Iraq Reconstruction News 26 March 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
26 March 2007


1. GRD Iraq Reconstruction Weekly Update 03/20/07 https://www.rebuilding-iraq.net/pls/portal/url/ITEM/07251F2EFBCA801DE040A8C00B0741F5

2. Protecting Iraq's oil supply - The Guardian - The frigate HMS Cornwall is on patrol as the lead ship of Combined Task Force 158, whose UN-backed mission is to protect Iraq's oil platforms and exports against pirates, smugglers, and terrorists. The platforms are critical to the economic and political reconstruction of Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday. They pump out oil that accounts for 90% of the country's GDP. An attack in 2004 led to a two-day shutdown costing up to $28m (£14.2m), the MoD said. The knock-on effect was a spike on the world oil market, causing a further loss of some $6bn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2041694,00.html

3. Kurdish leader demands control of Iraq oil hub -- ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) - The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan raised fresh calls on Thursday for a referendum to decide the future of the country's crucial oil hub of Kirkuk, warning that Kurdish patience had limits. "Our people are committed to Iraq, but their patience is not unlimited. We as leaders are finding it difficult to convince our people as to why our demands are not being met," Nichirvan Barzani told dignitaries in Arbil.
http://fe19.news.re3.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070322/wl_mideast_afp/iraquskurdsoil_070322153131

4. What's happened to Iraq's oil? - BBC World Service - Iraq's descent into violence, coupled with paralysis and corruption in government, has stymied efforts to rebuild the infrastructure of roads, schools, hospitals and industry. In many cases, there is little to show for the billions of dollars spent on reconstruction since the American-led invasion in 2003. The oil sector is a good example of what has gone wrong. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6461581.stm

5. Japan Courts Iraq for Strategic Partnership to Secure Energy Supply - Kyodo News - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi agreed Friday on the importance of developing a "long-term strategic partnership" between the two countries and expressed hopes to strengthen economic as well as political relations, Abe's spokesman Hiroshige Seko said. http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=42954

6. Iraqi, Coalition Forces Partner to Protect Iraq's Economic Future: Oil -- KIRKUK -- Iraq’s economic future depends on producing, refining and selling its most valuable natural resource, oil. As such, Iraq’s most valuable human resource is arguably the Soldiers who protect that oil. The Iraqi Army’s 1st Strategic Infrastructure Brigade ensures that both crude and refined oil flows through critical pipeline infrastructure in the northern Kirkuk Province of Iraq, and military transition team Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division’s 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment are charged with training those Iraqi Soldiers. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790996/posts

7. U.S. narrows financial focus to aid Iraqi small businesses. Barbers, grocers, others apply for grants to expand --USA TODAY -- BAGHDAD — Mohamed Raheem saw fliers posted all over his neighborhood offering money to Iraqis who wanted to expand their small businesses. He called a phone number listed on the flier and set up an appointment with the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "I explained to them that I have a shop and I want to expand my work," said Raheem, 44, who owns a small grocery store in the Kadhamiya district of Baghdad. He applied for a $10,000 grant. As U.S. military and civilian officials try to help Iraq's economy rebuild, they are placing a new emphasis on small businesses like Raheem's. Through grants and loans — often for a few hundred dollars each — they're trying to stimulate job growth and eventually improve Iraq's security. http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070306/a_iraqeconomy06.art.htm

8. Iraq's Jobs-for-Peace Mirage -- As the wisdom of President Bush's proposed “surge” of US troops is debated across the US and around the world, another question about the US President's new policy to avert all-out civil war there is coming to the fore. Can using US funding to reopen Iraqi state-owned enterprises get young men to abandon the insurgency and sectarian militias? The idea sounds logical: a man with a good job that enables him to build a decent life won't want to fight Americans or his fellow Iraqis, right? http://www.rand.org/commentary/021107PS.html

9. Iraqi roads get facelift -- TIKRIT — As the decision making for construction projects fall more to the local and regional governments throughout Iraq, Provincial Reconstruction Development Committees are stepping up to the challenge. Eleven concrete road paving projects - at a cost of $3 million - were recently awarded in the Ninewa Province to 10 municipalities. These 11 projects were recommended by the local PRDC. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10206&Itemid=128

10. Stabilizing Iraq: Factors Impeding the Development of Capable Iraqi Security Forces, by Joseph A. Christoff, director, international affairs and trade, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Armed Services. GAO-07-612T, March 13.http://www2.blogger.com/ Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07612thigh.pdf

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

12. Iraqi Women Strive To Rebuild Country Despite Obstacles - Washington – Iraqi women have made great progress in recent years, but still face obstacles while working to achieve full equality, two Iraqi women activists said March 7. Wide participation of women in the political process is something new for Iraqi society, said Sundus Abbas, executive director of the Women’s Leadership Institute in Baghdad. Iraq. "For more than 35 years Iraqi women were absent from the decision making process,” she told USINFO. “Now Iraqi women participate. In spite of this, there is suffering for Iraqi women." http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=March&x=20070307152118hmnietsua0.1575739

13. Former Iraq minister denies theft of millions -- A former Iraqi defence minister whose 10 months in office coincided with the disappearance of more than $800m (£400m) from the ministry’s coffers is living openly in Amman and London despite a warrant for his arrest. Hazem Shaalan, a small businessman in London until Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, rose in a year to one of the most important jobs in the interim government that ran Iraq from 2004 to 2005. He left Baghdad before the next government discovered that a fortune had been looted from his ministry’s account in what one senior investigator has called “one of the largest thefts in history”. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1497038.ece

14. Guarding Iraq's oil platforms, and its income -- IN THE PERSIAN GULF — A Ukrainian cargo ship that inadvertently sailed into protected waters around Iraqi oil platforms in the Persian Gulf ignited a rapid security crackdown Wednesday morning, displaying some of the measures coalition forces take to protect the platforms. Ships rushed to intercept the cargo vessel. http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=43972

15. Helping Baghdad's youngest residents get well http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/NR07-03-01.pdf

16. Security, reconstruction efforts improve -- BAGHDAD — A press conference discussing the status of security and the ongoing reconstruction efforts in Iraq was held at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone Wednesday. Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, U.S. Embassy Baghdad charge d’affaires, and Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesperson, , talked about the progress that has been made and the continuing efforts that will make Iraq a safer country. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10614&Itemid=128

17. Iraqi Leader Fears Ouster Over Oil Money -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fears the Americans will torpedo his government if parliament does not pass a law to fairly divvy up the country's oil wealth among Iraqis by the end of June, close associates of the leader told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The legislature has not even taken up the draft measure, which is only one of several U.S. benchmarks that are seen by al-Maliki as key to continued American support, a crucial need for the survival of his troubled administration. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/13/ap3513218.html

18. Despite danger, kebab stands keep grills going -- BAGHDAD — It's a long-held Baghdad tradition: police officers sidling up to neighborhood kebab stands and restaurants, eating lunch, leisurely sipping cups of tea and gossiping with owners. The tradition has become deadly for many of the restaurateurs. Insurgents targeting Iraqi police have repeatedly triggered devastating blasts near the sidewalk food stands. Last month, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a popular kebab stand in Baghdad's al-Jadriyah district, even after the owner had begged police to stop visiting the place. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-03-15-iraqweek_N.htm

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