Posted on 04/19/2003 3:35:57 PM PDT by knak
Baghdad, Iraq Press, April 19, 2003 – Shortly before the fall of Baghdad to U.S. marines on April 9, Saddam Hussein's younger brother, Qusay, looted millions of dollars from the Iraqi Central Bank, a bank employee told Iraq Press.
The employee refused to give her name for fear of being implicated in the theft, but said she saw Qusay and a business partner of his, Hasan Habib al-Mawsawi, entering the bank on April 8, just one day before U.S. marines made their way into the heart of the Iraqi capital.
"Qusay and Mawsawi were accompanied by a gang of some 150 armed men. The Rasheed Street where the central bank is situated was closed to traffic," she added.
Thieves and robbers plundered Iraqi banks and in cases opened vaults of steel where hard cash and gold were kept.
But Qusay and his men, the employee said, had the keys to the central bank vaults and removed hundreds of sacks full of wads of U.S. dollars and euros.
Saddam had direct control over Iraqi hard cash earnings, particularly those originating from illicit oil sales and commissions foreign companies paid for winning contracts under the U.N.-approved oil-for-food program.
Saddam and his family are believed to have stashed away billions of dollars in foreign banks and the United States is trying hard to uncover the illegal wealth, so badly needed in reconstructing the country.
Most branches of the state-owned banks of Rafidain and Rasheed were looted, but it is not yet clear the amount of gold or hard cash that have gone missing.
The capture of the former Iraqi Finance Minister Hikmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi could reveal key information about secret funds believed to have been held abroad by the ousted regime.
Al-Azawwi, who was also a deputy prime minister, is said to have information on the amount of money Saddam, his aides and members of his immediate family stole from the treasury, and its location.
If the money is recovered, it will be good news for the impoverished Iraqis and their crippling economy.
Iraqis are desperately in need of such funds following the massive damage caused to their infrastructure during the war.
U.S. and British intelligence say Saddam Hussein is thought to have amassed up to 40 billion dollars during his 24-year rule – and much of it may be hidden abroad.
U.S. troops have also arrested the deposed president's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, known to Iraqis as "Saddam's banker in the West."
Barzan, a former intelligence service chief, was Iraq's representative to the United Nations in Geneva where he is alleged to have administered the family fund.
Yes. And those &@%#** peacenik communists who, we've now learned, were being funded by Castro, Kim Jong Il and Saddam will now have to go a-beggin', since those other two clowns are pretty cash-strapped these days. It's a miracle!
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