Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
March 27, 2008
Pg. 17
By Philip Shenon
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein’s principal foreign intelligence agency and an Iraqi-American man had organized and paid for a 2002 visit to Iraq by three House Democrats whose trip was harshly criticized by colleagues at the time.
The arrangements for the trip were described in the indictment of an Iraq-born former employee of a Detroit-area charity group who was charged Wednesday with accepting millions of dollars’ worth of Iraqi oil contracts in exchange for assisting the Iraqi spy agency in projects in the United States.
The indictment did not claim any wrongdoing by the three lawmakers, whose five-day trip to Iraq occurred in October 2002, five months before the American invasion.
Two continue to serve in the House: Jim McDermott of Washington State and Mike Thompson of California. The other, David E. Bonior of Michigan, has since retired from Congress.
“None of the Congressional representatives are accused of any wrongdoing, and we have no information whatsoever that any of them were aware of the involvement of the Iraqi Intelligence Service,” said Dean Boyd, a Justice spokesman.
Mr. McDermott said through a spokesman that he had been invited on the trip by church groups in his home state and that he assumed that the trip had been paid for by legitimate charitable organizations.
Mr. Thompson said in a statement that the trip was approved by the State Department and that “obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated.”
The three-man Congressional delegation was criticized on its return to Washington as having undermined the Bush administration’s campaign to gather international support to disarm and later invade Iraq.
The indictment, which was dated Feb. 13 and unsealed Monday in Michigan, said the trip had cost at least $34,000.
The indicted Michigan man, Muthanna al-Hanooti, was identified in court papers as a naturalized American citizen who worked for much of the 1990s and again in 2001 and 2002 as public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan-based charity. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
The group’s Web site says it was founded in 1992 by Iraqi-American professionals who wanted to help people in Iraq after the Persian Gulf war a year earlier. A man answering the phone at its headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, who identified himself only as Sam, said he had no comment on the charges. Mr. Hanooti is reported to have left the group in mid-2006.
Mr. Hanooti is suspected of having gone to work for the Iraqis in 1999 or 2000, specifically by publicizing efforts in the United States to lift international economic sanctions on Iraq. As part of that effort, the indictment said, he organized the October 2002 visit and accompanied the three lawmakers to Iraq.
In December 2002, the indictment said, the Iraqi government secretly arranged to allocate two million barrels of oil to Mr. Hanooti; he then turned over the rights to the oil to a company incorporated in Cyprus for an amount of money that was not identified in the court papers.
The charges against Mr. Hanooti, who was released from custody on Wednesday after posting $100,000 bail and agreeing to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, include conspiracy, making false statements and criminal violations of the American embargo on Iraq.
March 27, 2008
Pg. 17
By Philip Shenon
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein’s principal foreign intelligence agency and an Iraqi-American man had organized and paid for a 2002 visit to Iraq by three House Democrats whose trip was harshly criticized by colleagues at the time.
The arrangements for the trip were described in the indictment of an Iraq-born former employee of a Detroit-area charity group who was charged Wednesday with accepting millions of dollars’ worth of Iraqi oil contracts in exchange for assisting the Iraqi spy agency in projects in the United States.
The indictment did not claim any wrongdoing by the three lawmakers, whose five-day trip to Iraq occurred in October 2002, five months before the American invasion.
Two continue to serve in the House: Jim McDermott of Washington State and Mike Thompson of California. The other, David E. Bonior of Michigan, has since retired from Congress.
“None of the Congressional representatives are accused of any wrongdoing, and we have no information whatsoever that any of them were aware of the involvement of the Iraqi Intelligence Service,” said Dean Boyd, a Justice spokesman.
Mr. McDermott said through a spokesman that he had been invited on the trip by church groups in his home state and that he assumed that the trip had been paid for by legitimate charitable organizations.
Mr. Thompson said in a statement that the trip was approved by the State Department and that “obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated.”
The three-man Congressional delegation was criticized on its return to Washington as having undermined the Bush administration’s campaign to gather international support to disarm and later invade Iraq.
The indictment, which was dated Feb. 13 and unsealed Monday in Michigan, said the trip had cost at least $34,000.
The indicted Michigan man, Muthanna al-Hanooti, was identified in court papers as a naturalized American citizen who worked for much of the 1990s and again in 2001 and 2002 as public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan-based charity. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
The group’s Web site says it was founded in 1992 by Iraqi-American professionals who wanted to help people in Iraq after the Persian Gulf war a year earlier. A man answering the phone at its headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, who identified himself only as Sam, said he had no comment on the charges. Mr. Hanooti is reported to have left the group in mid-2006.
Mr. Hanooti is suspected of having gone to work for the Iraqis in 1999 or 2000, specifically by publicizing efforts in the United States to lift international economic sanctions on Iraq. As part of that effort, the indictment said, he organized the October 2002 visit and accompanied the three lawmakers to Iraq.
In December 2002, the indictment said, the Iraqi government secretly arranged to allocate two million barrels of oil to Mr. Hanooti; he then turned over the rights to the oil to a company incorporated in Cyprus for an amount of money that was not identified in the court papers.
The charges against Mr. Hanooti, who was released from custody on Wednesday after posting $100,000 bail and agreeing to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, include conspiracy, making false statements and criminal violations of the American embargo on Iraq.