Iraq Reconstruction News 19 January 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
19 January 2007


1. A plan for the flow of Iraq's oil money. A tentative deal is in the works to share Iraq's oil money when and if it starts coming in, according to Reuters. Kai Ryssdal talked with Alistair MacDonald, Reuters' Baghdad bureau chief, about the plan. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/01/17/PM200701171.html

2. KRG lost authority over Kurdistan region's oil and other resources, new Iraqi law. London (KurdishMeida.com) 18 January 2006: The Kurdistan Regional Government has lost control and authority over Kurdistan region's oil, according to the new Iraqi law. http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=13907

3. Meters installed at southern oil company. Azzaman, January 16, 2007. The Southern Oil Company has began installing meters at its terminal and production sites to gauge exactly how much oil it produces and how much it exports. http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2007-01-16\kurd.htm

4. Syria, Iraq negotiate reopening pipeline. DAMASCUS, Syria, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Syrian and Iraqi officials are negotiating the reopening of an oil pipeline damaged by U.S. air strikes during the American-led invasion of Iraq. Iraqi Oil Ministry official Falah al-Ameri told United Press International in Damascus Tuesday the pipeline that stretches from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Syrian coastal town of Banyas will start pumping oil in the next few months. http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20070116-121735-7447r

5. Diplomat Tapped to Head Iraq Reconstruction. All Things Considered, January 15, 2007 · Timothy M. Carney was dispatched to Iraq in 2003, to run Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Minerals. He left after two months, disgusted, disillusioned and outspoken about what he called mismanagement in Iraq. He wrote a blistering memo about the experience called "Fatal Flaws in Budget Policy," and followed up with a scathing op-ed piece that was printed in the Washington Post. But as part of its new strategy for Iraq, the White House has retapped Carney, asking him to manage the reconstruction in Iraq. Michele Norris talks with Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran about Carney and what his expectations are for his second tour. Chandrasekaran is the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6861058

6. Rebels make $1bn from refinery. Reuters. IRAQI militants are taking most of the $US1.5 billion ($1.92 billion) a year that's stolen from Iraq's main oil refinery through smuggling and corruption, the government told parliament today. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21060426-1702,00.html

7. Abandoned Iraqi factories now manufacture hope. RAMADI, Iraq: Inside a huge shuttered factory on the gritty western fringes of this outlaw desert town, thousands of ornate porcelain sinks, toilets and other fixtures sit in row after row next to the automated ovens and assembly lines that once churned out the products but lie silent under a thin film of yellow desert dust. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/18/news/factory.php

8. Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: GAO Audit Approach and Findings, by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, before the House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-07-385T, January 18. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-385T

9. Analysis: Restarting Iraq's Factories. When then-viceroy Paul Bremer took over the civilian administration of Iraq in 2003, he had an intricate plan to transform the state-owned socialist economy into a beacon of free enterprise in the heart of the Middle East. Central to his plan was the sale of some 200 state-owned enterprises to the highest bidder to bring in fresh capital, streamline operations and boost profits. That in turn would drive the rest of the economy. http://www.postchronicle.com/news/security/article_21258114.shtml

10. Iran, Iraq sign MoU on transportation. Tehran Jan 16, IRNA. Iran and Iraq by signing an MoU here Monday decided to expand cooperation in the fields of air, land and sea transportation. http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0701166788013239.htm

11. Police in Iraq see jump in recruits. RAMADI, Iraq — The U.S. military is reporting a dramatic and unexpected increase in the number of police recruits in Anbar province, the center of Sunni insurgent activity in Iraq. In the past two weeks, more than 1,000 applicants have sought police jobs in Ramadi, the provincial capital. Eight hundred signed up last month in Ramadi, said Army Maj. Thomas Shoffner, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division. Those figures compare with only "a few dozen" recruits in September, the U.S. military said. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-01-14-police-recruits_x.htm

12. Iraqi Trade Union FWCUI Condemns Fuel Price Hikes, Corruption. The Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) recently organised a major workers protest against fuel price hikes, on 27 December, in Basra at the Petrochemical State Company. On 12 January, the union also participated in a successful demonstration against corruption in the electrical industry of Karbal?, a city some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007011606564364

13. Disease alert after sewage system collapses. BAGHDAD, 15 January (IRIN) - Residents of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, are at risk of contracting a range of waterborne diseases as the city's sewage system has collapsed after four days of heavy rain, the country's health ministry said on Monday. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/49a52149f52ed4cd21b0609649b70a35.htm

14. Iraq: New law brings fresh investment hopes. 11 Jan 2007. Dubai: Iraq is banking on a new law to pull in the foreign capital needed to rebuild its shattered economy, conference delegates were told. According to leading Iraqi financial experts and provincial leaders, the recently-approved Investment Law will help establish the legal and regulatory framework needed to develop a business-friendly environment and attract much-needed private sector investment. http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidGN10095944/SecCountries/pagIraq/lok000000070111

15. History of Iraq (stamps). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCdylpVtCvM

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