Iraqi Dinar-How to Buy Dinar Your New Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate News Source

The Number One Way to Buy Up Iraqi Dinar Quickly and Safely

2010-09-06T19:52:00.000-05:00

The Number One Way to Buy Up Iraqi Dinar Quickly and Safely

Right now may be an excellent time to consider purchasing a foreign currency with a big upside for accumulating wealth. Do a bit of research on where you can purchase some excellent quality new Iraqi Dinar. Be sure it is current Iraqi Dinar, not the previous Saddam Hussein era notes. There are a great number of websites out there that would really like to sell you these old worthless notes, so be careful. There are some rules and regulations you will need to follow too, and you need to make certain that you are dealing with an honest and authentic dealer.

Many people are interested in purchasing these types of notes, and with great demand can also come great danger. Iraqi Dinar is extremely popular currently, so unscrupulous people are always searching for ways to print and sell fake money in order to make a great profit off of naive buyers. As a result, it is crucial that you do as much research as possible to protect against getting scammed by purchasing from the wrong person. The last thing you want to do is purchase your Iraqi money, sit on it for a few years and find out when you go to turn it in for your money that it is counterfeit and the scoundrel who sold it to you has left the country.

After you have made a decision to attain the New Iraqi Dinar and you have found someone you think you can trust my advice is that you trust them, but check and double check the Iraqi Dinar, very, very carefully. Try to choose a seller that can let you know that the money is real and that he uses a De La Rue currency counter to verify the bills for authenticity. All money has to be passed through this money counter in order to make sure the money is good. There are other currency machines that can detect counterfeits for Iraqi Dinar, but from what I hear the De La Rue machine is the top of the line. Interestingly, the De La Rue machine is released by the company that makes the Iraqi money. After you have come to a decision on a dealer I recommend you use a dealer where you can make your purchase with a credit card. That way if there's anything that goes wrong with your delivery you can dispute the charge with whatever credit card company you are making the purchase with. You may still get swindled even if you use a credit card, but a credit card organization will be very helpful in fighting the charges if the situation goes that far.

To learn more about safe dinar make sure to check out the buy dinar web site and blog.

Iraqi Dinar - Jim Cramer Recommends Iraqi Dinar As An Investement

2009-11-22T00:30:00.000-06:00

Jim Cramer Recommends Iraqi Dinar as a possible investment. Yeah, its a total scam, all I read online even on the Nasdaq site is what a scam Iraqi Dinar is...but Jim Cramer always struck me as a smart guy.

See the video below.

PRWeb Press Release

November 4, 2009

DinarBanker Reports Huge Increase in Iraqi Dinar Sales Following CNBC’s Jim Cramer Currency Money Advice

In a recent show about the promise of new investment opportunities in Iraq, Mad Money host Jim Cramer discussed the most promising avenues to invest in the reemerging nation. He strongly recommended investing in the currency of the county, the Iraqi Dinar, as a prudent play in this growing market. Other monetary notes have experienced significant growth in years following conflict, such as the Kuwaiti Dinar after the Gulf War.

(Vocus/PRWEB ) November 4, 2009 -- The host of Mad Money Jim Cramer, strongly endorsed investmenting in Iraq during a recent show discussing investment into Iraq and the Iraq Dinar currency. In his October 20th broadcast, the CNBC financial pundit talked about what people in the investing community were saying about the reconstruction and infrastructure building in the country of Iraq. Cramer said that the general tone of the future growth of the country’s economy was very optimistic. He stated, “I know that my viewers are desperate to play Iraq” and “People in this country do believe that there is a major oil-based recovery that can last for years.” Iraq is rich in natural resources, especially oil, and a successful development and security plan could potentially make the nation’s economy one of the leaders in the region.

DinarBanker - Leading Broker of Iraqi Dinar

I know that my viewers are desperate to play Iraq

People in this country do believe that there is a major oil-based recovery that can last for years.

One of the things that our viewers are saying is to buy the Iraqi Dinar.

I have requests every day from people who want to own the currency of Iraq and I am always in favor of owning the currency.

This is a country that is resourced based that obviously has a lot of aid from the U.S., but could be quite self-sufficient in a very short amount of time.

history proves that the return on investment in Iraq is worth it.

Now I am not sure how you can buy the dinar in bulk in this country.

Of course we’ve know for a long time that this is a promising market, but Cramer’s report has increased the number of people contacting us about the dinar

There has been an increase in interest in the market, and more people are investing.

Mad Money with Jim Cramer

Talking about ways to invest in Iraq, Cramer said, “One of the things that our viewers are saying is to buy the Iraqi Dinar.” The dinar is a new currency that was created after the removal of Saddam Hussein. The new Iraqi Dinar has been in circulation since 2004 and the Iraqi Dinar exchange rate has steadily increased in value over the past six years. Overall, the value has grown at the same rate as global inflation over the same period. But the prospect of a more secure situation in the nation could attract a vast range of new businesses, money, and people which could significantly raise the value of the new Dinar.

Speaking about the option of whether or not to buy Iraqi dinar, Cramer said, “I have requests every day from people who want to own the currency of Iraq and I am always in favor of owning the currency.” He went on to talk about the future of Iraq, saying, “This is a country that is resourced based that obviously has a lot of aid from the U.S., but could be quite self-sufficient in a very short amount of time.”

The recent recession that has affected nearly every economy around the world has had little effect on Iraq as it continues to experience rapid growth as the result of rebuilding. In the face of an inflationary U.S. economy, many investors who currently have spare capital to invest are weary about what markets will yield a reasonable return on investment, but Iraq seems to offer a tremendous opportunity. In a much larger sense, former U.S commander in Iraq, General Petraeus commented that he hopes that “history proves that the return on investment in Iraq is worth it.” This goes far beyond financial growth, but encompasses the development of the entire nation. The enthusiasm spoken about by Cramer centers around economic prosperity, which is the result of the rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure, which gives the Iraqi people the opportunity to prosper. The success of the Iraqi Dinar is but one measure of this overall goal.

When he gave his report on Iraq, Jim Cramer commented, “Now I am not sure how you can buy the dinar in bulk in this country.” This got an immediate response from people who knew of reputable brokers who sold the money in the United States and other nations. Over the following days, Cramer reported on avenues to buy Iraqi dinars available to people outside of Iraq. In fact, there are many companies in the U.S. who buy and sell Iraqi Dinar. DinarBanker, a leader in the Iraqi dinar trade, noted that this coverage has brought welcome attention to the services they provide for their clients.

“Of course we’ve know for a long time that this is a promising market, but Cramer’s report has increased the number of people contacting us about the dinar,” said the President of DinarBanker. “There has been an increase in interest in the market, and more people are investing.” Much of the growth of Iraq’s economy over the next few years will depend of the confidence companies and individuals outside the country have in Iraqi’s continued growth. Sustained support from foreign investors will be necessary if Iraq wishes to become one of the powerhouses of the Middle East.

DinarBanker is a respected foreign currency broker that both buys and sells Iraqi dinar. As a based in the United States, they are registered with the U.S. Treasury Department as a certified currency trading business. They are a proud member of the Better Business Bureau and have a commendable reputation in the trading world. DinarBanker seeks to meet their clients’ financial needs and keep them on top of the latest Iraqi Dinar news is there to assist you today and years into the future to make sure you invest successfully.

Watch the Video! MSNBC, “Mad Money with Jim Cramer” Oct. 20, 2009

Iraqi Dinar News - Baghdad closes in on first round oil deals

2009-10-20T00:11:00.000-05:00

Baghdad closes in on first round oil deals

News wires

Iraq is in the final stages of negotiating deals for oilfields left over from a June energy auction after players put forward new bids for production targets and accepted Iraq's fee terms, Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani said.

Reuters quoted Shahristani telling a news conference that Eni, Occidental, and the Korean Gas Corporation (Kogas) had proposed a production plateau target of 1.125 million barrels per day for the Zubair oilfield and had agreed to a fee of $2 per barrel.
He also said a consortium of Lukoil and ConocoPhillips was competing against ExxonMobil for West Qurna, Phase 1.

The Lukoil group had proposed an output target of 1.5 million bpd, while ExxonMobil had put forward a target of 2.1 million bpd. Earlier this week, another top oil official said Iraq was expecting another offer from France's Total for West Qurna.

Oil officials were expected to meet with companies in Istanbul, where they will hold a workshop on a second oil auction expected in the first half of December.

The ministry's first auction, held in Baghdad at the end of June, was the centerpiece of Iraq's efforts to boost production and revive its lucrative but crumbling oil sector.
Of eight fields offered, only one deal was clinched after players baulked at the Oil Ministry's stiff payment terms. In that deal, BP and China National Petroleum Corporation agreed to a fee of $2 per barrel to develop super-giant Rumaila field.

Tuesday, 13 October, 2009, 12:40 GMT | last updated: Tuesday, 13 October, 2009, 13:01 GMT

New Iraqi Dinar News - Iraq Decides To Make Ethanol From Dates

2009-09-21T00:20:00.000-05:00

One of the largest oil producing countries in the world, and they have a project to make ethanol from dates?

Huh?

One of the most oil-rich countries in the world will be making ethanol from excess dates. Iraqi government has approved a plan to produce the clean burning alernative in attempt to boost their economy.

“This project will support Iraq’s economy by encouraging farmers to expand date palms farms,” an Iraqi cabinet member said.

Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq, the country produced more than 900,000 ton of dates per year. The country only used about 150,000 ton so the remaining was exported. However, since 2003 the market for Iraqi dates has dried up to the point where only about 350,000 ton of them are produced annually.

Iraq’s excess dates end up rotting in storage or being fed to animals. An undisclosed United Arab Emirates company has been given the rights to make the date ethanol. Exact cost estimates and projected ethanol production have not been disclosed.

Buying Iraqi Dinar - Beware of ads promising big return on Iraq's currency

2009-09-14T23:24:00.001-05:00

I love these Kinds of stories, if you are one of these people who thinks that if you plop down 300 bucks you will have $300,000 next week, get real. In the short time I have had mine it has gone up 40%. The big pay off may come years later after rebuilding. You can still get it relatively cheap, it may not always be so. A coin shop owner is their currency expert? Right...

Go ask a desert storm veteran who heard about buyinf Kuwaiti Dinar and listened to the doom sayers who said it was a scam.

-I've talked to a few, they sound pretty regretful to me...

Beware of ads promising big return on Iraq's currency

Reported by: Joe Ducey

Email: jducey@abc15.com

Produced by: Quita Jackson

Last Update: 8/21 8:06 pm

As Iraq becomes more and more stable, more people are investing in their currency, the Dinar. Some ads claim you may be able to double or triple your money in a just a few weeks if you buy right now. So is it worth considering?

Look online and you'll find dozens of vendors selling the Dinar.

They are so cheap -- more than a thousand to one dollar -- Americans are snatching them up.

"My business partner's friend gave us a tip that the Iraqi money would be converted into American money and when that happened the Iraqi money would soar in value," says Michael Loos.

He says it sounded too good to pass up. So Loos invested a modest $268. But a few weeks later, when he checked the value, it was down to $216.50.

Fred Hammond owns a coin shop. He says he's not surprised.

"I've had a couple of people ask me about that and I don’t give them a very pretty picture," says Hammond. He says its hard to make money trading foreign currency.

While the Iraqi Dinar currently has gone up, vendors can charge up to 50 percent commission. Even banks charge currency transaction fees and without significant appreciation, you will lose money buying and selling back.

If you decide to buy, do it through a legitimate US-based financial institution, never a company based outside the US.

Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Buy Iraqi Dinar - Maliki assures Iraq its forces will defeat terror

2009-08-22T22:20:00.002-05:00

Maliki assures Iraq its forces will defeat terror
Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:02am EDT

BAGHDAD, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday assured the country in the aftermath of the deadliest bombings this year that its security forces would defeat terrorism despite "breaches here and there".

In his first public address since massive truck bombs in Baghdad killed at least 95 people on Wednesday, mainly in the foreign and finance ministries, Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim leader said the perpetrators of the attacks had been captured.He also vowed to weed out from the police and army all those loyal to factions and political parties rather than the country."I want to tell the Iraqi people we are still in an open war against them (the terrorists)," Maliki said on state television channel Iraqiya. "I reassure the Iraqi people that the security forces can still keep up the battle and achieve victory despite breaches here and there."

The bomb blasts on Wednesday outside what should have been among Iraq's most heavily protected targets dealt a severe blow to Maliki's efforts to take credit ahead of a national election next year for a steep fall in violence in the past 18 months.It also shook public confidence in the Iraqi police and soldiers, who took over responsibility for security in cities at the end of June when U.S. troops pulled out of urban centres.

The U.S. pullback to rural bases was hailed by Maliki as a celebration of Iraqi sovereignty more than six years after the U.S. invasion.Maliki blamed Wednesday's bombings on Sunni Islamist extremists -- usually a reference to al Qaeda -- and former members of toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.

He repeated an announcement from security officials that the culprits behind the bombings had been caught and were being questioned, and also reiterated accusations that other countries in the region were fomenting violence in Iraq. (Reporting by Khalid al-Ansary and Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

New Iraqi Dinar - Explosives expert 'blows a fuse' on bomber release

2009-08-21T22:46:00.004-05:00

Off topic I know, but just in case you were wondering what a complete travesty looked like...

Explosives expert 'blows a fuse' on bomber release

Charles Compton (2009-08-21)

FRANKFORT, KY (wkms) - Thursday's release of the only person convicted in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 outrages explosives expert Tom Thurman. In 1988, Thurman was among the Americans in Lockerbie, Scotland to investigate the bombing.

The Kentuckian says freeing Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is "a travesty." Kentucky Public Radio's Charles Compton has more Tom Thurman spent Christmas Eve, 1988 hiking the picturesque hills of Scotland. However, the scene was not reminiscent of a Christmas card. A few days earlier, on December 21st, a Boeing 747 exploded 31-thousand feet above Lockerbie.

Thurman: "That's where the wing had hit the ground, exploded, killing people on the ground, creating a huge firestorm, a lot of houses were burned. Looked like it had been actually a bombing raid, from an airplane, dropping bombs and destroying part of the city." As an FBI explosives expert, Thurman was among the investigators sent to Scotland by the National Transportation Safety Board. He spent two days hiking the crash site because every available aircraft was at work transporting the bodies of 270 people

Thurman: "You may look in a field, and let's say, there's only a row of seats laying in the field. That's it. That's all that you could see in one look until you walk over the next little hill and there's some more debris, and then you walk over the next hill and there's a little bit more debris until you get to a high, a plateau and then you can see a line of debris. Not a lot. Just a piece here, a piece there, a piece there." Investigators were collecting wreckage. Thurman says debris was spread out of 845 square miles. Eventually, they gathered enough to reconstruct the jetliner. The recovered debris proved decisive.

Within a few days, Thurman was presented with a piece of wreckage which showed all the earmarks of a bomb. Thurman: "On the 24th, that was in fact determined, and it was a piece of metal. And, say okay, where did this piece of metal come from? In the beginning of working back. It was determined that piece of metal came from a baggage container a baggage pod that was in the belly of the plane." Through the reconstruction, they pinpointed explosion's source. The bomb was inside luggage which originated on the Mediterranean island of Malta. They even found fragments of pants which investigators traced to a clothing store on Malta. It was a salesman there named Tony who identified the purchaser as Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

Thurman: "Tony says, and I'll paraphrase, I remember someone coming in here and I'm certain that he bought this type of pants. And it appeared to me that he was just buying clothes to fill a suitcase and that was his exact words."

Megrahi was an intelligence officer working for the Libyan government. In the end, he was the only person convicted in the murders of 270 people. In a diplomatic deal with Libya, he was extradited along with an alleged accomplice who was not convicted.

In Thurman's opinion, it was clearly state-sponsored terrorism and he's frustrated many culprits escaped justice. As for Megrahi, he may be dying of prostate cancer, but, Thurman strongly feels he still belongs in jail. Mostly, though, he sympathizes with the people who lost loved ones in the terror attack . Thurman: "I can't even imagine the anguish that they're going through on this day. And I am sure that they're reliving today, the day that they were told that their loved ones were dead. It's starting all over again." With Megrahi now home in Libya. As for the survivors, Thurman says there is no longer closure there is no moving on.

Iraqi Dinar - C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones

2009-08-20T23:20:00.003-05:00

How do I hire these guys? I have a neighbor who has this dog that just won't shut up!!!

Here Fido, Here boy...Hellfire missle!!!

C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones

By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: August 20, 2009

WASHINGTON — From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees.

The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.

The role of the company in the Predator program highlights the degree to which the C.I.A. now depends on outside contractors to perform some of the agency’s most important assignments. And it illustrates the resilience of Blackwater, now known as Xe (pronounced Zee) Services, though most people in and outside the company still refer to it as Blackwater. It has grown through government work, even as it attracted criticism and allegations of brutality in Iraq.

A spokesman for the C.I.A. declined to comment for this article.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the agency hired Blackwater in 2004 as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top Qaeda operatives.

In interviews on Thursday, current and former government officials provided new details about Blackwater’s association with the assassination program, which began in 2004 not long after Porter J. Goss took over at the C.I.A. The officials said that the spy agency did not dispatch the Blackwater executives with a “license to kill.” Instead, it ordered the contractors to begin collecting information on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s leaders, carry out surveillance and train for possible missions.

“The actual pulling of a trigger in some ways is the easiest part, and the part that requires the least expertise,” said one government official familiar with the canceled C.I.A. program. “It’s everything that leads up to it that’s the meat of the issue.”

Any operation to capture or kill militants would have had to have been approved by the C.I.A. director and presented to the White House before it was carried out, the officials said. The agency’s current director, Leon E. Panetta, canceled the program and notified Congress of its existence in an emergency meeting in June.

The extent of Blackwater’s business dealings with the C.I.A. has largely been hidden, but its public contract with the State Department to provide private security to American diplomats in Iraq has generated intense scrutiny and controversy.

The company lost the job in Iraq this year, after Blackwater guards were involved in shootings in 2007 that left 17 Iraqis dead. It still has other, less prominent State Department work.

Five former Blackwater guards have been indicted in federal court on charges related to the 2007 episode.

A spokeswoman for Xe did not respond to a request for comment.

For its intelligence work, the company’s sprawling headquarters in North Carolina has a special division, known as Blackwater Select. The company’s first major arrangement with the C.I.A. was signed in 2002, with a contract to provide security for the agency’s new station in Kabul, Afghanistan. Blackwater employees assigned to the Predator bases receive training at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to learn how to load Hellfire missiles and laser-guided smart bombs on the drones, according to current and former employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of upsetting the company.

