Damascus
As much as $3 billion in Iraqi assets, part of Saddam Hussein’s vast personal fortune, is sitting in Syrian banks, U.S. officials told Time magazine this week. Saddam was once named by Forbes as the third richest ruler in the world, bested only by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and the Sultan of Brunei. The U.S. fears the money could be used to fund attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, and has asked Syria to release it. Damascus publicly refuses to admit the money is there, though it says privately that unspecified accounts have been frozen. The U.S. is now threatening severe sanctions against Syrian banks that would bar them from world capital markets.
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