INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Securing Undelivered Iraqi Media Equipment: Update

Published: Tue 28 Oct 2003 11:27 AM
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS ISTANBUL 001596
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/SE, NEA/NGA AND NEA/PPD
BAGHDAD FOR OFFICE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EFIN IZ KPAO TU
SUBJECT: SECURING UNDELIVERED IRAQI MEDIA EQUIPMENT: UPDATE
REF: A. STATE 284988
B. ANKARA 6534
Unclassified - Entire Text.
SIPDIS
1. P/E Chief met on Monday, October 27 with al-Huda San
Company General Manager Mutasem Mujahed and his new parter
Ibrahim Kahraman of the Kaptan Foreign Trade Company to
review the status of the equipment order cited in Ref a. The
two confirmed that all links between Sega Dis Ticaret and
al-Huda had been terminated, and that al-Huda is now working
exclusively with the Ankara-based Kaptan company on the
order. They added that the information provided to us last
week by Sega is out-of-date, and that in fact al-Huda is
prepared to go forward with the contract without change in
price or quantity. What they need to proceed, however, is a
green light from the Turkish Foreign Trade Undersecretariat,
which they understand is contingent on that office receiving
the go-ahead from the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO)
in Baghdad. Kahraman noted that their Dubai-based partner,
Mr. Wadi Handal, has already been in contact with the CPA,
but that to date SOMO has not provided the required
notification to Ankara via the Turkish Commercial Attache in
Baghdad. They provided a copy of a September 21st letter
from Gary Thatcher, Director of Strategic Communication at
the CPA, requesting delivery of the order, which was
addressed to SOMO, with information copies to al-Huda and the
Iraqi Ministry of Trade.
2. Mujahed and Kahraman noted that the payment for the
order, as well as for other items in the Turkey-Iraq protocol
that was signed during State Minister Tuzman's trip, is
currently in Halkbank, where it has been blocked at the
direction of the Turkish government. (They estimated the
total amount at 200 million USD.) They concurred with the
information in the Thatcher letter that payment would follow
delivery of the material to Iraqi Media Network (IMN)
warehouses in Baghdad. The two stressed that the equipment
is not yet in place in Turkey, but will only be procured from
Europe and Canada after the Turkish government gives them the
go-ahead. They estimated that ordering the material and
delivering it to Baghdad would take six weeks to two months
from that point.
3. Minimized considered HQ Coalition Provisional Auth Baghdad.
SMITH
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