WASHINGTON – A fortune that Saddam Hussein earned from illicit oil deals with Syria during the U.N. oil-for-food program is gone from Syrian banks – and possibly being used to finance terrorism in Iraq, a top administration official said yesterday.
State and Treasury Department officials told a House panel that Syria has failed to properly account for more than $500 million in Iraqi oil profits. The cash was stashed in Syria’s central bank and was mysteriously paid to Syrian “businessmen” after Saddam Hussein’s fall.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), chairman of a House subcommittee, asked whether the money is likely now in accounts controlled “by the clique that supported Saddam Hussein that hates everything we are trying to do in Iraq.”
“It’s fair to say there is a substantial amount of money out there and that some of that money, yes, could definitely be used by former regime elements and the insurgency,” Elizabeth Dibble, deputy assistant secretary of state, replied.