Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US: Saddam paid for lawmakers' Iraq trip
news.yahoo.com ^

Posted on 03/26/2008 3:07:47 PM PDT by bad company

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion.

An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1999; 2002; 200210; 2006; aaan; aidandcomfort; aidingandabetting; alhanooti; alkhafagi; alkhafaji; baghdadjim; baghdadtrio; bonior; bribe; congress; cultureofcorruption; cultureofcutandrun; davidbonior; democrat; democrats; democratscandals; detroit; detroitcell; elections; elkhafagi; hamas; hanooti; iis; incpi; inshiftingsands; iraq; jimmcdermott; josephwilson; khafagi; khafaji; life; liferd; lindhauer; lrd; mcdermott; mikethompson; muthannaalhanooti; niger; nigerflap; oil; oilforfood; payola; rats; saddam; sanctions; scottritter; seattle; seattlecell; shadowgovernment; shakiralkhafaji; susanlindhauer; thompson; treason; unconstitutional; usefulidiots
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-156 next last
To: bad company

This will be considered a Red Badge of Courage for the Jim McDermott and the Baghdad Boys.


41 posted on 03/26/2008 4:08:45 PM PDT by Eva (Benedict Arnold was a war hero, too.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company

I can’t believe that Jim McDermott, a Vietnam Veteran, would do such a thing. *snicker*


42 posted on 03/26/2008 4:15:53 PM PDT by Fundamentally Fair (Experience Change!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company
From 2002 National Catholic Reporter:
... conservative columnist George F. Will termed Bonior and his two Democratic colleagues "useful idiots"--useful to Saddam Hussein, that is. Pundit Christopher Caldwell termed the Baghdad visit a "treason tour."

43 posted on 03/26/2008 4:26:04 PM PDT by syriacus (If BHO Jr. is elected, will he become a TWHP? (Typical White House Person))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company
The trip was sponsored by the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq.
44 posted on 03/26/2008 4:27:39 PM PDT by syriacus (If BHO Jr. is elected, will he become a TWHP? (Typical White House Person))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Uncledave
I want treason charges filed.

I am 100% positive that the Bush Justice Department is working on that indictment right this very second.

45 posted on 03/26/2008 4:28:45 PM PDT by trumandogz ("He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and it worries me." Sen Cochran on McCain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: bad company
stupid Democrat
46 posted on 03/26/2008 4:34:25 PM PDT by redreno
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AlphaOneAlpha

I used to call him “McDimwitt”. Guess it’s time to crank that one up again.


47 posted on 03/26/2008 4:40:44 PM PDT by Hunton Peck (I'm supporting Michele Bachmann and James Sensebrenner this year. The presidency is just one office.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: bad company
I know that all the "investigative journalists" that are trying to make their bones will be all over this...
/s
48 posted on 03/26/2008 4:40:47 PM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hunton Peck

From politics1.com:

Mike Thompson (D)*
Mitch Clogg (D) - Ex-Newspaper Reporter & Army Veteran
Doug Pharr (R) - Attorney & USMC Veteran
Zane Starkewolf (R) - Businessman
Pam Elizondo (Green) - Marijuana Legalization Activist, Ex-Psychiatric Hospital Worker & Frequent Candidate
Carol Wolman (Green) - Psychiatrist & Peace Activist

A challenger in the primary and then 2 on the R side.

Is it common for U.S. Representatives to accept trips from people they know nothing about?


49 posted on 03/26/2008 4:44:08 PM PDT by scrabblehack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: bad company

50 posted on 03/26/2008 5:11:44 PM PDT by Gritty (Liberals believe the world is run on wishes and that they will always have three more- G. Vanderleun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company

ha!


