Iraq Oil Report

Iraq’s Kurdish government says it will allow its security forces to confront Turkey if the Turkish troops chase Kurdish separatists into civilian areas, Asso Ahmed and Tina Susman report for the Los Angeles Times.

Turkish troops are digging deeper into Iraq territory, John Affleck reports for The Associated Press. And violence in the rest of the country has also ticked up.

The massive U.S. Embassy in Baghdad being built has had its certification revoked by the new head of construction, Richard Shinnick, Warren P. Strobel reports for McClatchy Newspapers. His predecessor, Charles Williams, is accused of allowing shoddy construction dangerous to occupants, as well as numerous allegations of human rights abuses against the foreign labor force, mostly from developing countries.

Iraqi government leaders have rejected a draft law paving the way for provincial elections, a setback for the process of reconciling Iraqi factions, BBC News reports. For more on the passage of the provincial powers law – note, not a provincial elections law – read Ben Lando’s report for UPI.

The latest journalist to be killed in Iraq is the head of its journalists union, Shihab al-Tamimi, a critic of sectarian violence, BBC News reports.

Native Without A Nation — An interactive blog by Feras Majeed, aimed at connecting displaced Iraqi youth in Syria with their American counterparts and others via emails and webconferencing.

Kelly Martin from Collinsville high school sent these questions via email for Feras, Ahmed and Alaa (whose friends in Damascus call him David).

Kelly: Do many people have their own computers, or are many internet cafes?
Firas: From my perspective not too many Iraqis have PCs here in Syria, the majority of Iraqis can’t afford to buy PCs, and however, Iraqi people are eager to learn about PCs and how to benefit from it especially from the internet!
The internet for the Iraqis become their only window to the outside world, they consider this service as the only way to communicate with their friends, relatives, beloved, parents….etc, who live in Iraq and other countries, the availability of internet cafes are good in some areas but the service are monitored by an admin in the café, and a lot of facilities are blocked including the voice chat and web cam in most of the cafes in Damascus, the reasons for this are unknown to me.

Kelly: What do you spend your days doing?
Ahmed: I spent most of my days reading E-books and self education myself, communicating with my friends via internet is daily activity.

Kelly: I’m sorry to hear that your Iraq credentials are holding you back from continuing your studies. Do you believe that you will be able to receive them eventually and resume your formal education?
David: In regard to my school papers, I can’t go to the area I used to live in because I and my family are threatened to be killed if we go back. And I am very sad about this. Years are passing away. My peers are in their last year in high school and I am still in my tenth grade. I can’t finish my studies because of those threats. I can’t wait to pursue my study for it is my ambition.

More at Native Without A Nation. Click HERE.

The Iraq Press Roundup by United Press International’s Hiba Dawood.

The 4th round of negotiations for the trade and cooperation agreement between Iraq and the European Union started on Tuesday in the Belgian capital Brussels, a foreign ministry statement said on Wednesday, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

The U.S.-Iraqi dialogue forum on economic cooperation will begin tomorrow noon in Baghdad’s downtown al-Rasheed hotel with the participation of the Iraqi deputy prime minister and the U.S. envoy to Iraq, an Iraqi presidential source said on Tuesday, VOI reports. In attendance: Amb. Ryan Crocker and other U.S. officials as well as Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, Minister of Finance Baqer al-Zubeidi, Minister of Electricity Kareem Wahid, Minister of Trade Abdul Fallah al-Soudani, Minister of Industry and Minerals Fawzi Hariri, Minister of Reconstruction and Housing Bayan Dazei, Minister of Oil Hussein al-Shahrestani, Minister of Planning Ali Baban, Minister of Agriculture Ali al-Bahadeli, Minister of Water Resources Abdul Lateef Jamal Rasheed, Governor of the Iraqi Central Bank, and National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie.

As a kid growing up in Columbus, Ohio, Haider Ala Hamoudi didn’t worry about bogeymen or witches or ghouls. Saddam Hussein stalked his nightmares. The Iraqi dictator had killed his uncle and cousin, and the little boy worried that Hussein would come get him in the night shadows of his Ohio bedroom.

Twenty five years later, he was thrilled when the United States became Saddam Hussein’s worst nightmare by toppling his regime. In fact, Dr. Hamoudi was so hopeful about a new Iraq that he moved there on July 14, 2003.
But it wasn’t long before his high hopes came crashing down.
His experiences in postwar Iraq is the subject of his moving new memoir, “Howling in Mesopotamia,” Cristina Rouvalis reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Last week Naperville Central and Naperville North high schools (Illinois) posed questions on the war in Iraq with Iraqi Gen. Nasier Abadi and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik.

Here are some selected interactions as taken from an article by Melissa Jenco in the Daily Herald and a release from MultiNational Force-Iraq.

What I want you to get out of this is the ability to communicate transparently and to think critically and figure out for yourself where you stand on certain issues,” Lt. Col. John Amberg, director of Army public affairs in the Midwest, told students before the talk. …

Abadi said the Iraqis need to be able to rely on their government for basic services.
“If I’m a family man, what would I want?” Abadi asked. “I would like to have a job so that I can get a salary and be able to provide food to my family … I need my kids to be able to go to school. When they’re sick I want to be able to take them to the hospital. I would like essential services like electricity, fuel.” …

Dubik told them the security of the U.S. is a shared responsibility between the government and its citizens. But he warned them to be wary of easy solutions.
“This is a very complex situation,” he said. “A bumper sticker doesn’t work. A sound bite doesn’t work. A one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t work.” …

The teenage students presented the generals with thought-provoking questions that were on-par with questions asked at congressional hearings, including one regarding the withdrawal of surge troops.

“Is the success of the recent troop surge, in your personal and professional opinion, argument for extending the forces or pulling them out?” the student asked.

Both generals responded with honest, fact-based responses.

“My opinion is this,” said Dubik. “It’s not really an either/or kind of choice.

“Knowledge is only useful for a certain amount of time,” he added. “If in February 2007, you thought that the future was just a linear projection of the present, you’re going to make some wrong conclusions.

“You could make an even equal mistake in saying things are good, and a linear projection of the future will be even better,” he said.
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