The C.I.A. has for several years operated Predator drones out of a remote base in Shamsi, Pakistan, but has secretly added a second site at an air base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, several current and former government and company officials said. The existence of the Predator base in Jalalabad has not previously been reported.

Officials said the C.I.A. now conducted most of its Predator missile and bomb strikes on targets in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region from the Jalalabad base, with drones landing or taking off almost hourly. The base in Pakistan is still in use. But officials said that the United States decided to open the Afghanistan operation in part because of the possibility that the Pakistani government, facing growing anti-American sentiment at home, might force the C.I.A. to close the one in Pakistan.

Blackwater is not involved in selecting targets or actual strikes. The targets are selected by the C.I.A., and employees at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va., pull the trigger remotely. Only a handful of the agency’s employees actually work at the Predator bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the current and former employees said.

They said that Blackwater’s direct role in these operations had sometimes led to disputes with the C.I.A. Sometimes when a Predator misses a target, agency employees accuse Blackwater of poor bomb assembly, they said. In one instance last year recounted by the employees, a 500-pound bomb dropped off a Predator before it hit the target, leading to a frantic search for the unexploded bomb in the remote Afghan-Pakistani border region. It was eventually found about 100 yards from the original target.

The role of contractors in intelligence work expanded after the Sept. 11 attacks, as spy agencies were forced to fill gaps created when their work forces were reduced during the 1990s, after the end of the cold war.

More than a quarter of the intelligence community’s current work force is made up of contractors, carrying out missions like intelligence collection and analysis and, until recently, interrogation of terrorist suspects.

“There are skills we don’t have in government that we may have an immediate requirement for,” Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who ran the C.I.A. from 2006 until early this year, said during a panel discussion on Thursday on the privatization of intelligence.

General Hayden, who succeeded Mr. Goss at the agency, acknowledged that the C.I.A. program continued under his watch, though it was not a priority. He said the program was never prominent during his time at the C.I.A., which was one reason he did not believe that he had to notify Congress. He said it did not involve outside contractors by the time he came in.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who presides over the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the agency should have notified Congress in any event. “Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress,” she said. “If they are not, that is a violation of the law.”

Mark Landler contributed reporting.

New Iraqi Dinar - U S Currency will be eliminated from Iraq to Strengthen Dinars

2009-08-19T19:23:00.001-05:00

U S Currency will be eliminated from Iraq to Strengthen Dinars

Iraq will no longer use U.S. currency starting in October
By DB Cooper

As the United States pulls out of the country, we're trying to push the use of the Iraqi Dinar as much as possible. Iraq has started to strengthen their economy. The new policy from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service states that in October of this year, the finance office here will no longer be able to disperse U.S. currency.

"We're instituting changes now so when the policy is implemented, residents are prepared to handle their finances when October gets here," said Meadows, a native of Andalusia, Ala. "We didn't want to surprise Soldiers and civilians with an abrupt halt of distribution, so we're weaning them off the need of American money here."

Prior to July 1, Soldiers were able to use either U.S. dollars or Iraqi Dinar to purchase products from the local national market at Forward Operating Base Kalsu. In an effort to help boost Iraq's economy, the market will no longer accept U.S. currency. Soldiers can exchange their American dollars at the Finance office during their business hours, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Previously, anyone could draw as much as $200 a month in American money from the finance office.

Now residents can only pull out $50 in American money. Anything more, up to $200 worth, is converted into Iraqi Dinar. "Soldiers and civilians traveling on environmental morale leave or redeploying to their home unit are able to receive American money," said Meadows. "Our goal is to help boost the Iraqi economy by making their currency stronger. In order to do that, the American dollar has to stop circulating through the country." If the shop owners do not comply with the new policy, they are suspended from conducting business in the market for five days on the first offense. If they are seen accepting American money again they are permanently suspended from the market.

Iraqi Dinar Rate - Dollar to Dinar? Coming Sooner Than You Think

2009-08-01T13:26:00.002-05:00

About time, you should see plenty of changes...

Dollar to Dinar? Coming Sooner Than You Think

Multi-National Division Baghdad
Story by Staff Sgt. Mark BurrellDate: 07.16.2009Posted: 07.16.2009 05:41

BAGHDAD – "Can I get fifty bucks in Iraqi dinar?" That may sound like an odd request from an American Soldier at a finance office in Baghdad, but in the next few months it will be as natural as buying DVDs or energy drinks from the Iraqi shops here. However, the Army and Air Force Exchange Services run shops and the military postal services will still only accept U.S. dollars, explained Maj. Timothy Lancaster, the commander of the 208th Finance Company, 10th Sustainment Brigade Troops Battalion.

"The goal is to migrate from using primarily U.S. dollars to primarily Iraqi dinar by, Oct. 1," said Lancaster. He stressed that October isn't a deadline, but a reasonable goal.Lancaster, from Mannheim, Germany, is in charge of six finance detachments from all over the world that support finance in Multi-National Division – Baghdad."Iraq is their own country and sovereign," Lancaster added.

"Their currency is the Iraqi dinar, so we need to respect that and start adopting what we can to support them."As coalition forces have left the cities and Iraqi security forces have taken over security, Army finance is trying to transition the economy back to the shoulders of Iraqis using the dinar to lessen CF visibility here, according to Lancaster."The advantage of switching over is we inject their economy and that makes the dinar stronger," said Capt. Jason Hempstead, the 828th Financial Management Detachment commander, 208th Financial Company.

The Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers from the 828th run the Camp Liberty Finance Office. "It helps us accomplish our mission and it helps Iraqis become more economically stable," added Hempstead, who hails from, Richmond, Va.In theory, the goal to lessen the CF footprint, help stabilize the Iraqi economy and spend more local currency in markets in Baghdad should be easy, but that isn't the case, said Lancaster."

The switch from the dollar to the dinar has been harder than expected because it's been so ingrained in Iraqi vendors," explained Lancaster. "Vendors are so used to seeing cash and U.S. dollars, there has to be a mental shift."

That shift is already starting to take place around bases in Baghdad as more and more local shop owners don't bat an eye when asked if they take dinar, said Lancaster."It shouldn't be a problem, the vendors usually accept local currency," added Hempstead.Though many Soldiers come in to request money from their Eagle Cash card, the need for U.S. currency is mostly coming from paying agents that pay their contractors, added Hempstead."We issued about four million U.S. dollars from this office last month," said 1st Lt. Donald Warren, a disbursing agent from, Indiana, Pa., assigned to the 828th Financial Management Detachment. "

But for every day operations, we have both types of currency to fulfill the need for the mission."In the market, the price of the Iraqi dinar fluctuates daily, but for the past seven months the military exchange rate has held at 1,170 Iraqi dinars to one U.S. dollar, explained Lancaster. Differences in on base and off base exchange rates can lead to black market currency prices and fear of counterfeit currency coming into circulation."

We have guaranteed currency from trusted sources, like the National Bank of Iraq, so it's safe to get your dinar from our finance offices," said Lancaster. There are also security measures that Lancaster's offices take that check for watermarks among other things.Using the dinar will also cut out steep costs of transitioning cash from the United States to Iraq with Soldiers carrying it every step of the way, added Lancaster."

Is it a simple flip of a switch? No, it really isn't," said Lancaster. "We will always be here for the Soldiers, but we want the banks here to do the banking for the Iraqis."As word spreads and more Soldiers start to take advantage of the dinar, the easier it will be to transition out of Iraq when the time comes, the easier it will be to get a better deal on those DVDs and energy drinks at the markets.

Iraqi Dinar Value - Many economists see this as the first step to economic recovery for Iraq

2009-07-15T00:24:00.002-05:00

Hmmm....suspect spelling but interesting...

U.S. Forces Withdraw Iraq Could Raise Dinar

Many economists see this as the first step to economic recovery for Iraq
By DB Cooper

Iraq Celebrates WithdrawalIraqi Dinar New; U.S. Forces Withdraw From Cities Iraqis celebrate the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities on June 30. Many economists see this as the first step to economic recovery for Iraq. This story sponsored by; http://www.directdinar.com/ As the U.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities this June 30, they are turning security responsibilities over to Iraqi security forces. Some 130,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq, and some will remain at urban outposts to assist with security in cities if needed, but the coming weeks and months will be a test for Iraqi security forces seeking to maintain relative calm in the country.

With more than six years of war behind it, and foreign occupation and civil strife in Iraq's attempt to rebuild itself as a nation. Iraqi security forces on June 30 celebrated the handing over of responsibility for security in the country's cities from U.S. forces. Front pages featured Iraqi security forces celebrating the June 30 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq's cities, but the U.S. military had been preparing for this moment for months by withdrawing or making preparations for withdrawal.

Still, some 130,000 U.S. troops remain on the ground in Iraq, and that troop level is not expected to change until at least September. This is roughly the same number of troops that was in Iraq three years ago, before the surge. Some are remaining at urban outposts beyond the deadline, while others are available to reinforce the cities if the security situation warrants - all at Baghdad's request, of course. Overall, the United States wants out of Iraq - and Iraqis want the United States out. Both Baghdad and Washington are invested in making this work. The United States must move quickly to reduce its commitment in Iraq in order to free itself up not only for the campaign in Afghanistan, but also for dealing with emerging challenges in Iran and across the Russian periphery.Of course all of this is going to have great consiquences on the Iraq dinar value and many are expecting this to raise the current values.

