibly see. Peter Schiff has a piece out today saying very similar stuff. Iraq, in this case, would be just one in a long line of countries de-pegging from the dollar, and whoever moves first moves best because any central bank holding dollars, when everyone else is de-pegging from the dollar, will see its reserves devalued.

The writer of that piece doesn't have to wonder what John Wesley would have said. Here's what Wesley wrote about Islam in response to someone who wrote an 18th century whitewash of Islam: An ingenious writer, who a few years ago published a pompous translation of the Koran, takes great pains to give us a very favourable opinion both of Mahomet and his followers. But he cannot wash the Ethiop white. After all, men who have but a moderate share of reason, cannot but observe in his Koran, even as polished by Mr. Sale, the most gross and impious absurdities. To cite particulars is not now my business. It may suffice to observe in general, that human understanding must be debased to an inconceivable degree, in those who can swallow such absurdities as divinely revealed. And yet we know the Mahometans not only condemn all who cannot swallow them to everlasting fire; not only appropriate to themselves the title of Mussulman or True Believers: but even anathematise with the utmost bitterness, and adjudge to eternal destruction, all their brethren of the sect of Mi, all who contend for a figurative interpretation of them. That these men then have no knowledge or love of God is undeniably manifest, not only from their gross, horrible notions of him, but from their not loving their brethren. But they have not always so weighty a cause to hate and murder one another, as difference of opinion. Mahometans will butcher each other by thousands, without so plausible a plea as this. Why is it that such numbers of Turks and Persians have stabbed one another in cool blood ? Truly, because they differ in the manner of dressing their head. The Ottoman vehemently maintains, (for he has unquestionable tradition on his side ) that a Mussulman should wear a round turban. Whereas the Persian insists upon his liberty of conscience, and will wear it picked before. So, for this wonderful reason, when a more plausible one is wanting, they beat out each other's brains from generation to generation. It is not therefore strange, that ever since the religion of Mahomet appeared in the world, the espousers of it, particularly those under the Turkish emperor, have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations ; rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth: that numberless cities are rased from the foundation, and only their name remaining : that many countries which were once as the garden of God, are. now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished away from the earth ! Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of humankind

Is that what you're doing by posting so many BS rumors? Holding the original posters accountable? Because, to me, it sounds like you're hopefully posting a rumor you think might be true. If not, I have misunderstood you from the beginning. So what if he's been around for 10 years? He's just selling dinars, and his "sources" are either woefully bad or he's just making stuff up. You don't honestly think he's relying on real, connected sources, do you?

It wasn't me, although I think he deserves a few for it, but shouldn't there be some kind of standard, even in the rumor section? I mean, TerryK?! Seriously? This guy posts something like this every day, and has a perfect 0.000 batting average over years. Why is his bilge even worth the copy and paste time it takes to pollute the site with it?

"Morale" not "moral." Two different things. Means they're losing their fighting spirit.

"The government will rely in the future on the private sector", adding that "the Council of Ministers will prepare whatever legally a mixed industrial cities Industry Act," noting that "the adoption of this law will happen Industrial Revolution in the country..."

Thanks for the heads up, k98. Here's a little confirmation from Italian news. Looking for others. It's on! http://www.ilvelino.it/it/article/2014/12/04/iraq-al-via-la-maxi-offensiva-contro-lisis-per-liberare-il-paese/8ca08d3e-cbd1-44f7-aa1d-11ef697ef1e9/ Iraq, the way the big offensive against the Isis "to liberate the country" The operation will involve Ramadi, Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul. Jihadists for the first time under siege December 4, 2014 16:41 Finally the waiting news came: the Iraqi prime minister, Hayder al-Abadi, announced the start of an offensive on a large scale across the country to free all areas occupied by ISIS. The maneuvers, begin tonight, will also involve the local tribes, starting from Anbar who has already given his willingness to fight the militants. To the north, however, there will be the Kurdish peshmerga. For the official start of the operation was expected the end of the training sessions for some selected items in each team. These, which are especially trained for months in the planning and use of complex telecommunications systems, have returned to their respective units and began to teach themselves to their colleagues. The goal of the intensive program was to standardize procedures for all units involved in the offensive, military and paramilitary, to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of the operation. The hunting of the Coalition, also thanks to the arrival of the A-10 Warthog Americans, provide close air support (CAS) for ground forces. Meanwhile, the Iraqi military have reassumed control of the main roads of the country to facilitate the movement of convoys. The last in order of time to be "liberated" was the road between Samarra and Fallujah, reclaimed along with some surrounding villages. The objective of Baghdad is gradual. Begin to "clean up" Ramadi, while maintaining the pressure on the guerrillas in other areas to prevent them from organizing a response. Once "cleaned up" the area you will pass by the same method in Tikrit and Kirkuk. Finally, all the forces will be conveyed in the final battle in Mosul.

