Susan
Rice
Denies
Being Told Sudan's Bashir Stashed $9B, Despite
WikiLeak
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December
20
-- Contrary to a cable
released by Wikileaks
describing Susan Rice the US Permanent Representative to the UN being
told by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo
about Sudan's Omar al Bashir “stashing” $9 billion in “illegal
accounts,” Ambassador Rice on December 20 told Inner City Pres that
“I don't have a recollection of that being told to me directly.”
Video here,
from
Minute
4:18.
Inner
City
Press
asked
Ambassador Rice about the cable and what she and the US Mission
to the UN had done after Moreno Ocampo told her and her then Deputy
Alejandro Wolff being told about Bashir's $9 billion.
“I'm not
going to comment on cables,” she began. After denying any
recollection of being told “directly” about Bashir's billions,
she said “I don't know if it was said to anyone else.”
The
cable
begins
that ICC “Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Ambassadors Rice and
Wolff on March 20 [2009] that Sudanese President Bashir needed to be
isolated. Ocampo suggested if Bashir's stash of money were disclosed
(he put the figure at possibly $9 billion), it would change Sudanese
public opinion from him being a 'crusader' to that of a thief. Ocampo
reported Lloyd's Bank in London might be holding or knowledgeable of
the whereabouts of his money.”
Susan Rice & Wolff & UK's Lyall Grant, Bashir's "$9B in Lloyds"
not shown
As
Inner
City
Press
reported
earlier
on December 20, “in January 2009 US
authorities fined Lloyds $350 million for concealing the origins of
wire transfers from Sudan, Iran and Libya in violation of US
sanctions against the countries... Lloyds' so recent fine, for
concealing the source of money from Sudan, would have given Rice and
the Obama Administration leverage to get Bashir's accounts confirmed
or denied by Lloyds at that time. At issue is not only corruption by
a leader indicted for war crimes and genocide: under the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement, oil profits were to be split between
North and Southern Sudan. Southerns have alleged that the Bashir
government had improperly kept and hid revenue. Could this have been
the money? What did the US Mission to the UN, State Department and
Obama administration do to find out?”
Expecting
to
receive
some
sort of answer to this question, Inner City Press later
on December 20 asked Susan Rice, as transcribed
by
the
US Mission to
the UN:
Inner
City
Press:
there's
a report that Ocampo of the ICC told the U.S.
Mission or yourself that Bashir had $9 billion taken from Sudan and
put in London, Lloyd's of London, is what he mentioned. And I just
wondered, it's one of these cables, I don't want to talk about the
cable aspect of it, but I just wanted to know what do you think of
that? Is that something Ocampo met with you and Ambassador Wolff and
said, and if case, what did the U.S. do to find out if it's true?
Ambassador
Rice:
I'm
not
going to comment on cables. I don't have a
recollection of that being told to me directly, and I don't know if
it was said to anybody else.
But
see the cable:
Tuesday,
24
March
2009,
22:17
C
O
N
F
I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000306 EO 12958 DECL: 03/23/2019
TAGS
PGOV,
PREL,
UNSC,
PHUM, SU, XW">XW
SUBJECT:
(C)
ICC'S
OCAMPO
ON SUDAN: GO AFTER BASHIR'S MONEY AND CALL FOR HIS
ARREST; REASSURE CHINA
Classified
By:
Ambassador
Alejandro
D. Wolff, for reasons 1.4 b/d
1.
(C)
International
Criminal
Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told
Ambassadors Rice and Wolff on March 20 that Sudanese President Bashir
needed to be isolated. Ocampo suggested if Bashir's stash of money
were disclosed (he put the figure at possibly $9 billion), it would
change Sudanese public opinion from him being a "crusader"
to that of a thief. Ocampo reported Lloyd's Bank in London might be
holding or knowledgeable of the whereabouts of his money. Ocampo
suggested simply exposing that Bashir had illegal accounts would be
enough to turn the Sudanese against him, "as with Pinochet."
2.
(C)
Ocampo
said
Bashir invents conflict to create a better
negotiating position, and thought Bashir was using the expulsion of
the NGOs to divert attention away from his arrest warrant. Ocampo
suggested the U.S. and the international community also needed to
push for Bashir's arrest to isolate him. Ocampo likened Bashir's
situation to "a bleeding shark being surrounded by other
sharks," with no loyalty, only greed, motivating those competing
for power. By promoting the possibility of Bashir's arrest, Bashir
would be further marginalized within Sudan's ruling elite, Ocampo
thought.
3.
(C)
Ocampo
suggested
it would be beneficial to reassure China that
its access to oil would not be jeopardized. If China believed Bashir
was becoming a destabilizing influence, Ocampo said China might be
more open to his removal as long as his replacement would guarantee
support for China's economic interests.
Wolff
Lloyds'
January
2009
fine
of $350 million, for concealing the source of money from
Sudan, would have given Susan Rice and the Obama Administration
leverage to get Bashir's accounts confirmed or denied by Lloyds at
that time.
From
the ICC in the Hague on December 19, Moreno
Ocampo
issued
a statement that he did and does have information about
the $9 billion. The unprosecutorial briefing of Rice and Wolff
described in the cable may cause Moreno Ocampo some problems at the ICC.
But in
light of his December 18 statement, on top of the cable, Ambassador
Rice and those above her may wish to provide some further explanation.
Watch this site.
* * *
, 
