Posted on 04/18/2003 7:03:07 AM PDT by dead
THE search for Saddam Hussein's multi-billion dollar fortune gathered momentum yesterday when special forces seized a half-brother implicated in torture and genocide.
Barzan Ibrahim el-Hasan al-Tikriti, the second of Saddam's three half-brothers to be arrested, was captured during a night raid in Baghdad after a tip-off.
Barzan, designated the five of clubs in a pack of cards of the most-wanted fugitives, acted as financier, adviser, diplomat and intelligence chief for Saddam.
He is believed to have unique knowledge of the billions of dollars hidden abroad for Saddam Hussein and his family.
The questioning of Barzan by US investigators is likely to focus on the dictator's slush fund, which the allied authorities will want to ensure is used to pay for rebuilding Iraq rather than for destabilising the country or even launching revenge attacks on the US or Britain by survivors of the regime.
Credited with oversight of the clandestine fund, Barzan used his job as Iraq's ambassador to the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva between 1989 and 1998 to set up a secret international financial network of assets estimated to be worth anywhere between $2bn and $40bn.
The fund's assets ranged from shares in Panama-based holding firms to clandestinely placed stakes in legitimate businesses, such as the giant French media empire Hachette.
For more than a decade Barzan siphoned off an estimated 5pc of Iraq's vast oil wealth. During sanctions he is believed to have used a foreign-exchange scam to fiddle the UN oil-for-food programme.
The operation to capture Barzan was led by American special forces supported by Marines. He was taken alone and uninjured.
The arrest came amid reports that Saddam had been seen in Baghdad on the day that American tanks rolled into the capital. Two London-based Arab newspapers, al-Hayat and Asharq al-Awsat, reported sightings of Saddam near the Azamia mosque in northern Baghdad on April 9.
Saddam, clad in military fatigues, was said to have arrived in a convoy of three cars, accompanied by his younger son, Qusay, and his bodyguard, al-Amin Abd Hamed Hamoud.
Witnesses said he clambered on top of one of the cars and delivered a half-hour speech to soldiers, declaring that he was fighting alongside them.
The al-Jazeera television station showed pictures yesterday of a house it said could have been Saddam's last hiding place.
They showed a half-empty glass of water on a desk next to crude military plans, and identified the room as the one in which he recorded his last television message.
British Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks told a briefing at Central Command, in Qatar, that Barzan, who is being held at a secret location in Iraq, would be interrogated for information on the whereabouts of other Saddam loyalists.
"Barzan is an adviser to the former regime leader with extensive knowledge of the regime's inner workings," he said.
There has long been a question mark over Barzan's loyalty to Saddam, which could make him a goldmine of information.
"I think he's a weak link in the family. It might be possible to get him to talk," said Charles Forrest, of Indict, a London-based group that wants Barzan tried for war crimes against the Iraqi Kurds.
Barzan was said to have been placed under house arrest in early March for questioning Saddam's decision to have Qusay succeed him eventually.
If Barzan, (52) a father of eight, was abandoned in Baghdad he will have cause to feel bitter. "He is a thug, a vicious murderer and a torturer with a very thin veneer of a diplomat," Mr Forrest said.
Really?
Hey, Barzan! Old pal! Buddy of mine! Loan me a few million bucks untill this war is over, 'kay? You know I'm good for it! :-)
Credited with oversight of the clandestine fund, Barzan used his job as Iraq's ambassador to the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva between 1989 and 1998 to set up a secret international financial network of assets estimated to be worth anywhere between $2bn and $40bn.
Cynics in the intelligence business believe that there are no coincidences. Recent reports indicate that the UN Oil-For-Food Program was used to funnel more than $100 billion, through French banks to a favored set of suppliers, not surprisingly led by the Europeans, but also including a long list of rogue nations, virtually without documentation, for products unspecified. Kofi Annan had practically unquestioned authority to approve purchases.
The terrible questions mount.
The UN is nothing but a cabal of theives.
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