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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; aidandcomfort; aidingandabetting; alhanooti; alkhafaji; baghdadjim; baghdadtrio; bonior; bribe; congress; cultureofcorruption; cultureofcutandrun; davidbonior; democrat; democrats; democratscandals; elections; hanooti; iis; incpi; iraq; jimmcdermott; khafagi; khafaji; life; liferd; lrd; mcdermott; mikethompson; muthannaalhanooti; oilforfood; payola; rats; saddam; sanctions; shadowgovernment; shakiralkhafaji; thompson; treason; unconstitutional; usefulidiots
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To: Dqban22

Hey, thanks for re-posting the entire article twice.


121 posted on 03/27/2008 9:49:00 AM PDT by edcoil (Go Great in 08 ... Slide into 09)
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To: Enchante; piasa; the Real fifi
Thanks for the ping! I was particularly interested in an item buried towards the bottom of the Yahoo version of the story I read (apparently excerpted in the first post as I don't see this detail there), mentioning the trip was set up by a Seattle church group. The group is unnamed in the article, but for some relevant details see my prior post:

Wilsongate: Motive, Means, and Opportunity

Accompanying the Congressmen to Baghdad was Iraqi agent Shakir Al-Khafaji, who later paid McDermott a check.94 Also travelling with the Congreessmen was the Church Council of Greater Seattle, an antiwar religious coalition, and joining them in Baghdad was a delegation led by Bert Sacks of Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq, a Seattle-based affiliate of Voices in the Wilderness which had begun traveling to Iraq with Ramsey Clark’s IAC in the 1990s.95 IPA again handled media relations for the trip, issuing press releases listing media contacts that included Mission to Baghdad participant James Jennings as well as Sacks.96

While looking this up I found a lot of information on the broader Seattle network involved in arranging this trip, some of which is indicated in the footnotes at the end of the original post.

122 posted on 03/27/2008 10:31:10 AM PDT by Fedora
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To: Tex Pete
Yep, and we all know what the penalty for that is.

Yep, their own talk show, a VP slot in an upcoming election, book deals, dinner with Katie Couric....

123 posted on 03/27/2008 11:10:27 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Innocent until proven guilty; The Pendleton 8: We are not going down without a fight)
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To: Grampa Dave

Ok I will thank you.


124 posted on 03/27/2008 11:33:53 AM PDT by Katarina
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To: Grampa Dave
Yeah! McDerrmot was the other one's name! Whew! That was an overnight "Senior Moment!"

Your commentary on this "Treasonous Trio" was magnificent at the time of it's breaking, but even your magnificence didn't realize, as everone seems to have instantly forgotten, the incredible expanse of the biggest scandal in Earth's history... The UN Food For Oil Scandal!!!

Size of moneywise, it's been the biggest "of all time!" (said like Cassius Clay)(Mohommed Ali is a Muslim, remember?)

125 posted on 03/27/2008 12:17:35 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Out of the dung of adversity, spring the seeds of opportunity! America will always be exceptional!!!)
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To: RaceBannon; ChinaThreat; EQAndyBuzz

I should have said, “We all know what the penalty of that should be.”

All of us know that treason isn’t a crime anymore...at least for the leftists.


126 posted on 03/27/2008 12:43:07 PM PDT by Tex Pete
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To: Fundamentally Fair

Right...just like Rev. Jeremiah Wright was a Marine, therefore he’s a “Patriotic American”.


127 posted on 03/27/2008 1:42:29 PM PDT by llandres
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To: Fedora

Thanks. I’ll check it out.


128 posted on 03/27/2008 1:56:05 PM PDT by the Real fifi
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To: Tex Pete

The penalty ought to be death by hanging, but Congress sets the penalty (see Constitution Article III, Section 3) so that is not going to happen.


129 posted on 03/27/2008 2:16:07 PM PDT by pleikumud
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To: Broker

Well frankly, I don’t know why people expect such a thing from Bush, Reagan or for that matter George Washington himself; in a time when liberals have infected and undermined every facet of our society from the supreme court to the state dept. to all aspects of fed. state and local govt to the military to the schools...EVERYTHING.

And NO institution has these treasnoous vermin in their back pockets (and vice versa) such as the press!

Even now there’s not so much as a PEEP about this very story!

