Posted on 05/15/2003 11:19:21 AM PDT by blam
Treasury Finds $1B Likely From Iraqi Bank
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities have growing confidence that the nearly $1 billion that was ordered removed from Iraq 's central bank by Saddam Hussein has been located in various hiding spots around Baghdad, a top Treasury Department official said Thursday.
"We are getting more and more confirmation that the large bulk of those funds have been identified," said Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor.
He said authorities were beginning the process of verifying that the money estimated to be $850 million in U.S. bills and $100 million in euros was authentic and not counterfeit.
Other Treasury officials said that the money had been found in more than 200 boxes in various palaces around Baghdad. The boxes contained certificates describing the contents that employees of Iraq's central bank said they had included in each of the boxes before they were sealed.
Bank employees have been quoted as saying that shortly before the start of the U.S. bombing campaign the money was ordered removed from the central bank by Saddam, who sent his younger son Qusai to supervise the loading of the money into three large tractor-trailer trucks.
"We are making good progress in finding funds and a lot of that is most likely related to what was reported as being taken," Taylor told reporters during a briefing on weekend discussions among the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia in Deauville, France.
Taylor said that reconstruction of Iraq and effort to boost global economic growth would be top topics at those discussions, which will be attended by Treasury Secretary John Snow and his counterparts from Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia. The meeting is being held to help prepare the agenda for discussions between the leaders of those eight nations in Evian, France, on June 1-3.
In a statement, Snow said he would be pushing the other countries to move ahead on dealing with Iraq's large foreign debt burden.
"I believe that no one should expect Iraq to begin to make debt payments for some time," Snow said in a statement.
If true, then Qusai got the money, and stashed it locally. Either Qusai and Dadai thought the regime would survive, or else they had other plans and events moved too quickly (as in, they got killed).
The money was planted...
I doubt that $100 million in euros would take you very far down that road.
Good.
Then the Iraqi treasury can cover the Haliburton contract w/o any US taxpayer assistance.
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