TADHAMUN تـضـامـن

Tadhamun (solidarity) is an Iraqi women organization, standing by Iraqi women's struggle against sectarian politics in Iraq. Fighting for equal citizenship across ethnicities and religions, for human rights, and gender equality.

جمعية تضامن تدعم المساواة في المواطنة بغض النظر عن الأنتماء الأثني أو الديني وتسعى من أجل العدالة الأجتماعية و حماية حقوق الأنسان في العراق

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Galbraith admits Kurdish oil interest

FT.Com

By Roula Khalaf, Martin Sandbu and Andrew Ward

Published: October 15 2009 22:44 | Last updated: October 15 2009 23:34

DNO was the first company to enter Iraq after the 2003 war and the first to export oil

Peter Galbraith, the former US diplomat and leading advocate of Kurdish autonomy, on Thursday acknowledged that he had business “activities” in the oil sector in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.

Mr Galbraith’s involvement in Iraqi oil came under criticism this week after it was revealed that his company was in dispute with Norway’s DNO, the operator that was the first to enter northern Iraq and to strike oil, over “certain third-party interests” that are seeking damages from the company.

Critics said he stood to gain financially from the political positions he was advocating, and that should have prompted Mr Galbraith to make his business dealings public at the time.

Reidar Visser, editor of www.historiae.org, a website about Iraq, has accused Mr Galbraith of wearing “several hats at the same time”, and mixing “his roles in ways that seem entirely incompatible with the capacity of an independent adviser on constitutional affairs”.

But Mr Galbraith insisted in a telephone interview with the Financial Times that he saw no conflict of interest between his business dealings and role as an adviser to Kurdish leaders, arguing that he has always sought to support the interests of Kurds.

Mr Galbraith, a respected former US ambassador to Croatia and proponent of Kurdish rights long before the 2003 Iraq war, resigned from a senior UN job in Afghanistan after saying his boss had covered up election fraud. He is known in international circles for his advocacy on behalf of ethnic minorities.

In his book, The End of Iraq, Mr Galbraith wrote how he advised Kurdish leaders in discussions over the Iraqi constitution in 2005 as they sought to secure ownership and control of the autonomous region’s oil resources.

A person familiar with the situation said DNO’s relationship with Mr Galbraith dated back to when he had helped the company during its negotiations on entering Kurdistan in 2003.

The arbitration proceedings are confidential. But people familiar with the dispute between Mr Galbraith and DNO said his company was among those claiming to have been squeezed out of a small stake in the Tawke oil field in Kurdistan when DNO, which owns a 55 per cent stake, renegotiated agreements with Kurdish authorities last year.

Mr Galbraith said his company, Porcupine LP, had a “contractual relationship” with DNO, and no “third-party interest in DNO’s production-sharing contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan”.

Mr Galbraith’s involvement with DNO was first revealed this week by a Norwegian newspaper.

The former diplomat said he could not discuss the nature of his business activities. However, he told the FT he was a private citizen at the time of his work in Kurdistan and had not been remunerated for advice on the constitution.

“Some of the critics suggest that I’m responsible for the Kurds having self-government. That’s absurd,” he said. “They didn’t need me to tell them what they wanted. I just helped them formulate it.”

DNO started exporting from Tawke in June but shipments halted last month. DNO resumed operations this month.

ـ"اعترف دبلوماسي امريكي سابق (كان في أفغانستان الى قبل بضعة أسابيع حيث أقيل من منصبه) بأنه مارس نشاطات تجارية في قطاع النفط بكردستان العراق بعد الكشف عن وقوع خلاف بين شركته وشركة نفط نرويجية. واشارت صحيفة فايننشال تايمز الصادرة الجمعة الي أن بيتر غالبريث المدافع عن الحكم الذاتي للأكراد استغل، كما يري النقاد، مكانته السياسية للحصول علي مكاسب مالية وكان يتعين عليه الكشف عن مصالحه التجارية في شمال العراق وقتها، وقبل الكشف عن الخلاف بين شركته وشركة النفط النروجية (دي ان أو) التي تعد أول شركة نفطية تدخل الي كردستان العراق. وأصر غالبريث، السفير الأمريكي السابق في كرواتيا، في مقابلة مع الصحيفة بأن تعاملاته التجارية لم تتناقض مع عمله كمستشار لدي القادة الأكراد في كردستان العراق، وشدد علي أنه سعي دائماً لدعم مصالح الأكراد".ـ
ـ16 تشرين الأول 2009
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تبين بأن حصة بيتر كالبريث في العقد المبرم بين الأقليم وشركة دي.أن.أو النرويجية هي 5% ، فقط ولا غير! كما كان كولبنكيان مستر فايف برسنت لحوالي 50 عاما.ـ
ها نحن اليوم نرى ظهور أخرين، وهذا أولهم، ممن يضطر للأعتراف ويقر بدوره في اعداد الدستور ( ومعروف أيضا دوره في أعداد مسودة قانون النفط والغاز لا بل ومشاركته في المفاوضات التي سبقت اقرار المسودة )ـ
ً والباقي نتعرف عليهم لاحقا