Iraqi Dinar Buying Guide - Iraq: U.S. Forces Withdraw From Cities

2009-07-01T20:26:00.003-05:00

So now that US forces have pulled out we are all millionaries from our dinar right?

Its time to cash in?

Hat tip to http://www.dealorbuydinar.com/

Iraq: U.S. Forces Withdraw From Cities

Iraqis celebrate the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities on June 30 in Muhannad Fala'ah

SummaryU.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities June 30, turning security responsibilities over to Iraqi security forces. Some 130,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq, and some will remain at urban outposts to assist with security in cities if needed, but the coming weeks and months will be a test for Iraqi security forces seeking to maintain relative calm in the country.

AnalysisAfter more than six years of war, foreign occupation and civil strife in Iraq's attempt to rebuild itself as a nation, Iraqi security forces on June 30 celebrated the handing over of responsibility for security in the country's cities from U.S. forces. Only in the weeks and months ahead, however, will it become evident whether much has actually changed in the war-torn nation.Newspapers' front pages featured Iraqi security forces celebrating the June 30 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq's cities, but the U.S. military had been preparing for this moment for months by withdrawing or making preparations for withdrawal.

Still, some 130,000 U.S. troops remain on the ground in Iraq, and that troop level is not expected to change until at least September. This is roughly the same number of troops that was in Iraq three years ago, before the surge. Some are remaining at urban outposts beyond the deadline, while others are available to reinforce the cities if the security situation warrants - all at Baghdad's request, of course.But the Iraqi government and the United States are deeply concerned about sustaining security gains made since the surge.

And though Gen. Ray Odierno - the top U.S. military officer in Iraq - has expressed confidence in the Iraqi security forces despite a recent spate of deadly suicide bombings, these concerns are genuine. There are powerful near-term incentives for elements of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as al Qaeda in Iraq and other foreign jihadists remaining in Iraq, to carry out attacks at this time in order to call into question Iraqi security forces' capabilities and try to reignite the sectarian bloodshed of 2006.

A June 30 car bombing in Kirkuk that left more than 20 people dead as U.S. troops withdrew from the city served as a critical reminder of this threat.In the coming weeks and months, the world will first see whether the Iraqi security forces prove themselves capable of maintaining day-to-day security. This will take several forms. One is proficiency - the security forces' capability to adhere to basic doctrine, maintain security and execute tactical maneuvers. Another is their willingness to do so.

If the security forces can keep above the sectarian strife they were so embroiled in years ago and enforce security in a relatively even-handed, uncorrupt manner, they may be able to make a positive contribution to overall security, rather than fan the sectarian flames. But it is far from clear whether the key security organs have overcome their sectarian roots and issues.It then remains for Baghdad to wield these forces fairly and effectively.

Given the amount of sectarian tension that still colors debates over oil revenues, the integration of Sunni irregular forces into the security apparatus, the fate of Kirkuk and other issues, this cannot be taken for granted. And political attempts to capitalize on the passing of the deadline will only cloud matters further.This will all be happening as the United States begins to relinquish some of its responsibilities and freedom of action.

Trainers, advisers and even some combat forces will remain, and the stipulations of the Status of Forces Agreement likely will be loosely interpreted in favor of maintaining security. Nevertheless, day-to-day operations are shifting into Iraqi hands as the United States transitions from a tactical to a more operational and strategic overwatch.

In addition, the United States will be losing ground in terms of intelligence and situational awareness as it pulls back. Since the surge, U.S. forces have had sustained, day-in, day-out personal contact at the tactical level with the local populace. This contact has given U.S. forces significant intelligence and situational awareness - enough to act as a buffer between different sects. Some erosion of this intelligence capability is almost inevitable, and it may become significant.Overall, the United States wants out of Iraq - and Iraqis want the United States out. Both Baghdad and Washington are invested in making this work. Washington's challenge is that its forces are stretched thin; it is already delaying the Afghan surge in order to keep sufficient troops in Iraq to keep a lid on security should tensions flare up again.

But the United States must move quickly to reduce its commitment in Iraq in order to free itself up not only for the campaign in Afghanistan, but also for dealing with emerging challenges in Iran and across the Russian periphery.The real question underlying this range of issues is whether Iraq can function as a federal entity. It struggled to do so in the years before the surge and descended into chaos. The surge of U.S. forces was decisive in re-establishing security. What matters is not the change that happened June 30; the official withdrawal from Iraq's cities was symbolic. What matters is whether Baghdad's governance and security forces can maintain security and gain the confidence of Iraq's people, across the sectarian spectrum, in ways that truly make the security situation manageable for the long term.

Iraqi Dinar - International Criticism of Iranian Government Actions Grows

2009-06-22T00:09:00.004-05:00

How will the events in Iran effect Iraq and by extension the Iraqi Dinar?

International Criticism of Iranian Government Actions Grows

By Michael Bowman Washington

22 June 2009

Demonstrators in Paris protest against outcome of the Iran's presidential election, 21 June 2009 International criticism of Iran's handling of a disputed presidential vote and subsequent protests is mounting, after Iranian media reported the arrest of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani's eldest daughter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel added her voice to a growing chorus of Western leaders demanding respect for civil liberties in Iran."Human rights and citizens' rights are inseparable, and that is why Germany stands behind the people, and peaceful demonstrations in Iran, who want to make use of their freedom of speech and who want to gather peacefully.

I, therefore, demand that Iran's leaders allow peaceful demonstrations, allow free reporting of events, stop the use of violence against demonstrators and free imprisoned people."Ms. Merkel urged a full recount of Iran's contested presidential vote. Official results showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning re-election in a landslide.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denounced Western criticism as "treacherous" and "unjust," and accused foreign governments of fomenting unrest in his country. Responding, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he "categorically" rejects any suggestion that foreign countries are manipulating protesters in Iran.

Meanwhile, authorities in Tehran say they have arrested Faezeh Hashemi - the eldest daughter of former President Rafsanjani. Last week, Hashemi was seen addressing supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who alleges massive fraud in the June 12 ballot and is calling for a new election.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossien Mousavi set fire to a barricade as they hurl stones during a protest in Tehran, 20 June 2009Saturday saw clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the capital. Thousands rallied in Tehran, despite a warning by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to stop demonstrations about the disputed election.

News organizations around the world have come to rely on reporting, photographs and video from ordinary Iranian citizens, as foreign journalists have been expelled from the country or confined to their hotels.Scores of demonstrations have been mounted around the world in support of protesters in Iran.

Many of those taking part have relatives in the country."They're killing our kids over there," said one Iranian demonstrator in California. "So I don't know. We can't do anything else. Just I believe this is the most [i.e., best] thing that we can do. And anytime that they need us, we are going to be there for them."On Saturday, President Barack Obama issued his strongest statement to date on the Iranian situation. He called on the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people" and said the United States "stands by all who seek to exercise" the universal rights to assemble and speak freely.

Iraqi Dinar Speculation - HSBC Targets Iraq As Source Of 'Great Growth'

2009-06-14T11:29:00.004-05:00

Hat tip to http://www.dealorbuydinar.com

Thanks Ken!

O.K. Even I don't trust big banks, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. Besides, the housing crisis was so obvious, maybe Iraq Tea, or Liquid gold isn't such a hard call...

HSBC targets Iraq as source of 'great growth'

Jun 12, 2009 at 03:23

'We've only scratched the surface' of what's possible, HSBC says as the bank looks to Iraq for growth.

The Middle East arm of HSBC sees great potential in Iraq, and is planning to expand its operations there as security and the country's legal framework improves, the bank's regional chief said on Thursday.

In 2004, HSBC bought 70 percent of Iraq's Dar es Salaam Bank, which has 14 branches, and is now eyeing growth in infrastructure projects and supporting businesses as violence ebbs and Iraq rebuilds after years of war.

"We're only scratching the surface as far as I'm concerned," HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd chairman Youssef Nasr told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.

"Even though the situation has improved on the security front, the size of the economy, the activities in which we can get involved is still a fraction of what is to come."

Iraq's banking sector is tiny by global standards - Dar es Salaam has a capital of 50 billion Iraqi dinars ($43 million) - and the state controls some 80 percent of gross domestic product, generated almost entirely through oil sales.

Much of Iraq's banking sector is state run, and now only about 37 percent of customer deposits are placed with 30 or so small private banks.

Yet Nasr was optimistic money would filter through to the general population of Iraq from government oil sales, following a pattern seen in other Arab states.

"In most Middle Eastern oil exporting countries the big money started in the hands of the state and the national oil companies ... Some of the top Gulf family companies made their money subcontracting for the national oil companies," he said.

Iraqi private banks spoken to by Reuters said they had seen profits soar -- albeit from a low base -- in 2007 and 2008 as Iraq spent on investment projects and boosted state salaries, although a fall in oil prices since then has forced budget cuts.

Dar es Salaam could not immediately provide Reuters with financial statements, but Nasr said its profits had grown too.

"It went from a loss making proposition in 2006, to a small profit in 2007 to a much larger profit in 2008."

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Yet banks and other businesses in Iraq face several challenges. Bombings and shootings are still common, and the insurgency triggered by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion remains stubborn in parts of the country.

Iraq's legal and regulatory framework is nascent and its all important hydrocarbons law -- which would determine how its vast oil reserves are exploited and shared -- is bitterly contested and has been delayed for years.

Oil infrastructure projects in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region are subject to doubt due to Baghdad's rejection of Kurdish deals signed with foreign oil firms.

