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| Iraq |
| Strange Bedfellows |
| 2003-10-30 |
| What on earth is going on? One reason the Bush Administration gave for going to war in Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to terrorists. So it is ironic that one of the partners in a big Iraqi firm being used by US contractors in Iraq is also a founding partner in an organization that’s been identified as helping fund Al Qaeda. So far, however, neither the government nor the contractors have shown much concern. Sadoon Al-Bunnia is one of three principals in one of Iraq’s oldest companies, the Al-Bunnia Trading Company. The Iraqi firm has become a major subcontractor for US firms working under US government contracts in Iraq. But, as documents obtained by The Nation from the Lugano office of the Swiss Federal Commercial Registry show, Sadoon Al-Bunnia is also a founding partner of a Swiss-registered firm called the Malaysian Swiss Gulf and African Chamber (MIGA), which the US government and the United Nations Security Council have designated as funders of Al Qaeda. MIGA is one of fourteen businesses controlled by Ahmed Idris Nasreddin and Youssef M. Nada. Then-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said in an August 29, 2002, news release that businesses in the Nasreddin-Nada network "appeared to be providing a clandestine line of credit to a close associate of Usama bin Laden and as of late September 2001, Usama bin Laden and his Al Qaida organization received financial assistance from Youssef M. Nada." (Attempts to reach the Al-Bunnia Trading Company in Baghdad were unsuccessful.) Asked about the Al-Bunnia-Al Qaeda connection, Treasury spokesman Taylor Griffin said the law is unambiguous. "The basic story is this: MIGA was designated, Al-Bunnia was not," said Griffin. By "designated," Griffin was referring to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists compiled by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. American individuals and firms are prohibited from doing business with any person or organization on the list. "Certainly [Al-Bunnia’s] association with MIGA should raise some due diligence concerns," Griffin said. "But it is not necessarily wrong for a US company to do business with him, and it is certainly not illegal." Agreeing with that assessment is Bechtel, which signed up the Al-Bunnia Trading Company as its first Iraqi subcontractor to work on the reconstruction of Iraq’s Al Mat bridge. "Al Bunnia was vetted through the [US-led Coalition Provisional Authority]," Bechtel spokesman Howard Menaker said in an e-mail. "During the background investigation, there was nothing found that indicated we could not work with Al Bunnia. Further, there were additional informal discussions with other individuals and advisors to us but again nothing indicated wrong doing nor that we would be precluded from doing business with Bunnia." Another firm with close ties to the White House that’s angling to help clients win Iraq contracts, GOP lobbyist Haley Barbour’s New Bridge Strategies, proudly announces on its website that its local partner in a consortium bidding on a contract is "led by the Al-bunnia family who are a leading commercial group in Iraq with over 80 years experience in Iraq." To be sure, who gets put on Treasury’s "terrorist" list is not exactly a strict science, legal experts say. Georgetown law professor David Cole notes that "groups are designated behind closed doors, in a secret process, without any notice, without any hearing and even without any substantive criteria for what counts as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. It’s just a term the Bush Administration made up." Nonetheless, it does seem odd that the US government cares so little about its own efforts to break the chain of Al Qaeda’s financing. But then, the boondoggle that is postwar Iraq appears to operate under a different logic from that used by the Administration to justify the war. |
| Posted by:tipper. |
| #8 Dan / tipper - you say IF. Until it's proven, Al Bunnyboy & Co shouldn't be tarred & feathered. I am no friend to Arab business - I endured 4 years of getting the run around and/or being screwed by them in Saudi, but you can't call this piece anything but innuendo with an agenda to blacken Bush by association - 2 times removed. The Nation is shit. What almost immediately blackened Al Bunny for me was the fact that it's a large successful company which grew and prospered during Saddam's time. Common sense says they had to be cooperative at least, and maybe much more at worst. So I read this with that suspicion already present - and they failed to close the loop. I'd prefer everyone to stop worrying about finding specific AlQ connectivity in everything. Although that is a dead giveaway, I'd say that bad guys who do bad shit and everyone who conspires with them and provides any material support (and I'm not far from adding immaterial support, such as being a ditzy ptool of socialist or Izzoid hate groups) should be prosecuted as part of the WoT - with or without AlQ links. AlQ isn't the nexus of everything... The last link in a chain is not the most important, just the most conspicuous. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-30 10:19:41 AM |
