Iraqi Dinar – Iraqi Dinar Value, Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate, Buying Iraqi Dinar, Iraqi Dinar Buying Guide

A patient of mine recently experienced an unusual problem. Apparently, she got out of bed in the middle of the night, walked outside into her garage and entered her sports car. She was changing her car clock when her partner, who was in a panic, located her in the car. My patient was awakened by her partner and was confused and bewildered as they left the garage to resume their evening’s sleep.

Sleep walking is not an unusual pattern. For many, it is an infrequent occurrence, but for others it is a lifelong experience. Recently, I have been wondering about the manner in which many of our citizens are “sleep walking” through the impact of our political landscape. As a society, we appear to be distracted and asleep at the wheel. It seems as if there is a chronic pathology among of our people characterized by naivety, indifference, and a lack of awareness to political and cultural issues.

I recall Jay Leno canvassing the streets of Los Angeles trying to find one American who could tell him how many Supreme Court justices serve on our highest bench and to identify one of their names. The responses were pathetic and called attention to the lack of political awareness of our citizenry. Recently, as my wife and I boarded a plane to return to Arizona, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was sitting in the third row of the plane. I was not aware of one on-coming passenger who seemed to recognize her or acknowledge her presence. When we deplaned and headed for the luggage area, while other passengers appeared to be oblivious to the relevance of the situation, I proceeded to introduce myself and carry on a brief conversation with her. As one of my 15 year old patients once said, “Why should I care about politics, I can’t change anything anyway.” Nevertheless, it is my belief that feeling powerless is never an excuse for sleeping through the political process.

Although I certainly respect and support our current troops deployed in Iraq and other locations, there is something quite disturbing about the false sense of patriotism displayed by Americans. For example, I believe many of us have trivialized the concept of war through the simplistic use of bumper stickers, ribbons and other insignias signifying troop support. What do these symbols really mean for most Americans? Are they true signs of patriotism by those who fully understand the impact and implications of our current war in Iraq? My brother, who was a Lieutenant and company commander in Viet Nam cringes at the naivety and lack of awareness that many Americans possess about the nature of terrorism, combat and military missions. Maybe if the military adopted a conscription policy, some Americans might rethink their form of patriotism? Maybe if they knew their own children would be subject to going off to Baghdad, they would reconsider the way they demonstrate their loyalty to our military efforts. You might recall what happened when the President tried to make nice with Congressman Jim Webb over the involvement of Mr. Webb’s son in the Iraq war. Congressman Webb bluntly told the President to mind his own business.

Americans tend to believe that if they project an image of patriotism, they are exempt from a deeper understanding of the implications of the war in Iraq. How many of our people are aware of how our wounded soldiers are being treated at Building #18 in Walter Reed Hospital? Do we understand that the hospital is under constant review for improper patient treatment and deplorable conditions? Are we aware that inpatient soldiers have complained about the unsanitary conditions at the hospital including rodents infesting the environment? How many in the Bush administration or Congress are aware of the conditions our soldiers are subjected to and do they care? Would any of us send our loved ones to heal in an environment like that? Is this how we support our troops? Shouldn’t we all be concerned about this issue? Instead we sleep walk through the military and political debate over the mission and purposes of the Iraq war. We believe that the political voices in Washington D.C. are more competent and convincing than our own. We take the easy way out from committing ourselves to being patriotic in the truest since of the word. We must walk the walk through political action, not words.

Will we sleep walk though the debate on global warming as our oil companies try to pay off researchers so they will reinterpret their findings to soften the implications of global warming? We minimize the problem by either ignoring it or by pretending to care by talking about minutiae such as using HOV lanes and not burning wood in our fireplaces as means of eradicating the problem of pollution. Is Al Gore’s documentary, Inconvenient Truth, really that inconvenient that we are willing to deny its truth? Our war in Iraq will continue to kill and maim many, but global warming has the potential to kill us all. Will we sleep walk through this problem by displaying our symbolic bumper stickers or will we attack the problem with action? It will not be the terrorists who do us in, for the enemy is at home.

Americans can no longer afford to sleep walk through the critical political issues that we face globally. Our indifference, lack of awareness, denial, shallowness, and lack of motivation will only serve to escalate the dangers that we confront. It will not be “the axis of evil” that consumes us but our own ignorance and laziness.



By: James P Krehbiel

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sabresfan4ever1981 asked:


Currency rate right now is $1=$1200 Dinar

Will people pay real dollars for in-game virtual money to help their virtual characters buy in-game goods?One gamer, who goes by the screen name Haylo, said he spent $10 to $20 real dollars a month on in-game platinum(all nonexistent, of course) to buy weapons and other goods in Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC), but would spend more if he could afford it.

