Saddam's Democrat Puppets on the Take

US: Saddam paid for lawmakers' Iraq trip

Jim over at Gateway has the stunning post on the Democrat whores for Saddam.  Three anti war (anti-American) Democrats travelled to Iraq during the run up to the ar on Saddam's dime. Funny that Saddam would know who to approach and who to use as the fixer, Saddam spy Muthanna Al-Hanooti who was indicted today and was a former chief of CAIR-Michigan.

According to the indictment, Al-Hanooti would travel to Iraq and meet with conspirators of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The indictment says that Al-Hanooti was rewarded with 2 million barrels of oil for his work.

The indictment also alleges that Iraqi intelligence officials used an intermediary in Michigan to help fund a trip to Iraq taken by U.S. members of Congress in 2002.

Al-Hanooti was active in other local groups. He was former head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations and the president of Focus on American and Arab Interests and Relations.

 

Saddam Paid For Sleazy Antiwar Dems to Travel to Iraq Gateway Pundit

Puppets for the Saddam regime...

U.S. Congressmen David E. Bonior (D-Mi) (L) and Jim McDermott (D-Wa) join Salem al-Kubaisi (C), head of the Arab and Foreign Relations Committee, in attending the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, September 30, 2002. Three U.S. Congressmen, on a humanitarian fact-finding mission in Iraq, visited the southern port city of Basra on Sunday to check the living conditions and health of civilians after more than a decade of U.N. sanctions. (REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber)

The party of sedition and sleaze continues to impress...
Three antiwar Democrats traveled to Iraq during the runup of the war in Iraq all paid for by the Saddam Hussein regime.
The antiwar Democrats insist that they had no idea Saddam was paying for their trip.
The AP reported:

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.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, 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.

At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.

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.

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, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government." Seattle-are conservatives dubbed McDermott "Baghdad Jim" for the Iraq trip.

Debbie Schlussel reported that Saddam spy Muthanna Al-Hanooti who was indicted today was a former chief of CAIR-Michigan.

Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., center, and David Bonior, D-Mich., second from right, listen to a plant manager at the water-treatment project in Rastama, Baghdad. Many treatment plants have not been repaired. (October 01, 2002- Seattle PI)

NewsBusters reported that George Stephanopoulos at the time lashed out at Republicans for attacking the good antiwar democrats.

Comments

[Robert]

This stinks to high heaven.
Then, of course, so did having 'The Decider' for the war's Dad be Chairman of the Board of a huge war profiteering company.
Or one of its biggest media cheerleaders (NBC) owned by one of the country's largest defense contractors.

Conflicts of interest: Have you chosen the one you support today?

[paulpsd7]

Your nonsensical claims of anti-Americanism ignore one important thing: generally, the anti-war folks were right, and the pro-war folks were wrong. The Iraq war was unnecessary, and will likely go down as the biggest foreign policy blunder in US history.

So, let's recap:

Understanding the above (unlike our republican brethren), these Democratic congressmen went to Iraq in an effort to avoid a disastrous war, and all the destruction that would bring both to Iraq and the US.

Saddam paid for these trips, a fact that none of the congressmen could have known. By the anguish this has caused to poor Pamela, you would think this somehow compared to going on a golf trip paid by Jack Abramoff in return for congressional votes. However, somehow I doubt a trip to Iraq is quite the same as a trip to St. Andrews. And I doubt the reason the congressmen went to Iraq was to receive gifts in return for their support; had they wanted that, they could have scooped in FAR MORE had they supported the war and received payment from the pro-war lobbyists.

So, these claims of anti-Americanism on the part of these congressmen is no less absurd than any other pro-war argument. In the end, these congressmen were on the right side of history (in stark contrast to the pro-war side), and they took a trip to a hostile, uncomfortable place in order to save 4,000+ American lives, $3 trillion (and rising) in US funds, American prestige around the world, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Try again.

[manswworld]

Let's see, the sleazy, seditious trip was okayed by the George W. Bush State Dept., I got a picture taken not that long ago of Don Rumsfeld, the big brain behind our War On Terror, shaking our good friend Saddam Hussein's hand, we really did sell Saddam Hussein the bio-terror weapons of mass destruction he had which he subsequently got rid of before our invasion of Iraq, the pathetic U.S. military which George W. Bush and Don Rumsfeld have destroyed recently shipped four fuses for nuclear missiles to Taiwan in 2006 and never caught the error and now we have an article here where your wizard of a writer is flat-out accusing the Democrats of treason or whatever. As if there aren't real issues to write about. You don't have more important things to write about?

No thanks. Vote Obama.