We don’t call him “Baghdad Jim” for nothing; Plus: Another treacherous CAIR official
When I lived in Seattle, he was well-known as “Baghdad Jim McDermott” and the name has stuck over the years.
With good reason. Back in 2002, Stephen Hayes reported on how Baghdad Democrats David Bonior, Jim McDermott, and Mike Thompson took a trip to Iraq in the run up to the invasion and followed up with a report on how Saddam’s cash paid for the junkets.
Now, the AP has a new report on the payments:
Federal prosecutors say 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.
An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti 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, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.
The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.
“There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam?”
***
Debbie Schlussel has the lowdown on the al-Hanooti case:
For at least six years, I’ve been asking why the Justice Department–specifically the Islamo-pandering parade of U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of Michigan–were breaking pita with officials of LIFE for Relief and Development, including Muthanna Al-Hanooti.
Today, Al-Hanooti, a former chief of CAIR-Michigan was indicted for acting as a spy for Saddam Hussein in America. (And–shocker–he has a second wife and family in Iraq.) To me and anyone who followed the story and read a newspaper, that isn’t news. In fact, the indictment is far too little, far too late. The indictment says that a trip taken by three Congressmen–liberal Democrats Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Jim Thompson–to Iraq in 2002, was funded by Saddam Hussein, using a third party to arrange the financing, and Al-Hanooti to put the trip together. Again, not news, since I wrote about it repeatedly on this site and also in The New York Post as far back as 2003.
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- Saddam's Oil For Favors Travel Office Pays For Three Democrats' Iraq Journey In 2002 | Stuck On Stupid
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- This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil
- Can we hang these guys out to dry yet? « The Autopsy
- Baghdad Jim McDermott: Traitor, Stooge or Dupe? | BitsBlog
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Yeah, but they were doing it for the children!
sarc/
And I,m the former King of England
Can we please see to it that US politicians (pre/present/post) do not receive money from foreigners? Not from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, China, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Mexico, Detroit…
I’m really sick of it.
Put him on the list with Hanoi Jane!!!!!!!!!!!
Democrapic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California, treasonous ba$tards.
Great post Michelle, we need to keep this story on the front burner.
Where is the real sniper fire when you need it?
Of course they didn’t know the trip was underwritten by Saddam…leave it to the ‘unnamed’ staffers to conduct negotiations, make travel arrangements, and viola…you have ‘plausible denial.’
Oldest political trick in the book.
Yup, that’s pretty much what treason looks like. Will anyone in the mainstream media or the democrat party care? Ummm, no. Not at all. In fact, I bet the speaking fees for those three stooges doubles by Friday. They’re gonna be soooo sought after by the American left. To them, treason=heroism.
THREE QUESTIONS:
l. Why are we giving $$$ “aid” to Saudi Arabia? the princes have multiple billions from oil sales.
Women cannot even drive in that estemed country. I want my $$$$$$$ back!
2. Why did tree (3) Democrat Congress people travel to Iraq in 2002 on Saddam’s “dime”? GOSH! Don’t tell me they were acting dishonorably!~!!!!
3. Where do I go from here? CA has the second largest radical Muslum population in the US - Michigan - my home state - has the FIRST!!! I cannot even go “home”!
The day of 9/ll - I’ll never forget the Muslim men in the various SB’s and restaurants along Ventura Blvd. YUKKING it up because the terrorists succeeded in giving “AMERICANS a MESSASGE”!!!
Now-2008 we find that our elected officials were betraying the US too.
Why am I not surprised?!!!
Follow the $$$$$$$$ and POWER!!!!!
Let’s give them the benifit of doubt, maybe they were just trying to surrender before Harry Reid beat them to it.
However, it’s impolite to surrender before the war starts. Maybe they’re French.
lol dave….
What is the reason these guys gave for going to Iraq in the first place? Was it to scold Hussein for contributing to global warming (by setting crude oil on fire, or CO2 being created by all the decomposing bodies buried around the country), or did they go perhaps to find a way they could line their own pockets?
This needs to be investigated, not ignored…where’s Nostrildamus, and Conyers? Investigate now! Or just put on a show like always…
Wow, just heard this story on the talk radio… the host referred to a 5th column. Hmmmmm. This is so out of control.
Seems to me that we may be a nation of laws, but not enforcement… I remember when candidates would actually run on a “law and order” platform. Gee, were those the good old days?
String em up says I, the bloody traitors.
All the talk of treason here - however to make a treason charge actually stick the USA needs to be under a condition of Declared War as the “Boomer” generation witnessed with Fonda/Hayden where the oh-so-conservative, law’n'order Nixon Regime failed to bring a treason indictment against them.
I don’t see anyone in Congress filing any legislation to define “enemy of the United States” or “aid and comfort” in a manner which would make a successful peacetime treason prosecution possible;
even at that it is likely a Constitutional Amendment would be needed to allow for treason prosecutions when there is no current Congressionally-declared state of War.
Anyone here willing to advocate GWB or a future POTUS emulate a host of past tyrants and lead a few thousand troops to Capitol Hill to dissolve Congress and impose a Second Republic with a new Constitution and new U.S. Code?
How about charges of Sedition rather than treason? Snowball’s chance maybe?
Heck, they are probably all Super Delegates anyway. We’ll end up seeing them appointed as ambassadors in the end.
#14, congress authorized the use of force, hence we are at war. Period, get over it…. but you are right, congress won’t define the enemy, (cause it looks a lot like them, maybe) & while I don’t advocate the re-patriation of congress by force, well if I woke up to it I wouldn’t stay home from work
would you?
You know, if we lived in a perfect world the idea of sending them there as ambassadors would almost seem like poetic justice. Imagine how the first British ambassador to the newly formed US felt in his position. These people who (somebody would have to let it slip, but given the joy the NYT has with publishing classified documents, that should not be an issue) supported Saddam Hussein, going in to take this position with the regime that replaced him? I wonder what weight Diplomatic Immunity carries among such devout followers of the Religion of Peace?
Okay, I am trying to wake up now. Going to get more coffee.
Still …
This is not about sedition, nor treason. Don’t forget these are DEMOCRATS…follow the money. It’s that simple.
Look into their political, family, or personal relationships, and you’ll find people profiteering off of their relationships to these guys! The payback for them is when they get caught in wrong-doing (a nudge-nudge, wink-wink…”how Dare you” situation), and/or after they leave public
servicedisservice.Bull-kaka… it’s treason.
Baghdad Jim? Holy heck! I thought this piece of human debris was recalled long ago. God, the idiots who elect him should be all deported to Iraq.
How much longer will the general population show constraint towards these enemies of the state? Our government will no longer protect us.
The Bush DOJ won’t do anything except prosecute boarder patrol agents for doing their job….NOTHING…they are absolutely emasculated…thank Bush’s for where we’re at now. Don’t look now but here comes Bush’s 3rd term, that liberal McShamnesty, preaching today how he wants the world to love us so we have to give up our weapons, open the boarders and close GITMO for starters. Not really different than 3 traitorous rep’s going to Irag on Insane’s dime is it?
They went there OPENLY SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT HOW BEST TO PROVIDE HUMAN SHIELDS FOR SADDAM AND HIS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES.
“Bull-kaka… it’s treason.”
And THAT is the TRUTH! They can call it anything they want to - it is TREASON - pure and simple. Always was, always will be.
Nothing LESS.
AMEN! Ah, make that IRAN.
Traitors all.
Too bad they also didn’t shoot a Mexican drug smuggler in the a$$ because otherwise nothing will happen to them.
Not so. A nation or other entity can be an enemy of the US without our having declared war… and a state of war can exist without one side or the other having declared it.
Roosevelt notified Congress that a state of war existed between the US and Japan before asking Congress to declare war. The declaration is merely an acknowledgment of a condition which already exists.
