Round up the usual suspects!
Posted on 12/03/2003 6:20:57 PM PST by TexKat
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) withdrew more than $1 billion from Iraq (news - web sites)'s central bank hours before U.S. forces invaded, and some of the money may be funding the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops, ABC News reported on Wednesday.
Quoting a letter purportedly written by Saddam and obtained by ABC News, and citing U.S. officials, ABC News said $132 million of funds withdrawn by the Iraqi leader is unaccounted for and may be being used by his followers to fund attacks against U.S. forces.
ABC News said the handwritten letter from Saddam, dated March 19, 2003, was found by U.S. agents in the files of the Iraqi central bank, and obtained by ABC News.
"We are giving, with this written note, permission for Mr. Qusay Saddam Hussein and Mr. Hekmat Mezban Ibrahiem to receive the following amounts of money: 1 - $920 million. 2 - 90 million euros. To protect and save them from American aggression," the letter said, according to an English translation provided by ABC News.
Most of the cash has since been recovered by U.S. soldiers and agents in Iraq, ABC News said, but 33 boxes of newly printed $100 bills have been connected to recent attacks on U.S. forces.
Round up the usual suspects!
It's easy to see why ABC considers the item news now, though, where they didn't eight months ago.
Today, they can spin the story to seem as if the U.S. dollars that are funding Saddam's fedayeen somehow came from the Bush administration to start with. They believe the irony of it will somehow reflect on the "reckless actions" of an "out of control" administration. They want us to believe that American taxpayers are paying for the deaths of American servicemen...
Scum.
The when, where and how were all reported back in April or May, at the latest. The only new element of the ABC report is the conjecture (probably correct) that the money is being employed to fund the dead-enders.
The earlier reports were, as I recall, from UK papers -- probably the Telegraph.
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