Lockboxes, Iraqi Loot and a Trail to the Fed

[maddezmom]

By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

Published: June 6, 2004


HEN a United States Army sergeant broke through a false wall in a small building in Baghdad on a Friday afternoon a little over a year ago, he discovered more than three dozen sealed boxes containing about $160 million in neatly bundled $100 bills.

Later that day, soldiers found more cash in other hideaways near the Tigris River, in an exclusive neighborhood that elite members of Saddam Hussein's government once called home. By the end of the evening, they had amassed 164 metal boxes, all riveted shut, that held about $650 million in shrink-wrapped greenbacks. The cash was so heavy, and so valuable, that the Army needed a C-130 Hercules cargo plane to airlift it to a secure location.

Just two days later, on Sunday, April 20, 2003, Thomas C. Baxter, head of the legal unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, read a brief news account of the discovery. Most of the money that turned up in Baghdad was new, bore sequential serial numbers and was stored with documents indicating that it had once been held in Iraq's central bank. One fact particularly bothered Mr. Baxter: the money had markings from three Fed banks, including his own in New York.

Iraq, of course, had been subject to more than a decade of trade sanctions by the United States and the United Nations, so large piles of dollars, especially new bills, were not supposed to have found their way to Baghdad.

~snip~
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/business/yourmoney/06ubs.html

very long, but worth it....

[I thought so.]

1. Thanks for the post.

I have wondered about this since I saw the first story.

[Widgetsfriend]

2. UBS bought Enron.

UBS is mentioned extensively in this article...they're criminals, I believe.

This ties into criminal enterprises involving the Bush family dating to Iran/Contra and BCCI.

Links to DU forums with other good links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=875102

http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID71/2331.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=11956&forum=DCForumID61

If you go back through these links, there are dozens of other links to stories about the BFEE and their ties to the crimes. What I'm trying to figure out with this current NYT story is: Is this all or part of what Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator, is talking about when she talks about terrorism money trails and big names?http://baltimorechronicle.com/050704SibelEdmonds.shtml

And also, this ties into Ahmed Chalabi's current problems, as he supposedly has (had) Saddam's papers showing who was culpable in the UN Oil for Food Program. Is that why Ahmed is being cannabalized right now? http://www.forbes.com/energy/2004/05/20/cz_ms_0520iraq.html

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/20/chalabi/index_np.html (get a day pass)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/05/20/chalabi/index_np.html

Anyway, I'd love to hear some speculation about all this. Obviously some very important people are worried about something. What???

[I thought so.]

3. Remember Haliburton did...

busimess with Iraq thru Europian corps. I remember Cheney said sanctions should be relaxed during the debate.

[Widgetsfriend]

4. That thought had just occurred to me as well.

I recently read an article that said that Iran/Contra never ended, it just morphed into the current scandals. I remember when the Enron scandal broke, I immediately thought it resembled the criminal business dealings I'd read about in Iran/Contra articles. Since Reagan was responsible for allowing the BFEE to first rear its ugly head in a mainstream way (as opposed to just being the shadow government), this seems a fitting time to rehash this stuff. I know there are some DU'ers who know this stuff much better than I. Where are they? I'll do another post and see if I can stir them up and send them here.

[gandalf]

6. Interesting. UBS bought Enron?

Do you have a link?

Interesting threads you posted.

[Widgetsfriend]

8. Here's a link.

http://www.securitiesfraudfyi.com/ubs_warburg.html

I think the energy trading portion of Enron was the only viable thing left. A woman named Catherine Austin Fitts wrote about UBS's purchase when it was happening. She speculated that the main reason to allow the purchase was to move documents offshore, away from investigators. I suspect she was right. You can find her articles with Google.

[gandalf]

9. Thanks

I read some stuff from Fitts that appeared on fromthewilderness.com.

[the Kelly Gang]

5. I didn't know it was US dollars but I did wonder why Saddam never fled

to a friendly east Europe country like Belarus..with so much loot he could have bought himself freedom.

I still wonder if that bloke they pulled out of a hole is really him..or not some poor mug who maybe is dying of cancer and who Saddam paid millions to his family ??????????

[PATRICK]

7. An especially honest soldier

On the other hand I am hearing constant tales of local soldiers looting Iraq like the cast of "Three Kings" on a sequel. It must have been epidemic and one element of disintegration of discipline and regional law and order.

Worse lawlessness was to come for the eventual prisoners of the occupation force.