Beach Blanket Babylon
Tim May
timcmay at got.net
Sat Apr 12 20:15:17 PDT 2003
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
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