Iraq Reconstruction News 15 March 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
15 March 2007


1. U.S., Iraq Launch Campaign To Cut Oil Smuggling -- BAYJI, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched an aggressive campaign to curb the oil smuggling that is helping to destabilize the fragile Baghdad government and finance insurgents, adding another facet to the Bush administration's latest pacification plan for Iraq. In concert with stepped-up military and reconstruction initiatives, U.S. troops for the first time are maintaining a round-the-clock presence at the sprawling oil refinery here, Iraq's largest. Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division also are cracking down on illegal gasoline stations, arresting refinery workers suspected of corruption and using sophisticated data-sifting methods to identify which senior Iraqi officials might have ties to black-market oil rings. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117390152327937156.html?mod=special_page_iraq_1

2. Syria wants to rebuild Iraq pipeline -- DAMASCUS, Syria, March 14 (UPI) -- Syria wants to increase imports of Iraqi oil by rebuilding a pipeline, as well as become a main export route for Iraq to other markets. Abdallah al-Dardari, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, said it wants to be Iraq's main exporter via its Mediterranean terminal at Banias and also use the oil to fuel three new refineries, upstreamonline.com reports. http://www.upi.com/Energy/syria_wants_to_rebuild_iraq_pipeline/20070314-115640-3899r/

3. Operation Iraqi Freedom: Preliminary Observations on Iraqi Security Forces' Logistical Capabilities, by William M. Solis, director, defense capabilities and management, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-07-582T, March 9.http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-582T Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07582thigh.pdf

4. Iraq: SOMO reduces oil selling prices -- (MENAFN) An official at the Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that the Iraqi oil Marketing Company (SOMO) will reduce Basra light crude oil-selling prices to a number of foreign buyers, on the basis of the ministry's laws next April, Iraq Directory reported. http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093146322

5. Shell Eyes Developing Gas Field-Iraqi Official (14/03/2007) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC has expressed its willingness to the Iraqi government to invest in Iraq's gas fields and to set up a pipeline that would connect these gas fields to Europe via Turkey, a senior Iraqi oil official said Tuesday. "There are attempts by Shell to open talks with the Iraqi government to develop Iraq's vast gas fields," the senior official at the Iraqi Oil Ministry told Dow Jones Newswires. http://www.energia.gr/indexengr.php?newsid=13502&lang=en

6. UN Conference to discuss Iraq's reconstruction http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=2665&sectionid=3510202

7. Istanbul talks next week to promote Iraqi reconstruction - The New Anatolian/Ankara - Istanbul will host key meetings next week for the reconstruction of Iraq, including the Reconstruction Forum of Iraq and the fifth meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for the Iraq Donor Committee. Turkish diplomatic sources told the New Anatolian yesterday that the Reconstruction Forum of Iraq is planning to be held in Istanbul on Monday. The meeting, moderated by Iraqi Planning Minister Ali Baban, is planning to seek ways to promote Iraqi reconstruction. http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-24209.html

8. Iraq Should Pay For for Its Reconstruction, Rep. Albio Sires (D.NJ) http://blog.thehill.com/2007/03/14/iraq-should-pay-for-for-their-reconstruction-too/

9. Iraq reconstruction summit 28-29 March 2007 http://www.ameinfo.com/111914.html

10. World Bank to boost Iraq presence despite shooting - (WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The World Bank's No. 2 official on Friday defended the lender's decision to ramp up its presence in Iraq after a staff driver was caught in cross-fire and wounded at a checkpoint in Baghdad last month. Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub said the World Bank regretted the incident and had evacuated the Iraqi man to neighboring Jordan for treatment. "We are in many countries and Iraq is not an exception," Daboub, who visited Baghdad last month for discussions with the Iraqi government, told Reuters in an interview. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SODA-6YZ3L6?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=irq

11. Iraq to carry out $270m reconstruction projects -- (MENAFN) An Official at the Iraqi Ministry of Planning announced that the ministry's Strategic Board of Reconstruction has approved eighteen reconstruction projects at a total cost of $270 million, Iraq Directory reported.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093144428

12. Minister says power supplies to improve in summer -- Azzaman -- The Minister of Electricity says Iraqis will see improvements in the supply of power in the summer. The pledge by Kareem Waheed is the latest in a series of broken promises to improve the country’s ailing national grid which has been worsening since the 2003 U.S. invasion. http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2007-03-05\kurd.htm

13. Industry being revitalised in Iraq: US official -- BAGHDAD (AFP) - Industry is being revitalised in Iraq, despite the raging violence, and creating lucrative openings for entrepreneurs brave enough to do business here, a top US official insists. Paul Brinkley, the Pentagon's deputy under secretary for business, has been touring Iraq for the past week with some 45 US business executives. He told AFP in Baghdad that many dormant state-owned factories would start firing up again "within months."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070304/pl_afp/iraqeconomyindustry

14. Assaulting Iraq's thinkers - Baghdad's once-vibrant book culture is another casualty of the war -- MONDAY'S BOMBING of the Mutanabi book market in Baghdad was a new low in the violence ripping through Iraq. The symbolism was clear: The suicide car-bomber wanted to strike at the heart of Iraq's intellectual life. Nearly four years ago, looters rampaged through the Iraq National Museum, set fire to the National Archives in Baghdad and burned down the Koranic library at the Ministry of Religious Endowment shortly after that. Priceless books and documents, letters from Ottoman and other Arabic courts, the written records of a thousand years or more, went up in smoke. And now this. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-das10mar10,1,287694.story?coll=la-news-comment

15. Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station turned over to Iraqi Government http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/NR07-03-05-2.pdf

END