"The oil law will determine a better comfort zone in terms of which entities... are going to be recipients of oil money, what their authority is going to be in investing or spending," Nasr said, when asked which laws were key to HSBC's Iraq plans.

Iraq has also only in recent weeks begun to outline the property and real estate ownership rights of foreign investors.

"If we're going to do commercial or residential mortgage lending, we've found that up to this point the legal system is not as robust as it should be," Nasr said.

He did not say how many more branches of Dar es Salaam he expected to open, but said HSBC was likely to focus on the south, home to the country's only ports and through which most oil is exported, and along northern trade routes to neighbouring Turkey, one of Iraq's main trading partners.

Should Iraq stabilise and laws firm up, Nasr said its economy could equal the Arab world's largest, Saudi Arabia.

"Iraq's oil and gas reserves are just short of Saudi Arabia. It has a population which is slightly larger and it has the benefit of much better water resources than Saudi Arabia."

Mohammed Abbas
All right reserved © Business.Maktoob.com 2009

Iraqi Dinar Buying Guide - Iraqi Dinar Increasing However Many Challenges Ahead

2009-06-10T22:46:00.004-05:00

My favorite part of this article is the last paragraph, where despite all the cynicism, and all the people that cry that Iraqi Dinar is a scam...

"The current exchange rate is .0009 to one U.S Dollar. In 2003 it was .00027 and in 2006 it was .00068 so there has been continued increase in the Dinar verses the Dollar in the past 6 years and it should continue to gain."

Or in other words there has been a large appreciation of the Iraqi Dinar even in the middle of a war, yeah its a scam, better stay away...

Posted by Casey Stubbs on Friday, June 5, 2009

http://www.winnersedgetrading.com/trade-of-the-day/iraqi-dinar-increasing-however-many-challenges-ahead

In 2003 the Iraq war threw the already troubled nation of Iraq into complete chaos. The government was overthrown and there was a complete shutdown of all economic activity. The nation was divided and there was fighting that began against the U.S. forces and fighting that began against each other as different factions could not agree which path the nation should take. As a result the currency was completely removed and became worthless.

When the rebuilding of Iraq began the first step that was taken was to build the Central Bank of Iraq in 2004. The New Iraqi Dinar Bank Note was also issued. The purpose of this was to give the country support to begin rebuilding and every country needs a currency to do international trading. They also were attempting to control inflation stability and implementing the nations reserves. As well as managing the Iraqi Dinar and regulating the private banks.As time has gone on and the difficult periods of fighting have finally began to subside the nation of Iraq is begining to show signs of life. The security is still uncertain but there is substantial improvement.

The economy is starting to grow in several key areas such as real estate, jobs, oil exports, and agriculture. The Iraqi stock market has gained over 30% in the past year and the future is looking bright. The GDP is expected to grow by 7% in 2009 despite continued security problems. The nation has excellent natural resources which if used properly could stimulate more economic growth. The leading resources are oil, natural gas and agriculture.

Even though there are signs that there is upcoming improvement there is also many large challenges facing the Iraqi Economy. The recent drop in oil prices has hurt the economy, however now that oil prices have recovered that is not as much of a concern as before. Another big challenge is imports from neigboring Iran, Iran is importing products much cheaper than the

Iraqi businesses are able and as a result companies are going out of business and the unemployment rate is rising. Other future challenges are the withdrawal of U.S. Troops and the control handed to the Iraqi Security Forces(ISF). There will be a test of ISF when control is handed over. That test could prove to be the turning point for the Iraqi economy. If the security envoirnment continues to improve look for a large increase in the Iraqi Dinar.

If you are considering in speculating on the Iraqi Dinar in the future it is a high risk investment. However it could pay off big with a small investment. The current exchange rate is .0009 to one U.S Dollar. In 2003 it was .00027 and in 2006 it was .00068 so there has been continued increase in the Dinar verses the Dollar in the past 6 years and it should continue to gain.

Iraqi Dinar-All Is Quiet Are You Buying Iraqi Dinar?

2009-05-20T01:34:00.005-05:00

So Are You Buying Iraqi Dinar? Let's Hear From You!

Excerpt From Article On Thriving Dinar Trade In Japan.

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Speculators turn to shaky Iraqi currency
By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer

...Customers are buying into Iraq for several reasons, including the expectation of economic recovery, a desire to help the economy and the dream of a more than 500-fold capital gain. With a short list of competitors in the dinar exchange market, Rise International and other exchange houses running a similar business are thriving.

"When I heard about the dinar, I thought I would buy it for the same reason I buy lottery tickets," said Katsunori Arai, 50, who bought seven 25,000 dinar bills from Rise International. "People are suffering there, so I am hoping the Iraqi economy will recover."...

...The currency is a minor one, the political situation there is unstable, and we don't get much information about Iraq. Above all, buying for quadruple the trading rate is too much," Shieida said. "If you buy it, it should be with money you won't regret losing."

Motohiro Ono of the Middle East Research Institute of Japan said the political, economic and security situation in Iraq is clearly better than right before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and thus the current dinar level is very low.

However, the stability is based largely on the security situation, and it may become unstable again as the U.S. withdraws its forces, who, because they are neutral, are probably better at suppressing tribal conflicts than local soldiers hired by the Iraqi government, he said.
If conflicts break out, the locals may join their tribes instead of fulfilling their governmental duties of suppressing conflicts, he said.

On the macroeconomic front, Iraq has been keeping prices of goods stable, compared with the figures in the 1990s.

The inflation rate in Iraq fluctuated between minus 8 percent and 8 percent from January 2007 to this March, and the dinar has been gradually strengthening against the dollar, from about 1,300 dinar per dollar to about 1,170 dinar in the same period, according to the Central Bank of Iraq.

The dinar was worth $3.20 before the U.N. embargo that followed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site compiling information on defense. Inflation mushroomed and the currency plummeted further on massive printing of counterfeit currency, driving the dinar down to anywhere between 3,500 and 4,000 against the dollar by mid-April 2003.

To improve the situation, the U.S.-led transition government Coalition Provisional Authority issued new dinar bills with watermarks and other technology making it difficult to counterfeit in October 2003.

Expectations of the dinar's appreciation against the dollar prompted Americans to start similar businesses, which inspired Taniguchi to start his.
Taniguchi gets dinar delivered from currency brokers who fly in from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries with backpacks full of unwrinkled dinar bills worth about ¥10 million to ¥15 million, he said.

The brokers visit Japan every other week, he said. Taniguchi pays the brokers in dollars, he added.

He attributed his success to "honestly explaining risks."

Rise International will exchange bills if the Iraqi government issues new bills, he said. If his company goes bankrupt, clients can change the dinar to dollars and other currencies in the Middle East, he said.

What he is most cautious of is to make sure bills he sells are genuine. He said the current bills have watermarks and use other technology to prevent counterfeiting, and he has never seen fake dinar bills.

New Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate-After a U.S. Raid: 2 Iraqis Dead, Protests and Regrets

2009-04-27T01:35:00.005-05:00

CAN WE GET OUT OF THIS PLACE ALREADY??? AREN'T THEY READY TO TAKE OVER YET? IF WE ARE NOT THERE TO GET THEIR OIL LETS BOOK!

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: April 26, 2009

BAGHDAD — American troops killed two Iraqis on Sunday during an early morning raid in southern Iraq that set off public protests and drew a pointed complaint from Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that the operation violated a new security agreement between Iraq and the United States.

The American raid in Kut set off protests by local residents.

The raid was not the first violent episode involving American forces to provoke a public dispute since the security agreement took effect in January, but it quickly became the most serious test so far of the agreement’s carefully negotiated provisions.

Mr. Maliki, in a statement read Sunday evening on the state’s television network, Al Iraqiya, criticized the raid as a violation of the agreement and called for the American military to “hand over those responsible for this crime to the courts.”

Under the agreement, Americans can theoretically be charged by Iraqi authorities, but only in extremely rare cases in which they are not “on duty.” The raid nonetheless set the stage for a potentially contentious dispute at a time when American troops are preparing to withdraw.

The operation underscored the confusion and anger stemming from raids against people suspected of being extremists now that the Iraqis are officially in charge of security across the country.

By the end of the day, the raid appeared to have been a mistake in the first place, as six men arrested in the operation by the Americans were released after being questioned in Baghdad. The American commander in the region, Col. Richard M. Francey Jr., joined senior Iraqi officials on Sunday evening at a news conference in Kut, the city south of Baghdad where the raid took place, and apologized.

The American military command in Baghdad said in a statement that it did not retract its position that the operation was aimed at suspected Shiite militants and that it was “fully coordinated and approved by the Iraqi government.”

Regional officials and commanders from the Ministry of Defense provided contradictory accounts on Sunday.

Hundreds of people, including relatives and neighbors of those killed, as well as police officers, gathered near the offices of the provincial council in Kut, the regional capital of Wasit Province, a largely Shiite province bordering Iran. They chanted “No, no to America,” “No, no to occupation” and “No, no to Israel.”

Latif al-Turfa, Wasit’s governor, said that the operation violated the security agreement and added that one of those arrested, a police captain, was “a good person in the province.” A member of Wasit’s provincial council, Alaa Hussein Hachim, denounced the operation as “such an ugly crime.”

The Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said that two Iraqi Army commanders in the region had been detained and accused of not informing their superiors about the operation.

That suggested that some Iraqi commanders knew of the raid in advance, though it was not immediately clear who authorized it and whether the American troops possessed an arrest warrant, as required under the agreement. The American military declined to answer any questions, referring repeatedly to its initial statement.

