AP: Saddam-Linked Banks Given Business(by US-lead post-war govt)

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Sean McCormack, a spokesman for President Bush (news - web sites)'s National Security Council, did not respond to questions Friday about the banking arrangements. Former U.S. officials with Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq from Saddam's ouster until last June, also declined to answer questions about the arrangements.


Saddam's government had prohibited foreign banks from operating in Iraq, and Iraq was largely cut off from international banking after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990. The United Nations (news - web sites) banned most transactions with Iraq, although it later allowed deals under an oil-for-food program Saddam evaded through profitable clandestine arrangements.


After the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in April 2003, reviving Iraq's banking sector was one of the reconstruction jobs taken on by the U.S.-managed CPA and the Iraqi interim government it appointed.


The Iraqi interim government awarded banking licenses in January to HSBC and the National Bank of Kuwait. Neither has opened any branches in Iraq. HSBC got the license despite its recent connections with Saddam's regime.

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more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=2&u=/ap/20041112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_punished_bankers