- News>
- World
Half-brother giving leads on where to find Saddam`s assets
Washington, June 29: Under interrogation, deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein`s half-brother and financial mastermind Barzan Tikriti is speaking out against the regime he served and giving the us investigators leads on where to find Saddam`s hidden wealth, a media report said here.
Washington, June 29: Under interrogation, deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's half-brother and financial mastermind Barzan Tikriti is speaking out against the regime he served and giving the us investigators leads on where to find Saddam's hidden wealth, a media report said here.
A special interrogator has been flown in from the US to take up the matter of what may be billions of dollars in assets Barzan helped to hide, 'Time' magazine reported.
According to the interrogator, Scott Schneider, Barzan proclaimed on several occasions that he "spoke out against the regime" and demanded a search for documents that, he said, would prove his resistance to Saddam's dictatorship.
Barzan told US investigators that the fortune he helped Saddam to hide could be anything from $2 billion to $7 billion or more.
US officials fear that if not recovered, the money could find its way to terrorists or to those continuing to resist the occupation of Iraq.
Schneider, a Florida-based Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, told time that Barzan repeatedly demanded to be set free to participate in the running of his occupied country. "If you release me, if you let me go and then find a document implicating me in any crime, I will voluntarily come back (to detention)," he told Schneider.
Barzan and Saddam had the same mother though different fathers. Barzan served in 1979 to 1983 as head of Iraqi intelligence. Indict, a British human rights group, claims it can produce up to 30 witnesses to support various allegations against him, including directing the murder of thousands of rebellious Iraqi Kurds in 1983.
Bureau Report
According to the interrogator, Scott Schneider, Barzan proclaimed on several occasions that he "spoke out against the regime" and demanded a search for documents that, he said, would prove his resistance to Saddam's dictatorship.
Barzan told US investigators that the fortune he helped Saddam to hide could be anything from $2 billion to $7 billion or more.
US officials fear that if not recovered, the money could find its way to terrorists or to those continuing to resist the occupation of Iraq.
Schneider, a Florida-based Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, told time that Barzan repeatedly demanded to be set free to participate in the running of his occupied country. "If you release me, if you let me go and then find a document implicating me in any crime, I will voluntarily come back (to detention)," he told Schneider.
Barzan and Saddam had the same mother though different fathers. Barzan served in 1979 to 1983 as head of Iraqi intelligence. Indict, a British human rights group, claims it can produce up to 30 witnesses to support various allegations against him, including directing the murder of thousands of rebellious Iraqi Kurds in 1983.
Bureau Report