Russia Stalls UN Hunt for Iraqi Assets

Whose side is Putin on? I thought he may wake up after the school shootings in Beslan, and quite frankly I'd be happy to forgive his previous dealings with Saddam, corrupt and inhumane as they may have been, if he would just get on board 100% with us in the global battle against radical islam.

• Moscow is shielding a former Iraqi ambassador to Russia and two top former Iraqi spies from a U.S.-led campaign to repatriate some of the billions of dollars in assets Saddam Hussein's regime stashed around the world, a senior U.S. official said.

  The United States, Britain and Iraq want the three men and a front company run by one of them added to a list of former Iraqi officials whose assets must be returned to the interim government in Baghdad under Security Council Resolution 1518, but permanent council member Russia won't allow it, U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Juan Carlos Zarate told a Senate committee investigating corruption in the UN's sanction program for Iraq.

  Of the 232 people, companies and other entities that Washington, London and Baghdad have asked to be put on the list, only four have been contested -- all by Russia.