| #7 My unhappiness, as I noted on my blog, is that if this is true (yes, the Nation is hardly the most objective source in this regard but let's suspend disbelief for a moment) al-Bunnia is still shilling for al-Qaeda they shouldn't be getting US contracts and any contracts they do have should be ended immediately. More to the point, al-Qaeda has used front companies and the like as a means to sneak operatives into countries before, so having one of them involved in Iraq especially just after the recent car bombings is a recipe for disaster. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-10-30 9:07:17 AM |
| #6 Tipper couldn't be Murat - got the Title/Link thing going ;-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-30 8:51:27 AM |
| #5 tell you what, |
| Posted by: B 2003-10-30 8:27:03 AM |
| #4 like most big companies in the middle east, al-Bunia paid blackmail- big deal |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-10-30 8:13:16 AM |
| #3 Dan Darling, at Regnum Crucis, seems unhappy too. http://tinyurl.com/szp8 Much as I applaud all of the interest in the comments box ... While I agree that there's probably a lot more than should be disclosed about the al-Bunnia Trading Company (BTC), who its owners are, and whether or not there's a connection between it, the Iraqi government, and al-Qaeda. However, my primary area of concern here is that Sadoon al-Bunia (one of the three principals of BTC) is a founding partner of an al-Qaeda front company. I'm not sure who Ahmed Idris Nasreddin or Youssef M. (Mohammed?) Nada are, but if they're running an al-Qaeda front company we might want to keep track of who their partners are. If Sadoon al-Bunia is still among them, why are they getting contracts? Why not simply save everyone some time and give the money directly to the next Ansar al-Islam thug we catch? That is the primary reason that I blogged the entry. |
| Posted by: tipper. 2003-10-30 7:59:31 AM |
| #2 Strange bedfellows indeed. The Nation has less credibility than the National Enquirer. Reading this is as convincing as when the Enquirer tells us that GW is an alien. |
| Posted by: B 2003-10-30 7:56:00 AM |
| #1 Stranger Bedfellows is posting this pseudo-pithy little lib piece from The Nation here in Rantburg. Is 'tipper' goring a private ox? The Nation is an apologist's dream - and was a home for the stone-cold dead "homeless Pal" Apologist General Edward Said. For example, in their editorial eulogy of Said, they close with "A great and distinctive voice is stilled, too soon." http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031020&s=editors2 Luckily, Said's still dead. But not soon enough, by about 30-40 years, IMO. And this is a typical NaziMedia insinuation piece. Do they have anything approximating proof? If so, great! Just pony up and get Al Bunnyboy & Co on the list - what happens in Iraq is every American's business, now - so be a good citizen instead of a suckass lib slander rag, and put your proof in front of the people who can and will do something with it. No? Oh dear - then what should you do? Well of course, write an insinuation piece and hope it rubs off on Dubya. Get a quote from a Law Prof who wouldn't know a terrorist from a towel rack and (surprise!) just happens to be the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation - definitely an impartial guy (doh!) - to imply sinister dealings are afoot cuz the list is not debated in a public forum. They imply they talked to several people (legal experts say...). but only name and quote one. Hmmm, so who is this convenient in-house Legal Affairs Advisor to The Nation? Why he's a NaziMedia dreamboat Law Prof! Wotta surprise! http://www.law.georgetown.edu/curriculum/tab_faculty.cfm?Status=Faculty&Detail=235 BTW, should the powers that be do their deliberations in public regards something as important as the terrorist list? Has this bunch thought it through? Sure they have, but it doesn't serve them in this context, so it's discarded. Not to mention the little problem of giving true terrorists advance notice, what would happen to the unlucky people with innocent connections? It does happen and these clowns would be quick to point it out and do, I'm sure - when it serves their editorial purposes. An innocent association made public would make anyone a prime target for unfounded allegations from those with an ax to grind - or ox to gore... rather like this fluffy little jewel of pseudo-reporting. If they have anything solid, this is not how to handle it. If they don't, this is precisely how to handle it. Bite me. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-30 3:58:36 AM |