U.S. threatens to freeze Iraq's account at NY Fed if troops told to leave | Hacker News Reader

U.S. threatens to freeze Iraq's account at NY Fed if troops told to leave

wsj.com

22 pointsAndrewBissell17 comments

This is ridiculous. U.S troops (along with other coalition nations) are in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government. If the Iraqi government formally requests us to leave, we should do so. Threatening to freeze their account otherwise is mob mentality.

It's not ridiculous, it's corruption.

This is America.

The former Iraq government led by Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was explicitly harboring terrorists. Largely due to this, a USA led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, defeated the Sadam Hussein regime in a war, implemented a new regime, and have since been chasing terrorists out of caves in Iraq for the past 17 years. I expect the US officials will operate by whatever means are neccissary to ensure our security interests are served. Personally, if freezing bank accounts motivates the desired result, I'd prefer they freeze bank accounts versus blowing things (including people) up.

The result is staying, and blowing more people up.......

Ah no he was tyrant and killed many of his own people but he was not harboring so called terrorists. That was the excuse Bush jr used to get into Iraq for it's oil ironically instead tech improvements got America over it dependence of foreign oil because of fracking. The so called terrorists were harbored in Afghanistan where USA wants to exit as soon as possible but it wants to stay in Iraq

The U.S. troops are in Iraq because they killed just about everyone who tried to stop them from being in Iraq. What's a little more economic warfare to throw on the pile of atrocities?

This is just the modern day version of what happened more than a century ago:

In 1914, US Marines broke into the central bank of Haiti, stole half a million dollars in gold, and brought it to New York.

https://twitter.com/KatzOnEarth/status/1216527567362187266

How common is it for one country to hold significant portions of their money in a foreign bank account?

When you're talking Gold or USD, extremely common.

Maybe I don't understand how the Fed works, but I would imagine Iraq can't simply withdraw it at this point. If so, I think that money has already gone.

If they hold gold in custody for Iraq, that can't just withdraw it.

Is this a valid legal action? It doesn't seem like the government can freeze accounts without due process.

“in times of war, the law falls silent.”

*military action

“I will occupy your country and I will take your money if you ask me to leave” - Trump

"Bill Clinton's "quiet war" on Iraq set the stage for George W. Bush's bloody invasion." [1]

1. https://jacobinmag.com/2016/05/war-iraq-bill-clinton-sanctio...

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