US embassy cable - 03ISTANBUL1596

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, Istanbul 
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week by Sega is out-of-date, and that in fact al-Huda is 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