51 posted on 03/26/2008 5:12:51 PM PDT by RDTF (my worst nightmare is being on jury duty sequestered with 11 liberals)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company; Grampa Dave; ravingnutter

This thread did not come up when I searched, so I posted the later Yahoo/AP article but that thread has just been nuked by the mods for duplication, I suppose. Still, the later article has more details:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_re_us/iraq_junket;_ylt=AofAYBRW.LNfkvM9ivTT9JWs0NUE

Al-Hanooti was arrested Tuesday night while returning to the U.S. from the Middle East, where he was looking for a job, his attorney, James Thomas, said. Al-Hanooti pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities. He was being held on $100,000 bail.

Between 1999 and 2006, he worked on and off as a public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a charity group formed after the first Gulf War to fund humanitarian work in Iraq. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided the charity’s headquarters in 2006 but charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating.

McDermott identified that charity as the group financing the Iraq trip. In House disclosure forms, he put the cost at $5,510. Thompson also understood the charity to be financing the trip, spokeswoman Anne Warden said.

Prosecutors said Al-Hanooti was responsible for monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From 1999 to 2002, he allegedly provided Saddam’s government with a list of U.S. lawmakers he believed favored lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.

In exchange for coordinating the congressional trip, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil, prosecutors said.


52 posted on 03/26/2008 5:20:02 PM PDT by Enchante (Careful, Obama - Hillary May Soon Decide to Exercise the "Tonya Harding Option")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kcvl; Fedora; ScaniaBoy

ping to Saddam’s oil-for-food corruption scam buying some “useful idiots” from the Democrat Congress


53 posted on 03/26/2008 5:21:20 PM PDT by Enchante (Careful, Obama - Hillary May Soon Decide to Exercise the "Tonya Harding Option")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: txflake
"Obviously, we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."

For the children, it's always for the children......
54 posted on 03/26/2008 5:23:41 PM PDT by Enchante (Careful, Obama - Hillary May Soon Decide to Exercise the "Tonya Harding Option")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Enchante; paddles

ping to 52


55 posted on 03/26/2008 5:23:46 PM PDT by RDTF (my worst nightmare is being on jury duty sequestered with 11 liberals)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: bad company

Even at the prices from that day, 2,000,000 barrels of oil is a big hunk of change for bribes.

THese congressment couldn’t have been so naive that they believed an invitation and plush trip from Saddam wasn’t treating with the enemy.


56 posted on 03/26/2008 5:24:59 PM PDT by wildbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bad company
no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam

Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along.

Yeah ... right.

57 posted on 03/26/2008 5:27:40 PM PDT by white trash redneck (Just one of B. Hussein Obama's "typical white people")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: txflake

On the ASC radio news, at 3 PM (PDT), they did NOT identify either the representatives or the party, so I KNEW that they were Dems. And of course I was right. The MSM is so predictably biased, it’s almost laughable.


58 posted on 03/26/2008 5:29:33 PM PDT by DeweyCA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Enchante; Shermy; Cindy; kcvl; piasa; Ernest_at_the_Beach; tubebender

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1074808/posts

Who Did Saddam Bribe?
The Omega Letter / MEMRI ^ | 2-9-04 | Jack Kinsella

Posted on 02/09/2004 5:34:08 PM PST by hope

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest

Who Did Saddam Bribe?

List Names Top Officials in France, Russia

Terror - Islam Monday, February 09, 2004 MEMRI

On January 25, 2004, a daily newspaper in Iraq called al Mada published a list of individuals and organizations who it says received oil from the now-deposed regime. Among those listed is Shakir al Khafaji, an Iraqi-American from Detroit, who ran “Expatriate Conferences” for the regime in Baghdad. Al Khafaji also contributed $400,000 to the production of Scott Ritter’s film “In Shifting Sands.” Finally, al Khafaji arranged travel and financing for the “Baghdad Democrats”—Jim McDermott, Mike Thompson and David Bonior—last fall. Following the trip, al Khafaji contributed $5,000 to McDermott’s Legal Defense Fund.

Source: Memri

© http://www.omegaletter.com


59 posted on 03/26/2008 5:31:41 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Hussein ObamaSamma's Pastor, Jeremiah Wright: "God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: redreno

lofl!


60 posted on 03/26/2008 5:36:00 PM PDT by txhurl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-156 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson