Saddam: The Plane Flies Home

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By Mark Hosenball

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American efforts to return to Iraq assets allegedly looted by Saddam Hussein and his cronies have become more complicated than officials had hoped. One example emerged last week in Basel, Switzerland, when officials of Liechtenstein formally handed back to the Iraqi government a plane Saddam allegedly owned. The Falcon 50 business jet was grounded in Jordan shortly before the U.S. invasion in March 2003. But arranging for the jet to be returned to Iraq turned into an ordeal. "The plane was located in one country, registered in another and under ownership by a third. Working through those factors alone takes time," said U.S. Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise. Rene Bruelhart, Liechtenstein's top financial investigator, told NEWSWEEK this was the first case in which an asset held by Saddam outside Iraq had been repatriated, via U.N. channels, to Iraq's new government. A foreign official familiar with the process, who asked not to be identified because of diplomatic sensitivities, said that the governments of the United States, Jordan and Liechtenstein argued over what to do with the plane. Some U.S. officials thought the American government should confiscate it.

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