On Saturday, April 12, 2003, at 06:23 PM, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

Iraq owes a billion (US ) pounds (Sterling) to Russia for weapons.

Russia spied on Blair for Hussein.

Do the math, Tim.

Where's the surprise? Certainly none here. According to CNN, Iraq owes France at least $8 billion, owes Germany some similar amount, and so on. Some of these debts are for armaments, some for industrial products, etc. Iraq's estimated debt is $200 billion. The CNN estimate for France ($8 B) is probably low. The U.S. of course is calling for France and Germany to "forgive" the debts. (A complication is of course that some of these debts are not owed to the _nations_ of France and Germany but to corporations, partnerships, banks, and even individuals. Which makes it hard for France or Germany to wave a magic wand and erase the debts. Granted, Jacques Randome Frenchie may have a hard time collecting, but the principle is of course that debts are not absolved by mere changes in government leadership. (This matters because the international bodies can make it hard for payments to flow back to Iraq: they can "attach" payments and send them to the creditors who make claims. The U.S. can attempt to avert this by bypassing European banking networks, I suppose. But, fundamentally, the money is still owed and if the creditors do not forgive the debts (and I mean the creditors, not the nations of France and Germany), then assets can be attached, even oil tankers can be impounded.) More interesting to me is the exodus of money and weaponry out of Iraq. Billions in gold bullion exiting the country. And into vaults and hidden places in Syria, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, and border areas of Iraq. Not only is there much evidence that the exodus of cash (dollars, not dinars) and bullion and valuable weapons began months ago, when war became inevitable, but it accelerated several weeks ago, just before the bombing began. Not to mention the tens of billions already in thousands of bank accounts in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Panama, and other locations. Set up over the past 20 years, and deeply hidden. (One of Saddam's relatives, recently a diplomat in Switzerland, spent most of his professional time distributing money safely. Some of this money may only be retrievable by Saddam, some only by his immediate family, some by "stay behind" and "terrorist" organizations.) Tens of billions in offshore accounts, and hundreds of millions in bullion, $100 bills, and treasure from the museums, plus assorted military know-how and weaponry. Ah, this is gonna fund a _lot_ of merriment! I just hope they're not as incompetent as the less well-funded Al Qa'aida. I hope they plan to use some of these tens of billions, some of their weaponry, taking out the real target. --Tim May "That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." --Samuel Adams

-- On 12 Apr 2003 at 20:15, Tim May wrote:

The U.S. of course is calling for France and Germany to "forgive" the debts. (A complication is of course that some of these debts are not owed to the _nations_ of France and Germany but to corporations, partnerships, banks, and even individuals. Which makes it hard for France or Germany to wave a magic wand and erase the debts. Granted, Jacques Randome Frenchie may have a hard time collecting, but the principle is of course that debts are not absolved by mere changes in government leadership. (This matters because the international bodies can make it hard for payments to flow back to Iraq: they can "attach" payments and send them to the creditors who make claims. The U.S. can attempt to avert this by bypassing European banking networks, I suppose. But, fundamentally, the money is still owed and if the creditors do not forgive the debts (and I mean the creditors, not the nations of France and Germany), then assets can be attached, even oil tankers can be impounded.)

Well indeed they can be, but first catch your rabbit. Collecting international debts is very difficult at the best of times, and for frenchies and germans who are owed money by Saddam, this is not the best of times. Jaques Random Frenchie had a deal with a French oil company that was weaseling oil through the sanctions, and skimming the oil for food program (which delivered a curiously small amount of food for a startlingly large amount of oil), and his debt was secured by both flows of oil. But now he discovers that due to the evils of US imperialism, the oil is being pumped by those evil exploitative US companies, who argue that the oil they are pumping has no connection to the oil he has attached. I kind of visualize Jacques Random Frenchie presenting a writ of attachment to an Iraqi. The Iraqi attempts to read it. It is french legalese, which he could not read even if he could read French, which he cannot. Then he turns it upside down to see if he can read it that way. He then hands it to a marine. The marine attempts to read it. Then the marine turns it upside down to see if he can read it that way. Then the marine says, "sorry, marines don't do this crap", and attempts to give the writ back, but finds the writ server is not around any more. So he drops the writ on the ground and forgets about it. (Marines make messes, they don't clean them up either.) --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG rNbLE8AitPnsUfz6E7tDkW17JbpruWTiW6PL5sxo 4TPA6l2XqW6GRK8B5PTQ3KbHaeLM8M+ynDLvokstC