According to the American military and witnesses, American troops arrived early Sunday at a house belonging to a local sheik, Ahmed Abdul Sada. The military’s statement said the troops opened fire when “an individual with a weapon came out of the home.”

“Forces assessed him to be hostile, and they engaged the man, killing him,” the American statement said. “During the engagement, a woman in the area moved into the line of fire and was also struck by gunfire.”

A medic treated her at the house, but she died before being evacuated for treatment, the statement said. The woman was Sheik Ahmed’s wife, Azhar, his relatives said. The other person killed was the sheik’s brother Khalid, a policeman.

The American statement said that troops arrested six people, including Sheik Ahmed, suspected of belonging to the Mahdi Army and the Promise Day Brigade, both Shiite militias suspected of carrying out attacks against American and Iraqi forces.

By late afternoon, however, the men returned home. Sheik Ahmed said in an interview on Sunday evening that his wife, in a panic, had picked up a rifle when the Americans burst into their home in the middle of the night.

“If the Americans had only knocked, we would have cooperated,” he said. “Instead they came from four corners.”

He and his brother Ayad said they had been flown by helicopter to a military base in Baghdad and questioned before being released with an apology. “ ‘You are not the people we want,’ ” Ayad Abdul Sada said an American told him.

A delegation of American and Iraqi officers later visited the raided house and the provincial council to express condolences and apologies. “It is really a tragedy, and I express my deep regret and apologies to all the families that lost victims,” Colonel Francey said at the news conference in Kut.

He added that the operation had not been carried out by troops based in Wasit. That, and comments by Iraqi officials, suggested that American Special Operations forces, whose missions are shrouded in secrecy, carried out the raid.

Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Kut, Iraq.

how to buy dinar

Iraqi Dinar Current Exchange Rate-Iraqi Dinar Is Soaring While Dow Has Plunged

2009-04-21T22:23:00.005-05:00

I love it when people hack on the Iraqi Dinar Value and say its a scam, oh, checked your 401K lately? So what is not a scam? People were told for years, put your money in the market, beat inflation. Make sure you save for retirement. And what did Wall Street do with it? Make huge bets on risky investments and burn the whole thing down.

But instead of tucking tail between their legs and acting ashamed they went and got your tax money to pay themselves bonuses, and then turn around and use our own tax money against us to lobby (read bribe here) congress not to regulate them for a little while longer and keep their insolvent ships afloat.

That my friends is a scam...

This is an oldie but goodie from Mr. Marshall Donnerbauer.

http://www.investindinar.com/

They laughed at me in 2007 when I said there was a real estate bubble...

They laughed at me when I said the DOW would go under 7,000.

They laugh at me now when I say with all the arguments and, yes, risks, there are many risks, for the upside buying the Iraqi Dinar is a fantastic opportunity.

Keep laughing people. I'm sure I will have the last one...

iraqi dinar exchange rate

Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rates-Iraq Has Turned A Corner Toward National Revival

2009-04-17T01:20:00.006-05:00

It Sounds Like Iraq Is Really Starting to Come Around, Now Maybe Iraqi Dinar Will

Hat Tip To Ken Kuhn and http://www.dealorbuydinar.com

16 April 2009

Iraq has turned a corner toward national revival. A restored and pacified Iraq is determined to regain its proper place in the Middle East and on the international scene. This is the optimistic message which Vice President Adil Abd Al-Mahdi brought this week to France - a country which he sees as a major partner in the reconstruction of Iraq after three decades of devastating wars.Iraq is courting France and is, in turn, being courted by it. Contracts worth many billions of euros are being negotiated, essentially in the fields of oil, security and infrastructure.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is anxious for France to gain a privileged position in Iraq, while Iraq sees its growing links with France as a way to diversify its international relations and lessen its dependence on the United States.Dr Abd Al-Mahdi, a French-trained economist and former Finance Minister, is a weighty figure in Iraqi politics. He is a leading member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), headed by Abd Al-Aziz Al-Hakim.

This Iran-backed Shi'ite party is linked with Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party in a grouping called the United Iraqi Alliance - in effect Iraq's ruling party. Dr Abd Al-Mahdi and Nuri Al-Maliki are allies (although they are also, it must be said, political rivals.) Nuri Al-Maliki is due in Paris next month to take the partnership with the French a step further.France's Total seems to have gained a head start over other international oil companies in developing Iraq's vast oil and gas reserves. It is negotiating some major concessions.

A French company has signed a contract with the Municipality of Baghdad for a water purification scheme worth nearly a billion dollars. A French consulting firm is designing a system to secure Iraq's borders. Its implementation is said to be worth another billion dollars. Eurocopter is to sell Iraq 24 helicopters for $500m. These are only among the first of many such contracts under negotiation.What picture of present-day Iraq does Dr Abd Al-Mahdi provide? It is of a country firmly on the way to national reconciliation and revival, a country that has, to a large extent, quelled an armed insurgency and greatly reduced the bitter sectarian killings of recent years.

Defeating the insurgency - especially in the key province of Al-Anbar - was accomplished thanks to the 'surge' in American troops, to a strengthened national army, and more particularly to the Sahwa militia or Sons of Iraq, an American-funded volunteer force made up of former Sunni insurgents. It was largely responsible for driving Al-Qaeda out of Al-Anbar. This, Dr Al-Mahdi said in Paris this week, was a decisive turning point in the struggle against terror.But dealing with a disbanded Sahwa - at one time nearly 100,000 strong - has not been easy. Attempts are being made to integrate its former members into the national security forces and other government departments.

A budget of $350m has been earmarked this year to pay their salaries. But some violent groups, operating under the Sahwa banner, have turned to crime. The recent arrest of a former Sahwa leader, Adil Mashhadani, said to be running a protection racket, triggered an outbreak of violence.Although greatly improved, security in Iraq is clearly not yet fully restored. Suicide bombers continue to claim their victims. But the social tissue of the country is being reconstituted. Iraq is being put together on a new basis of national reconciliation, democracy, federalism and fraternity with its neighbours - in particular with Iran, Turkey and Syria.Dr Al-Mahdi went out of his way to praise Turkey's 'very positive role' in Iraq, describing it as a major partner in the reconstruction of the country.

Turkish investments in Iraq total nearly $5bn, he said. Since the news from Iraq has been bad for a very long time, Dr Al-Mahdi's fairly upbeat assessment comes as a relief. A briefing this week by him and his team served to pinpoint a number of national priorities.Iraq is unique in the world in having more than 50 oilfields ready for development. It is urgently looking for foreign investment in its oil and gas industry, but also in every aspect of its smashed infrastructure. Iraq has external debts of $148bn, and is continuing to pay compensation to Kuwait for its 1990 invasion, to the tune of 5 per cent of Iraq's oil income, or $1.5bn a year.

To rebuild an educated elite, devastated by the flight of much of Iraq's middle class, the government is planning to send abroad 10,000 students a year for the next five years. Chosen strictly on merit, they will go to the UK, the U.S., France, Canada and Australia for higher education.Arabised by Saddam Hussein but claimed by the Kurds, the oil-rich region of Kirkuk is a possible future flashpoint. A compromise is being sought with the Kurdistan Regional Government - either in the form of a condominium or some sort of shared authority over Kirkuk. Staffan de Mistura, the energetic special representative in Iraq of the UN Secretary General, is heavily involved in the search for a solution.One surprise announcement is that Iraq and Iran are renegotiating the Algiers accord reached between Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran in 1975. The agreement - which Saddam tore up five years later when he launched his attack on Iran -- demarcated the disputed river boundary between the two neighbours according to the thalweg line in the middle of the Shatt Al-Arab waterway.

Iraq now claims that the boundary needs to be redrawn closer to the Iranian shore because of changes in the course of the Shatt. The fact that the Maliki government has chosen to raise this contentious issue with its close ally Iran is itself a signal that Iraqi national interests are being reasserted.One way and another, a revived and ambitious Iraq is putting the horrors of the past 30 years behind. It can be safely predicted that it will, in the not too distant future, be once again a power to be reckoned with.

By Patrick Seale © The Saudi Gazette 2009

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Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate-Iraqi Dinar Does Better Than US Dollar

2009-04-08T20:00:00.006-05:00

Iraq Dinar Does Better Than Dollar...Big Shock...The Way We Are Printing Money And Proping Up Insolvent Banks We Should Be Able To Use It As Toilet Paper...

An Oldie But Goodie Post:

Hat Tip To http://pc.blogspot.com/2005/12/iraqi-dinar-does-better-than-us-dollar.html

Friday, December 09, 2005

If you'd taken a punt on the Iraqi currency back in August when I mentioned it here, you'd find that your Post-Saddam dinars would have held their value better than American dollars over that period, plus a little more.Once at nearly three to the US dollar, the dinar stood at 2000 to the dollar immediately post-Saddam, and as of today sits at 1469 (or 1054 to the NZ dollar).

The Iraqi economy is functioning in a modest fashion, and quietly doing okay for one still in the grip of violence:

[A recent report on Fox News] takes us to the Iraqi stock exchange , where state-owned enterprises that have been privatized are now traded vigorously on the frenetic market floor.

[The] report doesn’t paint an overly rosy picture of the Iraqi economy. The violence has taken its toll, and unemployment is still at 27 percent. But economy is growing. [The report] cites Brookings Institution findings that the standard of living in Iraq has doubled since 2003, and the Iraqi economy is projected to grow by 16.8 percent next year.

