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CNN Live Today
The Thief of Baghdad
Aired May 06, 2003 - 11:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The looting of Baghdad apparently started before the first bomb fell. Someone apparently took out a billion dollars from Iraq's Central Bank, a transaction so large it reportedly took three big rigs just to haul away all that cash.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Baghdad can perhaps tell us more about that.
Nic, hello.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, we've been talking to some people who say they were in the market just across the road from the Baghdad Central Bank when that money was removed from the bank.
Now, what they say they saw happening were three huge large trucks pull up outside the central bank, along with four to five Mercedes vehicles. They say this was in the early hours of the morning, while it was still dark, just before the war began, and they say they could see what appeared to be unloading going on and the trucks filled with something, they couldn't see what, and then those trucks pulling away after several hours.
Now the representative in Iraq from the U.S. Treasury Department, George Molineaux (ph), who is here to oversee the economic rebuilding of Iraq, has had conversations with managers from Iraq's Central Bank, and they confirmed to him that some $900 million was taken that night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In discussing this issue with certain officials at the Central Bank of Iraq, they informed me that the day prior to the war beginning, that people arrived at the Central Bank and removed in excess of $900 million U.S. dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now, Mr. Molineaux also said that Iraqi bank officials, the Central Bank officials, tell him that the people who came had a letter from Saddam Hussein authorizing them to take the money.
Now, some other Central Bank officials have talked on the conditions of anonymity to "The New York Times," and they told them that those people who came to the bank to take the money were no less than Saddam Hussein's younger son, Qusay Saddam Hussein, in charge of Iraq's intelligence, Abid Hamud (ph), Saddam Hussein's private secretary, the minister for finance, the director of the Iraqi treasury, and the director of the Central Bank. And according to those officials, it took them about two hours to load up $900 million in cash into the backs of those trucks and drive them away.
Now perhaps it can't be called looting at this stage, because those Central Bank officials point out that the way Saddam Hussein ran his banks here in Iraq, as if they were his own pocket book. He would often send people down, perhaps officials, to pick up as much as $5 million on occasion -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Let's talk about some of the impact, if there's as much as $1 billion floating around out there. First of all, if that money would be in the hands of Saddam Hussein, if he was alive, what could that money be used for?
ROBERTSON: Well, Saddam Hussein is nowhere to be seen at this time, so it may be financing his hiding, it may be financing his departure, it may be financing a new home, and identities even for family members somewhere else in the world. That would be the fear.
Now we do know a couple weeks ago, U.S. troops here discovered $650 million in a house, or a number of cottages in a presidential compound in Baghdad. At this time, U.S. officials are not saying whether this $650 million discovered recently is part of that $900 million taken that night before the war.
But there is a lot of concern here that that money could be being used by Saddam Hussein to try and come back, buy his way back into power, pay for influence with Iraqi officials here. So chasing down that money for the Iraqi people, at least, is going to be a very, very important thing to do, to set their minds at rest that that $900 million is not going to be used against them by the former regime -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Nic, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 6, 2003 - 11:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The looting of Baghdad apparently started before the first bomb fell. Someone apparently took out a billion dollars from Iraq's Central Bank, a transaction so large it reportedly took three big rigs just to haul away all that cash.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Baghdad can perhaps tell us more about that.
Nic, hello.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Well, we've been talking to some people who say they were in the market just across the road from the Baghdad Central Bank when that money was removed from the bank.
Now, what they say they saw happening were three huge large trucks pull up outside the central bank, along with four to five Mercedes vehicles. They say this was in the early hours of the morning, while it was still dark, just before the war began, and they say they could see what appeared to be unloading going on and the trucks filled with something, they couldn't see what, and then those trucks pulling away after several hours.
Now the representative in Iraq from the U.S. Treasury Department, George Molineaux (ph), who is here to oversee the economic rebuilding of Iraq, has had conversations with managers from Iraq's Central Bank, and they confirmed to him that some $900 million was taken that night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In discussing this issue with certain officials at the Central Bank of Iraq, they informed me that the day prior to the war beginning, that people arrived at the Central Bank and removed in excess of $900 million U.S. dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now, Mr. Molineaux also said that Iraqi bank officials, the Central Bank officials, tell him that the people who came had a letter from Saddam Hussein authorizing them to take the money.
Now, some other Central Bank officials have talked on the conditions of anonymity to "The New York Times," and they told them that those people who came to the bank to take the money were no less than Saddam Hussein's younger son, Qusay Saddam Hussein, in charge of Iraq's intelligence, Abid Hamud (ph), Saddam Hussein's private secretary, the minister for finance, the director of the Iraqi treasury, and the director of the Central Bank. And according to those officials, it took them about two hours to load up $900 million in cash into the backs of those trucks and drive them away.
Now perhaps it can't be called looting at this stage, because those Central Bank officials point out that the way Saddam Hussein ran his banks here in Iraq, as if they were his own pocket book. He would often send people down, perhaps officials, to pick up as much as $5 million on occasion -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Let's talk about some of the impact, if there's as much as $1 billion floating around out there. First of all, if that money would be in the hands of Saddam Hussein, if he was alive, what could that money be used for?
ROBERTSON: Well, Saddam Hussein is nowhere to be seen at this time, so it may be financing his hiding, it may be financing his departure, it may be financing a new home, and identities even for family members somewhere else in the world. That would be the fear.
Now we do know a couple weeks ago, U.S. troops here discovered $650 million in a house, or a number of cottages in a presidential compound in Baghdad. At this time, U.S. officials are not saying whether this $650 million discovered recently is part of that $900 million taken that night before the war.
But there is a lot of concern here that that money could be being used by Saddam Hussein to try and come back, buy his way back into power, pay for influence with Iraqi officials here. So chasing down that money for the Iraqi people, at least, is going to be a very, very important thing to do, to set their minds at rest that that $900 million is not going to be used against them by the former regime -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Nic Robertson in Baghdad. Nic, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
