The Three Stooges Meet The Butcher

by Bob Parks, Outside the Wire: Now, this kind of stinks, don't it? According to the Associated Press,

"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. 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. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary."

Why is it that Democrats seemingly love to embrace our enemies? One local version of this story conveniently left out the fact that these are anti-war Democrats we're talking about. There is this stereotype that liberals are freeloader types. United States congressmen have money, and at any given opportunity, don't hesitate to give the American people the privilege of footing their bills.

Then again, if they (or we) pay for such a trip, there will be some kind of paper trail. But if someone else pays for it, we may not know about it, that is, until someone gets indicted. Why would United States congressmen go on a junket to a country they know we're about to be in a military conflict with? Did they go to negotiate? Were they going to volunteer to become human shields? They were criticized for going. "Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats 'sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government.'"

Oh, by the way, the congressmen were Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California, and there's no proof to date that they knew their trip was courtesy of Saddam Hussein. Now this is only me, but if someone were paying for my trip half way around the world, I think I would know who was paying for it. That is, unless getting international trips paid for is so common, no one asks. It always amazes me how the congressmen and senators declare themselves brilliant enough to impose legislation that sometimes has serious effects on our lives, yet when there is any hint of malfeasance on their part, nobody knows nothing . . . [Read More]

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