Following Saddam Hussein's Secret Money-Laundering Trail

Insight ^ | 3 June 2004 | Lucy Komisar

[RKV]

Follow the money!

[Integrityrocks]

They could find a money trail, straight into Bill and Hillary's checking accounts from Suddam and the Rats would report it as "oops... well, we forgive them."

[TheSpottedOwl]

Kroll investigators discovered that one of the middlemen helping Saddam was Marc Rich, the U.S. tax-evader pardoned by President Bill Clinton. Rich had been indicted by the United States in 1983 on charges he evaded more than $48 million in taxes and illegally bought oil from Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. He fled the United States and settled in Switzerland. Kroll said, "We came up with evidence that through Marc Rich's Spanish subsidiary, he was using some Iranian cutouts -- specifically Bakhtiar, Iranians, whose family was close to Saddam -- he was using them to negotiate arrangements as it related to oil."

She continued, "The work was all turned over to OFAC [the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control]." That means the Clinton administration knew about Rich's aid to Saddam.

Well lookie there. Very interesting article.

[Grampa Dave]

Very interesting.

Where did al Qaeda get their funding? Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, George $oreA$$ or who?

[Grampa Dave]

Any of these names besides Marc Rich ring a bell for you?

[Grampa Dave]

Follow the money and rats and Islamofascists will probably turn up.

[Grampa Dave]

How much of the money came from $oddomite's Oil for Food Scam?

[Grampa Dave]

Was this character one of the 52 on the Deck of Cards?

A 1983 document shows $1 million transferred from the Gottardo Satan account to Hamid Al-Tikriti's account at the National Bank of Kuwait. The recipient -- Abid Hamid Mahmoud Al-Tikriti -- was Saddam's presidential secretary and cousin, arrested by the United States in June 2003. In 1981, half-a-million dollars had been sent by Gottardo to Hamid Al-Tikriti's Kuwaiti bank account.

[RKV]

Knew how to shake down Rich, that is.

[Dog Gone]

I've heard of Bill Clinton.

[Future Useless Eater]

>>Was this character one of the 52 on the Deck of Cards?

Yes, and pretty high up... Ace of Diamonds, and he
also shared WMD-release-authority.

Only Ueegie and Queezy and Saddam were higher.

[Grampa Dave]

Yes, and pretty high up... Ace of Diamonds, and he also shared WMD-release-authority.

Only Ueegie and Queezy and Saddam were higher.

Then Ueegie and Queezy became worm food, and Saddam got a free oral and rectal exam courtesy of the US Army.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Oh yes. I wonder how much of that money is sitting in a Swiss bank account with Bill and Hill's sticky fingerprints all over it?

[ellery]

btttttt

[MamaLucci]

Marc Rich's name comes up again..................

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[kcvl]

bookmarked

[kcvl]

I think you all will want to read this. Remember Marc Rich? Well guess what he has been doing?

[kcvl]

He was Saddam Hussein's Presidential Secretary as well as the WMD Release Authority. In addition, he was, according to CENTCOM, also Saddam's senior body guard, in addition to being the National Security Advisor.

A powerful figure in Saddam's regime, he controlled all access to Saddam (with the possible exceptions of Qusay and Uday Hussein), and also had the ability to override government decisions.

As a close assistant to Saddam Hussein, Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti also reportedly oversaw the Special Security Organization. That organization's primary task was to protect the Baath leadership in Iraq, and look out for potential signs of disloyalty in other military and security units.

Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti is also reported to have worked closely with Jamal Mustafa Abdullah Sultan al-Tikriti, one Saddam Hussein's cousin.

He was reported by CENTCOM to be under coalition custody on June 18, 2003.

[kcvl]

Liechtenstein was apparently among the numerous transit points for dirty monies being moved about by Nasreddin’s colleagues. “But Ercole Doninelli wasn’t the only dirty partner involved with Nasreddin International Group Holding Limited. On October 21, 1993, Ercole Doninelli was replaced in the administrative council by his wife Stefania. At the same time the trustee was changed. Instead of Enrico Walser, Nasreddin replaced him with Engelbert Schreiber Sr. Later Engelbert Schreiber jr. took over his father’s mandate. On March 3, 1997, the Press and Information Bureau of Liechtenstein received an anonymous letter sending information about Engelbert Schreiber Sr. and his involvement in money laundering. The letter (about the principality’s involvement with criminal groups like the Italian mafia and the Columbian drug cartel) claimed that the police chief of Liechtenstein was, since 1985, in the pay of Medellin boss Pablo Escobar. The letter said the contact came about through Engelbert Schreiber via the Caracas/Venezuela mafia families Cuntrera, Caruana, and Caldarella, with whom Schreiber stands in a close relationship.” (Idem.)

“Then there was the report from the German BND that cited Schreiber and others who were involved in money laundering without any punishment from Liechtenstein. The principality was upset that the German secret service intercepted telephone calls and siphoned off electronic data from the banks. But after the publication of the BND papers, an outspoken threat to have the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the OECD to put Liechtenstein on the black list of money laundering states worked wonders. Schreiber and some others had a period of shame where they had to distance themselves as trustees in business groups. Was it an accident, the investigators wondered, why the Muslim Brother Ahmed Idris Nasreddin—out of the countless number of Liechtenstein trustees—would choose a man of Engelbert Schreiber’s caliber?” (Idem.)

******

Intercession by the Saudi interior minister may well have helped to defer legal action against Nada & company. “In spite of the evidence, Youssef Nada and his friends have been left alone. The Europeans feel that the U.S. has refused to share information with them. Also the Swiss investigators made no progress against al-Taqwa because they got no information from America. There is a final element in this. In the beginning of May 2002, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Minister visited Switzerland. Officially Prince Nayif bin Abdulaziz al-Saud went to Switzerland for health reasons. On one evening, the Prince visited Bern. Reportedly the Prince and another leading representative of a different Arab state sent the Swiss a warning that any showing of the books and activities of Arab finance concerns and Islamic organizations would be injurious for the Swiss, because deposited capital can be moved to another country. The visit apparently brought results. After the visit the Swiss have said that there is no information or suggestion that either al-Taqwa or the Nasreddin Group was financially involved with 9/11.” (Ibid.; p. 12.)