The post-Saddam dinar has held its value better than the U.S. dollar. Such is the 'dividend of freedom' that Iraq can now enjoy. Betting on the dinar is a bet on Iraqi freedom.

And the dinar is now being used again for major contracts: "Iraqi contractors... are now counting dinars instead of dollars on payday." BetOnIraq .com makes the argument for being bullish on the dinar:

Might a free Iraq thrive? Above and beyond the vast oil reserve, agriculture, and highly educated population, there is now liberty in Iraq. We believe that where liberty is sown, prosperity blooms. We understand that liberty is always challenged. It's challenged regularly in our own country. Why should a fledgling democracy, on the heels of a 30 year dictatorial rule, be immune?

...We simply trust that the seed of freedom, implanted more than two years ago with the fall of Saddam's regime, has germinated in the hearts of the majority of the Iraqi people. We see this as a wondrous thing, with tremendous possibilities.If things ultimately turn out well for the people of Iraq, they should also turn out well for anyone who bought Iraqi currency at today's prices.If you believe that liberty brings prosperity, then as the BetOnIraq website suggests, "Put their money where you mouth is."

Iraqi Dinar-US Exit-Bring Peace Or More Conflict

2009-04-07T23:14:00.006-05:00

How Will The US Exit Affect The Iraqi Dinar?

Will Troop Withdrawal from Iraq Bring Peace or Greater Conflict?

By MIDDLE EAST TIMES
Published: April 07, 2009

Much has been said, and perhaps even more written, about the 'surge' that turned the tide of the war in Iraq in favor of the United States. That was when President George W. Bush decreed late into his second term that extra troops were needed to put a stop to the rising insurgency.
Additional troops arrived and the level of violence went down. Coincidence? Well, actually, yes. Extra combat troops in the country certainly gave the insurgency a harder time. But there was more to it than that.

Raymond Tanter, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, and a former member of President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council, believes there are other reasons, too.
Tanter reports in a recently published white paper titled, "President Obama and Iraq, Towards a Responsible Troop Drawdown," that "The underlying assumption is that an increase of stability in Iraq allows troops to be withdrawn."

This is the false assumption, he said. Several experts on Iraq, including a former minister of defense, fear that a premature withdrawal of troops could prove disastrous for Iraq.
But let us return momentarily to the question of the surge and the false belief that it actually worked.

"The American military," writes Tanter, "credits the surge. The government of Iraq credits its security forces; Iraqi tribal chiefs credit their 'awakening' against al-Qaida and in favor of coalition forces."

Truth be told, we might never really be able to calculate what contributed the most to the increase of stability in Iraq, and the U.S. military can well claim some of the responsibility for a better, safer Iraq since the introduction of the surge. There is no question that the insurgents were quite reluctant to fight coalition troops once the reinforcements arrived. Just as there is no question that when the surge happened pro-al-Qaida fighters simply moved to other provinces where there were fewer U.S. troops.

And the government of Iraq certainly deserves some of the credit given the huge price in blood that they paid.

As for the tribal chiefs, they have switched their alliance from al-Qaida and Islamist fighters to supporting the government and the Americans, because it suits their cause and their bank accounts.

But all that may change again as rapidly as it did the first time. The U.S. military will eventually pull out, leaving the Iraqis master of their destiny. There is the 64,000 devalued dinar question: will the Sunni tribesmen who make up the 'awakening' movement remain loyal once the checks stop coming?

One indication on how things can go in Iraq was demonstrated by a meeting Tanter had a few months ago with a Sunni tribal leader, who caught sight of Tanter's lapel pin, a small American flag.

Tanter asked the tribal sheikh if he liked the U.S. flag.
"I do now," said the Iraqi.

"What would you have done before?" asked Tanter, referring to the time, only a few months earlier when the Sunni tribes were not on the U.S. payroll.

"I would have killed you," replied the Sunni tribesman without emotion in his voice.
The tribesmen were turned once, they could just as easily turn a second time.

Buy Iraqi Dinar-U.S. Cities Are Just As Dangerous As Iraq

2009-04-06T20:13:00.003-05:00

"Take Him To Detroit!!!!"

By: Dave Gibson

April 6, 2009

The Iraqi government reported that during 2006, a total of 16,273 soldiers, police officers, and civilians were murdered in that country. In 2007, a total of 16,425 murders took place in the United States. In 2008, more than 17,000 murders took place in this country. While the deaths of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq as well as the murder of innocent civilians in that country have received unprecedented media attention, our own press all but ignores the crushing violence now becoming just a fact of life in our own country. While the majority of Iraqi homicides have been the result of that nation’s many Muslim factions fighting one another for political control, a large number of U.S. murders can be attributed to drugs and gang violence.

Considering that sad comparison, Americans could easily face a more bleak future than will the Iraqis.While the mainstream news media is very quick to announce the deaths of U.S. troops serving in Iraq, they largely ignore the rising death toll in this country. We have lost 4,266 soldiers since the start of the Iraq War in March of 2003. During that same time period, more than 104,000 Americans have fallen victim to murder inside the borders of their own country (Figures for the first three months of 2009 are based on the number of murders occurring in major cities and past FBI statistics).

The death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq, pales in comparison to the annual number of U.S. murders. The loss of every soldier is certainly a tragedy and represents a life-changing loss to that soldier’s family. However, those 4,266 families can take some comfort in the fact that their loved-one died in the service of his country and was in control of his own destiny. In contrast, tens of thousands of American families can find no comfort because their loved-one died a senseless death at the hands of a murderer...For them there will be no taps, no folded flag, no heroic sacrifice, only a violent and untimely death.Since the start of the Iraq War, U.S. news casts have been filled with images of violent Iraqi streets.

However, the press has failed to report that many of our own cities have become lawless war zones.

Consider the following number of murders in major U.S. cities which occurred in 2008 alone:

-Philadelphia, PA…332

-Chicago, IL…508

-New York, NY…522

-Baltimore, MD…234

-New Orleans, LA…179
-Columbus, OH…108
-St. Louis, MO…167
-Los Angeles, CA…376
-Detroit, MI…344
-Washington D.C…186

On April 27, 2007, New Orleans recorded its 62nd murder of the year. At that time, the city’s population was 223,000. On that same day, Iraq had recorded their 6,523rd murder for the year in a country with a population of 29,267,000. Analysis of those figures gave New Orleans a murder rate of 1 in every 3,597 people, while the murder rate for Iraq is much lower with 1 in every 4,486 people…So where is the non-stop media attention and protests for those being slaughtered in New Orleans?

For over five years, we heard President Bush and his surrogates often justify our involvement in Iraq by telling us that our troops are saving Iraqi women from Saddam’s infamous ‘rape rooms.’ Though Bush may have made saving Iraqi women from rape a priority, he never even commented on the large number of American women raped in this country annually.

In 2005 alone, 92,837 rapes were reported in the U.S. Considering that rape is an incredibly under-reported crime, the actual number of American women raped is much higher ( Most experts believe that only about 1 in 10 rapes are reported, the actual number occurring annually in this country is believed to be closer to 920,000).The press and our politicians do not like to talk about sobering U.S. crime statistics for a number of reasons.

The left-leaning press does not like to delve too deeply into the subject due to the fact that minorities commit a disproportionate amount of crime. Politicians tend to shy away from the subject for that same reason, but also because high crime rates make elected officials appear useless and ineffectual. In the case of Presidents Bush and Obama, their refusal to defend the U.S.-Mexican border has left many Americans victims of violent crime at the hands of illegal aliens. In fact, illegal aliens now account for 29 percent of this nation’s prison population.

The reasons why someone turns to a life of crime are numerous, but a child without two parents who lives at or below the poverty level, is much more likely to go to prison than to college. With out-of-wedlock births sky-rocketing, a worsening economy, and illegal aliens (and drug gangs) continuing to stream across the border, we can expect the violence in our beleaguered cities to continue unabated.Whether you are killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq or a drug dealer in the United States, dead is dead.

Iraqi Dinar Exhange Rate-Iraq Is Growing Faster Than China?

2009-04-05T13:55:00.008-05:00

O.K. Iraq Is Growing Faster Than China, Has A Wealth Of Natural Resources, And Some People Think The Currency Might Rise By Three Hundred Times. Yes, Iraqi Dinar Is A Total Scam, You Should Give All Of Yours To Me.

A Hat Tip to: http://dealorbuydinar.com/ Where I got the Article...Ken Kuhn always has great stuff...

Iraqi Growth Rate Surpasses That of China

In anticipation of a stronger Iraqi currency, investment fever is rising in Japan

By Nagato Ito

17 March 2009 (Nikkei Business)In response to U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of his Iraq withdrawal plan, anticipation of economic restoration in the country is rising among businesses as well as private citizens in Japan. The U.S. plan calls for 12,000 U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of this September, and for the evacuation to be complete by 2011.Expectations mount for infrastructure investment from JapanOn March 1, representatives of 12 Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Corp. and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd., visited Baghdad with Japanese government officials. There were concrete inquiries about oil concessions and other issues, using legal terms at times.Iraq expects Japan to invest in its infrastructure. Since 2003, Japan has granted $1.5 billion in aid to Iraq, making contributions by repairing hospitals and power-generation facilities.

