SADDAM HUSSEIN PAID FOR DEMOCRATS TRIP!

[Tigermike 3,054]

Saddam Paid for Lawmakers’ Trip, Prosecutors Say

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 26, 2008

Filed at 11:13 p.m. ET

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. (What a surprise Arabs misusing a charity organization.)

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.'' (Is he using the Obama defense? I didn't know!)

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Iraq...amp;oref=slogin

McDermott's response - through a spokesperson, of course - is that he went on this trip For The Iraqi Children; Thompson at least has sufficient shame to claim ignorance.

It's not surprising to me that these three dims were so stupid they didn't realize that they were being used like a $15.00 prostitute by a man who casually murdered inconvenient ethnic groups whenever they got in his way. If they aren't stupid then the only other possibility is that they were treasonous.

[AURaptor 1,126]

he went on this trip For The Iraqi Children

If that isn't the standard , whiney a$$ed lib's response to why they do everything

[AURaptor 1,126]

The day goes by, and not one Lib has 1 word to add. Incredible.

[autiger4life 3]

The day goes by, and not one Lib has 1 word to ad. Incredible.

Sorry Raptor. We have no reason to believe that they knew who was financing the trips, considering they are US Senators and it would have been illegal I would think they would not have gone. Maybe they did know, if they did then I certainly condemn them, would want them prosecuted to the fullest extent etc. What do you want me to say. Just because they are a democrat does not mean they will make decisions that I will agree with, or that they should have. But then again, maybe they did not know. I know I know we are just defending our liberals even though they are so so terrible and they definately knew. Its an article that really doesn't deserve a response, just an interesting read.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Since the war in Iraq, all we've heard is " Bush lied, soldiers died " , yet not ONCE , ever has it been shown where or how Bush lied.

Now, you're expecting us to sit here, w/ our hands politely folded in our laps as these 3 bastards accepted $$ from Saddam by way of plane tickets and hotel rooms on the eve of our reinitiating hostilities w/ his country?? These same 3 sob's who said they believed Saddam, and not their own President ??

Screw every one of them to hell. Traitorous bastards, they are. Sure as hell they knew!

[autiger4life 3]

Since the war in Iraq, all we've heard is " Bush lied, soldiers died " , yet not ONCE , ever has it been shown where or how Bush lied.

Now, you're expecting us to sit here, w/ our hands politely folded in our laps as these 3 bastards accepted got $$ from Saddam possibly with or without their knowledge by way of plane tickets and hotel rooms possibly with or without their knowledge on the eve of our reinitiating hostilities w/ his country?? These same 3 sob's who said they believed Saddam, and not their own President ??

Screw every one of them to hell. Traitorous bastards, they are. Sure as hell they knew!

First of all, I don't expect you to do anything. If you don't want to sit with your hands folded then you don't have to. I just don't understand what you want me to say. I have already said I don't support them, what they did etc, and certainly not if they did take the money. I don't understand why you are getting so mad at me. I didn't do it, I don't support it, if they did know then I would want them to be fully prosecuted. For some reason you believe that if someone is a democrat then I must agree with everything a democrat does. There is plenty of stuff that democrats do/believe that I disagree with. I think 99.99% of senators wouldn't do this if they knew Saddam was paying for it. I would say 100% but I guess there is a chance that they did know. I don't know if they did or not and whether you want to yell and try to act so patriotic you also have no idea if they knew or not. Save the preaching and wait and find out if the investigation finds anything. It is amazing to me that you seem to be positive that they knew when there is no evidence of this. Your arrogance is increadible.

As far as the Bush lied soldier's died thing. I have never said that in my life except in the sentence preceding this one so you are attempting to throw me into a category again that I don't belong to. As far as no lies? How about that Saddam and Bin Laden were working together for 9/11. That is clearly not true. First we were told that we were there for WMDs and then when nothing major turned up we were told we were originally there to take out Saddam. While I have never said Bush Lied Soldiers Died line, he has possibly flat out lied and has definatley used misleading/shakey evidence to convince us of something.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Since the war in Iraq, all we've heard is " Bush lied, soldiers died " , yet not ONCE , ever has it been shown where or how Bush lied.

Now, you're expecting us to sit here, w/ our hands politely folded in our laps as these 3 bastards accepted $$ from Saddam on the eve of our reinitiating hostilities w/ his country?? These same 3 sob's who said they believed Saddam, and not their own President ??

Screw every one of them to hell. Traitorous bastards, they are. Sure as hell they knew!

First of all, I don't expect you to do anything. If you don't want to sit with your hands folded then you don't have to. I just don't understand what you want me to say. I have already said I don't support them, what they did etc, and certainly not if they did take the money. I don't understand why you are getting so mad at me. I didn't do it, I don't support it, if they did know then I would want them to be fully prosecuted. For some reason you believe that if someone is a democrat then I must agree with everything a democrat does. There is plenty of stuff that democrats do/believe that I disagree with. I think 99.99% of senators wouldn't do this if they knew Saddam was paying for it. I would say 100% but I guess there is a chance that they did know. I don't know if they did or not and whether you want to yell and try to act so patriotic you also have no idea if they knew or not. Save the preaching and wait and find out if the investigation finds anything. It is amazing to me that you seem to be positive that they knew when there is no evidence of this. Your arrogance is increadible.

As far as the Bush lied soldier's died thing. I have never said that in my life except in the sentence preceding this one so you are attempting to throw me into a category again that I don't belong to. As far as no lies? How about that Saddam and Bin Laden were working together for 9/11. That is clearly not true. First we were told that we were there for WMDs and then when nothing major turned up we were told we were originally there to take out Saddam. While I have never said Bush Lied Soldiers Died line, he has possibly flat out lied and has definatley used misleading/shakey evidence to convince us of something.

The Bush administration never made the assertion that OBL had any direct ties w/ Saddam in the 9/11 attack. VP Cheney even said as much, so that's a bogus claim. Everyone from Clinton , Kennedy, Albright, Kerry, all down the Democrat line thought and SAID that Saddam had WMD. The U.N. found Iraq in material breech of its cease fire agreement. We've found out since that Saddam had every intention to start up his WMD program up again, despite all the world's attempt to stop him. In no way what so ever did Bush lie, and there's not a damn thing you can show to prove that he did.

[autiger4life 3]

We've found out since that Saddam had every intention to start up his WMD program up again, despite all the world's attempt to stop him.

Uhhhhh let's see a reliable link for that one because I haven't seen anything saying that.

The Bush administration never made the assertion that OBL had any direct ties w/ Saddam in the 9/11 attack. VP Cheney even said as much, so that's a bogus claim.

Bush has said on many occasions that the two have ties and the war on terror and the war on Saddam is the same thing because the two are working together, which is absolutely not true.

Everyone from Clinton , Kennedy, Albright, Kerry, all down the Democrat line thought and SAID that Saddam had WMD.

And once again I disagree with them too. I will say again for the fifth time, just because they are a democrat doesn't mean I am for that. I know it is a difficult concept to make decisions not based on the letter next to someone's name but some actually do that.

However, all of this is off topic. What you said was you couldn't believe no liberal had responded to this. What is it you want a liberal to say?

[LegalEagle 22]

I didn't know it was illegal to accept a free ride. If it is, that is wrong. They should be prosecuted. However, if they can get a free ride legally and save the taxpayer dollar, I am all for it.

The saddest thing is that they could not convince Congress and Bush not to invade Iraq after they came back.

[AURaptor 1,126]

Uhhhhh let's see a reliable link for that one because I haven't seen anything saying that.

- Guess you don't keep up w/ current events much, huh ?

Iraqi Documents Show al Qaeda Ties

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

NewsMax.com | Friday, March 21, 2008

A much-publicized report released by the Pentagon last week details the extensive ties between the regime of Saddam Hussein and a wide variety of international terrorist organizations, including Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

“Despite their incompatible long-term goals, many terrorist movements and Saddam found a common enemy in the United States,” the report’s authors at the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) state

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read...B1-C68584D5878C

Bush has said on many occasions that the two have ties and the war on terror and the war on Saddam is the same thing because the two are working together, which is absolutely not true.

- Saddam was funding and aiding terrorist groups, so that part is absolutely true. He never made the direct connection w/ 9/11, but there were various levels by which both parties were in contact w/ each other.

Everyone from Clinton , Kennedy, Albright, Kerry, all down the Democrat line thought and SAID that Saddam had WMD.

And once again I disagree with them too. I will say again for the fifth time, just because they are a democrat doesn't mean I am for that. I know it is a difficult concept to make decisions not based on the letter next to someone's name but some actually do that.

