Have Saddam's hidden fortunes been traced?

The Times of India ^ | October 12 2003 | PTI

[knighthawk]

NEW YORK: US officials believe they have found a big chunk of Saddam Hussein "legendary fortune" and that as much as three billion dollars in Iraqi assets are lying in Syrian-controlled banks, a media report said.

"Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters", the Time Magazine says.

Since the fall of Baghdad in April, the report says, American officials have scoured the globe in search of Saddam Hussein's legendary fortune.

For months, the report says, the US has quietly insisted that Damascus give up the funds. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in May and made that unpublicized demand.

Top Syrian officials, Time says, have been given the names of at least two suspect banks and provided with account numbers.

Syria's private response that unspecified accounts were being frozen was judged woefully inadequate. Publicly, Syria denies there is any Iraqi money in the country. But just over two weeks ago, Time says, the US sent two American financial experts and two representatives of the Iraqi Central Bank to Syria to comb through records.

US officials now assert that Damascus has given them only "limited cooperation," the magazine says.

In the run-up to the war, Syria was among Iraq's principal trading partners, buying more than 1 billion dollar worth of oil annually. Since the war, US-Syrian relations have deteriorated sharply.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Support Free Republic]

---

GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
	Keep Our Republic Free Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER and say THANKS to Jim Robinson! IT'S IN THE BREAKING NEWS SIDEBAR THANKS!

[blanknoone]

Syria trying to be nominated to replace Iraq in the Axis of Evil. I think the Saudi's are lining up to replace Iran in a few months.

[11B3]

And Burma is lining up with North Korea and China - if anyone bothers to notice.

[blanknoone]

Infantry Seargent, what is the significance of Burma?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad flew in a couple of times in WW II in the CBI campaign.

[tet68]

Time to move them to the top of the list.

[MizSterious]

My guess is that to some extent that has already happened (top of the list). I think we're now in the "giving them enough rope" stage, and of course gathering more intel.

[ridesthemiles]

Time to move them to the top of the list.

Another reason for Syria to be put into the cross hairs. They have alot of Saddam's stolen money in their banks, and they also have the contents of the many convoys that went from Iraq into Syria when the war was imminent.

Most of a country living 3 centuries behind times doesn't get the depth of the high-tech abilities we have to find them out as liars.
Terrorists have to understand-Sooner rather than later- that they are running out of options. Countries have to understand there will be retribution for supplying comfort for terrorists.

[VOA]

Saddam's investments and hidden (skimmed) fortune was being traced by a major US investigative
firm (working for the Kuwaiti gov.) after Gulf War I.
This was covered CBS's Sixty Minutes show (maybe the Sixty Min. II) a year or so ago.

I'm hazy on the details, but I think some of the funds and Saddam's money men
even in Switzerland got identified and placed under some sort of govermental spotlight.

I think the interesting thing was that Saddam, with all that oil to export, had some
investment (carefully shielded from view) in at least one of the American
magazines devoted to automobiles. I couldn't help wonder if some of the current
American (and world) lust for some of the incredible horsepower of some civilian vehicles
(and higher consumption of petroleum products) wasn't "fueled" by Saddam-influenced
mouthpieces in these magazines.

(Don't worry, I'm not on the "What Would Jesus Drive" bandwagon...just noting that
Saddam may have used his magazine investment to help push up demand AND DEPENDENCE on
just about the only product and $$$ source his country exported.)

[XBob]

6 - Burma - an interesting place - and unless things have changed, a closed/sealed society, a large portion of which is run by a mad General, right out of 'Apocolypse Now'.

It has the 'golden triangle' which grows a huge percentage of the opium used in the world for herone. It is seriously separated officially from the rest of the world, and the 'bad lands' of ?Asia, where 'bad' Chinese move from the north, and 'bad' westerners from the south.

Mostly the stick pretty much to themselves, and don't allow strangers in legally. But they are source of most of the famous 'Thai' drugs.

[AmericaUnited]

Sounds like we need an NSA money sucking black op to occur here on these bank accounts.

[AmericaUnited]

I couldn't help wonder if some of the current American (and world) lust for some of the incredible horsepower of some civilian vehicles

The amount of extra gasoline these types of car use and given the relativly small number of them (campared to world auto sales), makes this a NO-GO conspiracy. Thier impact on the world oil market is way down in the background noise level.

[bandleader]

Syria is the next target as a "Charter Member"of The Axis of Evil!Syria was exactly what "W"was referring to with The Bush Doctrine!!

[VOA]

I agree that the impact is minimal.
At the same time, it is interesting that Saddam (and/or his money men) when they
picked a sector of popular American magazines to invest in...they chose automotive mags.

Just because they may not have succeeded in getting millions into 650hp Bentley Sedans
doesn't mean that they haven't succeeded in keeping the USA complacently dependent on
foreign oil.

One fact that does seem solid (and under-reported) is that California refineries were
fairly dependent on sour crude...and I think they got something like 10% of it
from IRAQ even in the months leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Besides the nutty Democratic politics, there might have been an additional reason for
the California antipathy against hitting Iraq, compared to a lot of other states.
The elites of San Fran, Santa Barbara and West Los Angeles make real noise
everytime it costs a few extra bucks to fill up their Volvos, Saabs, and Hummers.