Divesting Saddam: Freezing, Seizing, And Repatriating Saddam's Money To The Iraqis

Over the last 20 years, Iraq and its people have been systematically looted by the brutal tyranny of Saddam Hussein. Today, tens of billions of dollars in assets and cash lie somewhere outside of Iraq in the smoky depths of phony front companies, hidden trusts, and cash accounts in the names of regime family members and loyalists. This stolen money represents another layer of destruction and deceit that the Hussein regime inflicted on the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have suffered enough and this money that was taken belongs to them. These assets must be found and they must be returned to the people of Iraq to build schools and reopen businesses and hospitals and repair the country's infrastructure, all of it destroyed by the malicious neglect of a tyrant and his inner circle. Today (May 14, 2003) the Oversight Investigations Committee holds the first congressional hearing on the search for Saddam's money and the efforts to return it to the Iraqi people. Initial press reports are startling, with stories of shell companies in numerous countries, discoveries in Iraq of hundreds of millions of U.S. Dollars, and oil smuggling schemes that are without parallel among other petty dictators and thugs.