While I agree with you, I don’t think one would get to far as things stand presently. Bush DID have his hands full every single day fighting off these treasonous rat bast@rds both at home and abroad. I don’t know of any proof anyone knew Saddam funded their trip, let alone W.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

But I’d back a future President that brought reckoning to oust those undermining western civilization in order to save our country. I see it coming to exactly that or just capitulation the way of Rome, a slow painful death.


130 posted on 03/27/2008 2:25:25 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: icwhatudo

We need a bumper sticker that states this to answer the incessant idiocy of the left around here in Atlanta and I’m sure too many other areas...here’s a few I’ve seen lately:

“Bush lied people died”

“War is not the answer”

“Alternative energy is homeland security”

ALL those idiot bumper stickers make me want to puke!

Any ideas or know where I can get some?

“Sanctions under do nothing hypocrats killed 500,000 Iraqi children”

“War was the only answer to Hitler after liberal appeasement”

“Stupid Godless liberals are dangerous to our world”

Of course I’d need something magnetic I could remove so that my car isn’t vandalized by the “peace activists” around here.


131 posted on 03/27/2008 2:33:09 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: edcoil

well, the stupid, the treasonous, the liberal, the deranged, the child molesters, the mentally ill, the homosexuals, the felons, al-qaeda/Cuba/North Korea/Iran/Russia/China...

the hypocrat party represents ALOT of segments of our society!


132 posted on 03/27/2008 2:36:42 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: Red Steel

They can say they’re the anti-Christ and get away with it at this point because the vermin that vote for them simply don’t care when they DO bother to pay attention.

As long as the evil capitalist rich corporations get taxed and they get their hand-outs...and everything is Bush’s fault...and those evil war mongering Christian conservatives can be blamed...

it’s ALL good!


133 posted on 03/27/2008 2:42:33 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: Red Steel

Sadly, at this point, the people that support hypocrats and the hypocrat party in general wouldn’t bat an eye if Obamalamadingdong said he was the anti-Christ.

They’d simply shrug it off and say the vast right wing conspiracy either doctored the video and audio OR he was being coerced somehow.

I have an uncle that’s a good man, retired now, good Christian man, but when it comes to politics and voting, it’s always hypocrat cause that’s the way he was raised, etc.

Nevermind virtually ALL the values he holds dear are being systematically undermined by his very own party!

He gets his news from CNN, PMSNBC, etc.

He wouldn’t believe what his party has become but it’s no use in trying to point ANY of it out to him, he simply won’t have it.

It’s so maddening trying to reason with him that I gave up years ago.

And the younger generation, not to mention illegals, and all those that are too stupid to care, think it’s somehow hip or cool to bash Bush...and say stupid things like
“Bush lied people died”.


134 posted on 03/27/2008 2:53:22 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: kalee

Good LORD, take your pick!

George Soros

George Looney Clooney or ANY hypocrat hollyweirdo...

code pink

Russia/China/Cuba/France/ANY country raking in the oil from Uncle Insane. etc. etc. etc.


135 posted on 03/27/2008 2:58:08 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: lesser_satan

That’s not the issue. How do you bring down over half of our treasonous hate America society?

From the state dept. to SCOTUS judges on down etc. etc. etc.


136 posted on 03/27/2008 3:03:25 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: BallyBill

And why not? George Soros? George Loooney Clooney? Val Plame? algore...a bitter but still rich Tereza Heinz-Kerry?

There’s plenty of hate America loons willing to undermine our CIC and troops, sad to say!


137 posted on 03/27/2008 3:18:18 PM PDT by tpanther (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing-----Edmund Burke)
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To: tpanther

My point was that if I were an elected official and I were offered a trip I would make darn sure I knew who was providing it.
There would be no way I could use I didn’t know who paid as an excuse.


138 posted on 03/27/2008 3:20:26 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: big'ol_freeper

No kidding. None of the MSM media has covered this that I know. I only heard about it last night on either Glenn Beck or Fox News Channel, can’t remember which. They’are about the only two TV sources who have the guts to talk about the things the other networks won’t. I also just read more detail about the arrest:

“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.

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.”

And with the Dems controlling Congress, I’ll bet it’s a long one.


139 posted on 03/27/2008 3:35:22 PM PDT by llandres
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To: bad company

I don’t understand why the trip planner is getting into more hot water than the DEMtraitors that went on the trip...they should all be in trouble.


140 posted on 03/27/2008 5:57:22 PM PDT by madison10
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