A light moment in Baghdad, sort of
Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:46 AM
Filed Under:
Baghdad, Iraq
By Michele Neubert, NBC News Producer
Editor's note: This blog was updated at 3:00 p.m. ET to reflect the fact that there are conflicting reports about the amount of money stolen in the bank robbery in Baghdad.
We don’t usually laugh when our local fixers write up the day’s events on our Baghdad bureau dry-erase board – the list is usually a shockingly grim catalogue of the day’s deaths and attacks. But last night we couldn’t help ourselves when they chalked up "$300 million stolen from a local bank."
"Didn’t think there was that much cash in Iraq," said one of our correspondents, while the rest of us were just incredulous.
"Better than our potential lottery winnings," another colleague added. (We've started to enter the Euro lottery every Friday – it gives us something to fantasize about – usually the fantasy involves chartering a private jet out of here.) None of us really believed the report.
And then today there it was again on all the major wire services: "An official at the bank said about $300 million in U.S. dollars had been stolen, as well as 220 million Iraqi dinars ($176,000)," reported Reuters.
"Why don’t you guys use some of your special talents and go and track that?" I joked with some of our security advisors. "Don’t think it hadn't crossed our minds," they teased.
Ends up our initial instincts turned out to be right after all - later on Thursday the Iraqi police and bank manager corrected themselves and said the stolen bounty was more like 300 million Iraqi dinars, not U.S. dollars. That's more like $500,000 dollars.
But it was still a substantial amount, and it got us thinking...what if?
Cash and carry
This is totally a cash society, it isn't a place where you enter pin numbers or engage in email banking, even though it is improving.
For years we would travel in here with bundles of cash strapped to various parts of our bodies as that was our only option. Now at least we have recourse to use the local bank, if not quite your Wall Street service. But most of what we, and everyone else here, does is peel off cash dollar notes.
And while it’s no longer the Wild West days of that short period after the fall of Saddam when looting was rife, bank raids were a daily occurrence and U.S. soldiers were coming across millions of dollars hidden under trees, it’s still not quite the rule of law.
This raid could have been worse, but the potential for groups like al-Qaida here is huge. We've heard so much recently about how al-Qaida is resurging. Only yesterday U.S. General Bergner told reporters that al-Qaida is planning to make Iraq a "gateway to victory." At the same time, over 200 explosive vests had been confiscated from a truck smuggling them in across the Syrian border.
The idea of 300 million dinars, if not dollars, in the wrong hands is still chilling – especially since the insurgents here seem to be doing well enough without it.
VIDEO: Report warns al-Qaida gaining strength
Back to reality
As usual we called upon the hardy local staff of the TV news agencies to see if they had covered the aftermath of the heist or if they had any more detail.
I called Reuters TV and was told they knew about it, but were little busy right now.
Just 10 minutes earlier they learned that their Iraqi photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40, had been killed covering clashes in eastern Baghdad.
No more laughs about our board’s list of events today.
