Friday, May 16, 2003
Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
From: spliffslips
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
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Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
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By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials believe they have recovered most of the $1 billion taken from Iraq's central bank by one of Saddam Hussein's sons before the regime's collapse.
A total of $950 million -- $850 million in U.S. currency and another $100 million in euros -- were found by U.S.-led coalition troops in 191 boxes hidden in government palaces throughout Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials said Thursday.
On March 18 -- before coalition aerial strikes began -- Saddam's youngest son Qusai ordered a central bank official to give him $1 billion in cash from Iraq's foreign exchange reserves. The 236 boxes were loaded onto three tractor-trailers. Identification certificates slipped into each box were still there when the money was found, Treasury officials said in Washington. They are still searching for 45 boxes.
"We are making good progress in finding funds," Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said, adding that the money, along with other seized Iraqi government assets, will likely be devoted to the reconstruction effort.
Lebanon's Central Bank has frozen millions of dollars in other Iraqi assets but will return them only after a "legitimate" government is formed in Baghdad, bank Governor Riyadh Salameh said Friday. Salameh did not disclose the amount, but a U.S. Treasury official said $495 million was found in secret bank accounts in Lebanon.
Also Friday, a senior U.S. official said between 15,000 and 30,000 Baath Party officials would be banned from any future Iraqi government. The official from the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new policy would help Iraq move on from the legacy of Saddam's regime.
Reconstruction officials are trying to get Iraq's ministries and civil service working again, and are struggling to make sure they purge Saddam sympathizers without gutting the entire bureaucracy.
The order, signed by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer, intends to bar Baathists from the party's top four echelons from any public position -- whether in universities, hospitals or minor government posts.
About 50 women rallied Friday in a central square in Baghdad to urge U.S. authorities to include women in the interim administration. Likely to be formed next month, the administration's first task will be to begin reconstructing a country ravaged by war and more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
"We want to show the world that Saddam was a criminal and committed crimes against Iraqi women," said Rahbiya al-Gassab, a member of the Iraqi Women's League.
Iraq's reconstruction will top the agenda when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow meets in Deauville, France, this weekend with his counterparts from the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia.
Washington wants to use those talks to resolve differences with France, Germany and Russia -- three countries that opposed the U.S.-led war -- over how reconstruction will proceed.
The Bush administration also has been stepping up the pressure to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq.
Russia and France want sanctions suspended -- not lifted -- because Security Council resolutions call for U.N. inspectors to certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated. Since the end of the war, the United States has barred U.N. inspectors.
The United States has revised its U.N. draft resolution -- but did not significantly change two key concerns of many council members: the limited U.N. role and powerful position of the United States and Britain as occupying powers. The resolution would also end U.N. control over the country's oil wealth and allow the United States to use the money for Iraq's reconstruction.
"There are some things that are positive," said Fayssal Mekdad, the deputy U.N. ambassador of Syria, also a Security Council member. "But the most sensitive issues are still here."
Bremer says U.S. authorities will improve security by rounding up thousands of criminals turned loose in March by the old regime. He reported 300 arrests in the previous 48 hours.
Bremer takes over from retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, whose administration was criticized for failing to stem the breakdown in law and order and to restore basic services in Baghdad and other cities.
Bremer's team now includes former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who said he has accepted a position as a senior policy adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry. A former undercover narcotics detective, Kerik led the New York police force through the Sept. 11 attacks.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-rdp,0,6900030.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
|
Military Care Packages War Blog Updates
--------------------
Most Looted Cash Is Recovered in Iraq
--------------------
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
May 16, 2003, 9:16 AM EDT
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials believe they have recovered most of the $1 billion taken from Iraq's central bank by one of Saddam Hussein's sons before the regime's collapse.
A total of $950 million -- $850 million in U.S. currency and another $100 million in euros -- were found by U.S.-led coalition troops in 191 boxes hidden in government palaces throughout Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials said Thursday.
On March 18 -- before coalition aerial strikes began -- Saddam's youngest son Qusai ordered a central bank official to give him $1 billion in cash from Iraq's foreign exchange reserves. The 236 boxes were loaded onto three tractor-trailers. Identification certificates slipped into each box were still there when the money was found, Treasury officials said in Washington. They are still searching for 45 boxes.
"We are making good progress in finding funds," Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said, adding that the money, along with other seized Iraqi government assets, will likely be devoted to the reconstruction effort.
Lebanon's Central Bank has frozen millions of dollars in other Iraqi assets but will return them only after a "legitimate" government is formed in Baghdad, bank Governor Riyadh Salameh said Friday. Salameh did not disclose the amount, but a U.S. Treasury official said $495 million was found in secret bank accounts in Lebanon.
Also Friday, a senior U.S. official said between 15,000 and 30,000 Baath Party officials would be banned from any future Iraqi government. The official from the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new policy would help Iraq move on from the legacy of Saddam's regime.
Reconstruction officials are trying to get Iraq's ministries and civil service working again, and are struggling to make sure they purge Saddam sympathizers without gutting the entire bureaucracy.
The order, signed by U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer, intends to bar Baathists from the party's top four echelons from any public position -- whether in universities, hospitals or minor government posts.
About 50 women rallied Friday in a central square in Baghdad to urge U.S. authorities to include women in the interim administration. Likely to be formed next month, the administration's first task will be to begin reconstructing a country ravaged by war and more than a decade of U.N. sanctions.
"We want to show the world that Saddam was a criminal and committed crimes against Iraqi women," said Rahbiya al-Gassab, a member of the Iraqi Women's League.
Iraq's reconstruction will top the agenda when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow meets in Deauville, France, this weekend with his counterparts from the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia.
Washington wants to use those talks to resolve differences with France, Germany and Russia -- three countries that opposed the U.S.-led war -- over how reconstruction will proceed.
The Bush administration also has been stepping up the pressure to obtain a U.N. Security Council resolution to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq.
Russia and France want sanctions suspended -- not lifted -- because Security Council resolutions call for U.N. inspectors to certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated. Since the end of the war, the United States has barred U.N. inspectors.
The United States has revised its U.N. draft resolution -- but did not significantly change two key concerns of many council members: the limited U.N. role and powerful position of the United States and Britain as occupying powers. The resolution would also end U.N. control over the country's oil wealth and allow the United States to use the money for Iraq's reconstruction.
"There are some things that are positive," said Fayssal Mekdad, the deputy U.N. ambassador of Syria, also a Security Council member. "But the most sensitive issues are still here."
Bremer says U.S. authorities will improve security by rounding up thousands of criminals turned loose in March by the old regime. He reported 300 arrests in the previous 48 hours.
Bremer takes over from retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, whose administration was criticized for failing to stem the breakdown in law and order and to restore basic services in Baghdad and other cities.
Bremer's team now includes former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who said he has accepted a position as a senior policy adviser to Iraq's Interior Ministry. A former undercover narcotics detective, Kerik led the New York police force through the Sept. 11 attacks.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-rdp,0,6900030.story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
