Iraqi Citizens Recover Funds to Help Them Rebuild.
Apr 19th 2003 | 7:01 pm
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Iraqi Citizens Recover Funds to Help Them Rebuild.
The Iraqi citizens should be thankful for the coalition's stewardship
of their rightful dues.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041903_nw_millions.html
Troops Find $650 Million in Baghdad
April 19 (AP) ?X Two Army sergeants in Baghdad stumbled across an
estimated $650 million in U.S. currency hidden in a cottage, the Los
Angeles Times reported.
The sergeants tore down a cinderblock and concrete barricade blocking
the cottage door Friday and found 40 sealed, galvanized aluminum boxes
lined up on the floor. Breaking open one box, they discovered 40
sealed stacks of uncirculated $100 bills, $100,000 per stack, or $4
million in the box. In all, the 40 boxes were assumed to contain $160
million.
"I need to call my wife and tell her we were multimillionaires for
about three seconds," Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff said as he stood next to
a box stuffed with sealed bundles of currency.
In an adjacent home in an exclusive Tigris River neighborhood where
senior Baath Party and Republican Guard officials had lived, the
sergeants found another 40 aluminum boxes assumed to contain another
$160 million in currency.
Their discovery set off a nighttime search of abandoned mansion
estates tucked among parks and canals. By 11 p.m., soldiers of the 3rd
Infantry Division had found two more cottages containing at least 84
more boxes presumed to hold $336 million in cash, for a total of $656
million.
The loot apparently was hidden by fleeing Baath Party members and
senior Republican Guard commanders who had lived in the wooded
neighborhood just east of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace, the
Times said.
Officials did not immediately confirm that the currency was legal
tender, but an Army private who said he had worked for an armored car
company examined the bills and called them genuine.
Taylor Griffin, a U.S. Treasury spokesman, offered assurances that any
cash retrieved from Saddam's government would be held aside for the
people of Iraq.
On Thursday the same battalion recovered more than $5 million in cash
from a botched bank robbery that was being for the new transitional
government being formed, according to officials.
The cash boxes were loaded onto trucks and escorted by military police
to division headquarters at Baghdad's international airport for
counting and security.
Officials said they did not know the source of the currency.
A former Iraqi official who requested anonymity said Saddam's
government received hard currency for illicit oil smuggling activity
that has been said to have provided a critical source of revenue not
subject to United Nations oversight.
At the time of the first Gulf war in 1991, the former official said,
Saddam's government accumulated a cash hoard of $4 billion to $6
billion.
of their rightful dues.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041903_nw_millions.html
Troops Find $650 Million in Baghdad
April 19 (AP) ?X Two Army sergeants in Baghdad stumbled across an
estimated $650 million in U.S. currency hidden in a cottage, the Los
Angeles Times reported.
The sergeants tore down a cinderblock and concrete barricade blocking
the cottage door Friday and found 40 sealed, galvanized aluminum boxes
lined up on the floor. Breaking open one box, they discovered 40
sealed stacks of uncirculated $100 bills, $100,000 per stack, or $4
million in the box. In all, the 40 boxes were assumed to contain $160
million.
"I need to call my wife and tell her we were multimillionaires for
about three seconds," Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff said as he stood next to
a box stuffed with sealed bundles of currency.
In an adjacent home in an exclusive Tigris River neighborhood where
senior Baath Party and Republican Guard officials had lived, the
sergeants found another 40 aluminum boxes assumed to contain another
$160 million in currency.
Their discovery set off a nighttime search of abandoned mansion
estates tucked among parks and canals. By 11 p.m., soldiers of the 3rd
Infantry Division had found two more cottages containing at least 84
more boxes presumed to hold $336 million in cash, for a total of $656
million.
The loot apparently was hidden by fleeing Baath Party members and
senior Republican Guard commanders who had lived in the wooded
neighborhood just east of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace, the
Times said.
Officials did not immediately confirm that the currency was legal
tender, but an Army private who said he had worked for an armored car
company examined the bills and called them genuine.
Taylor Griffin, a U.S. Treasury spokesman, offered assurances that any
cash retrieved from Saddam's government would be held aside for the
people of Iraq.
On Thursday the same battalion recovered more than $5 million in cash
from a botched bank robbery that was being for the new transitional
government being formed, according to officials.
The cash boxes were loaded onto trucks and escorted by military police
to division headquarters at Baghdad's international airport for
counting and security.
Officials said they did not know the source of the currency.
A former Iraqi official who requested anonymity said Saddam's
government received hard currency for illicit oil smuggling activity
that has been said to have provided a critical source of revenue not
subject to United Nations oversight.
At the time of the first Gulf war in 1991, the former official said,
Saddam's government accumulated a cash hoard of $4 billion to $6
billion.
Apr 20th 2003 | 2:20 am
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Iraqi Citizens Recover Funds to Help Them Rebuild.
Emil Nitrate wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The Iraqi citizens should be thankful for the coalition's stewardship
> of their rightful dues.
> http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041903_nw_millions.html
> Troops Find $650 Million in Baghdad
That might pay for a couple of bridges, a few bottles of water and a limb or
two.
---
DFM
news:[email protected]...
> The Iraqi citizens should be thankful for the coalition's stewardship
> of their rightful dues.
> http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/041903_nw_millions.html
> Troops Find $650 Million in Baghdad
That might pay for a couple of bridges, a few bottles of water and a limb or
two.
---
DFM
