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U.S. Probes if Syria Spent Iraq Oil Profit

Syria misspent more than $500 million in Iraqi oil money left over in its central bank after a three-year stretch of doing business with Baghdad in defiance of U.N. sanctions, U.S. investigators claimed in documents obtained Tuesday. A House of Representatives subcommittee is questioning if the money, deposited in two accounts at Syria’s Central Bank, was later used to finance attacks in Iraq. The United States has repeatedly claimed that insurgents used the bank to launder cash. The documents were to be the focus of a Wednesday hearing by the subcommittee, on the Middle East and Central Asia, about Syria’s relationship with Iraq at the time of the $64 billion U.N. oil-for-food program. Full Story