- These are leaders of your party , the top people in Clinton's cabinet who are saying this during Clinton's administration, and after, even when Bush was in office. It's not a matter of whether you agree w/ them or not. Distancing yourself from their comments isn't going to help you here. THESE are the voices of the Democratic party.

However, all of this is off topic. What you said was you couldn't believe no liberal had responded to this. What is it you want a liberal to say?

- I'd prefer a Liberal to have a ounce of decency in them and come to the conclusion that , at the very least, these 3 US Congressmen were used a propaganda tools against their own country. Their anti- America/ anti-Bush positions got them collaborating w/ the enemey and put them in a position to be made total fools and dupes.

[autiger4life 3]

'd prefer a Liberal to have a ounce of decency in them and come to the conclusion that , at the very least, these 3 US Congressmen were used a propaganda tools against their own country. Their anti- America/ anti-Bush positions got them collaborating w/ the enemey and put them in a position to be made total fools and dupes.

I agree that they may have been used as propaganda against the US and I hate that and I would never vote for them. I also know that as Americans they have the right to say what they wish and I also respect that. While I don't agree with them and would never support them I do support a person's ability to say what they want whether it is used for propoganda or not.

These are leaders of your party , the top people in Clinton's cabinet who are saying this during Clinton's administration, and after, even when Bush was in office. It's not a matter of whether you agree w/ them or not. Distancing yourself from their comments isn't going to help you here. THESE are the voices of the Democratic party.

I don't care what you view as the voice of the democratic party. I do not base my opinions based on who the "leaders" of the party are. I base my opinions on what I hold to be true and nothing else. I could have every person I respect tell me something and it doesn't mean I will agree with it. It just doesn't matter to me. I am only a democrat because that is the title given to most of my beliefs, it has nothing to do with me wanting to belong to a party or feel any special allegiance or alliance it is simply that my beliefs more often than not line up with democratic ideals.

As far as the connection of Saddam and terroist, here are some people who disagree:

On April 29, 2007, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said on 60 Minutes, "We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period.

In the lead up to the Iraq War, U.S. President George W. Bush alleged that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and militant group al-Qaeda might conspire to launch terrorist attacks on the United States, basing the administration's rationale for war, in part, on this allegation and others. The consensus of intelligence experts has been that these contacts never led to an operational relationship, and that consensus is backed up by reports from the independent 9/11 Commission, declassified Defense Department reports as well as by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, whose 2006 report of Phase II of its investigation into prewar intelligence reports concluded that there was no evidence of ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda

In February 2007, the Pentagon's inspector general issued a report that concluded that Feith's Office of Special Plans, an office in the Pentagon run by Douglas Feith that was the source of most of the misleading intelligence on al-Qaeda and Iraq, had "developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers." The report found that these actions were "inappropriate" though not "illegal." Senator Carl Levin, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated that "The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq. The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."

In February 2006, the Pentagon published a study of the so-called Harmony database documents captured in Afghanistan.[84] While the study did not look specifically at allegations of Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda, it did analyze papers that offer insight into the history of the movement and tensions among the leadership. In particular, it found evidence that al-Qaeda jihadists had viewed Saddam as an "infidel" and cautioned against working with him.

After the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, there were several investigations of possible collaboration between Saddam Hussein and the terrorists who attacked the building.[61] Neil Herman, who headed the FBI investigation into the attack, noted that despite Yasin's presence in Baghdad, there was no evidence of Iraqi support for the attack. "We looked at that rather extensively," he told CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen. "There were no ties to the Iraqi government." Bergen writes, "In sum, by the mid-'90s, the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, the C.I.A., the N.S.C., and the State Department had all found no evidence implicating the Iraqi government in the first Trade Center attack."

[AURaptor 1,126]

DAMMIT, STOP POSTING STRAW MAN ARGUMENTS!

On April 29, 2007, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said on 60 Minutes, "We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period.

No one ever SAID direct connection between Iraq and 9/11. You Libs keep making this false claim that some how we went to war w/ Iraq BECAUSE of 9/11. THAT'S NOT TRUE NOR HAS IT EVER BEEN TRUE!! And yet you Libs keep stuffing this pointless fact in our face as if you've found some holy grail! Just f-ing knock it off!

[Tigermike 3,054]

DAMMIT, STOP POSTING STRAW MAN ARGUMENTS!

That's all he has.