Yota, I think the "It's Over," at the end if your first article refers to the article, itself, not the negotiations. You know how, sometimes, at the end of an article, you'll get something that says, "End," meaning the article is finished? I think this is just another translation if that. I've seen several pieces, today, that indicate tomorrow is the third day of three days of negotiations. The gist I'm getting is they will have final agreements on the budget, oil contributions of each side, and 17% for the Kurds, and that they will table Peshmerga pay and Article 140, which should mean we will have a budget and HCL able to be voted on soon.

I've seen "the coming hours" be as much as 96 hours, and maybe a little longer. We're still okay.

Washington denies the existence of American military advisers in the Base Speicher Thursday 25 September 2014 17:44 Alsumaria News / Baghdad Denied the American Embassy in Baghdad, on Thursday, and the presence of American military advisers in the Base Speicher province of Salah al-Din , and as pointed out that the total number of American military personnel Who in Iraq would be about 1,600 over the coming weeks, confirmed that they are not doing combat missions. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&u=http://www.alsumaria.tv/news&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalsumaria%2Bnews%26espv%3D2%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3

If we were in the same room, I'd give you a big ole hug, Buti! Guess I'll have to settle for some green for ya. Best news I've read in a month!

Maliki was not replaced as VP. They were holding a spot for him in Parliament, and when he took the VP job, that spot had to be filled. Sinead is now that MP, and Maliki is still VP.

It's been three days since they missed the first deadline that they've missed since the elections. Give it a minute. Look here. Jabouri thinks they'll have it settled within a week. And Maliki is not replaced. That article was in reference to the MP slot they were holding for him. When he took the VP job, they had to fill it, and Sinead filled it. Maliki is still VP. Jubouri is expected to vote on the security ministers in less than a week Editor Mohammed Shafiq - Friday 19 September 2014 18:48 Alsumaria News / Baghdad Predicted House Speaker Salim al-Jubouri, on Friday, to be voted on the security minister in less than a week, and is regarded as what happened in the meeting last Tuesday, "has found a new custom", he stressed that the coming period will witness the departure of the era of consensus in passing laws. Jubouri said in an interview for the "modern world" which Stbuth "Cuts" later in the evening, said that "what happened in the meeting last Tuesday not to vote on the candidates for the security ministries set a precedent has been established for the new custom in the House of Representatives," pointing out that " the executive is in the case of failed security minister, not parliament. " The Jubouri that "has been talk yesterday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi confirmed that it is possible to provide security minister and voting on them soon," expected to "be done in a week or less than a week." He Jubouri that "the vote of confidence for the government crystallized a new philosophy which he does not necessarily have to go in agreement," adding "we will leave the era of consensus in the disputed pass laws and take into consideration all parties Notes." The meeting of the Council of Representatives last Tuesday, (September 16, 2014), has seen the failure of the candidate Ali al-Adeeb, to get the confidence of the Council to take up the post of Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, with the failure of each of the candidate of the Union of Iraqi forces Jaber Al Jabri and the National Alliance candidate Riad Ghraib obtain a majority to take over the ministries Defense and Interior. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&u=http://www.alsumaria.tv/news&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalsumaria%2Bnews%26es_sm%3D122

This article is important because it's completely different than the others we have seen about why they didn't seat the security ministers yesterday. All the others say talks broke down, and it's gonna be another week or two. This one has the talks being canceled because Jaafari was summoned to Washington, on no notice, from the Paris conference. The meeting, last night, to settle the ministers, was supposed to have happened at his house, and lots of MPs showed up, only to find that the meeting had been canceled. Now, we see they have scheduled a rare Saturday meeting of Parliament, and there is another meeting, tonight, to settle the remaining ministers, so we could see them seated on Saturday, now, and not two weeks from now. Please don't ask me to track down the supporting articles I referenced in that. They're all out there lest anyone think I'm using "intel" for that first paragraph. I just don't feel like finding them all again,

Nope.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Fox just reported that Abadi had named his nominees. They never said they had been approved by Parliament. I think everyone just assumed, as easy as the first batch of ministers was to get approved, that these guys would be, too. Not so much.

Defense will be a Sunni, but the parliament rejected these two nominees today. Hopefully, they'll try again on Thursday.

Mahdi, the new oil minister, is the same guy who was up for the prime minister position, yes. He's the one who got sworn in today. Abadi is supposedly going to name his defense and interior ministers next week, at which point we will have a fully formed government.

Defense Minister is not sworn in to my knowledge, but the article I posted indicates Hatem has already signed on to take out ISIS, and they got started in Barawana today, removing ISIS from the town, and all of their propaganda from the walls. If Hatem is right, from some other statements, the reason the Iraqi army is not all that involved is because ISIS must be rooted out by local Sunnis, which is part of why we're hearing this discussion about forming National Guard units from local populations.

Check out what Hatem said about ISIS a month, or so, ago. This maybe even easier than we thought. ISIS is being made to look like this big bad boogeyman, but they have only been allowed to stay in Iraq at Hatem's pleasure. He, and Barzani will take out the trash for us, and we'll do a few bombing runs and take the credit. The Sunnis have already taken back a town called Barawana today and are removing ISIS propaganda from the walls around town. These guys like their alcohol, and have to be fairly pissed off after three months of ISIS Sharia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hatem_al-Suleiman Suleiman has also been involved in the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, and he claims that ISIS only constitutes 5-7% of the anti-government forces. He claims that the majority of fighters are from Iraq's Sunni tribes. Suleiman has also claimed that these tribal forces would be able to defeat ISIS were the Maliki-run Iraqi government to withdraw government forces from North and North-Central Iraq.[6] Suleiman claimed however that tribal forces would not fight ISIS until Maliki was removed from office and Sunnis are given their rights.[7]

