Iraq Oil Report

The U.S. State Department says an oil law implemented under Saddam Hussein is good enough for Iraq’s national government to sign oil deals, though it would prefer a new national law — mired in controversy and far from approved — to be used instead.

The new position is a shift for the U.S. government, or at least a nuance in its stance, which has pressed hard for a new hydrocarbons legal regime and condemned deals signed between a regional government and private firms — especially when it’s an American company.

“We would prefer these laws to be passed before any deals are signed,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Lawrence Butler told United Press International. “However, in the absence of passage of the hydrocarbon law, Iraq as a sovereign state can continue to use the Saddam-era laws to manage the sector in the meantime.”

It’s not clear what effect the U.S. stance will have on the international oil industry, salivating at the prospect of entering the third-largest oil reserves in the world, as Iraq’s Oil Ministry says it will not wait forever for a new law before signing deals.

This raises an interesting quandary for Iraq, the United States and oil companies: What’s more important, adopting a national oil law that sets the oil policy and strategy – be it the long-term one now disputed or a short-term law – or signing oil deals?

Read my entire story for UPI HERE.

Iraq’s Oil

The oil capital of Basra is not ready to take over its own security, the province’s deputy governor said.

Iraq’s Oil, Electricity and Trade Ministers should be fired for not spending enough of their budget, the Parliament’s integrity chief said.

Michael Schwartz, director of Stony Brook University’s College of Global Studies, argues U.S. policy in Iraq, for years, as well as foreign policy in general, largely considers oil.

The Turkish Invasion

More checkpoints along the Iraq-Turkey border are intended to keep supplies from passing to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Sinan Salaheddin reports for AP. As Turkey shells PKK guerilla camps on its side, Iraq is trying to deter Turkey from an incursion into the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which could cause an uproar.

Turkey will press Iraq’s Kurdish leadership to act against the PKK — which Turkey alleges Iraqi Kurds harbor and support — with economic sanctions. Gareth Jenkins writes for the Eurasia Daily Monitor sanctions have already begun.

This could have a negative effect on non-PKK business, both Iraqi and Turkish. Truck and taxi drivers say the border closure will put them on the unemployment lines, Deborah Block and Ibrahim Khalil write for Voice of America.

The is the Bush administration’s fault, UPI Editor Martin Sieff argues in the Middle East Times.

US President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice need to realize that when Erdogan flies into Washington for talks next week, it will be their last chance to prevent what could prove to be a very dangerous escalation of the ongoing crisis in Iraq, with consequences they have not foreseen.

So far, the Bush administration has proven to be largely ineffectual - one might even call them naïve liberals - in their refusal to rein in the Kurdish authorities and force them to prevent the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from carrying out cross-border operations inside Turkey from their strongholds in the caves of Mount Cudi.

This myopia on the part of Bush and Rice is especially striking when one remembers that, in the eyes of Turkey - America’s oldest and most powerful Middle East ally and a strategically crucial member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization anchoring the alliance’s vulnerable southeastern flank - the PKK are terrorists who are responsible for attacks and ensuing counterinsurgency operations that have killed 20 times the total number of Americans who died in the 9/11 attacks. (Around 70,000 people are believed to have died in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict over the past decade-and-a-half compared with the 3,000 Americans who were killed on September 11, 2001.)

If there is one thing Bush should understand, it is the determination of a nation that has suffered from rampant terror to root out the groups it holds responsible from the mountain caves in which they are hiding.

Security, Society and Politics

In Kirkuk, Iraq’s second oil capital, the U.S. says it’s hunting al-Qaida as violence increases, the AP reports.

Attacks in Iraq are going down, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, Ann Scott Tyson reports for the Washington Post.

But the number of refugees –- more than 4 million — is increasing, prompting Shirouk Alabayachi of the Iraqi Studies Center and Robert Lowe of Chatham House to ask in the The Japan Times: Is Iraq really safer?

The slight downward trend of violence has been attributed to the surge. Mark Kukis writing for Time asks:
Has the surge reached its limits?

