Color Daily Iraq

11.18.2009 0

VP Tariq al-Hashemi Vetoes Part of Election Law

Secretary Rice meets with His Excellency Tariq...

Image via Wikipedia, Tariq al-Hashemi

Iraq's electoral commission says it has halted preparations for a general election in January following the vice president's veto of part of a key election law.

Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president Tariq al-Hashemi announced Wednesday that he is sending the law back to parliament to be amended. He says he wants more representation for Iraqis living abroad, many of whom are Sunni Arabs.

Al-Hashemi is one of three members of Iraq's presidential council, which must approve the law before elections can be held.

Lawmakers must now reopen discussion of the legislation, which they debated for weeks before finally granting their approval last week.

The planned election is also facing a challenge from the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, who threatened to boycott the vote Tuesday unless Kurdistan is allocated more seats in parliament.

Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said the current mechanism for allocating parliamentary seats will prevent the people of the autonomous Kurdish region from being able to participate in the vote.

His chief of staff said the Kurdistan leader believes the current system is designed to reduce the number of Kurdish seats.

Iraqis will be casting ballots to fill 323 parliamentary seats. That number is up from 275 in the current parliament, based on a formula that calls for one representative for every 100,000 Iraqis.

11.16.2009 0

France Rolls out Red Carpet for Talabani’s State Visit

Image via Wikipedia, Nicolas Sarkozy (photo by Jean-Louise Aubert

Iraqi President Jalal Talibani marks his first official trip to France with a four-day visit that includes meetings with French political and business leaders.

Iraqi President Jalal Talibani is getting the red-carpet treatment in France, with the Iraqi flag flying on the Champs Elysees in Paris. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is hosting a dinner for Mr. Talibani who is also expected to meet with French business leaders.

The visit underscores the turnaround in French-Iraqi relations. In 2003, France led international opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. But in February, President Sarkozy paid his first visit to Baghdad.

French Ambassador to Iraq Boris Bouillon says today Paris is eager to capture a share of lucrative oil and reconstruction deals in Iraq.

Boillon told French radio that business potential in Iraq is enormous. He said the cost of reconstructing Iraq is estimated at $600-billion, and Iraq has massive oil reserves. And he said French business expertise in water, oil and infrastructure development is known worldwide, and France wants to be at the forefront of reconstructing Iraq.

France and Iraq are expected to sign several agreements dealing with aid, agricultural development, business and culture during Mr. Talibani's visit. French oil company Total also hopes to sign new deals to explore and drill in Iraq.

11.09.2009 0

Iraq awards major oil contract to Exxon

The Iraqi government has decided to award a contract to develop the prized West Qurna oil field to a consortium led by the U.S. oil company Exxon Mobil.
The Iraqi oil ministry Thursday announced an agreement to give the companies, which include Royal Dutch Shell, a 20-year contract to develop West Qurna. The field is believed to hold some 8.5 billion barrels of untapped oil.
The Exxon-led consortium has proposed boosting the field's output from its current level of about 280,000 barrels of oil a day up to 2.1 million.
Another consortium, led by Russia's Lukoil, had also competed for the contract.
Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves, and has been trying to boost production. Oil sales account for the vast majority of the government's revenue.
Earlier this week, Iraq finalized a deal with the British oil company BP and China's CNPC to develop the giant Rumaila oil field.

9.15.2009 0

Biden Visits Iraq, Meets with Leaders

Image via Wikipedia, Jalal Talabani

Iraq President, PresidentJalal Talabani

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in Iraq for talks with top Iraqi leaders and to visit American troops.
The White House says Biden will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani. Biden will also meet with officials from the U.N. mission in Iraq.
A White House statement says the vice president will convey a "strong U.S. commitment to Iraq's future and national unity."
Biden has been assigned to oversee the Obama administration's policy in Iraq, as the United States takes steps to withdraw all of its combat troops by August 2010.
Last week, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, said Washington is on track to meet the withdrawal timetable, despite an upsurge in attacks in the country.
Hill said the attacks have been an effort to undermine the Iraqi people as U.S. forces gradually leave the country.
This is Biden's third trip to Iraq this year.

9.01.2009 0

Syria Rejects Iraqi Charges it Shelters Bombers

Image via Wikipedia, Nouri al-Maliki

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed Iraqi allegations that Syria has been sheltering people suspected of planting deadly bombs in Iraq.
Mr. Assad said that for Syria to be accused of killing Iraqis while it houses some 1.2 million Iraqi refugees is an immoral and politically motivated accusation. The Syrian leader says he is still waiting for Iraq to send documented evidence of the charges.
He spoke as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu traveled to Baghdad for talks aimed at defusing tensions between Iraq and Syria.
Davutoglu is set to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani. The Turkish foreign minister will then travel to Syria.
Relations between Iraq and Syria soured in recent weeks after Baghdad demanded that Damascus turn over suspects wanted in connection with the August 19 bombings that targeted government ministries in the Iraqi capital.
Ties were further strained after both sides called home their respective envoys last week.

7.02.2009 0

Saddam Hussein warned FBI of Iran's "fanatic" leaders.

U.S. security records reveal that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein told U.S. federal agents in 2004 that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he did not want to appear weak to Iran.
A research institute, the National Security Archive, on Wednesday obtained declassified accounts of all but one of the FBI's 20 interviews and five "casual conversations" with Saddam that were conducted after his December 2003 capture by U.S. forces.
In the released interview accounts, the former Iraqi president warned of what he called Iran's "fanatic" leaders. He denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and said he had no interactions with al-Qaida. He even acknowledged in a rare moment of regret that he should have permitted the United Nations to witness the destruction of Iraq's weapons stockpile in 1991.
U.S. forces later transferred Saddam to Iraqi custody and he was hanged in December of 2006.
The interview accounts do not address chemical warfare in the Kurdish areas of Iraq in 1987-1988, although an FBI progress report said that he was questioned on the topic.

What will happen to Kurdistan?

The U.S. Secretary of Defense blames al-Qaida for a recent increase in violence in Iraq that has sparked sectarian strife. And as the United States reduces its military forces in Iraq, Robert Gates says it will be increasingly important to monitor the contentious relationship there between Arabs and Kurds. Tensions between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq have been rising over a number of issues, including oil policy and the status of disputed territories such as the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

A British Perspective
British journalist Ian Williams, who reports from the United Nations in New York, says Iraqi Kurds are functionally autonomous but have not given up their dream of eventual independence – something opposed by both the United States and Turkey. He explains the Iraqi Kurds are competing with the Sunni Arabs for control over the cities of Kirkuk and Mosel. Williams says the problem goes back to the history of the formation of Iraq.
One of the reasons the British abandoned their pledge to a Kurdish state at the end of World War I, he notes, was because of their concern about continued access to oil. “On the same premise,” Williams says, “Saddam Hussein carried out ethnic cleansing and cleared the Kurds from Kirkuk and the surrounding region and tried to Arabize it.” Even after the fall of Saddam, there has been little progress in resolving either the status of Kirkuk or the future apportionment of oil revenues between the central government in Baghdad and the various regions of Iraq, Williams observes.
Williams says Ankara’s strong opposition to a separate Kurdish state (as opposed to a Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq) is the main reason for Washington’s opposition to Kurdish independence. Were it not for that, he says, “The United States would have been very happy to see a friendly, independent Kurdistan in the north of Iraq.”
Nonetheless, several members of what Williams calls the “foreign policy elite” have suggested partitioning Iraq “between Arabs and Kurds – and amongst the Arabs between the Shi’a and Sunnis.” He says “This dispute, which has been brewing for a century, was exacerbated by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and how the war was subsequently conducted.”
Under the new Iraqi Constitution established in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, the majority Shi’a, the minority Sunni Arabs, and the minority Iraqi Kurds were to share in the governance of Iraq. Ian Williams says even though Iraqi Kurds do not speak publically about their ultimate political goal, “their desire for independence has not abated at all.” According to Williams, it would be foolish for any Kurdish political leader to say the Kurds want independence “because that would be an invitation to Ankara to come riding onto them, not to mention giving the people in Baghdad an excuse for telling them that they are being disloyal.”
The whole idea of basing states on homogenous ethnic and religious groups is a West European idea that has “poisoned every area it has infected.”
Williams adds, “Just look at Bosnia. The old Balkan saying on this applies to Iraq as well, ‘Why should I be a minority in your country when you can be a minority in mine?’”

An Arab Perspective
Arab journalist Nadia Bilbassy, senior correspondent for the Middle East Broadcasting Center, says she thinks the long-awaited referendum on the status of Kirkuk will be postponed indefinitely. She notes that the current population of the city is mixed – Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians.
Bilbassy says both the Sunni Arabs and the Iraqis want to keep it under their control. An interesting development, Bilbassy suggests, is that Iraqi President Jalal Talibani, who is Kurdish, has announced that he will not seek reelection. Bilbassy says, “That could further complicate the question as to whether the status of Kirkuk can be solved.” And worse yet, she adds, it could turn into a major conflict between the Kurds and the central government.
The ethnic makeup has changed since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Bilbassy notes, and “some areas have been ethnically cleansed.” She warns that we should “not forget there are four million Iraqi refugees.” And that means, as they return, “the situation on the ground will be fluid.” Bilbassy says Iraq could descend into chaos, which could in turn provoke a civil war. “The problem with the Kurds is that, although they have all the ingredients to make them a nation and a state, their interest in being a state goes against the interests of neighboring countries and other Western powers, including the United States,” she explains.

A Kurdish Perspective
Iraqi Kurds share in the governance of Iraq under the new Iraqi Constitution.
Kurdish journalist Asos Ahmed Hardi is the director of Awena (Mirror) Company, which publishes a weekly newspaper in Sulaymaniya. He says just this week it was announced that parliamentary elections for the Kurdish Regional Government will be held on July 25th. He explains the Kurds did not participate in Iraq’s provincial election in January because their local parliament has to draft its own laws for provincial elections.
According to Hardi, the most sensitive issue is Kirkuk. “The central government in Baghdad doesn’t want final negotiations because they know that, if they apply Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution and hold a referendum, the majority will vote with the Kurds,” he says.

Is Civil War a Possibility?
Looming over the competing factions in Iraq is the question of whether the promised withdrawal of American troops will plunge Iraq into a civil war. U.S. President Barack Obama answered that question during his surprise visit to Baghdad last month. He told Iraq’s leaders the U.S. withdrawal will be done responsibly and without plunging the country into chaos. But knowing the history of Iraq’s internal strife between Shi’a and Sunni Arabs and Kurds, fulfilling that promise will be a difficult challenge.
Judith Latham, Washington 08 May 2009, VOANews

Bike cops soon to be new addition to Iraqi Police force

KIRKUK, Iraq -- Being a police officer is usually not easy, but soon it may be as easy as riding a bike.
Approximately 30 Iraqi Police attended bicycle police training at the Kirkuk Police Academy, part of the ongoing effort to establish community policing practices in the city. Many of the police officers had never seen or heard of a bicycle cop before, but soon they themselves will be the first group to begin operating in Kirkuk city."
I have never seen any riding around Kirkuk," explained one of the trainees, Adrees Ali Arnoos, a policeman from the Qoria Police Station in Kirkuk. "I am very excited to be part of the first group. "This is something that could really help the people," he continued.
The major benefit is it gives the IP an opportunity to be more mobile than a foot officer, and it starts conversations with the locals, because they see something new, said James Olsen, an international police advisor, who served six years as a bicycle cop before coming to Iraq. According to Olsen, the police can use these bicycles as a tool to help them get more involved in the community. The idea behind community policing is that an officer gets to know his community in depth by working closely with, and talking frequently to, its residents. The police officers receiving these bicycles will have a total of five days of training, where they will learn how to put the bikes together, maintain them, ride them, and operate while on them.
The idea is to train them in what they need to know to be an effective bicycle police officer, explained Olsen. Once the training is complete, the police officers will return to their stations as fully- trained bicycle cops.
"This is really going to help us in traffic," said Adrees. "It is much easier to get around in markets than with a car."
"The intent is for these guys to be able to go out and patrol market places where vehicles cannot," Olsen explained. These police officers can do all kinds of police work from their bicycles, said Olsen.
"A bicycle cop can and does any kind of police work that involves you being right there on the scene," said Olsen. This can include arresting shoplifters, breaking up domestic disturbances, apprehending criminals, and much more, depending on the area the cop is working in, said Olsen.
Olsen is planning on conducting advanced bicycle police training with the police officers who graduate this course after they have had time to go out on the street and practice basic bicycle-policing skills.

Color Daily Iraq

VP Tariq al-Hashemi Vetoes Part of Election Law

France Rolls out Red Carpet for Talabani’s State Visit

Iraq awards major oil contract to Exxon

Biden Visits Iraq, Meets with Leaders

Syria Rejects Iraqi Charges it Shelters Bombers

Saddam Hussein warned FBI of Iran's "fanatic" leaders.

Iraq in America

What will happen to Kurdistan?

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