Scott Schneider, a 35-year-old Florida State graduate, has interrogated top Iraqi officials, including six on the Deck of Cards.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published August 1, 2003
[Times photo: Jamie Francis]
Scott Schneider, a special agent witth the IRS, interviewed several high-ranking Iraqi officials in Baghdad.
ST. PETERSBURG - Just how much of Saddam Hussein's money is tucked around the world is unknown, but some estimate it's $7-billion or more.
U.S. officials fear it could wind up in the hands of terrorists. They desperately want to get to Hussein's cash first, then use it to rebuild Iraq.
Two months ago, U.S. officials sent Scott Schneider, an Internal Revenue Service agent from Florida, to Iraq to determine if the money was, indeed, retrievable. Finding hidden money, after all, is the IRS's bread and butter.
Schneider, a 35-year-old Florida State graduate, spent three weeks in Baghdad poring over documents and interrogating detained Iraqi officials, including six members of the Deck of Cards.
One of those was Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, considered the mastermind of Hussein's financial subterfuge. He also is suspected of overseeing the slaughter of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
Schneider's job wasn't so much to find a money trail, but to determine whether the Treasury Department could even follow the money in Iraq.
Schneider's assessment: Send in more agents.
"There is definitely a role for our agency and the Department of the Treasury to bring our specific expertise to that area," he said.
Schneider, who works in Pensacola, was chosen to lead the charge on such a high-stakes operation because of his military career and credentials.
Schneider grew up in a military family. His grandfather and father were Air Force colonels.
He graduated from Florida State in 1991 with a degree in finance. He joined the U.S. Army, wound up in Army intelligence and was assigned to help the Drug Enforcement Administration investigate drug dealers in Florida. He also received training in speaking Arabic and interrogation.
Schneider wanted to be a federal agent since he was young, but it didn't become apparent until his drug operations that the IRS would be his destination. During a major cocaine investigation, Schneider watched an IRS special agent join the inquiry and slice through the suspects' money trail.
Though the 2,800 IRS agents nationwide are versed in accounting, they are hardly paper pushers.
In fact, not long after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Schneider was tracing terrorists' money. That work got him to Washington, D.C., where senior officials learned of his skills and experience. It also had become apparent that Americans needed to start chasing Iraqi money quickly.
"My background lent itself to maybe a little bit better fit on a short notice to get over to the area and liaison with the military," he said. "I made a quick fit."
But the basic premise was the same: Examine documents and talk to people. "Any one of our agents could have done it," he said.
In fact, more of them will. Schneider told his superiors he believed agents could effectively chase the money. He is now helping plan the deployment of four to six IRS agents to Baghdad, where they will continue his work. After 30-45 days, another group will be swapped in.
While he was in Baghdad, Schneider traveled at times with the military, other times with FBI agents. Americans there drank warm water, chewed MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) and slept on cots. Schneider did stay a few nights at one of Hussein's palaces, however, where 25-foot busts of the fallen dictator were at each entrance.
"A lot of marble," Schneider said. "It was sort of surreal."
But it wasn't long before Schneider was in the thick of Iraq's finances, a tangle of transactions squirreled away in dummy companies and blurs of withdrawals, transfers and deposits. Schneider helped collect enough documents to fill rooms.
Perhaps his most important duties were to speak to captured Iraqi officials.
This included the ministers of oil, military industrialization, trade and finance. It also included Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, Saddam's half brother, who had been captured in April when he was turned in by an informant.
The former head of Iraqi intelligence, he began managing Hussein's overseas portfolio in the early 1980s when he moved to Geneva, according to a Time Magazine article published earlier this month.
He also established a financial network that sustained Hussein during years of war and sanctions, including the repatriation of Iraqi assets abroad on the eve of the Gulf War, Time reported.
Schneider interviewed Barzan Ibrahim Hasan twice. The second time, he had leverage. Officials had found a note Hasan had written to Hussein on methods of hiding money. It included instructions on setting up companies abroad, paying spies, buying gold and secretly transferring money.
Hasan sat in blue jump suit and sandals in a tent with a dirt floor. He and Schneider sat on folding chairs around a folding table. Even with all that was happening, he complained that his fingernails had not been cut. He pulled at a rip in his suit and belly-ached, Schneider said.
He also denounced Hussein, at times pounding the table, pointing his finger and flapping his arms.
Without mentioning he had seen the note, Schneider questioned Hasan about its contents, using the interview as a lie detector.
Though Schneider declined to say specifically what he told him, Schneider said officials currently are trying to corroborate what Hasan said.
Based on what he learned, Schneider believes IRS agents will help track down most of Iraq's money.
"Our hope and belief is we will find substantial assets outside the country that we will be able to repatriate," he said.
Schneider's interviews
Here are some of the Iraqis interviewed by IRS Special Agent Scott Schneider. Six of them - high value detainees - are in the so-called deck of cards.
Mohammad Mahdi al-Salih, minister of trade*
Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi, deputy prime minister and finance minister*
Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, presidential adviser and Saddam Hussein's half brother*
Sattam al-Gaood, owner of al-Eman Group
Hamed Yosef Hummadi, minister of culture
Muhazim Sa'b Hasan al-Tikriti, deputy director, military industrialization*
Iyad Taha Shihab al-Duri, section chief
Abd-al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh, deputy prime minister, director of military industrialization*
Amer Muhammad Rashid al-Tikriti al-Ubaydi, minister of oil*
