Archive for the ‘Iraq’ Category

Iraq Signals It Is Improving Compliance With OPEC Cuts – OilPrice.com

As part of the OPEC deal, Iraq has cut its oil production by more than 300,000 bpd, and so far in March its average output stands at 4.464 million bpd, according to Iraqs state oil marketing company SOMO.

Iraqs compliance to OPECs cuts is 90 percent, SOMO director Falah al-Amiri said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters.

Earlier this month, Iraqs Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said the countrys compliance rate had reached 85 percent.

Under OPECs agreement, Iraq vowed to voluntarily cut its output from a 4.561-million-bpd reference production level in October 2016, to a production level of 4.351 million bpd between January and June, so the March production figure announced today is 113,000 bpd above that level.

Iraq, which has disputed OPECs secondary sources figures before it signed up to the deal, has been the one cartel member that has missed the targeted output by the most so far. In January and February, Iraq produced 4.476 million bpd and 4.414 million bpd, respectively, according to OPECs secondary sources.

Iraq self-reported output of 4.630 million bpd in January and 4.566 million bpd in February, but, as OPEC says in its press releases Direct communication is not the basis of calculating conformity of OPEC MCs production with the reference production of October 2016.

Iraq has been signaling that it is cutting output, but it has not managed to bring it down even close to the target it had agreed to.

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Iraq, OPECs second biggest producer behind Saudi Arabia, is expected to have boosted compliance this month, as the overall cartel compliance rate is expected to hit a record 95 percent for March.

Still, Iraq has a lot of more work to do to meet its target, that is, if it is really playing along with the cuts. OPEC, for its part, is boasting the record compliance rate, but the cuts may not be enough to drain the global oversupply, and the cartel may have to extend the deal through the end of the year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Iraq Signals It Is Improving Compliance With OPEC Cuts - OilPrice.com

Case of American kidnapped in Iraq reemerges – USA Today – USA TODAY

Three refugees connected to a man who was convicted of kidnapping an American in Iraq, have been arrested after seeking citizenship. Jose Sepulveda (@josesepulvedatv) has more. Buzz60

In this image taken from insurgents video released on Tuesday Jan. 25, 2005 American Roy Hallums pleads for Arab rulers to intercede to spare his life. Hallums, 56, was seized Nov. 1 along with Robert Tarongoy of the Philippines during an armed assault on their compound in Baghdad's Mansour district in Iraq.(Photo: AP)

WASHINGTON Roy Hallums first clue that something was up came when the FBI texted him with a bit of bizarre news.

More than a dozen years after the Memphis resident was kidnapped and held captive for 311 days in Iraq, his harrowing ordeal has been linked to an immigration fraud case in Northern Virginia.

Two brothers and the sister-in-law of an Iraqi man convicted in Hallums kidnapping were arrested Tuesday and charged with hiding their connections to the captor. All three live in Fairfax County, Va., just outside of Washington, as legal permanent U.S. residents and have applied to become U.S. citizens.

Mines an old story, but then to have it come up again and have one of the guys living in Northern Virginia, that was a big surprise, Hallums said Thursday.

Adding to the intrigue: The fingerprints of one of the brothers, Yousif Al Mashhadani, had been found on a document discovered in the underground bunker where Hallums had been held. The document was recovered when U.S. troops raided the bunker and a remote farmhouse and freed Hallums and other captives in 2005.

Hallums was blindfolded and tied up for most of his captivity, so he said he doesnt know if he ever had any direct contact with Al Mashhadani.

The gang and the people that held me its all one family, he said. Im talking extended family, like dozens of people. At any one time in the house, there might be four people. There might be 20 people.

Hallums was taken captive by a group of armed men on Nov. 1, 2004, from the compound in Baghdad where he worked for a Saudi Arabian contractor supplying food to the Iraqi armed forces. He was repeatedly bound, blindfolded and beaten before he was rescued by Special Forces nearly a year later.

Three years after Hallums was freed, Al Mashhadani was admitted to the United States as a refugee, according to court documents. He applied for naturalization as a U.S. citizen in 2013. His fingerprints were taken in connection with his citizenship application, and thats when specialists discovered they matched the fingerprints on the document found in the bunker.

Al Mashhadanis brother Adil Hasan and Hasans wife, Enas Ibrahim, also moved to the United States from Iraq in 2008. None of the three disclosed their ties to Majid Al Mashhadani, the convicted kidnapper, when they filled out a family tree on various applications and forms during the immigration process, prosecutors said.

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Under questioning by the FBI, they later admitted withholding the information because they feared they would be denied permission to enter the United States, according to court documents. Each faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and deportation if convicted.

Hallums, who wrote a book about his captivity, said hes waiting to hear if prosecutors need him to testify in the case. A hearing is set for Friday.

The arrests have gotten national attention because they come amid the debate over the need for tougher background checks for people entering the U.S. and President Donald Trumps attempts to temporarily suspend immigration from six majority Muslim countries.

