[PEN-L:36104] Re: Bush robs banks. No sherrif in sight.

[andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@xxxxxxxxx>]

I read yesterday that the US got the Swiss to cough up Iraqi deposits too. What's the world coming to? I thought the whole point of the existence of Switzerland was that they NEVER give up bank deposits. jks

 

 k hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Brown rejects US bid for Iraqi cash
>
> David Leigh
> Tuesday March 25, 2003
> The Guardian
>
> The chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, is unwilling to comply with a
> US demand that he should turn over £200m Iraqi assets frozen in Britain to
> an American-controlled account.
>
> Britain wants the UN to control the funds, which have been frozen since the
> first Gulf war began 12 years ago.
>
> The Treasury said yesterday that Mr Brown has been in talks with his US
> opposite number, the treasury secretary John Snow, and wanted the money to
> be "used for the benefit and welfare of the Iraqi people".
>
> Cash totalling more than £400m has been frozen in British bank accounts
> under UN resolutions since 1990.
>
> The British stance is that both in the UK and the Cayman Islands, which have
> also been the subject of a US demand, there is no legal authority to hand
> the cash over to the US.
>
> The British government is still owed more than £1bn for defaults on credit
> sales to Iraq backed by the export credit guarantee department on the orders
> of the then Conservative government.
>
> The US government has ordered 17 banks in the US to hand over $1.7bn in
> frozen Iraqi government money, saying it will use it for humanitarian
> purposes. They include both US banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America
> to American subsidiaries of foreign banks, such as Deutsche Bank, the Arab
> Banking Corporation and the Commercial Bank of Kuwait.
>
> The cash is to be transferred to a new account at the Federal Reserve Bank
> of New York.
>
> The US asked eight countries to seize $600mn (£380m) in frozen Iraqi assets
> and turn it over to the American fund.
>
> US officials say the offshore Caribbean tax havens of the Bahamas and the
> Cayman Islands hold sizeable deposits. The Bahamas, whose administration
> remained silent last night, are independent and not under British control.
>
> White House officials have threatened to prevent foreign banks doing
> business in the US if they refused to turn over Iraqi government money and
> what they called "blood money" belonging to President Saddam or his
> associates.
>
> Saddam Hussein is alleged to have spirited away more than $6bn for his own
> benefit.
>
> The Swiss bank UBS said yesterday that it would hand over some money in
> blocked accounts at its US branches.
>
> "The funds stem from payments of US oil companies to Iraqi ones for
> deliveries ahead of the implementation of sanctions against Iraq in 1990,"
> its spokesman Serge Steiner said.
>
> But officials in Switzerland said they would be unable to hand over $364m
> from Swiss accounts without a security council resolution.

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