Any of y'all ever heard of Ali Hatem al-Suleiman? I hadn't either until Blue posted this beautiful article last night. He's the leader of the Dulaimi tribe, 3 million Sunnis in Anbar who almost declared his own ciuntry when Maliki screwed him, and pledged, when ISIS came in, that his people wouldn't lift a finger to remove them until Maliki was gone. Well, Maliki is gone, and Hatem has pledged, to Abadi, to rid his province of the vermin once and for all. We're now moving air power into position, but Hatem's private army outnumbers them about 100:1. I think Ali's got this one. ISIS may be gone in a week or two after all. Ali Hatem al-Suleiman vows to for al-Abadi to fight the IS after ensuring to carry out the demands and rights 11/09/2014 21:51:00 - Ramadi / NINA / Sheikh of Dulaimi tribes Ali Hatem al-Suleiman pledged to fight the IS after ensuring the implementation of the rights and demands of the uprising provinces. - Sulaiman said in a press conference today that he pledge to the new government headed by Haidar al-Abbadi to fight the IS organization in regions and cities that fall under his control, but after our rights and ensure the implementation of our demands by the new government. - He added that any force can not expel the IS elements from areas controlled by for months ago, but by the sons of those areas, stressing that the reason for the defeat of the forces that fought the IS several months ago, being not of those areas. - He stressed that the IS organization is an international project supported by major countries at the aim of foiling the Iraqi revolution that came out in order to achieve the demands of the Iraqi people. - Ali Hatem al-Suleiman welcomed the idea of forming a National Guard troops from each province, stressing that the formation of Guard forces in the provinces is a starting point for the stability and the protection of areas of Iraq from any terrorist groups. / End [link to www.ninanews.com] From right after ISIS moved in... Iraq’s Sunnis Will Kick Out ISIS After Dumping Maliki: Ex-CIA Official By Jeff Stein Filed: 6/25/14 at 11:19 AM - A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria (ISIS) holds an ISIS flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul on June 23, 2014 Reuters - Don’t panic, Iraq’s most powerful Sunnis are telling some old American friends. We’ll take care of these upstart ISIS nuts—as soon as they oust Nouri al-Maliki from Baghdad. - That’s the message Sheikh Ali Hatem al-Suleiman, leader of Iraq’s biggest Sunni tribe, gave John R. Maguire, a retired former CIA deputy station chief in Baghdad, when he visited Iraq three weeks ago to talk about future oil deals in the region. - And Maguire, a veteran senior CIA paramilitary official, believes it. The tribes that once worked with the Americans to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq, he insists, will again rise up again to oust its spawn, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [iSIS]—a movement so extreme it was denounced by Osama bin Laden’s successor. - “They're already drawing lines around how this is going to work, to get rid of these guys,” Maguire tells Newsweek. “So the fight is coming, but they can't do it until they're sure they have disrupted Maliki and they've got some breathing space to create a different government in Baghdad.” - For now, Maguire says, the Sunni leaders are furnishing tribesmen to fight with the ISIS in hopes that their collaboration will accomplish something they couldn’t do on their own—topple Maliki, who they call “a corrupt puppet of Iran [who] has amassed staggering personal wealth,” and for whom “people are not interested in fighting.” - The Sunnis are using ISIS like a crowbar to oust Maliki, Maguire says, and then they’ll turn on the invaders. Iraq as we know it will cease to exist, splitting into three new proto-states: Sunnistan in the west, Kurdistan in the north and an Iranian Shiite protectorate stretching from Baghdad east to the Arabian Sea and oil port of Basra. ISIS, in this optimistic scenario, will be pounded into oblivion. - "Iraq is righting itself" along tribal and ethnic lines, says Maguire, who now runs a Virginia-based oil consulting business with two other CIA veterans of the Iraq war. He says he’s advised Sunni tribal leaders to spiff up their image. “I just had a conversation last night about this with some Sunni guys from Anbar,” Maguire said by telephone Tuesday. “I told them, ‘You guys have to do something to change the perception of what you're doing. Your image is that of a guy in a black turban on YouTube. You can't have that. You got to get your message out, and you've got to put some smart Sunnis on TV wearing suits explaining what the hell's going on in Iraq.’" - What’s “going on,” he says, is that the Sunnis leaders are lying in wait, waiting for the right moment to spring their treacherous trap on ISIS, just like it did with Al-Qaeda in Iraq during the U.S. occupation. “There's no question that ISIS is a huge problem and a very dangerous tool, but it's a tool that Sunni officers know how to use and handle,” maintains Maguire, whose 23-year CIA career included several senior operational assignments in the Middle East. “They're using [iSIS] guys as disposable assets...and when they don't need them anymore, they'll invite them to return to Syria or wherever they came from, and if they don't, they will kill them.” - A number of signs point to Maliki’s imminent downfall, Maguire says: mass desertions from the Iraqi army, nervous regime officials looking to get cash out of the country and the lukewarm response of young Shia to calls from the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to rally to the defense of the nation. “When al-Sistani gave his great call to arms for the Shia to rise up, they did not respond in great numbers,” says Maguire, contradicting the dramatic images of youths signing up to fight. “It just fizzled out.” Indeed, Sistani was back again last week calling for something far less, the formation of a new government that would unite the nation. On Tuesday, Maliki rejected that idea. - It may be too late for that. The major roads leading north and west out of Baghdad are under ISIS control, and the south may be closed off soon, too, Maguire says. “There is an increasing