"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."
Totalitarian despots know that when it comes to American politicians, they can usually count on leftwing anti-US-war Democrats for sympathy and support. Is it any wonder why some of the world's worst despots, including Osama Bin Laden, express hope that Democrats get elected over Republicans? Take it to the bank that if and when the anti-US-war leftist Barack Obama gets nominated, tyrants like the Castro brothers, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will all publicly express hope that he wins.
Through a spokesman, Islamist-supporter Jim McDermott (D-WA), who went on the pre-war trip to Iraq, says he had no idea that Saddam had financed it:
"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." [Emphasis added]
Congressman McDermott tries masking the real reason of his mission to Iraq -- to undercut the Bush Administration -- by saying that the trip was prompted by his concern for "the [Iraqi] children." I'd bet a king's ransom that in his heart of hearts Jim McDermott, like most people, doesn't really care all that much about anyone's children except his own. But he and his fellow leftwing Democrats have proved that they are deeply dedicated to subverting President Bush's foreign policy at every twist and turn.
When will America begin arresting clowns like McDermott for sedition when they conduct unauthorized foreign policy intended to subvert the wishes and decisions of a sitting president? The more reluctant our government becomes to do that, the more brazen that acts of treason and sedition against America by her internal leftwing enemies and pro-terrorist dupes will become.
