Posted on 10/23/2004 10:44:04 AM PDT by Stoat
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
Syria now admits it has Saddam's money
But insists amount much lower than U.S. alleges
| Syria has acknowledged that its banks have held funds for Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service But the regime of President Bashar Assad disputes U.S. officials who say Syria was harboring about $3 billion in Saddam funds. Instead, Syria maintains that its Iraqi assets have not exceeded $300 million. |
| The Assad regime has frozen funds from the former Iraqi government, officials said. Dureid Dirgham, director of the Syrian Commercial Bank, said the Iraqi government deposited $216 million in the financial institution. "No former Iraqi officials have private accounts in this bank," Dirgham was quoted by the official Syrian News Agency as saying. Officials said the remaining funds have been deposited in other Syrian state-owned banks. They did not elaborate. The Bush administration has threatened to impose sanctions on the Syrian Commercial Bank that would ban activities or contacts in the United States. The bank — with a subsidiary in Lebanon and correspondent accounts with several U.S. banks — was said to have harbored up to $1 billion in Saddam funds and assets. "Returning the funds is a natural right of the Iraqi side," Dirgham said. "But there are contracts concluded with Iraq before the war that first need to be settled." The administration has also been examining a proposal to impose sanctions on Lebanese politicians who support the Syrian occupation. On Oct. 16, the Lebanese government issued a statement that warned against the proposal. "Prime Minister Rafik Hariri summoned U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman today to express concern and opposition to a request by members of Congress to U.S. President Bush to freeze assets of Lebanese and Syrian officials to pressure Lebanon and Syria," the office of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said in a statement. |
And what else???????
...and Saddam's WMD...and Saddam's henchmen...and Saddam's terrorist supporters...
WMD
Strange - I've been sending Iraqi bankers tens of thousands of dollars so they could pay the back taxes owed on this money and get the funds back out of Syria and give me my cut.
I wonder what's holding things up?
= )
That's not the only think of Saddam's they are holding, imo.
xactly. It's all a matter of time...peeling back the stinking onion....exposing those who harbor, fund, train, and encourage terror.
Syria now admits it has Saddam's money
...and Saddam's WMD...and Saddam's henchmen...and Saddam's terrorist supporters...""
I know I am not the only person who has thought that for a long time.
So the roomfulls of cash, billions of dollars, was all just loose change. Whew.
Sure thing! And that'll happen on the day the Liberals admit that Joe McCarthy was right about communist infiltration in Hollywood and various government agencies! ; )
It would of been better had Israel taken Damascus.
Dear President Pencil-Necked Geek,
It's unfornate you haven't agreed to turn over the funds rightfully belonging to the people of Iraq. However if you prefer to leave them in banks in Damascus or the Bekka Valley, we will be happy to send a few Marines to make a cash withdrawal in person.
Signed,
Dubya
How did some $3 billion become some $300 million? The money has been spent - put to buying influence throughout Europe, in paying expenses of jihadist warriors on their pilgrimage to death in Iraq, and in funding ideological campaigns all over the world.
All that horse play with the UN , was just a ploy to help SADDAM get those WMDs out of IRAQ.
The UN knew , that the US was going to go into IRAQ anyway, weither they had the UNs blessing or not.
The UN was just stallling ( Stonewalling ) for SADDAM, so SADDAM can get those WMDs out.
So, how much of those funds has already been disbursed to cover the Iraqi "insurgency"?
I agree! That was President Bush's biggest mistake was screwing around with the worthless back stabbing jerks at the U.N.
Oh, I'm sure a good deal of that money has found it's way into the bank accounts of the good "honest" people of the Syrian regime, and their friends.
The US should have gone into IRAQ first right after 9 / 11 , when we had the worlds support behind us.
At least, if we went right into Iraq right after 9 / 11 , we would have caught SADDAM with those WMDs, like someone being caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
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