TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2003
I have hidden $40 bn: Saddam
REUTERS
DUBAI: Saddam Hussein has given his US captors information on hidden weapons and as much as $40 billion he may have seized while he was Iraq's president, an Iraqi official was quoted as saying on Monday.
"Saddam has confessed the names of people he told to keep the money and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily.
"The Governing Council is searching for $40 billion worth of funds seized by Saddam when he was in power and which has been deposited in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries under the names of fictitious companies," Allawi said.
He said the council had asked international legal companies to track the money.
Allawi said interrogators were now focusing on whether Saddam -- arrested by US forces this month and held at an undisclosed site -- had any links to militant groups.
"Interrogators are now focusing on the relationship between him and terrorist organisations and on funds paid to groups outside Iraq," Allawi told the newspaper.
It is not clear whether Saddam was ever behind ambushes that have killed at least 211 US soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.
The capture of Saddam has not ended guerrilla activity in Iraq, which US officials believe involves non-Iraqi militant Islamist guerrillas and Saddam loyalists .
Copyright © 2003 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.