Life is sweet when the AP provides your alibi gratis.
#17, if Congress were to be dissolved by use of military force, everyone would be staying home for awhile as I see the USA would be in a state of “lockdown” were things to degrade to that extent.
That act would be the first battle of Civil War II.
But as for the Baghdad Three, the remedy lies with their constituents not sending them back to Washington.
Once again, time for an Article V Convention to propose some “reform” amemdments to bring the crapweasels of all factions in D.C. to heel!
Term limits for all Federal officeholders (including judges), strict campaign spending limits, statutory bars on ex-Congressmen and Senators engaging in lobbying, prohibition from accepting outside funds for travel (whether foreign or corporate), requirement for Congressional Declaration of War for any major committment of US forces in foreign wars, forbidding the Federal government from ceding any sovereignty or U.S. territory except by a 4/5ths confirmation of the States for starters.
McDermott has lied. Period. If he was truly there for the children, then he wouldn’t have pictured himself with Saddam while calling Bush a liar.
Treason, plain, pure, and simple. A textbook case of treason if there ever was one.
Not-so-bold prediction: If Obama is elected, he will pardon these three clowns should they ever be investigated or come up on charges.
Oil for stooges … Chavez has taken over the Saddam account.
In another land, far, far away and a long, long time ago, Baghdad Jim might have been tried for espionage or, perhaps, even treason - thence stood upright against a wall and shot following his conviction.
Ah, but that was when the United States of America were really the United States of America. And being at war really meant being at war.
I just can hardly recognize this place from my growing up days.
Will some administration please start enforcing the Logan Act.
Bush was trying to stop a war. These Democratic Congressmen were trying to stop it. Today, a majority of Americans wishes the war had been stopped. Where’s the treason?
Isn’t this the perfect time to use the term “useful idiots”? It’s a textbook case if there ever was one.
Fox & other news outlets are quoting authorities as saying these “men” had no knowledge who paid for the trip. That goes so far beyond the scope of belief. So who did they think paid for it? Do congressmen just hop on a plane and go places and some anonymous joe hands them a ticket? The American people are being taken for a ride but it isn’t to Disney World. It’s la la land.
Weekly Standard:
I think this kinda casts a little doubt on the veracity of that “the Democrats are tough on defense” slogan they’ve been bandying about of late.
Does anyone know if McDermott returned the donation? I couldn’t find anything in the article (or the I-net) to indicate he had.
lgm, please help me. I’m wondering if these majority of Americans wish that;
1. 24×7 enforcement of the UN’s Southern No-Fly Zone had been continued at that time;
2. 24×7 enforcement of the UN’s Northern No-Fly Zone had been continued at that time; and
3. 24×7 enforcement of the UN’s Embargo had been continued at that time?
Yes or no to each of these, please.
lgm, I would hope that even you would wonder about the implications that these congressmen might have gone to Iraq on a trip financed by Saddam Hussein.
Or are you suggesting that the ends justify the means?
Hell IMO, even if Saddam Himself came and got them in his Boat… the “HMS Goatrape” they would have smiled and got on board knowing they get a nice free shot to bash and spew hate against their own country.
Well isn’t this shocking? Not really.
I think of them as Baghdad Bonior, Mullah McDermott, and Taliban Thompson.
#28:
I’ll allow that there is likely a Common Law definition of “enemy of the United States”, however I doubt any Federal Court of Appeals or Supreme Court of the US empaneled since V-J Day would agree with your definition.
I also respect the fact that those who have honorably served the USA in Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East and other Third World hellholes
especially those in combat arms or military aviation positions exposed to hostile fire will have a different perspective on what an “enemy” is.
Common Law is not to be relied on for anything concerning national survival.
In fact I know of at least one Chief Justice ( > 100 years ago ) who in the Wong Kim Ark decision expressed his belief (in dissent) the creation of the American Republic abrogated the Common Law and thus the courts in the USA shouldn’t use it as a basis for rendering judgments.