Thread: US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip

Mar 26, 8:03 PM EDT

US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.

Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam's regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.






"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."

Both McDermott and Thompson are popular among liberal voters in their reliably Democratic districts for their anti-war views. Bonior is no longer in Congress.

Thompson released a statement Wednesday saying the trip was approved by the State Department.

"Obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated," he said.

During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Though such weapons ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time.

Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, then the second-ranking Senate Republican, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government." Seattle-area conservatives dubbed McDermott "Baghdad Jim" for the Iraq trip.

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 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.

Thomas said Al-Hanooti would "vigorously defend" himself against the charges but he could not discuss the specifics of the case since he had seen none of the evidence.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Southfield Muslim charity official was Iraqi spy, federal indictment says
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A former top official with the Southfield-based Muslim charity Life for Relief and Development spied for the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and organized a 2002 congressional junket to Iraq secretly paid for by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges.

Former U.S. Rep. David Bonior, D-Mt. Clemens, was one of the congressmen who made that trip to Iraq, records show. Bonior could not immediately be reached.

Muthanna Al-Hanooti, 48, of Dearborn Heights, received a potentially lucrative contract for the right to purchase 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil in return for his work for the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the indictment alleges.

Al-Hanooti, arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport Tuesday night after returning from a trip to the Middle East, was led in handcuffs Wednesday into federal court in Detroit. U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman ordered Al-Hanooti to post a $100,000 bond and wear an electronic tether after government prosecutors appealed more lenient release conditions ordered by a U.S. magistrate judge.

FBI agents raided the Southfield offices of Life for Relief, a highly regarded Muslim charity, in 2006. The charity has not been charged with any crime and Wednesday's indictment is the first charge brought against any of its officials.

"These are all false allegations," said Al-Hanooti's son Suhaib, a 23-year-old university student.

"This is a case that is going to be defended vigorously," said Detroit attorney James C. Thomas, who is representing Al-Hanooti.

Al-Hanooti, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen who has a wife and three children in the Detroit area, stands charged in the 14-page grand jury indictment with conspiring to act as an agent of the Iraqi government, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by illegally obtaining the Iraqi oil contract, and three counts of making false statements to FBI agents. The most serious charge, related to breaking the embargo, carries a prison sentence of up to 12 years.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Al-Hanooti worked for Life and Relief between 1994 and 2006 as its public relations coordinator and lobbyist.

He was also president of Focus on American and Arab Interests and Relations, which handled many of Life for Relief's political activities, the indictment alleges.

An un-indicted co-conspirator in the case is a former officer of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and Al-Hanooti was paid by the Iraqi spy agency, the indictment alleges.

That Iraqi spy asked Al-Hanooti to publicize in the United States the harmful effects of U.S. sanctions against Iraq and to bring to Iraq delegations from the U.S. Congress, the indictment alleges.

Between 1999 and 2002, Al-Hanooti gave the Iraqi Intelligence Service a strategy on how to get the sanctions lifted and in 2002 he helped organize a trip to Iraq by a delegation of members of Congress, the indictment alleges. Though Life for Relief paid $34,000 to cover travel expenses, the Iraqi Intelligence Service secretly reimbursed that money through an intermediary, the indictment alleges.

"As compensation for services that Al-Hanooti had rendered to the government of Iraq, including his organizing and leading the 2002 congressional delegation on or about Dec. 22, 2002 the Vice President of Iraq directed the Iraqi Minister of Petroleum to allocate to defendant Al-Hanooti a quantity of two million barrels of oil," the indictment alleges.

Under the Iraqi economic sanctions, the United Nations created an Oil-for-Food program that allowed Iraq to sell oil under certain conditions intended to help address the country's humanitarian needs. Top Iraqi officials selected who could buy the oil and "these companies and individuals were able to profit by selling their allocations to brokers and/or companies capable of transporting the oil to a refinery."

Al-Hanooti assigned his oil allocation to Laru Ltd., a company based in Cyprus, the indictment alleges. The indictment does not say what compensation he allegedly received for the oil contract.

"It is sad to see a humanitarian punished for humanitarian works," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who also is a friend of Al-Hanooti. "This has to do with what were truly complicated policies, at the time, towards Iraq, and I really wonder if this case should be a priority for the government, or not."

Thomas said Al-Hanooti was overseas at the time of the 2006 raid on Life for Relief, when Al-Hanooti's home was also searched.

Al-Hanooti was detained and released when he returned to the U.S. following the raids, in late 2006 or early 2007, Thomas said. The fact that he did so and has co-operated with federal authorities show he is not a flight risk, Thomas said.

But Karl Sandoval, a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., argued Al-Hanooti is a successful fund-raiser who has extensive business contacts in the Middle East and a second wife and a young child in Iraq.

"This is a gentleman who could quite easily up and start his life anew in the Middle East," Sandoval told Borman.

Detroit News staff writer Gregg Krupa contributed to this report. You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com

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