Most video games have some form of currency. In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy – goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currency (platinum, gold, credit,etc.). “With all the things you can buy in game,” a gamer said, “it’s hard not to want them, just like real-life stuff.”

The average Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game(MMORPG) player is 27-year-old — a demographic drooled over by marketers. Plus, nearly half of all players have jobs, which often means they have more money than time and are the perfect consumers of virtual assets. On the Internet, many gamers now buy virtual money that only exist as data files stored in a server run by a game company with real-world dollars, and the buying and selling of virtual currencies may be off most people’s radar, but it is truly big business.

An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son became interested in Final Fantasy XI. He then noticed that a large number of gils which are the currencies used in FFXI were for sale on eBay.

“I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets at cheap prices,” he said, “so I figured, buy low, sell high.”

But Rolala found his moneymaking options in FFXI “very limited”. He switched to World of Warcraft. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience into an online business. He converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay and bankofwow ,etc. Earnings can be considerable. He said he was on track to earn about $120,000 in real money in his first year in this business.

Rolala’s business is just one example of how increasingly popular online role-playing games have created a shadow economy in which the lines between the real world and the virtual world are getting blurred.

“World of Warcraft”, the world’s largest MMORPG, boasts more than 1 million paying users in North America.There are many sites like wow gold free strategics, teaching gamers how to earn wow gold in game for free, however many players are still willing to buy gold and weapons to help their virtual characters get a higher virtual status more rapidly. Some virtual goods in World of Warcraft have been sold for thousands of dollars. It obviously creates a large real world market.

Edward Castronova, an economics professor at Indiana University who has written a book on the subject, calculated that if you took the real dollars spent within “EverQuest “as an index, its game world, called Norrath, would be the 77th richest nation on the planet, while annual player earnings surpass those of citizens of Bulgaria, India or China.

Go to GameUSD, an exchange-rate calculator for the virtual worlds, and do a search for the latest rates of virtual currencies against the U.S. dollar, and let your jaw drop open. The rates of some virtual world currencies are even better than that of the Iraqi Dinar! For instance, here is the recent exchange rate of several popular virtual currencies: Everquest Plat ($0.54/1K), EQ2 Gold ($0.17/gold), WOW Gold ( World of Warcraft Gold ) ($0.098/gold), SWG Credit ($4.40/1M), Lineage 2 adena ($2.80/1M), Guild Wars Gold ($0.12/1K), FFXI Gil ($17.89/1M), etc.

Right now, this business is one of the most hotly debated issues on the internet. Many game companies such as Blizzard who run World of Warcraft discourage profit from in-game properties, though none have found a way to stop it.

Sony Online Entertainment, on the other hand, encourages the practice (albeit within the confines of their own “Station Exchange”, their own forum for the sale of in-game properties). It recently announced the first month’s figures from “Station Exchange”. According to SOE, over 45,000 characters from “EverQuest 2″ have been active on the exchange and have spent over $180,000 USD in one month, half of which have been spent on in-game gold and platinum.

Despite of different attitudes towards virtual currency trade, the number of people who are getting into such business is rising, and the size of market has been expanding very rapidly.The market also creates a competitive environment. We could refer to sites like GameShopList, a price comparison site, to see the fierce price competition between different exchange sites.

For some ordinary gamers, however, such a capitalist approach spoils the experience. Nick Yee, a psychology researcher from Stanford University, believes many players dislike virtual currency traders because, by using real wealth to buy virtual power, “they’re breaking the fantasy-reality bubble, getting an advantage in a way that other players can’t”.

According to a recent survey by IGN, an internet media focused on the videogame markets, most gamers say they dislike and avoid this business, believing that it gives players with more discretionary income an unfair advantage.

But such attitudes are called into question by size estimates for the virtual asset trading market, which is seen having a value of $200 million to nearly $900 million in 2005.

One potential explanation for the disconnection between attitudes and money spent may be that gamers are unwilling to admit they use the services, IGN said.

In terms of the law’s concern, another issue is, who owns the virtual money? Many virtual world designers maintain that anything created in the world belong to the company. They refuse to recognise the rights of their players in the virtual property for fear of attracting liability for its maintenance or security.

But will this work in the long term? Players spend considerable time and/or money acquiring such assets. In many cases they are the creation of the player and even the intellectual property ownership is questionable. “As we spend more time in these worlds, it’s not enough for companies to say that ‘we own everything and we can turn it off at any time,’” said a gamer. “The question may soon be should we have recourse against a game company for obliterating virtual assets?”

With the rapid growth of virtual currency exchange market, should people accord virtual property the same protection as property in the real world?



