[RonF]

Aziz claims to be a Chaldean Christian and met with the Pope. Is there a record of discrimination against Chaldean Christians in Iraq?

[Angelus Errare]

Aziz is sell-out to the Iraqi establishment and is generally recognized as such. He's just like the Jewish member of the Iranian parliament.

As far as the Chaldeans go, they face occasional bouts of persecution every time Saddam decides to show how Islamic he is, but are generally allowed to practice their religion so long as they bow to the edicts of the Baathist Party.

One of the reasons the papacy is attempting to be so nice to Saddam is in order to make sure that if war does break out that the Republican Guard doesn't start rounding up and killing Christians like he did during the last Gulf War in order to prove his pan-Islamism, but this point is by and large missed by a lot of people.

If these guys are Chaldean Christians, they may well be innocent victims of the Iraqi regime. If not, they're likely Mukhabarat (Iraqi intelligence) agents. Though the idea of the Mukhabarat coopting or pretending to be Christian in order to enter the US is likely another possibility.