“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

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~There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. ~
Frank Zappa

The ‘Baghdad Quartet’

Singing the Blues For Saddam

Bonior, Thompson & “Baghdad” Jim McDermott with “Baghdad Bob’

during the Saddam financed trip in 2002

Officials in the State Department revealed Wednesday that Saddam Hussein’s foreign intelligence agency with an Iraqi-American sympathizer organized and paid for a visit to Iraq in 2002 by three House Democrats. The trip was criticized by colleagues upon their return.An indictment of a former Iraqi citizen and employee of a charity group in Detroit was issued Wednesday. He was charged with accepting multi millions of dollars in Iraqi oil contracts for helping the spy agency with projects in the United States.

The three lawmakers Jim McDermott of Washington State, Mike Thompson of California and David E. Bonior of Michigan made the five-day trip to Iraq five months before the American invasion.

Although the trip was financed by Saddam Hussein no one knows for sure there wasn’t any involvement with the Iraqi Intelligence by any of these Representatives. They were not accused of anything illegal as of yet.

The indicted Iraqi-American is Muthanna al-Hanooti was employed by Life for Relief and Development, a Michigan-based charity.

The trip had cost a minimum of $34,000.

al-Hanooti was released on $100,000 bail.

More from The AP via Breitbart:

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.
…

Here is part of an interview broadcast on CNN in October, 2002:

…So how does it feel to be used as a propaganda tool against your own country? McDermott, who was asked that question by CNN’s Jane Arraf when he was still in Baghdad, said it feels fine. “If being used means that we’re highlighting the suffering of Iraqi children, or any children, then, yes, we don’t mind being used.”

These 3 clowns knew what the charity was and where it was located but their staffs did no investigation of this organization? Hard to believe….

So does anyone think that al-Hanooti will show up for trial on these charges? McDermott’s office probably supplied him with a passport back to the middle east.

The probable Democrat response; This is old news let’s just move on…..

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