risk in the next day or two that ISIS will open the Haditha Dam,” a five-mile-wide structure on the Euphrates northwest of Baghdad. “If they open the dam, they can flood the area south of Baghdad as far as Karbala,” Shiite Islam’s the third holiest city. - “Remember, Ramadan starts on Saturday,” says Maguire. “Picture thousands of Shia pilgrims washing down the canals from the flood. If the Haditha Dam is opened, the roads to flee Baghdad from the south will be impassable, leaving the only way out to the east, to Iran.” - Maliki’s praetorian guard is starting to buckle, Maguire says. The prime minister senses it, and he "issued an order that no VIP travel is authorized, so he's strapped all the inner-circle Iraqis to the deck of his ship. I've been contacted by people in his inner circle asking for my help with getting money out of Baghdad,” Maguire adds. “His money guys are looking to get out. They're scared. They don't think this is going to hold, and they don't want to be the last guys in Baghdad with no money on the outside and no way out." - Maliki and his Iranian backers might be so desperate to rouse Shiites to fight that they’ll blow up one of the sect’s own holy sites and blame it on ISIS, Maguire and other intelligence sources say. "We are at a very dangerous period, because when al-Sistani gave his great call to arms for the Shia to rise up, they did not respond in great numbers, so they have to do something to scare the Shia into action,” Maguire says. “And I'm afraid that Maliki and Iran will create an incident, an atrocity of some sort, maybe blow up Shia shrines or have some atrocious event in Baghdad that will drive people into the streets. - "The Shia have got to do something to wake people up,” Maguire explains. “People are just not motivated. The desertions from the army are so bad that Maliki doesn't even know what units he has that are still operationally viable." - Other experts say Maguire’s prediction that pro-West Sunni tribal leaders want—and can—muscle ISIS aside after they take down Maliki is far too rosy. “That's what they are telling everyone,” Ken Pollack, a former CIA and White House National Security Council expert on Iraq, told Newsweek. “I have heard it from multiple sources. I think it accurately reflects their suspicion/antipathy to ISIS and the other militant groups,” Pollack added by email. “But there is a huge question regarding whether they can (1) take Baghdad, (2) get rid of Maliki, and (3) beat ISIS, even if they can do 1 and 2. - “ISIS and the other Sunni militant groups are actually a lot more dangerous than [Al-Qaeda in Iraq] was in 2007, and back then, the tribes needed a huge amount of U.S. combat power—like 50,000 ground combat troops—to get rid of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. We will not be providing the same level of combat power, no matter what happens” this time, Pollack added. - Pollack doesn’t doubt the Sunni tribes would like to turn on the ISIS, whose extreme brand of Islam doesn’t go down well with the country’s secular, liquor-loving Sunnis. “But I think it would be foolish,” Pollack said, “to assume that they can defeat the radicals as easily as they claim.” - Malcolm Nance, a former Navy and CIA counterterrorism operative, says Iraq’s Sunnis “have just committed suicide.” He tells Newsweek he had been planning to write a piece called “The Sunni Tribes Drink Antifreeze.” - “The Awakening could never happen again the way it did in 2007–2009,” says Nance, referring to the wartime U.S. operation that turned Sunnis insurgents away from fighting the Americans and onto attacking Al-Qaeda in Iraq. “At that time, the Sunnis were the heart of the insurgency. They had 25,000 active combatants and as many as 88,000 part-time and support insurgents. When they came over to the Awakening councils, they brought with them a lot of manpower and weapons and could push Al-Qaeda in Iraq out. Now that [Al-Qaeda] has [evolved into] the more combat-experienced ISIS and has many more foreign jihadis than it did in its peak of 2006, it is the insurgency. Everyone else is just a witness. - “ISIS...” adds Nance, “will…exact a painful level of control over the Sunni population that will make them regret the very moment they fooled themselves into believing Maliki was worse than Saddam. I was there last year for a month and all I kept hearing was that Maliki was a tyrant. They overestimate every political difficulty, but this time the Sunnis have signed their own death warrants.” - Former State Department officer Peter Van Buren calls Maguire’s scenario a "surge fantasy." - “Without much of a plan otherwise, it is not surprising for someone [from the] CIA to fall back on the narrative that, just [as with] Al-Qaeda, the tribes will kick ISIS out,” says Van Buren, who wrote a lacerating memoir of his time in Iraq, We Meant Well. “What else do they have to hope for?” - Such criticisms, Maguire counters, don’t “take into account the evolution of events since 2007. The battle space has changed completely in six-plus years. A new generation of Sunni leaders has emerged [who] have been treated like rubbish and been punished for six-plus years. That is a factor that changes their commitment.” Just recently in Rutba, he points out, along a highway 90 miles east of the Jordanian border, the Sunnis “killed about 30 ISIS guys, because they came in there with a sharia proclamation.” - Life by the Quran won’t sit well in a region that has “one of the highest consumptions of beer a year in Iraq,” Maguire says. The highway through the area “is like the Teamster redneck trucker corridor of Iraq.” - “When they make the decision that they have had enough of radical Islam,” Maguire argues, “they'll just jettison them. It'll be a horrible fight, but the outcome is not in doubt. The Sunni tribes will come out on top. It’s their country. They have something to fight for.” http://www.newsweek.com/iraqs-sunnis-will-kick-out-isis-after-dumping-maliki-ex-cia-official-256270

Okay, I guess it can stay. Thanks for the kind words, y'all. I really thought Obama would make a strong, immediate push, but it looks like we're gonna take a bit more "nuanced" approach, in true Obama style. Hopefully, ISIS will go underground enough that we can just declare Iraq secure and move on.