Suspect in Iraq Spy Case Released

Washington Post ^ | 3/13/04 | Susan Levine and Allan Lengel

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A former congressional staffer accused of aiding spies for Saddam Hussein before the U.S.-led war with Iraq was released from federal custody yesterday as some residents of Takoma Park, her home city, voiced differing reactions to the unique case, including puzzlement, anger and indifference.

Susan P. Lindauer, 40, a self-described antiwar activist who was a press aide to several Democratic members of Congress in the 1990s, appeared at a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and was released to the custody of her father. It was unclear where the two planned to go. But Lindauer, who the Justice Department said is the first U.S. citizen to be arrested on spy-related charges involving Iraq, is scheduled to appear for an arraignment Monday in U.S. District Court in New York.

She is charged with acting as an unregistered agent for a foreign government and other offenses -- but not espionage -- for allegedly maintaining an "intelligence relationship" with U.S.-based Iraqi spies before the war that toppled Hussein. As a result of the relationship, authorities allege, Lindauer delivered a letter in early January 2003 to the home of a second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., urging the Bush administration to delay military action against Iraq.

Lindauer, who was arrested Thursday at her Takoma Park home and could be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison if convicted, appeared briefly yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey but did not speak. Rather, Gauvey spoke with the defendant's father, John Lindauer, a former chancellor of the University of Alaska and a failed GOP gubernatorial candidate in that state, who agreed to take custody of his daughter and ensure that she appears for court hearings. He lives in Arizona. ...

[billorites]

"I think this is a woman with idiosyncratic behavior," said Hal Shay.

We'll be reading about her history of "psychiatric problems" pretty soon, I'd bet.

[Crazieman]

Should still be executed for spying and treason.

[billorites]

I haven't seen any reports indicating current or recent employment for her.

[whereasandsoforth]

She's just a floater. The rest of the crap is at the bottom of the bowl. This is a huge story that is going to go nowhere.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Realize I only posted what the media is frontpaging. This broad is going to become another leftist hero!

[whereasandsoforth]

Unless we can get some street-time out of this, linking this woman to anti-war activist, liberals, scum, and other democrats, this is going to die faster than a match flame.

I don't see her becoming a "cause". I see just marginalization of the entire event. The left can't gain from exposure, and the right can't move fast enough to keep the story in the public eye.

It is obvious from her TV arrest that she is mentally disturbed. That's why she is a liberal. Her rants didn't do anything to dispell the connection between mental defects and liberalism, so the left will destroy the memory of her and the story.

But this story runs much deeper than we know. This one liberal-mental could not and did not do this on her own. There is a huge story here we will never hear.

[squidly]

could be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison if convicted

I was under the impression that treason in time of war was punishable by death. Perhaps since there was no formal declaration of war by Congress there is a loophole. I'm hoping some legalistic freeper can shed light on this.

[MEG33]

She sounds like she could be bi polar.

[rrrod]

a gay bear?

[mtbopfuyn]

I want to know who authorized her trips.

[MEG33]

manic depressive

[Mike Darancette]

She is probably going into a Foreign Policy slot in the Kerry Campaign.

[BykrBayb]

I think the catch is that she's not being tried for treason, technically. It looks to me like we don't recognize certain acts as treason anymore. Or maybe it's just certain people we let off the hook. I don't really know, but it seems she should be tried for treason, and hanged, alongside Kerry.

[Ben Hecks]

They will bring in Walter Pincus when they really begin to transform her into a victim. This is just a start.

[piasa]

So... where did she get the $500,000 needed to get bailed out?

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

How many commies did FDR promote?

[Mike Darancette]

How many commies did FDR promote?

Their kids are still in the government. See: Harold Ickes.