Marubeni Corp. has received orders from hospitals in 12 locations. "Our know-how of security measures is probably the best," said Executive Director Shoichi Ikuta, a member of the inspection team.Although deaths by terrorist attacks have decreased, about 500 people still are being killed in Iraq each month. Marubeni, which finds it difficult to send its employees in Japan to Iraq, has decided to train Iraqi staffers outside the country. Its method of training is to videotape what goes on locally and confirm the procedures from outside the country. Ikuta pointed out, "If we were to continue business transactions with Iraq, it would be necessary to ensure safety and lighten loan-collection risks.

"The International Monetary Fund estimates Iraq's growth rate for gross domestic product (GDP) is on the recovery track at 9.8% in 2008 and 7.7% in 2009. Though the scale of Iraq's GDP is about 1/47th that of China, its growth rate last year is estimated to have been higher than that of China, which was 9.0%.Expecting high rates of growth, various nations are expediting their expansion of trade with Iraq. U.S.-based General Electric has sold power generators, while Royal Dutch Shell decided to participate in gas field development.

China already is engaged in oil field development, while South Korea plans to build power generation facilities.Japanese Foreign Ministry Ambassador Gotaro Ogawa, who is in charge of coordinating reconstruction assistance for Iraq, said, "The United States has declared it will be responsible for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Public peace and order is likely to be restored."

Japanese firms look forward to expanding business opportunities while maintaining a balance with safety.Some expect Iraqi currency to rise 300 timesIn the midst of all these movements, an Iraq boom is starting among private citizens in Japan. A 42-year-old housewife living in Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture, invested 1 million yen in Iraqi dinar last October. Since it can't be exchanged in banks in Japan, she made the purchase from a money changer in Tokyo.

"When the Iraqi economy recovers, its value will surely rise sharply," she said.The money changer has been getting a considerable number of these orders lately. Its monthly trade was 500,000 yen last July, and swelled 60 times to 30 million yen by January of this year. The Iraqi currency had declined sharply due to the Gulf War and its aftermath. Some people have opined that if the official exchange rate returns to what it was before the war, the Iraqi currency may rise 300 times from its present rate.Another money changer in Tokyo says he is getting similar orders, but remains calm about the currency rise.

"On the basis of a practical rate, the rise will be no more than several times the present rate," he said. He said he only buys and sells after explaining the risks to customers, but in comparison with last September, the monthly trading volume has increased by about 20 times.At first,

President Obama had set the withdrawal deadline at April 2010, but was later forced to delay the deadline. There are some uncertain factors with regard to peace and order in Iraq in the future. Likewise, there is nothing certain about the value of its currency. Nevertheless, business firms and investors are attracted by Iraq, which boasts a high growth rate while the rest of the world is in recession. The economy of Iraq, not the military or political phases of the nation, is becoming the center of world attention.

Buy Dinar-Is The Real Money In Iraq Stock Market?

2009-04-03T20:47:00.004-05:00

How Do You GET in on This?

Baghdad gets set for 'Big Bang' with a difference

March 29, 2009

Deborah Haynes and Wail al-Hafoth in Baghdad

Dodging the curse of the financial crisis that brought the global economy to its knees, Iraq's soaring stock exchange is about to experience its Big Bang.
Already up by about 30 per cent this year, as investors cash in on improved security and rock-bottom share prices, electronic trading is set to be introduced in a month, a move that investors hope will herald a new bonanza.

At present, mustachioed men in smart suits lean over a wooden barrier that rings the trading floor, squinting at a wall of whiteboards on which brokers scribble the price of stocks while jabbering into mobile phones or shouting to clients. This quaint trade in the shares of potentially one of the biggest economies in the Middle East was due to be phased out a year ago but delays in installing equipment and collecting shareholder information from the 91 listed companies foiled that plan.

Only now is the Baghdad bourse ready for its first wave of automation. Traders expect the new system to boost prices further. They are still recovering from their collapse after years of war. The cheapest stock is a ½ dinar - a fraction of a penny - and the most expensive 100 dinar (6p).
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Electronic trading will also help the market to expand. Five companies - three banks and two hotels - have already been suspended from manual transactions and should start to be traded electronically by mid-April. The other companies will move over during the course of the year.
Ultimately, the whiteboards will come down and trading will shift to an adjacent room of computers in lines of booths where stockbrokers will work. One investor, Rashid al-Waili, 64, is eagerly awaiting the revolution. “It will quicken the process of selling and buying,” he said. Current transactions take up to two weeks, while shareholder certificates are submitted to the company, verified and handed to the stock exchange. Electronic trading will complete the deal in five minutes.

Opened in June 2004 with funding and support from the US-led coalition, the bourse is Iraq's first independent stock market. During Saddam's time the old Baghdad stock exchange reported to the Ministry of Finance.

Its current market capitalisation is about $2 billion (£1.4 billion), below its peak in 2005, but it has been clawing its way back in the past year.

Taha Ahmed Abdul Salam, chief executive of the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX), said that Iraqi share prices were wiped out during the worst days of the sectarian conflict that gripped the country between 2005 and 2007.

Many investors sold stocks and fled overseas and trading was suspended for several months in 2006. A crackdown on the violence has helped to restore stability. The market is open again for business and interest is picking up. “In 2008 and this year, high liquidity returned and new liquidity came to buy shares, which makes demand for shares rise,” Mr Abdul Salam told The Times.

Foreign money is among the new liquidity, with two international funds buying and selling stocks. Interest from overseas remains limited, because Iraq's feuding parliament has yet to pass a securities law, which would offer greater protection and assurances for all investors.
Mr Abul Salam hopes that the only way is up, in terms of market size and value. “I believe in one or two years I will have more than 200 [listed] companies,” he said. Trading time could also increase from two-hour sessions, three days a week, to 24-hour trading.

Iraqi Dinar Value-UK Leaves How Does This Effect The Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate?

2009-03-31T23:14:00.008-05:00

Our biggest Allies Are Leaving where does this leave the US In Iraq And Eventually The Value Of Dinar?

British forces have begun their official withdrawal from Iraq after the UK's commander in the south of the country handed over to a US general. Major General Andy Salmon has transferred authority for what will become Multi-National Division South to US Major General Michael Oates. The generals' pennants were raised and lowered in a handover ceremony.
Most of Britain's 4,000 troops will leave by 31 May, the official end-of-combat date.
About 400 will stay after that, either in HQ roles or to train the Iraqi Navy.

'Dedication and commitment'

A Royal Marine band from Plymouth played as the Marines' flag was lowered in the ceremony at Basra airbase and replaced with the standard of the US Army's 10th Mountain Division.
Britain's Maj Gen Andy Salmon then shook hands with his American successor and embraced him.

In a speech at the handover ceremony, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of Defence Staff, paid tribute to the troops who had served in Iraq.
"This occasion is about the countless numbers of young men and women from the far flung corners of the US and and the various reaches of the British Isles, who have together striven here with such dedication, with such commitment, and such courage, over so long a period," he said.

"We remember particularly at such a time those who paid the ultimate price in this endeavour, those who suffered injury and disablement, in order that we might get to this point today."
The bottom line, the aim of the transition itself is to make sure it is seamless
Lt Colonel AJ Johnson

Since the 2003 invasion, 179 British personnel have lost their lives in Iraq.
The head of coalition forces in Iraq, US General Ray Odierno, expressed his gratitude to British forces and public in a speech.

"I am grateful not only for the outstanding accomplishments of the brave troopers of the UK, but for the courage and selfless dedication of all the UK forces who served in Iraq, and for the unwavering commitment of the British people in the cause of liberty around the world."
Before he took formal control, Maj-Gen Oates said the US "gladly" accepted the responsibility.

"The citizens, elected government and security forces of Basra can expect our full co-operation and support. We look forward to the opportunities of service to the Iraqi people, and forging our new relationships here in Basra," he said.

'Stability and freedom'

Maj Gen Salmon says much has been achieved over the past six years.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the work of British forces had changed the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

"For those who are old enough to realise, and compare it with the past gloom of Saddam's era, they look back to 30 years ago and say 'We're seeing stability that we haven't had before; we're seeing levels of freedom that we haven't had before'," he said.

"We trust the Iraqi security forces. We can see economic investment start to take hold. We just had safe and secure free fair and an open set elections which have now been ratified and we now look to the future with considerable amounts of optimism."

The US role in southern Iraq will be slightly different, focusing more on training the Iraqi police, and keeping open the supply route between the south and Baghdad.
The BBC's defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt says US soldiers are now a visible presence in Basra, with British troops handing over many of the buildings and duties at the camp as they pack up after six years in Iraq.

But Lt Colonel AJ Johnson, the American taking over the job of liaising with the Iraqi Army at Basra Operations Centre, says there will not be much difference in the US approach in Basra - which means ensuring the Iraqi Army and police remain the most visible presence on the streets.

Lt Col Johnson told the BBC: "The bottom line, the aim of the transition itself is to make sure it's seamless and that there's generally no perception that the US army is here and they are going to do things different than the British did when they were here."

The Americans are also reducing their numbers, with two brigades due to leave the province of Al-Anbar, once the heartland of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. However, the bulk of US troops are not due to leave until the end of 2011. Maj Gen Salmon said he did not regret that the British forces were leaving Basra before a credible police force was working in the city.

"I don't think I have got any regrets over that; it's just the way it is. With the forces we have had and the resources we have had, we have concentrated on training the army," he said.

"We've trained the 10th division and trained the 14th division. The 10th division has performed really well further north and the 14th division has performed brilliantly over the last year in Basra, so we've got something to be very proud of."