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Plus:
Targeting the pirates that may be targeting Iraq’s oil
Ahmad Chalabi’s back
Consequences of the Turkish incursion and fight with Iraq

Reliance Industries, the Indian private major, has signed a production sharing contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government for two exploration blocks, Verma and Simon Webb report for Reuters.

Details are slight, and only coming from Reliance officials, but expect even more in Tuesday’s edition.

KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami has said there are a handful of deals in the pipeline, with American and businesses from other countries. He’s mum on names but Reliance obviously sees the potential oil to be found in Iraq Kurdistan as outweighing the uncertainty in Baghdad, with no national oil law signed, and Turkish troops threatening to enter the KRGto hunt down Kurdish separatists.

Iraq’s Pirate Problem

An Aug. attack on a cargo vessel outside the Umm Qasr port in the Persian Gulf has elevated fears that pirates could target the oil facilities in the area, and terrorists could follow the lead.

Neil Mackay writes for the Sunday Herald the British Navy is increasing its patrols and training Iraq’s navy to monitor for such threats.

Umm Qasr, the second largest port for Iraq, is a major source for non-oil goods. It’s neighbor is Basra, the largest port in Iraq, where most of the oil exports flow to the international market. A successful attack on either would cripple the country and send oil prices skyrocketing even further than they are today.

The International Maritime Bureau, the U.N. monitor of such events, says there has been a 14 percent rise in global piracy acts.

Ahmed Chalabi’s Back, Armed with Baghdad’s Power

That’s right.

The man wanted in Jordan for embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars, who gave false and misleading information to the U.S. government (which journalists either failed to, or willingly decided not to, fact check) on the Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction and link to al-Qaida, who was initially made oil minister and deputy prime minister but was sidelined as out of touch with Iraqis, is now tasked with providing electricity and basic services to Baghdadis if the surge works.

Another fallen darling, Iyad Allawi, has hired the powerful Barbour Griffith & Rogers lobbyists to help press his case in Washington, D.C.

Allawi, a former prime minister earlier in the occupation, is attempting to lead a coalition to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But the man with CIA connections has been unable to get enough grassroots support, which is not a good side considering Maliki is less popular in Iraq than Bush is in America.

The Turkey Fallout

KRG President Massoud Barzani says if Turkish troops enter his region, “it means war,” Deborah Haynes writes for the Times Online.

Turkey’s Prime Minister, bullish on the war, says he’ll wait until after an upcoming meeting in Washington with Pres. Bush before deciding what action to take.

Sabrina Tavernise of The New York Times writes on the free flow of movement of the Kurdish rebels.

The dispute has gone beyond the Turkish-Iraq borders and is now entering into Europe, Stefan Nicola reports for UPI.

And the already horrible refugee crisis will likely be exacerbated, Claude Salhani reports for UPI.

Meanwhile a car bomb exploded in Kirkuk, a city stock full of oil reserves and the next battleground in Iraq. Kirkuk is claimed by the Kurds as historically theirs, but lies outside the “official” boundary. A referendum on that and other disputed territories was called for in the 2005 Constitution, but the vote is far behind schedule.

If it doesn’t happen soon, the Kurds will be none too happy. If it does, everyone else will weigh their response, including increased violence around Iraq’s first and one of its largest oil fields.

Hiba Dawood and UPI’s Iraq Press Roundup.
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Oil continues to flow from Kirkuk to Turkey, despite Kurdish separatist threats to blow it up as a tactic against Turkey, Simon Webb reports for Reuters.

Iraq was pumping around 400,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk crude to Turkey on Thursday for the seventh consecutive day, the shipper said.
“The flow is about 18,000 barrels per hour,” he said. “They are having some success at keeping it going. …

Iraq has moved to market about 7.5 million barrels of crude from Ceyhan storage through ships and another pipeline in Turkey so far in October, the shipper said. A vessel was booked to load another million barrels on October 27, he added.

Smugglers are succeeding as government officials in the Iraqi oil capital of Basra are turning their cheek to stolen oil taken to Iran, Azzaman reports.

