December 27, 2006

The Jubilee Iraq website hasn't been fully functional for a couple of weeks due to server problems. These are now fixed, so if you've had problems in the past, please try again and it should all be working.

December 22, 2006

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin is on a US tour and met with deputy treasury secretary Robert Kimmitt. The two discussed Iraq's debt. Kalfin said that Bulgaria could not remit Iraq's debt as it was significant and the sum was important for Bulgaria.

December 20, 2006

Israeli businessman Nir Gouaz, president of Caesar Global Securities, alleges that James Baker was involved in a complex deal to help Korean firm Hyundai evade sanctions and collect some of its debt from Saddam's Iraq. He says he has only just spoken out because he disagrees with the Iraq Study Group's recommendations that Israel withdraw from occupied territories.

Gouaz said he was asked by Baker's law firm - Baker Botts - to meet with Shaiker Tawfik Fakoury, the president of the Bank of Jordan, which agreed to purchase the Iraqi government bonds from Hyundai at a lowered rate and resell them to the Iraqis at a profit in exchange for oil. He said the Jordanian bank in July 2000 bought the Iraqi bonds from Hyundai using the services of Baker's firm at the price of $272 million. The Bank of Jordan, he claimed, then resold the bonds to Iraq for about $450 million in oil. He estimated the Baker Botts made about $33 million in fees for its services in the transactions. He said it was "clear" from his communications with all parties involved that Baker's firm established the bonds exchange through Jordan using an Israeli middleman to bypass sanctions on Iraq. He first spoke out in an interview with Israel's Maariv daily newspaper during which he passed a polygraph lie detector test.

Gouaz provided World Net Daily with a copy of a letter dated July 11, 2000, from Hyundai executives thanking him for his efforts in mediating the collection deal. He also gave WND a copy of an Iraqi government bond from 1989 for $11 million he said was part of Hyundai's collection efforts. In November 2001 Baker Botts contacted Gouaz and asked him to shred all the documents related to the deal, perhaps because of the post 9/11 political climate.

Baker Botts has issued a statement denying knowledge of the deal. If the allegations are true then it would be consistent with another conflict of interest charge against Baker relating to Iraq's foreign obligations revealed in 2004 by Naomi Klein.

December 01, 2006

The Iraqi government announced this week that it had reached an agreement with Indonesia to cancel 80% of its debt claims. Iraq’s Minister of Finance Baker Jabr Al-Zubaidy said “Iraq appreciates Indonesia’s constructive approach to reaching this agreement.” Indonesia marks the 51st country with which bilateral debt relations have now been resolved, including 34 government creditors that are not members of the Paris Club.