U.S. Expels Two Members of Iraq's U.N. Mission

Reuters ^ | 03/05/2003 | Reuters

[Charge Carrier]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States expelled two members of Iraq (news - web sites)'s mission and told them to get out of the country within 72 hours for activities "harmful to the United States," a U.S. source said on Wednesday.

[KevinDavis]

Tick Tick Tick.....

[b4its2late]

10...9...8...7...6...5...4........

[EternalVigilance]

I bet they won't hurry back to Bahgdad...

[Dog Gone]

I hate excerpts.

Try this instead:

U.S. Orders Two Iraqi Diplomats to Leave
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - The United States has ordered two Iraqi diplomats to leave the country, Iraq's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday.

Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said the two men were ordered out of the United States because their behavior was in contradiction to their diplomatic status. This is the usual diplomatic language that refers to spying.

Al-Douri said the men were informed of the expulsion order Tuesday at 6 p.m. EST and were given 72 hours to leave the United States.

"They are the security personnel of the mission, the guards," the ambassador told The Associated Press. "They are living in the basement of the (Iraqi) mission."

The men have the ranks of attaches but are not on the list of personnel accredited to the United Nations, Al-Douri said.

"They have nothing to do with the United Nations," he said. "They are there for security reasons, to guard the mission."

The U.S. State Department announced the expulsions in a statement issued in Washington.

"The United States has requested the departure of two attaches from the Iraq Mission to the United Nations. Nazih Abdul Latif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud have been asked to depart by midnight March 7," it said.

"The two attaches were engaged in activities outside the scope of their official function. Federal law enforcement authorities deemed the activities to be harmful to our national security."

[jaz.357]

go..GO!...and never DARKEN our TOWELS AGAIN!

[libsrscum]

First we kick 'em out of the US... then we kick them out of Iraq!

God Bless these United States! Let's Roll!

[July 4th]

We've got to kick out the old to bring in the new.

[Solamente]

Expel my balls. Detain them.

[ImpBill]

Good news, but even better would be if we started expelling some Russian, French, German, ..., hell the entire U.N. should be expelled.

[teletech]

"...it's God's job to judge these bastards, it's our job to arrange the meeting..."

What a GREAT line! I gotta remember that one. You get my vote for the best line today!

[cajungirl]

Do we really have to detain your balls? sorry I just couldn't resist. Look at your post again, it is funny.

[steveo]

Well that's a start...

[xJones]

"They are the security personnel of the mission, the guards," the ambassador told The Associated Press. "They are living in the basement of the (Iraqi) mission."

I'm sure we're all going to miss them, primitive tribalists that they are, while at the same time welcoming 12,000 grossly primitive Somalian refugees in the next shipment, not to mention the illegal immigrants that slip over our borders every day. Homeland Security should mean something more.

[MizSterious]

"This is the usual diplomatic language that refers to spying."

And usually in cases like this, they've harvested all the information on the spies (the Iraqis in this case) and have no further use for them. If they know they're spies, they've probably been watching them for awhile.

[Dog Gone]

I wonder what kind of spying Iraqis do in New York that is of any value to them.

[F16Fighter]

"I bet they won't hurry back to Bahgdad..."

Good opportunity for these guys to check out time-shares...

[MizSterious]

My guess? It might be more a matter of terrorism than spying per se--contacting agents, setting things up. Just a guess, and not even an educated guess at that.

[Charge Carrier]

We will probably never know.

"In mid-February, the United States expelled the U.N. correspondent of the official Iraqi News Agency, Mohammad Hassan Allawi. Last June U.S. officials expelled a first secretary at Iraq's U.N. mission.

Allawi, 38, had been the INA correspondent at the United Nations for two years. He lived in Manhattan with his wife and five children, aged 8 to 16, who attend New York public schools. The U.N. Correspondents Association protested his expulsion to Secretary of State Colin Powell and asked for an explanation, which it did not receive."
- from http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=443WYREUXI1P4CRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=2333302