Smugglers in Diwaniya were busted as well, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

Iraq’s Electricity

The Electricity Ministry has been active and optimistic of late. Hampered by a lack of investment (though criticized by the Electricity Union for not utilizing its expertise) and uncooperative bureaucrats from other ministries, it has signed deals with Iran and China to build power plants and boasts of increased power to the country.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting project has issued another series in their ongoing EXCELLENT coverage of the Iraq war.

Despite vast investment, Iraq’s sclerotic electricity network shows little sign of improvement, to the despair of residents and businesses alike, writes Tiare Rath.

Baghdad Suffers Worst Cuts and corruption, violence, mismanagement leave the capital with severely restricted supplies.

Kurds Struggle to Generate Own Supplies, writes Frman Abdul-Rahman, and most power projects have not been completed or made little or no impact.

Scams Enrage Karbala Residents with politicians and militia accused of stealing electricity supplies.

The Iraqi Oil Controversy

There is hardly a more recognized slogan summing up the Iraq war critics’ position: the war was about oil.
Regardless, the war took place, and continues to do so.

Amidst it all, there are very well-meaning technocrats in the U.S. government who are working hard to improve the Iraq oil sector.

However, the oil sector is the most important of Iraq’s total economy, and the U.S. government’s stated goal (of many) in Iraq immediately after the invasion was to “reform” that economy – i.e. less of a nationalized style and more of a free market.

The bottom line, however, is that there are other people deciding, at least at first, and now helping the Iraqi government decide what to do with the varying economic sectors, including the oil.

Greg Muttitt, co-director of the British-based group Platform and on the forefront of the non-Iraqi campaign against the proposed oil law, lays out his take thus far.

The USA justifies its pressure on grounds that an oil law would help bring reconciliation.

Even if that account fitted the facts (which it doesn’t - their oil law barely mentions the revenue sharing they claim is so important), even if the USA were not responsible for sponsoring the sectarianism that is now tearing at the country, the very concept of the US benchmarks is based on a racist premise: that Iraqis are not able to sort out their politics themselves, that they need US pressure to get the country on track. That is a premise almost unanimously accepted by the media.

And White Men continue to pontificate on what’s best for Iraqis. Noteworthy was an opinion piece in the Financial Times entitled “Oil for peace”, by Nick Butler, former Policy Director of BP and New Labour confidante. He argued that “the most useful parting gift that the coalition could leave [...] is a practical model for renewal of the oil sector”.

But the spin is now wearing thin.

It is a matter of record that until 2002 the USA and UK publicly identified their strategic interests in Iraqi and Middle Eastern oil. Equally, both countries do not deny that they have played a central role in shaping Iraqi oil policy, albeit with claims of noble motives.

Turkey’s Invasion

Today’s Iraq Press Roundup by Hiba Dawood for UPI discusses the media’s take on the Turkey-Iraq showdown.

It’s not so easy going for the U.S. on the “tightrope” between allies in the Turkey-Kurdish dispute, Jim Lobe writes for Inter Press Service.

There may not be unbreakable brother and sisterhood between Iraq’s Kurds and Turkish Kurds when it concerns the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Tim Butcher writes for The Telegraph.

More on the PKK’s sister organization, the PJAK, by Farideh Farhi in Informed Comment: Global Affairs.

Kudos to Richard A. Oppel, Jr. of the New York Times for bringing attention to the conflict between the Kurdish guerrillas and Iran during the time attention is on the Turkish- Kurdish imbroglio and the possible US connection. …

But Oppel’s story is significant for reasons that go beyond front-page attention to a largely neglected issue by the mainstream media. First, the story sheds light on the extent of the operation, involving relatively large numbers of Iranian casualties (the claim is 150 since August) as well as some captured (one even interviewed by Oppel).

Second, the story does not beat around the bush and rightly states that PJAK is essentially the same as PKK (“they share leadership, logistics, and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader imprisoned in Turkey”). This is an important point because PKK is on US’s list of terrorist groups and precisely for this reason the United States would like to avoid any hint of association with the group, particularly now that Turkey is demanding the US to bring pressure on the Kurdish Regional Government to clamp down on the activities of PKK.

