Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Saddam shifted his funds through scores of dummy firms and dozens of foreign banks. Conspicuous among the financial institutions was B.C.C.I., now based in Abu Dhabi, which Kroll called "one of the more prominent banks in handling Iraqi money." Saddam also used a Panamanian shell company called Montana Management to acquire an 8.4% stake in Hachette, the publisher of such popular magazines as Elle, Woman's Day and Road & Track. While Hachette swiftly denied that Montana played any role in its management, nervous investors unloaded the media giant's stock, causing it to lose 3.6% of its value...
Washington had previously seized some of Saddam's holdings as part of $1 billion of Iraqi assets that the U.S. froze after Iraq invaded Kuwait. The properties were connected with Anees Masoor Wadi, an Iraqi middleman who resided in a $3.5 million Beverly Hills home -- where his neighbors included actor Gene Hackman and director John Landis -- and who was allegedly part of Saddam's global network for procuring arms and military technology. Wadi reportedly helped acquire a suburban Cleveland machine-tool firm called Matrix-Churchill, which made versatile computer-operated jig grinders that could be used to produce precision parts...
...mansion last month, along with his bank accounts, including one that contained $200,000. The Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered Wadi to leave the country by the end of March, when his visa was due to expire, or face arrest and deportation proceedings. As governments assemble more details of Saddam's stolen secret billions, such crackdowns could become increasingly common around the world...
...which suggests that Saddam may have overstretched the terms of the arrangement, if one existed, to Iran's surprise and dismay. Another explanation favored by British officials is that an agreement may have been drawn up so hastily that the Iranian command had insufficient time to inform its air-defense forces. Whatever the case, the Iranians did not challenge subsequent flights from Iraq, though they insisted publicly they had made no deal with Baghdad...
...leverage in any future bargaining with Iraq over a final settlement of the Iran-Iraq war, for which there is now only an oral peace pact. If that fails and the planes eventually decompose into pricey rust heaps, at least Iran will have the satisfaction of knowing that Saddam was denied their...