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Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031020-517697,00.html
Saddam's Syrian Stash
(TIME Magazine) Adam Zagorin - According to a senior U.S. official, as much as $3 billion in Iraqi assets is sitting in Syrian government-controlled banks, and Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters. For months the U.S. has quietly insisted that Damascus give up the funds. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in May and made that unpublicized demand. Yet U.S. officials now assert that Damascus has given them only "limited cooperation." Warns the senior official: "We have made it plain that if access to records and cooperation continue to be restricted, we reserve the right to impose economic counter-measures."