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Galbriath had the audacity to demand (in 2006):

"Galbraith recounted some of his experiences from The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End. He contends the Bush administration’s incompetence regarding planning for a military occupation has greatly contributed to the mess U.S. forces currently face. The most glaring example was the widespread looting after the invasion. [emphasis added. Comment: He had already dipped himself in the pot]
....
Rather than preserving or holding together a unified Iraq, Galbraith believes the U.S. must accept the reality of Iraq’s breakup and work with the Shiites, Kurds, and Sunni Arabs to strengthen the existing semi-independent regions. In addition, he suggests that U.S. forces be redeployed to Kurdistan where they will be welcomed and can keep tabs on al-Qaeda." [emphasis added. Comment: And his 5%]

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Petition sign and circulate:

Release Iraqi women hostages, victims of terrorism themselves

بعيدا عن الوطن؛ حراك التضامن مع الوطن فنا، شعرا وكتابةً
Away from Home; Memory, Art and women solidarity: you are invited to an evening of poetry and music 22/3/2017 18:30 at P21 Gallery London click here for more details
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Public meeting at The Bolivar Hall, London Sat.14/5/2016 at 15:00 IDPs : Fragmentation of Cultural and National Identity



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Protest the suffering of Iraqi Christians: No to terrorism No to state terrorism.Hands off our minorities. Hands off our people. Shame on the human rights violators on all sides. Assemble 11:30 on 28/7/14 near Parliament Square, near Westminister tube station London. For more past events click here

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Useful links






Halt All Executions! Abolish The Death Penalty!

We women of Tadhamun condemn the persisting practice of arbitrary arrests by the Iraqi security forces. We condemn their arrests of women in lieu of their men folk. These are 'inherited' practices. We are alarmed by credible media reports of the Green Zone government’s intentions of executing hundreds of Iraqi men and women.


For more info click here
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Professor Zaineb Al Bahrani of Columbia University NY speaking at a our meeting on the destruction/damage to historical sites in Iraq

On youtube: Part1
Part 3
Part4
One more video:



Human Rights Watch: No woman is Safe

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Articles published on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinion of WSIUI or its members


المقالات المنشورة على هذا الموقع لا تعكس بالضرورة آراء منظمتنا أو أعضاء منظمتنا


Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD

Samarra Minrate built in 852 AD
Building of 1 500 massive police station !
From the angle of the photo, it is possible to calculate that the complex is being built at E 396388 N 3785995 (UTM Zone 38 North) or Lat. 34.209760° Long. 43.875325°, to the west of the Malwiya (Spiral Minaret), and behind the Spiral Cafe.
While the point itself may not have more than Abbasid houses under the ground, it is adjacent to the palace of Sur Isa, the remains of which can be seen in the photo. While the initial construction might or might not touch the palace, accompanying activities will certainly spread over it.Sur Isa can be identified with the palace of al-Burj, built by the
Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, probably in 852-3 (Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra, pp 125-127, 240). The palace is said to have cost 33 million dirhams, and was luxurious. Details are given by al-Shabushti, Kitab al-Diyarat.
Samarra was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO at the end of June. The barracks could easily have been built elsewhere, off the archaeological site.--
Alastair Northedge Professeur d'Art et d'Archeologie Islamiques UFR d'Art et d'Archeologie
Universite de Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) 3, rue Michelet, 75006 Paris
tel. 01 53 73 71 08 telecopie : 01 53 73 71 13 Email :
Alastair.Northedge@univ-paris1.fr ou anorthedge@wanadoo.fr