Alexi Giannoulias Financed Saddam's Onetime Agent

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that mob banker Alexi Giannoulias will attack his Republican opponent for being among the many dozens of Democrats and Republicans who believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Giannoulias’s attack is ironic at best since his bank loaned money to one of Saddam’s former bankers, Nadhmi Auchi.

According to the New York Times, a Belgian diplomat said Auchi controlled a bank that “handled the personal accounts for Saddam Hussein.”  The New York Times also reported that “Auchi sold Italian naval vessels to Mr. Hussein's government in the early 1980's.” 

But that’s not all.

A report published by the Monterrey Institute  (page 11) concludes that Nadhmi Auchi’s bank financed the transfer of chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein:

A Letter of Credit for the TDG shipment, with a value of $176,120, was drawn up by the Banque Continentale du Luxembourg. This bank was 50 percent owned by the Iraqi-British oil millionaire Nadhmi Auchi, who financed arms purchases by the Iraqi regime, and Van Anraat had done business with him during his years with Ingeco in Iraq. 

Another advantage of the Banque Continentale was that Luxembourg had strict bank secrecy laws similar to those of Switzerland. When the consignment of TDG arrived in Iraq, it was transferred to the Muthanna State Establishment, Iraq’s CW production complex near Samarra. There technicians converted the precursor into mustard gas, which was then delivered to the battlefield for use against Iran. Meanwhile, payment for the TDG was transferred to the New York bank account of Nu-Kraft Mercantile… 

…On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi Air Force launched a devastating chemical attack with sarin and mustard gas against the Kurdish city of Halabja in northern Iraq, killing an estimated 5,000 civilians—men, women, and children. The atrocity was reported extensively in the world press and provoked widespread outrage. 

To summarize, Alexi Giannoulias and his Broadway Bank loaned $22.75 million to Nadhmi Auchi – a man whose own bank financed the delivery of chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, which may have been used to gas the Kurdish city of Halabja in 1988.

And Giannoulias is lecturing us on WMD in Iraq?