Society, Security and Politics

Iraqis are increasingly suffering from mental health and stress problems, the United Nations says.

America in Iraq

Generalizations are dangerous, especially when various political sides use them to abuse U.S. soldiers’ role in Iraq. But information about the coalition forces is important in understanding the war effort and what may come.

Dahr Jamail, author of the new book Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, writes for Inter Press Service about the decreasing morale of U.S. soldiers.

A quick 15 page report sums up the overall U.S. failure thus far in Iraq: it is too U.S. heavy and had little Iraq input.

In an interim report on U.S. efforts to modernize the Iraqi financial management system, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is clear that the tens of millions of dollars poured into the project have largely been wasted.

Why? Because it was imposed on Iraqis, not an organic Iraqi solution to the failures of the Saddam regime and the post-Saddam problems it posed.

This is a drop in the bucket for the overall Iraq war costs. The Congressional Budget Office tossed out an estimate this week that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would top $2.4 trillion.

Here’s an exchange between reporters and White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino:

Q Dana, I wanted to ask you about the CBO estimate for the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why is that $2.4 trillion figure wrong?

MS. PERINO: Well, part of it is that when you start having all — just a ton of speculation. It’s a hypothetical that was created based on questions that Democrats in Congress who don’t want us to be in the war asked the Congressional Budget Office to provide. Our force structure in Iraq and Afghanistan has fluctuated. Already this year, the President said that 5,700 troops would come home by December. We don’t know what the costs are going to be over the years, and so because that fluctuates, it’s just wildly premature to put out a number like that.

Q Okay, so what might be a more reasonable estimate? I’m sure folks at OMB have their own counter.

MS. PERINO: Look, spending to fight the global war on terror is an investment in our security and it is something that the President is committed to prioritizing in the budget. We hope that Congress would agree. We don’t know how much the war is going to cost in the future. We do our best to try to provide those projections, as we did last February when we sent up the budget and we said we think this is how much we’re going to need, $146 billion — $149 billion. We added $46 billion to that in the supplemental that we asked for last week.

You can’t project that far into the future. We are starting to see good signs of success — I’m sorry — signs of progress in Iraq. We want those trend lines to continue. We want our troops to have the force protection they need, the equipment that they need, and the care for our wounded warriors and their families need to be factored into this, as well. But $2.4 trillion is pure speculation.

Q If you can say it’s inaccurate and others can say it’s wildly inaccurate, surely there must be some kind of quantifiable sense as to what this –

MS. PERINO: I think what they looked at 10 years ago — the answer is we just don’t operate that way in terms of providing a federal budget. We provide as much information as we can, but there are changing conditions on the ground and it’s just — it would not serve the public well to put out numbers that we don’t have any confidence in.

Q Is that number — if that number turned out to be somewhere close to accurate, do you think that would be a reasonable amount of money to be spending on the war –

MS. PERINO: You’re asking me another hypothetical question; if that were to be true. I’m not going to answer that.

Q — that doesn’t strike you as –

MS. PERINO: Look, what I can tell you is that I’m not going to worry about the number. What I’m worried about is making sure that the President gets what he needs in order to provide the safety and security for the country. And we have spent a lot of money on the global war on terror. I think we’re spending it smartly and we are going to continue to do that. And whoever comes in as President is January of 2009, I’m sure when they sit down and have their first briefing is that they’re going to feel the same way.

Roger.

Q Dana, could I follow up on that?

MS. PERINO: Sure.

Q For fiscal ‘09, there’s a $50 million placeholder for it. Given the fact that the supplemental –

MS. PERINO: $50 million?

Q — $50 billion, I’m sorry.

MS. PERINO: Go again.

Q Given the fact that the request for ‘08 in the supplemental is now $250 billion, is $50 billion for ‘09 seem realistic?

MS. PERINO: Again, what we try to do is, as we said back in February, we’re going to try to provide Congress with as much information as we possible can, but it’s — and I believe Rob Portman, who was the OMB Director at the time, said it’s too difficult to project that far into the future because we don’t know what the commanders on the ground are going to need. One of the reasons that we’ve asked for an additional $46 billion is because General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker came back, gave their congressionally-mandated testimony, reported to the President, and the President said, carry on, fulfill this plan, and come back in March and tell us how it’s going, provide a progress update. So it’s just — it’s difficult to try to project this too far into the future.

