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Something tells me I'll never see the full report.
Iraqi negotiator is Saddam’s favorite
LINKS TO AN ATLANTA BANK
Al-Sadi also was responsible for the colossal amount of money required to pay the superweapons bill, U.S. officials say. The vast sums were as carefully and clandestinely collected as the components themselves, requiring an elaborate subterfuge involving, among others, the Atlanta branch of the Banco Nazionale del Lavoro, or BNL, according to U.S. intelligence.
In one of the most bizarre aspects of one of the most bizarre weapons procurement efforts in history, al-Sadi befriended the branch’s manager, Christopher Drogoul, who became the superweapons program’s chief fund-raiser, raising more than $5 billion, U.S. officials say.
In September 1993, Drogoul pleaded guilty to concealing billions of dollars in loans to Iraq, most of which were not guaranteed by the government, a violation of the bank’s internal limits and state and federal laws requiring accurate disclosure to government banking authorities, including the Federal Reserve. Drogoul was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
U.S. officials also say al-Sadi even set out to make a deal that would have permitted the Iraqi superweapons ministry to sell oil directly to a joint venture that included an established U.S. oil company, making American motorists part of the weapons financing scheme.
So that Iraq’s superweapons team had more leverage in the deal, its part of the joint venture was to be managed by a London oil company owned by the brother of one of al-Sadi’s deputies, the man responsible for the Iraqi nuclear weapons program.
That deal fell through only because it was scheduled to be finalized on Aug. 15, 1990, two weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait.