‘Saddam paid for Congressmen trip’

Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency had secretly financed a trip to Iraq by US lawmakers before the US invasion, federal prosecutors say.

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. In exchange for coordinating the trip, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 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, David Bonior and Mike Thompson.

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

During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush’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.

Sen. Don Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats ’sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government’.

AGB/PA

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