Volume 1 - Iraq Watch

its real activity, which was coordinating with neighboringcountries to facilitate the purchase of illicitmilitary equipment. The company was headed byMunir Mamduh Awad al-Qubaysi, a former 15-yearemployee of the IIS. Because of his connections, relationsbetween Al-Basha’ir and the IIS were especiallyclose from the time he became Director of the companyin the late 1990s.• Contrary to some sources, Al-Basha’ir was ownedand operated by the MIC. Al-Qubaysi’s historywith the IIS and the fact that many other membersof the Al-Basha’ir staff were also IIS officers, ledmany to assume Al-Basha’ir was an IIS front company.• The last chairman of Al-Basha’ir’s board of directorswas the head of the MIC’s Administration andFinance Directorate, Raja Hasan Ali Al-Khazraji.ISG judges that several Regime members exertedvarying degrees of influence over the Al-Basha’irprocurement process. There is, however, conflictingreporting of who was in control of Al-Basha’irprocurement. Several sources have stated that it wasthe MIC Director, Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaysh.Reportedly, Qusay Saddam Husayn al-Tikriti and acommittee comprised of senior officials of the SSOmet with Al-Basha’ir trustees to direct the procurementof prohibited materials and to authorize payments.• Trustees included al-Qubaysi, Jasim Ahmad Hasan,and Muhammad Salih Abd al-Rahim. Qusay andhis advisers would tell the Al-Basha’ir trustees whatitems they wanted purchased about twice a month.• Qusay made all final decisions on procurement andexpenditures.• Prior to Qusay, Husayn Kamil, Saddam Husayn’s,son-in-law held this position.Al-Basha’ir participated in the bidding process forthe MIC by splitting the company into foreign anddomestic sections. The split allowed Al-Basha’ir toincrease its ability to communicate within the companyand its offices abroad and for the import ofmilitary and security-related equipment. One set ofdocuments would show the actual items to be procuredand then the Al-Basha’ir trustees would preparea second set of procurement documents with benignend-use items to conceal the true nature of the illicitactivity.• For example, Al-Basha’ir described spare tank partsas air conditioning systems. Al-Basha’ir wouldthen prepare the bank transfers for the seeminglyinnocuous items.• One set of papers for the actual items were eithergiven to the SSO, or in some cases taken to thehomes of some of the Al-Basha’ir officials.• The company would offer small contracts to theIraqi companies, while large contracts would bebased on a recommendation from the director ofthe IIS, ‘Uday Husayn, Qusay, Vice President TahaYasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi, or Saddam.Al-Qubaysi was largely responsible for Al-Basha’ir’ssuccess, according to an Iraqi official with directaccess to the information. He ran the company welland maintained a close relationship with the IIS.As a result of this relationship, Al-Basha’ir could useits IIS liaison, Majid Ibrahim Sulayman, to facilitatepurchases with IIS field stations around the world.Al-Qubaysi also had a close relationship to the Shalishfamily and with other prominent personalitiesin Syria, and he opened the connection with the SESInternational in Syria. Dr. Asif Shalish was head ofthe Syrian firm SES, while his uncle, Dhu Al-Himma‘Isa Shalish, owned the company and is the Chief ofPresidential Security for his cousin, President Basharal-Asad. Close relations with the Syrians allowed Al-Basha’ir to garner the bulk of the trade through Syria,which became the primary route for Iraq’s illicitimports over the last years before the war.• The SES and Lama companies are two of the majorholding companies for Al-Basha’ir goods in Syria.• Fifty-four percent of all MIC purchases through theSyrian Protocol were through Al-Basha’ir, accordingto captured SOMO documents.Regime Financeand Procurement73