| Stealing from a Thief |
24 March 2003
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US Takes Iraq's Money
The Bush administration has announced that it will confiscate funds in the US that belong to the Iraqi government -- the first time this has been done since World War II. The US Treasury Department has sent letters to no fewer than 18 US banks ordering them to turn over to the Fed some $1.5 billion that was frozen during operation Desert Storm more than a decade ago. One wonders where the money will go.
Officially, the Bush White House says that the funds will be needed for the reconstruction of Iraq following the war. Well and good, laudable even, but why was it necessary to take the money into American hands rather than keep it frozen to be returned to a legitimate, democratic, wise and wonderful new Iraqi regime? Surely, the Iraqi government that follows should become the heir to Saddam's billions.
The amount taken is certainly not pocket change, but it will hardly offset the huge amounts the US military is dropping on Baghdad even now. Nor does the US really need to take Iraq's money for its own purposes; any government that can serious discuss a $300 billion deficit without crying broke won't bother with such a sum. Instead, the Bush administration is spelling out how the business world is going to have to deal with the reconstruction of Iraq. Much will need to be done, and America has the money to do it. Applications need not be made in Baghdad, but rather in Washington.
Naturally, some banks and other businesses was well as non-American governments may consider ignoring the new financial order. There is a price to pay for that, too. The Patriot Act permits Uncle Sam to cut off correspondence accounts of any foreign entity that causes a problem. Call it the financial equivalent of shock and awe.