Saddam Hussein paid for my Congressman—Jim McDermott—to visit Iraq

Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip -

That's my congressman on the right

Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly footed the bill for a trip to Iraq for three congressmen during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California were not named in the indictment, but the trio did ineeed travel to Iraq in 2002.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam. One investigator said McDermott was invited to go to Iraq by a Seattle church group and was unaware of any other funding for the trip. I mean even a pinko like McDermott would have turned down that funding!

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