By: Steven Golden

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A recently published Report by the leading humanitarian NGO Human Rights Watch makes state of the dramatic situation that prevails in the judiciary system of the neocolonial fabrication of post-war Iraq. The Report sheds light on an impossible situation ensued from the calamitous mismanagement of the country by the biased US administration; that’s why I will republish the Report in a series of articles. In the present article, I republish the Introduction, the Table of Contents, the Summary, and the Recommendations.

The Quality of Justice – Failings of Iraq’s Central Criminal Court

December 14, 2008

This 42-page report documents how thousands of defendants in Iraq wait months or even years before facing a judge and hearing charges against them in the Central Criminal Court (CCCI), and cannot pursue a meaningful defense or challenge evidence against them. A US-Iraq security agreement that takes effect at year’s end will transfer detainees held by the US-led Multinational Force to Iraqi jurisdiction, adding to the court’s cases.

Table of Contents

The Quality of Justice

I. Summary

II. Recommendations

III. Methodology

IV. Background

V. Legal Framework

VI. Delays in Hearings

VII. Lack of Evidence and Reliance on Secret Informants

VIII. Access to and Quality of Defense

IX. Coerced Testimony and Abuse in Detention

X. Acknowledgments

I. Summary

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) is the country’s flagship criminal justice institution. Yet it is an institution that is seriously failing to meet international standards of due process and fair trials. Defendants often endure long periods of pretrial detention without judicial review, and are not able to pursue a meaningful defense or challenge evidence against them. Abuse in detention, typically with the aim of extracting confessions, appears common, thus tainting court proceedings in those cases.

The failings of the court are all the more striking because of the stakes riding on it. The CCCI, established by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2003, commands greater resources and broader authority than any other Iraqi criminal justice institution. Its mandate encompasses the critical task of coping with security-related criminal cases under the framework of Iraqi law, including the country’s constitution and penal code. The CPA decree that established the court cites the importance of “development of a judicial system in Iraq that warrants the trust, confidence and respect of the Iraqi people.”[1] Far from serving as a model criminal justice institution, the court has failed to provide basic assurances of fairness, undermining the concept of a national justice system serving the rule of law.

Human Rights Watch monitored court proceedings and met with judges, defense attorneys, defendants, and others. We found that the majority of defendants endured lengthy pretrial detention without judicial review, that they had ineffectual legal counsel, and the court frequently relied on the testimony of secret informants and confessions likely to have been extracted under duress. Judges in many instances acknowledged these failings and dismissed some cases accordingly, particularly those involving alleged torture, but the numbers of cases where such allegations arise suggest that serious miscarriages of justice are frequent. Human Rights Watch also monitored a limited number of cases involving children, and found that the authorities failed to hold them separately from adult detainees, and that their access to counsel and prompt legal hearings was no better than that of adults.

Structural problems, due in part to political fractiousness and inefficiency among Iraqi institutions, play a role in undermining the CCCI’s proceedings. Iraq’s parliament approved a General Amnesty Law in February 2008, in part to reduce the detainee population and thus the burden on the justice system. Persons accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other offenses committed between July 1968 and May 2003 as outlined in the statute for Iraq’s Supreme Criminal Tribunal would not be eligible for amnesty. The amnesty as passed would benefit persons held for more than six months without an investigative hearing, or for more than a year without referral to a court. Implementation, however, has lagged very seriously. The continued high number of persons in detention facilities has put serious strain on the CCCI, where dozens of judges hear thousands of cases a month, and further delayed judicial review of detentions.

A related concern is impunity for those responsible for torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. The Presidency Council, which must approve all legislation passed by the parliament before it becomes law, did not approve in late 2007 a measure that would overturn current law and allow for prosecution of Iraqi officials who have engaged in abuse of detainees.

Other failings reflect the fact that the Iraqi justice system, and hence the CCCI, does not have jurisdiction over individuals taken into custody by the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq (MNF). The MNF refers only a small number of the persons it detains to the CCCI for prosecution, and in those cases has exercised broad influence on proceedings since it provides physical security and plays a dominant advisory role, though that influence is less pronounced than in the court’s early days. The refusal in particular of US military officials involved in detention matters to honor hundreds of decisions by the court to release detainees in US military custody has further undermined respect for the Iraqi judicial system. (This report does not address the status of detainees held by the US military as security detainees, except in the context of their transfer to the CCCI for prosecution.)

The current structural limits on the court’s jurisdiction, independence, and capacity should not obscure the obligation of Iraq’s judicial authorities to meet basic standards of fairness in court proceedings. Those standards are required under both international and domestic law.

