Posted on 03/12/2004 8:21:39 AM PST by Grampa Dave
Former DeFazio, Wyden employee accused of spying
Federal authorities arrest the one-time press secretary on charges that she worked for Saddam Hussein's regime
03/12/04
JEFF KOSSEFF
and JIM BARNETT
WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a former press secretary to two Oregon congressmen on charges that she worked for the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday accused Susan Lindauer, 40, of illegally acting as an agent of Iraq's intelligence agency from October 1999 through February 2004. The U.S. government accused her of receiving more than $10,000 in compensation from the Iraqi agency.
Lindauer, of Takoma Park, Md., worked for two Oregon Democrats -- Rep. Peter DeFazio in 1993 and then-Rep. Ron Wyden in 1994 -- in addition to other jobs in politics and journalism. She is a distant relative of White House chief of staff Andrew Card and the daughter of John Lindauer, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Alaska governor in 1998.
Lindauer faces 11 separate charges, including conspiracy, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, engaging in illegal financial transactions with a foreign government and making false statements. The crimes carry sentences of up to 10 years each.
Lindauer told a Baltimore television station on Thursday that she was innocent of the charges.
"I'm an antiwar activist and I'm innocent," Lindauer told WBAL outside the Baltimore Federal Bureau of Investigation office, according to a report posted on the station's Web site.
"I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country," she said. "I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible. I'm very proud and I'll stand by my achievements."
In the 14-page indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, the U.S. attorney chronicles how Lindauer built a relationship with Saddam's regime over a four-year period.
She visited periodically with members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, known as IIS, but eventually was caught in a sting operation by the FBI, according to the indictment. The IIS has been accused of an attempted assassination of former President Bush
The visits began Oct. 14, 1999, when Lindauer traveled to Manhattan to meet an IIS agent, according to the indictment. In time, Lindauer began accepting payments from the Iraqis to offset her travel expenses, including $5,000 she took during a two-week trip to Baghdad in February and March 2002.
In January 2003, as President Bush and other U.S. leaders prepared for war with Iraq, Lindauer delivered a letter to an unidentified government official that "conveyed her established access to, and contacts with members of the Saddam Hussein regime, in an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States foreign policy," the indictment said.
The indictment did not name the government official, but a White House official confirmed that Lindauer had attempted to contact her "distant relative," Card.
"The last time he recalls seeing or talking to her was during the 2001 inaugural events," the official said. "He has reported various attempts by her to contact him to the appropriate officials."
Tipped to her efforts, federal officials began tracking Lindauer and began a sting operation.
An FBI agent posing as a member of the Libyan intelligence service met Lindauer in June to discuss support for resistance groups fighting in postwar Iraq, the indictment said. In August, she left documents requested by the agent at a designated location near her home in Maryland.
Lindauer's career began in Pacific Northwest journalism. She wrote for The Everett Herald in Everett, Wash., the Northwest News Service, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Fortune and U.S. News and World Report.
She moved into congressional public relations in May 1993, when she landed a job as DeFazio's press secretary.
Her tenure was short; she held the job until October. DeFazio's office wouldn't comment on the reasons for her departure. When asked at an unrelated Portland news conference Thursday about Lindauer, DeFazio said they "weren't on the best of terms"when she left.
But she quickly landed a job with another member of Oregon's congressional delegation, serving as Wyden's press secretary for most of 1994.
Josh Kardon, who was Wyden's chief of staff in the House and now holds the same position in Wyden's Senate office, said he eliminated the position at the end of 1994, but he would not comment further on her departure.
After her stint with Wyden, Lindauer moved to the office of then-Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, where she worked for much of 1996. From March 11 to May 14, 2002, she worked for U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. It was Lindauer's only public-service job that fell within the timeframe of the charges.
"To my knowledge, this former employee had no access to sensitive information," Lofgren said in a written statement. "Obviously, I had no reason to think that she was involved in this alleged activity."
The indictment does not mention her short stints with DeFazio and Wyden -- the charges begin about five years after she left Wyden's office. But a Middle East affairs bulletin has published claims that while Wyden's press secretary, she collected intelligence about the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum, said that in 2000 Lindauer provided it with a deposition in which she claims to have obtained knowledge about the Pan Am bombing while a Wyden staff member.
The newsletter said Lindauer submitted the 1998 deposition to the United Nations and to a Libyan court in its trial of two suspects. In the deposition, she claims that while Wyden's press secretary, an American doctor, Richard Fuisz, arranged a meeting with her in September 1994. According to the deposition, he had proof that Syrians, not Libyans, were involved in the bombing, based on information he gathered while living in Syria in the 1980s.
"I had been invited to meet Dr. Fuisz by a mutual acquaintance because of my position as press secretary to former Congressman Ron Wyden . . . and because of my known longstanding interest in the Middle East," Lindauer's reported deposition said.
Since then, Libya has taken responsibility for the bombings and offered compensation to victims' families.
When reached at his Virginia office Wednesday, Fuisz declined comment.
Gary Gambill, editor of the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, said Lindauer provided him with the deposition. In e-mail messages, he recalled, she claimed various people were attempting to hurt her. For example, he said, she claimed someone put acid on her steering wheel in an attempt to burn her.
Gambill said that he has no evidence that her deposition was accurate.
Kardon said that if she did indeed meet with Fuisz, it was beyond the scope of her job as press secretary. "She had no policy responsibility, so if she attended any policy meetings, they were unauthorized," Kardon said.
Kardon said that to his knowledge, Wyden never met with Fuisz.
Reporter Gail Kinsey Hill and Researchers Gail Hulden and Kathleen Blythe of The Oregonian contributed to this report. Jeff Kosseff: 503-294-7605; jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com
Thanks to Dixie Chick 2000 for bringing this to my attention.
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