|
Why Barham Salih should NOT serve a second
term
10.11.2011
By Rizgar Khoshnaw, Washington, DC - ekurd.net |
|
|
|
November 10, 2011
I have been absent from writing about Kurdish issues
for about ten years (my articles were mainly
published on Kurdishmedia.com web site) but now I
feel that the time has come to write again. I want
to tell some of my stories and share my experiences
and exposure that I have gained in the last fourteen
years working and traveling back and forth to
Kurdistan.
Of course, I am NOT going to tell/expose it all in
these articles because I will leave the best parts
for my book that I am in the process of writing. I
wrote a book eleven years ago during the
oil-for-food program and this will be my second book
that will have a great deal more damaging details
than my first! This time the damaging details will
NOT be on the United Nations operation and personnel
but rather it is going be directed at some past and
present KRG members. |
Dr Barham Salih, Kurdistan region premier. KRG photo |
My story is very long, but in
time everyone that reads/follows my writings will
understand why I am doing this. I made my final trip
to Kurdistan four months ago and I do not intend to
ever go back. For this reason, I am in a position to
tell it all without fear of repercussion. I have
absolutely no family/relatives living in
Kurdistan/Iraq to be concerned about! In the past
fourteen years, I have literally traveled to
Kurdistan more than 70 times (Seventy times) and I
have seen, witnessed and experienced it all.
I decided to give my first article this name/title
because I want the readers to know that I am very
qualified to write about Kurdistan Regional
Government KRG and some of its members. Furthermore,
I want the readers to see the types of people (
businessmen and politicians) that I have been
associated with in the US and Kurdistan in the past
fourteen years. In time, I will write about many
many more of them and will give examples and proof
of everything that I write about. I have spent 14
years (Fourteen years) being "involved" in some
capacity directly and indirectly with many members
of KRG past and present.
Now, lets get back to Barham Salih and why I feel
that he is not qualified to control the Kurds. I use
the word "control" because that is exactly what is
going on in Kurdistan. Can anyone tell me how he
became a "Prime Minister" and a ruler that decides
what is best for the Kurds?? Was he voted in to
office by the people? No, he was not and we all know
that. He came to power by making deals with other
"politicians" and that alone does not qualify him to
run Kurdistan. Does he have the interest of the
Kurds or the Americans?? This is another subject
that I will talk about in a later article. It is
fairly obvious what I think the answer is!
On July 15, 2010, there was a "conference, one on
many that the KRG holds without any success, in
London. I will give many examples of KRG signing
deals with foreign companies (mostly British
companies) without any success later on other
writings. This conference was called " Kurdistan
Open For business" that Salih was promoting
Kurdistan.
I had contacted Salih, using another Kurdish
politician that I know very well, and we agreed to
meet in London during the conference. One of my
partners and I travel to London to meet with Salih
and talk about two very sizable projects. I will
discuss these projects after I introduce the
gentleman that was ready/willing to finance and
implement these projects in Kurdistan.
In the past ten years, I have been working with a
very powerful and successful American businessman (I
will refer to him Mr. "G") in the Washington DC area
and I had convinced him to take on projects in
Kurdistan. Mr. "G" owns more than forty
international companies and his personal financial
worth exceeds hundreds of millions of dollars. He
has been in business for more than fifty years. He
had built a number of very well known and successful
multibillion (with a "B") companies in the US, Asia
and Europe and knows how to implement large projects
all over the world. We traveled to Kurdistan
together twice and he met with high Kurdish
officials within the KRG on both trips.
Mr. "G" was ready and willing to take on huge
projects in Kurdistan. With his experiences and very
powerful friends in Washington, DC, I thought for
sure that the KRG will see the value of Mr. "G" and
will take us seriously. Of course, I had given the
KRG plenty of proof of his power,www.ekurd.net
experiences, success, wealth and influence in
Washington only so the KRG will pay us great
attention. As a matter of fact, one previous high
level KRG member had used Mr "G's" influence in
Washington to move on a certain issue for him. That
incident proved that Mr. "G" is for real and very
able. This KRG personnel thanked Mr. "G" for helping
him with this very important issue.
Lets get back and talk about these projects that I
had mentioned earlier. One project that we discussed
was oil exploration and the other was building a
1,000 MGW power plant in Kurdistan. This power plant
was valued at around a Billion dollar and we told
Salih that we will finish it in two years. During
the meeting, we were talking with Qubad Talabani as
well. I had met Qubad on other occasions and we had
discussed other projects in the past. Qubad and I
met seven years ago and talked about building a
400
bed hospital in Sulaimaniyah. I will talk about this
hospital project that was never implemented in a
later article!!
The oil deal that I had brought KRG is a partnership
between Mr. G" and a very well known and successful
seven Billion dollar oil companies; a US and
Canadian joint venture. I had presented a letter
that was written by Mr. "G" to Barham Salih
indicating that we are ready to negotiate this
project as well as the electricity project. Prior to
leaving the meeting, Salih asked us to write down
what we have in mind and e-mail it to his secretary.
We left the meeting and we told him that we will
send the letter as soon as we return home.
Upon returning to the US, we wrote a letter and
e-mailed to his secretary, which by the way had a "gmail"
address that my partner was very surprised to see a
high level KRG representative has a "gmail" address
doing international business and NOT a government
address! We waited for days, weeks, then months and
we heard absolutely nothing-radio silence, as my
partner would later say. Then I decided to contacted
Qubad at his Washington, DC office and asked him why
we have no answer or news from KRG and he too
disappeared on us!! It is amazing how they treated
us and think nothing of it.
This is not how KRG should operate if Kurdistan is
going to succeed and prosper. Until today, I do not
know why they never answered our e-mails, phone
calls and letters. Furthermore, I do not know how
and why the KRG awarded an oil contract to Vast
Explorations, a tiny company with absolutely no oil
drilling experience or any experience in anything,
with only $15 million (of borrowed money) in working
capital. I wonder what Ashti Hawramy was thinking
when he signed of on this contract! And when I bring
in a multibillion dollar oil company, we are
completely ignored. Once more, I will talk about
Vast Exploration in a later article.
At times I really wonder if the current KRG
personnel have the interest of the Kurds or the
American politicians in mind! I mention the American
politicians simply because it seems to me that the
KRG is very good at "buying" American politicians
and they think that doing this will advance their
cause.
This is a very wrong approach and KRG needs to wake
up and take care of their "people" and NOT the
American politicians. The American politicians come
and go but the Kurdish citizens are living among
them for life! It is their "people" that they need
to worry about and not the Americans if they want to
stay in power. The saddest thing about buying
American politicians is that the KRG is buying the
wrong American politicians!!
As I said earlier, I will expand from this article
in the future. This is just the first of may many
more to come. I will also try my very best to make
my articles very simple and short.
Rizgar Khoshnaw, Washington, DC — ekurd.net
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net. All rights reserved
Top |
The opinions
expressed in this commentary are solely those of the
author
|
®