Iraq’s future as a society based on rule of law and respect for fundamental rights depends in large part on the establishment of a credible and sustainable Iraqi national criminal justice system embodying international standards of fairness. This idea underpins all projects of national reconciliation. Justice, administered impartially to all Iraqis, by Iraqis, would signify the country’s break with the abuses of the Saddam Hussein era. Regrettably, some of the failings in the court’s proceedings show disturbing continuity with that period. A legal culture that has not accepted concepts like the right to a credible defense and committed itself to meeting basic standards of due process links present criminal justice to past repression through the arbitrary exercise of authority.

Notes

1] CPA/ORD/11 July 2003/13, as amended.

II. Recommendations

To the Iraqi Government

On administration of justice

Disallow confessions and other evidence that has been obtained through torture or other unlawful methods.

Limit the use of secret informants as a basis for pretrial detention or conviction by establishing procedures for verifying the credibility and veracity of such evidence in a timely manner.

Allow detainees the opportunity to sufficiently challenge evidence provided by secret informants, while not endangering the safety of witnesses.

Ensure that arrests comply with Iraq’s domestic law that requires arrest warrants from a judicial authority (except in cases in flagrante delicto).

Ensure that family members and legal counsel have prompt access to detainees and provide legal counsel with case files on a timely basis.

Notify detainees, family members, and defense counsel in advance of hearing dates and postponements.

Initiate a review of previous convictions to ensure that such convictions were not based on coerced confessions or solely on unfounded statements of secret informants.

Revise the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code to ensure that the rights of defendants meet international standards, notably by prohibiting torture and other mistreatment and the use of coerced confession as evidence. Ensure that child detainees are held separately from adults in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Iraqi Child Welfare Law.

Revise the Child Welfare Law to require that parents or guardians and counsel are present during the questioning of children and at their investigative hearings.

On unlawful arrest and detention

Ensure that persons taken into custody are brought before an investigative judge within 24 hours of arrest, in conformity with Iraq’s Code of Criminal Procedure.

Immediately release or charge with a cognizable criminal offense all those currently held without charge.

On torture and ill-treatment

Condemn publicly any use of torture or other mistreatment in pretrial detention, including during interrogation with the aim of eliciting confessions.

Investigate promptly all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and institute disciplinary measures or criminal prosecution, as appropriate, against guards, interrogators, and other detention facility officials who are responsible for the abuse of prisoners.

Abrogate the provision of Iraq’s Code of Criminal Procedure (article 136(b)) that requires the permission of superiors to bring criminal charges against officials, including those implicated in the torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

Conduct prompt medical examinations of detainees who allege abuse in detention or during interrogation.

Compensate victims of torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention adequately and in a timely manner.

Implement the general recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture and the UN special rapporteur on torture to establish a fully independent complaints mechanism for persons who are held in state custody.

Fulfill obligations as a state party to the Convention against Torture to:

enshrine the prohibition against torture in training of security forces and other personnel engaged in detention; and

specify interrogation practices with the goal of preventing torture and other mistreatment of detainees.

To the United States Government and the Multinational Force (MNF)

Transfer the cases of all Iraqi detainees to the legal jurisdiction of the Iraqi courts.

Do not physically transfer detainees to Iraqi government custody where there is a fear of torture or other mistreatment. Act to improve treatment in Ministry of Justice detention facilities through frequent and unannounced inspections in conjunction with the Ministry of Human Rights.

Coordinate with Iraqi judicial authorities to identify detainees in MNF custody who meet requirements to benefit from the General Amnesty Law.

Ensure that, until such time as all Iraqi detainees are transferred to Iraqi custody, family members and legal counsel have prompt access to detainees.

Ensure that advisers to the MNF providing assistance to the Iraqi government on administration of justice, policing, and detentions give priority to the investigation of allegations of the torture or ill-treatment of detainees by Iraqi police and military forces.

Assist the creation of Iraqi mechanisms for investigating allegations of abuse of detainees.

Assist the Iraqi government to establish an independent complaints mechanism, which could include an ombudsman for judicial, penal, and detention matters, to receive and investigate complaints by detainees of abuse by detaining officials. Such a mechanism should be accessible to children.

Assist the Iraqi government to comply with international standards relating to the treatment of children in detention by holding them in facilities separate from adult detainees.

To the International Donor Community

Monitor criminal justice, police, security, and counterterrorism assistance to ensure Iraqi compliance with international human rights standards in the criminal justice system and police and intelligence forces.

Make human rights training an integral component of all capacity-building and training programs involving the criminal justice system, police, and intelligence agencies.

Support the Iraqi Bar Association and other legal organizations that provide free legal representation for defendants in the criminal justice system.

Support the development of an independent National Human Rights Commission and local independent human rights groups with a monitoring capacity.



By: Uzair

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