The National Priorities Project breaks down the cost of war in an interactive way.
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Iraq’s government spokesman, Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh, detailed the struggles the Iraqi government faces during a speech Monday at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

His focus was on the Turkish issue, Iranian influence, and militia and insurgent activity.

On the oil law, he said there are a number of technical points to be ironed out, but a somewhat limited agreement on a February version of the draft law (fyi: there are many version floating around and no one really knows which one to look to).

“There’s an amendment and there’s editing in the draft, and this makes the Kurds object,” he said regarding the back-and-forth over the law’s wording. “Finally they agreed to go back to that draft.”

However, the Kurds say that version was agreed to in principle but it was incomplete, and the changes that were made prior to being sent to the Parliament are a deal breaker.

Dabbagh blamed the Iraqi Accord Front, or Tawafuq, the large Sunni bloc in Parliament, for using the law in their political dispute against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government.

“Not because they are refusing this oil law but because they have a problem with the prime minister and they want to block this oil law,” he said. “They know very well how important is this oil law for Iraq and is a sort of putting and applying pressure on the prime minister and on the government.” Dabbagh added the government is looking to other Iraqi Sunnis to take Tawafuq’s place.

Tawafuq has, however, has also protested what they consider to be terms too lenient to allowing foreign firms into the so far nationalized Iraqi oil sector, as well as the way it decentralizes the role of the government in the oil sector, stoking fears that Sunnis, as a minority, will be left out.

Parliament’s energy committee now needs to figure out a final version to push forward, but it appears unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“I don’t deny we have a problem … a political problem,” he responded to a dual question about the lack of progress on the oil law and other benchmarks, and the fact there is little political cohesion in the government. He called it the “responsibility of all the parties which participate in the government” to reach a deal on reform.

“This reform, unless it happens with in the coming two months, I think the situation will be fragile. We might face a problem because the situation cannot continue with what we have right now.”

Dabbagh said a revenue sharing agreement still holds, though the revenue sharing law is further behind than the oil law. He emphasized the need for more transparency, and a vague reference to all the details of oil production being declared publicly by 2009.

On the Kirkuk referendum, “I think there is not enough time by the end of the year to have the referendum in Kirkuk.” There has been no census yet, which needs to take place to determine eligible voters in oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories. The voters would likely approve joining the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has said that a 3-6 month delay into next year will be OK if it is based on technical issues. If it is political, then that’s another story.

Iraq’s Fuel

The black market still thrives in Iraq, despite moves to jack up the prices. Jim Landers in The Dallas Morning News reports on the competing Iraqi and Iranian black market for fuels.

The Turkish Invasion

The Turkey-PKK-Iraq-KRG-U.S. dispute has garnered much deserved media attention, as well as plenty of feedback passed on to me and the Iraq Oil Report.

But first, the latest:
The U.S. is weighing whether it will take action by dumping bombs on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party hideouts in the Qandil Mountains instead of Turkey, Bay Fang writes for the Chicago Tribune.

All this additional fighting will mean more displaced Iraqis, and aid agencies are preparing.

While Turkey is a U.S. ally, Iran is not. So Kurdish guerillas attacking Iran isn’t getting the same attention, Richard A. Oppel Jr. writes in The New York Times.

In fact, the U.S. is actively supporting the PKK’s Iranian-focused cousin, the PJAK, Reza Zebari writes for The Jerusalem Post.

Now, here’s a healthy sample of comments on the issue received by Iraq Oil Report:
This isn’t the first time Turkey has crossed into Iraq to take on the PKK, both before or after the 2003 invasion. Bottom line: they haven’t been too successful. And there has been plenty of hot air from Washington, Baghdad and Irbil about the threat and dangers of the PKK, but little real action to either fold them into the political process or expel them.

Turkey, with the second largest NATO forces, should be able to stop the PKK inside Turkey if military success against the PKK is even possible.

