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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