Asked whether the arrests show stricter vetting is needed, Hallums said, I dont want to get into the politics of it, but in my case, whoever was doing it, something went wrong.

The document bearing Al Mashhadanis fingerprints was recovered from the bunker in 2005, which meant it was in the possession of U.S. authorities for three years before he was given refugee status and allowed to enter the United States.

Whatever system they had for him didnt work, Hallums said. Thats pretty cut and dried.

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Case of American kidnapped in Iraq reemerges - USA Today - USA TODAY

I’ve worked more than a decade in Iraq. ‘We are not afraid’ is the wrong response to terror attacks. – Washington Post

By Jeremy Courtney By Jeremy Courtney March 31 at 5:30 AM

To all my friends in London who are reeling after last weeks attack outside Parliament: I see you. I mourn with you. And I want you to know its OK to be afraid.

The day after the attack, your prime minister stood up in the House of Commons and said, We are not afraid. This slogan has since appeared on tube signs and billboards throughout the city and on Facebook profiles around the world.

And I get it. We are not afraid is a statement of defiance, a rallying cry in the face of our shared trauma and grief. It gives us something to hold on to after yet another horrifying attack in a world that was already scary as hell. I think its trying to say, We wont let the terrorists win.

But we are not afraid is the wrong way to respond to terror. Its not how we build a society in which love prevails over hate.

Ive spent more than a decade living in Iraq. I see what ISIS is capable of. I witness the devastation caused by extremism and by the fight against it. Im on the front lines and I walk past burned-out buildings and the bodies of recently killed ISIS fighters. I weep with families who are left in the dirt after fleeing their homes on foot and losing everything to violence.

A few days before the London attack, my team and I were servinginside west Mosul,bringing food to 12,000 besieged people as airstrikes and mortars rained down on three sides, targeting ISIS militants just streets away from us.

I was afraid. In fact, over the past 10years of our team working in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, Im regularly afraid. Because fear in the face of terror is normal, whether youre on the streets of Mosul or the streets of London.

The problem is when weshamefear, when we drive it underground, when we normalize bravado and idealize the absence of fear as if simply saying we are not afraid makes it so. How can you not be afraid of ISIS? How can you not be afraid of terrorism if youve lived through 9/11 or the attacks in London, Paris, Nice, San Bernardino, Baghdad or a hundred other places that have been torn apart by violence?

Fear is not our problem. Our problem is alienating those who feel afraid, making it harder for us to have healthy conversations about our fears. Fear driven underground metastasizes into bigotry and hatred and distrust of the other. It gives rise to the worst forms of populism the kinds that pit us against them and consolidate blame onto a common enemy who may not look like us or pray the way we do or see the world exactly as we see it.

Terror is meant to traumatize and divide us. So the messages around which we choose to unify in the midst of our trauma are just as important as whether we unify at all. Saying we are not afraid is a shortcut to a false unity well pay a price for it in the end. Its a short-term fix that causes long-term damage, because it keeps us from going to the core of what separates us from each other. This bravado prevents us from building a more robust society that is strong enough to not only withstand the next terror attack, but to actually unmake violence itself to love terrorism out of existence.

Instead of telling people we are not afraid, our leaders should tell us the truth: You may be afraid. These are scary times. The world is scary as hell, and there may be more to come. But we will love anyway.

Because lets be honest: Even if we could all keep a stiff upper lip and steel our hearts against fear, what would that accomplish for the world? To say no fear is to live by what werenot.Thats not leadership. Thats just reaction.

Real courage is not found in the denial of fear. Its when we choose to face our fear, take one step toward it, and love anyway.

Love means listening to the fears of those who are traumatized by terror, who are fearful of the next attack instead of pretending these fears dont exist or that they somehow make us weak. It means learning to have healthy conversations about what or who we fear and askinghow can we help?

Love means listening to the fears of those who have become targets for reprisal or marginalization as a direct result of the fear most of us pretend not to have. The hibaji woman who cannot walk down the street without drawing hostile stares, the refugee with the Middle Eastern-sounding name who wonders if he is truly welcome in his new home love takes one step toward the other.

Pretending youre not afraid might get you through today or the next day. But if you actually want to change the world you live in if you want to walk through your fear, not just deny it preemptive love is the only way.

This kind of love refuses to pit us against them. It refuses to put our well-being over and against the well-being of others. It sayswe belong to each other fears and all.

Violence unmakes the world and make no mistake: that is a scary thing. But preemptive love unmakes violence. And thats the best way to defeat terror.

Jeremy Courtneyis CEO of Preemptive Love Coalition, working on the frontlines in Iraq and Syria to protect the persecuted and displaced from becoming refugees, by delivering aid inside conflict zones and providing small-business empowerment. He is author of Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time.

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I've worked more than a decade in Iraq. 'We are not afraid' is the wrong response to terror attacks. - Washington Post

Trump’s Iraq ‘Game Plan’ – New York Times


New York Times
Trump's Iraq 'Game Plan'
New York Times
How easy it is for him to send our soldiers into harm's way, and how untouched President Trump and his family will be as we continue a war in Iraq that should have ended years ago. I was hoping that Gen. Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, would be an ...