Turkey failing to succeed against the PKK militarily will cause an additional dilemma internally, as the political leaders and the military leaders square off, and citizens rally.

That Kurds themselves are fed up with the PKK, which is why the separatist group is no longer active in cities, but in mountains. Plus the forces of the PKK have been thinned and weakened over the years.

Society, Security and Politics

Iraq, the Surge, Partition, and the War: Public Opinion by City and Region is the new report authored by Anthony H. Cordesman from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It details and analyzes the most important information which the media and the governments of the United States and Iraq are missing: the peoples’ opinion.

It also lays out the major conflicts in Iraq, which is beyond the Al Qaida mantra we hear so much of, and is critical to understanding what Iraqis face.

And, most importantly, it shows the quality of life of Iraqis diminishing, as is their hope for their future and the faith of their government.

Iraq’s south is becoming more violent, as Kareem Zair reports for Azzaman the militias of the Sadr Movement and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Counil (backed by the United States) escalate fighting.

The Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood.

The young Baghdadi woman only known by the pseudonym Riverbend documented the war from her home, and told the story with her blog, Baghdad Burning, which was made into two books. Monday she posted her first new item in months, following her families heartbreaking decision to leave Baghdad for the safety of Syria.

The first weeks here were something of a cultural shock. It has taken me these last three months to work away certain habits I’d acquired in Iraq after the war. It’s funny how you learn to act a certain way and don’t even know you’re doing strange things- like avoiding people’s eyes in the street or crazily murmuring prayers to yourself when stuck in traffic. It took me at least three weeks to teach myself to walk properly again- with head lifted, not constantly looking behind me. …

We live in an apartment building where two other Iraqis are renting. The people in the floor above us are a Christian family from northern Iraq who got chased out of their village by Peshmerga and the family on our floor is a Kurdish family who lost their home in Baghdad to militias and were waiting for immigration to Sweden or Switzerland or some such European refugee haven.

The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative – a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, “We’re Abu Mohammed’s house- across from you- mama says if you need anything, just ask- this is our number. Abu Dalia’s family live upstairs, this is their number. We’re all Iraqi too… Welcome to the building.”

I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003.

The U.S. in Iraq

A State Department investigation into the department’s use of security contractors is anything but glowing, Spencer Ackerman writes for TPM Muckracker.

The U.S. Special Inspector General in Iraq released a new report titled Controls Over Unliquidated Obligations in the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

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The White House is now being queried on the connections to Ray Hunt, head of Hunt Oil Corp., regarding the companies deal with Iraq’s Kurdistan government.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has sent a letter raising concerns over Hunt’s role on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Markey wants answers to 13 questions on Hunt’s role as well as what the White House knew about the deal.

Read the entire story I wrote for UPI here.

The pipeline from Kirkuk to Baiji was bombed, again, Reuters reports. The extent of the bomb isn’t certain, but a Kirkuk oil official said it will be fixed soon and exports won’t be affected.

The pipeline wasn’t the only slice of violence in the area, which The New York Times’ Richard A. Oppel Jr. reports includes and attack on Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih’s convoy and a police patrol.

Iraq’s oil production is likely to drop, the Center for Global Energy Studies’ Muhammad-Ali Zainy tells Azzaman.

It’s ‘The economy, stupid,’ Andrew Alderson, author of “Bankrolling Basra,” writes in Parliamentary Brief.

How did the British get it so wrong in southern Iraq? Between the summers of 2003 and 2004, there was a system of government in place which included economic administration and this brought stability and relative peace. Today Basra is a no-go zone and as dangerous as Baghdad. …

It was recognised that the key to regaining the confidence of the ordinary Iraqis is the rebuilding of the Iraqi economy. As their lot improves through better overall living conditions and increased availability of goods and products through the liberalising of trade, the security situation should also improve as the undesirable elements of the community become increasingly marginalised. This should allowing the coalition military forces to focus on and prosecute extremists and former regime loyalists with greater effect.

The Review of the Effectiveness of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq, published Thursday by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq, can be found here.

The Iraq Press Roundup by UPI’s Hiba Dawood can be read here.
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