Well, this does not look cool. Shakir Al-Khafaji & Ritter?!
http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/000137.html One of those "Saddam friends" is Shakir al-Khafaji, an Iraqi-American businessman from Detroit. Since 1992, al-Khafaji has served as president of the regime-backed Expatriate Conferences, held in Baghdad every other year. The government provided subsidized travel for Iraqis living outside of the country.
On October 17, 1992, the official Iraqi News Agency reported on the activities of that year's session, "Our Roots Remain in Iraq Wherever We Are." Iraqi prime minister Muhammed Hamza al-Zubaydi spoke of the United States and its coalition partners in Operation Desert Storm as Iraq's "enemies" and "referred to the U.S.-led aggression, saying it meant to hamper the country's progress by trying to overthrow the government, destroying Iraq's infrastructure and harming its national and historical unity."
Al-Khafaji gained notoriety by giving Scott Ritter $400,000.00 to produce a "documentary" sympathetic to the Hussein regime. More ominously, he also sponsored three Democratic congressmen on a propaganda tour to Iraq last fall:
Adding to your post: SNIP
Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington and David Bonior of Michigan, both Vietnam War-era veterans just returned from a trip to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. While on their tour of Iraq, the congressmen pressed President Bush to give U.N. sanctions time to work before launching any military campaign. Mr.McDermott’s position was that a U.N. sponsored disarmament could be accomplished diplomatically and that to oust Saddam which would require an unnecessary war.
The comments and show of support by the congressmen for the Iraqi president triggered outrage in America. McDermott told NBC’s “Today Show,” "The President of the United States will lie to the American people in order to get us into this war." The congressman compounded this claim with, “I think the president would mislead the American people,” on ABC’s “This Week” from Baghdad.
Analysis: My opinion about this trip to an enemy country on the cusp of a war with the USA? Disgusting!
I judge it as “aid and comfort to the enemy”. My reasoning is that responsible members of the Congress should not go to an enemy’s lair and attack a sitting President of United States. Free speech is one thing but to actually aid an enemy by denouncing your own president is another.
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:e8Co9Yb37eQJ:www.hk94.com/weblog/%3Fp%3D49+democrat+congressmen+iraq+trip&hl=en&ie=UTF-8