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During his detention at an Iraqi checkpoint, Basa shared a cell with three other Kuwaitis. Two of the three were tortured while Basa was forced to watch. "They wanted names, resistance leaders, people they could go after," he says. "One fellow had his genitals prodded with an electric rod. After that he was made to sit on a broken Pepsi bottle. Then, working very slowly, they ripped the fingernails off his right hand. He broke, of course. Who wouldn't? He gave them some names. And then they killed him. A single shot between the eyes."
Of greater importance than anything Basa and a score of others smuggled into Kuwait was the wealth of data they smuggled out. Within a day of the Iraqi invasion on Aug. 2, the Kuwaiti government, already operating in Saudi Arabia, had compiled an intriguing shopping list -- computerized information desperately needed for the country's business to continue despite the nation's physical occupation. "We are not called Kuwait Inc. for nothing," says Basa, who ran a small construction company before August and is now living with his family in Cairo. "Before we are a nation, we are a business. The nationality records we recovered can tell us who was a real resident of Kuwait and who was not, and that is obviously important. But the real lode was the nation's financial and banking records." All told, about 85% of that material was smuggled out, and the rest was reconstructed by late October. So Kuwait, or at least Kuwait Inc., is offshore now -- an economy in exile.
To many, Kuwait Inc. is a term of derision. To Kuwaitis, the staggering fortune their nation has accumulated, and particularly the way it has been invested and saved, is a matter of pride. With 94.5 billion bbl. of oil in the ground, enough for more than a century of production, Kuwait boasts the world's third largest proven petroleum reserves. But unlike other nations, which spend their oil revenues almost as fast as they come in, Kuwait long ago decided to save for the future. So successful has the effort been that for some years before Saddam's perfidy, Kuwait was reaping more yearly income from its overseas investments than from the sale and marketing of its crude oil and refined products.
Kuwait's foreign-asset portfolio approaches a monumental $100 billion, which is invested in a bewildering array of stocks, bonds and entire companies around the world. Almost 70% of the total has been segregated for use when the wells run dry. The Fund for Future Generations, as it is called, is a model of enlightened policy and smart politics. "Other rulers in other places have kept the money for themselves and their friends, doling out just enough to keep their populations contained during their reigns," says Jasem Mohammed al-Hussein, a wealthy Kuwaiti businessman. "Our rulers, the Sabahs, have earned our loyalty by providing for our grandchildren. That foresight, I am sure, is one of the reasons why Saddam has failed to find a Kuwaiti quisling to govern Kuwait in his name."
While Kuwait's investments bring in about $20 million a day, the economy-in- exile is driven by another engine as well, the Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the world's 12th largest oil company. From its London office on New Bond Street, KPC and its subsidiaries own and operate a fleet of tankers, oil and gas exploration companies in 22 countries on five continents, and 6,500 Q8 gas stations situated throughout Europe.