Stuck On Stupid

“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”

Hillary Clinton & Al-Hanooti

An Iraqi Intelligence agent that was indicted this week has claimed to have met Hillary Clinton in 1997 in an attempt to have sanctions eased in Iraq. He claimed that Hillary was receptive to the idea.

From the NY SUN:

A Michigan man facing federal criminal charges of illegally working for Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Intelligence Service says he met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in May 1996.

In a 1997 interview with this reporter, Muthanna Hanooti said that at the meeting, Mrs. Clinton was “very receptive” to his request for an easing of the American sanctions on Iraq that were in place at the time. He said Mrs. Clinton “passed a message to the State Department” about the need to implement the oil-for-food deal, which was intended to allow Saddam to sell billions of dollars’ worth of oil to pay for food for Iraqi citizens.

…

White House schedules for Mrs. Clinton that were released earlier this month by the National Archives show a May 9, 1996, “Private Meeting w/ Congressman Bonior and Chaldean-Americans” in the Map Room. David Bonior, who was a member of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives until he stepped down in January 2003, backed Mr. Hanooti’s efforts to ease the American blockade of Baathist Iraq. Mr. Bonior has been back in the news this week for having been one of the congressmen on an October 2002 trip to Iraq that Mr. Hanooti organized and that, apparently unbeknownst to the congressmen, was paid for by Saddam’s government. Chaldeans are Iraqi Christians.

For the Clinton campaign, already reeling from Mrs. Clinton’s misstatement on another 1996 episode — a landing at an airport in Bosnia that she claimed took place under sniper fire — the indictment of Mr. Hanooti and the disclosure of his claim to have met with her could not have come at a worse time. Mrs. Clinton has made her foreign policy experience in the White House an important part of her argument to voters that she is the only Democratic presidential candidate who would be ready to serve as president if the red phone rings at 3 a.m.

This has not been a good week for the Clintons. Sniper-Gate now this ‘Oil For Food ‘Travel Agency’ Scandal.’

More Information on Al-Hanooti from Steve Emerson:

Before he was alleged to have become a spy for Saddam Hussein’s regime, Muthanna Al-Hanooti’s charity work and political activism provided him with access to the highest echelons of government.

Newsletters collected by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, some published now for the first time, show Al-Hanooti photographed with dignitaries ranging from First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996 and Vice President Al Gore along with significant members of Congress.

That may explain why Iraqi intelligence agents had confidence that Al-Hanooti would be able to persuade Congress to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses him of using his work with the Michigan-based Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), formerly known as the International Relief Association, Inc., to become an Iraqi agent.

According to the indictment, Al-Hanooti drafted a plan to undermine the sanctions for the Iraqis, listing members of Congress who would support the move. He then led tours to Iraq, indirectly funded by the Iraqi government, with congressional leaders including Democrats David Bonior of Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington and Mike Thompson of California.

…

t/b: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air

Bookmark It

Hide Sites