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Trump's Iraq 'Game Plan' - New York Times

Trump makes a deal with Iraq, and hundreds suddenly face deportation – Michigan Radio

A state of limbo is about to lift for hundreds of Iraqis in the United States. The government tried to deport them after they committed crimes, but Iraq wouldnt take them back.

Now some of them are headed home and, quite possibly, into danger.

Trump administration strikes a deal with Iraq

As part of the negotiations surrounding the most recent Trump executive order on immigration, Iraq came off the list of countries whose citizens are barred from entering the U.S.

It was widely reported thats because Iraq agreed to increase cooperation with the U.S., and share more information about its citizens.

A lesser-known aspect of that deal: Iraq agreed to start accepting deportees from the U.S. something it had refused to do for many years.

Bad timing for one Michigan attorney and his Iraqi client

Brad Maze found out about Iraqs change of heart through a court filing he made on behalf of an Iraqi national. Maze is an immigration attorney in metro Detroit, home to about 175,000 Iraqis.

Immigration agents had picked up one of his clients after a probation violation, and held him in immigration detention for more than six months. Too long, according to the law.

And so we filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan to contest his detention that either immigration must release him or remove him, Maze says.

Mazes client already had whats called a final order of removal. But because his client was an Iraqi national, Maze called the U.S. governments bluff.

We assumed that the government of Iraq would not be able to issue a travel document, because they havent in the past," Maze said.

But thats not what happened. Instead, the government filed a response that revealed a major change for Iraqis with deportation orders:

Iraq was specifically removed from the list of countries affected by the Executive Order based on its agreement to facilitate repatriation of Iraqi nationals subject to removal orders, the response read.

The client remains in detention, awaiting a flight to Iraq.

Defenders of the change: Its about time

Jessica Vaughn credits President Trump with quick progress on an issue that previous administrations had simply failed to fix. Shes with the Center for Immigration Studies.

This is one of the first instances where the Trump administration had the opportunity to make progress on this issue of recalcitrant countries, and actually succeed in getting a country to change its practices on this issue, says Vaughn.

And it tells me that when the U.S. is able to identify a point of leverage with another country, we can use this to change their practices on this important issue.

Vaughn says all the Iraqisunder deportation orders had an opportunityin immigration courtto make their case for staying in the U.S.

And if they cannot do that, then they really should be returned home, or be given the opportunity to be returned to another country, Vaughn says.

But Martin Manna, president of the Chaldean Community Foundation, says thats turning a blind eye to what may happen to the deportees once they return home.

Manna estimates about 300 ethnic Chaldean Catholics in Michigan alone are at risk of deportation to a country where their faith makes them a target.

Sending them back would be a death sentence for them, he says.

Manna says its ironic that Chaldeans in Macomb County overwhelmingly supported Trump in the presidential election because they were so frustrated by the previous policies, of the way Christians were being treated under the Obama administration.

Harsh realities for some who have been in the U.S. for decades

Its not just Iraqi Chaldeans facing deportation who are fearful.

Kam, a 41-year old business owner, is Kurdish. He lives in southeast Michigan with his U.S.-born wife, Caroline, and their three children. Were not using the familys last name because they're worried that speaking out could harm his case.

Kam came to the U.S. in 1993 as a teenager, with his parents, eight sisters, and a brother. All twelve of them fled their northern Iraq home on foot.

Hes been in this country twice as long as he lived in the Middle East. But he never became a U.S. citizen.

Basically, this has been my home and my culture and my life, he says, sitting on a sofa in his living room after serving black tea and sweets.

In 2011, he was convicted on a felony marijuana delivery charge. It was a deportable offense, but Iraq refused to issue him a passport. So he got to go back to his life -- running the collision shop he owns, raising his kids, and checking in regularly with immigration.

Then he got a call from his lawyer, saying so-called Iraqi government made some kind of deal as far as lifting the travel ban on Iraq.

He wipes tears from his eyes, his wife at his side.

"Should we tell the kids they may lose their dad?"

Kams sister Sarah sits on a sofa across from him. Shes terrified he will be targeted in Iraq as an ethnic minority.

Both Sarah and another one of her sisters worked as interpreters for the U.S. government about a decade ago, and she fears that could put him in danger as well.

To me, as a citizen of this country, I felt that I had the duty to serve, she says. And now I look at the same government that we risked our lives for, my sister and I, try to send my brother back there. She trails off.

Its not clear how quickly the U.S. will move on the deportations.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would only confirm that the first flight leaves in April.

Kam and Caroline dont know what theyll tell the kids. Caroline says she hasnt told them anything about whats going on.

Do I bring them to the appointment so that he can say goodbye, or do I keep pretending nothings happening, and then they dont get to say goodbye? Caroline asks.

They only have a few days to figure it out. Kams appointment with ICE isnext Tuesday.

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Trump makes a deal with Iraq, and hundreds suddenly face deportation - Michigan Radio