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View Full Version : Ex-Congressional Aide Charged With Spying for Iraq


Meddik
03-11-04, 09:33 AM
Editied the headline, now that the Congressional Aide part is confirmed.

Quote:NEW YORK -- An American citizen was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, accepting $10,000 for her work, prosecutors said Thursday.

Susan Lindauer, 41, was arrested in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md., and was to appear in court later in the day in Baltimore, authorities in New York said.

She was accused of conspiring to act as a spy for the Iraqi Intelligence Service and with engaging in prohibited financial transactions involving the government of Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein.

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Lindauer made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan.

There, she met with several members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the foreign intelligence arm of the government of Iraq that allegedly has played a role in terrorist operations, including an attempted assassination of former President George H.W. Bush, the indictment alleged.

The government said she accepted payments from the Iraqis for her services and expenses amounting to a total of $10,000, including $5,000 she received during a trip to Baghdad in February and March 2002, where she met with Iraqi intelligence officers.

Her acceptance of the money and her willingness to bring it home from Iraq violated a law prohibiting transactions with a government that sponsors international terrorism, the government said. The indictment did not specify a motive.

The charges against Lindauer were included in an expanded indictment in the case against Raed Rokan Al-Anbuge, 28, and Wisam Noman Al-Anbuke, the sons of Iraq's former liaison with United Nations weapons inspectors.

The brothers were charged last year with acting as Iraqi government agents and conspiring to do so, prosecutors said. The indictment said Lindauer conspired with the brothers.

On Jan. 8, 2003, prosecutors said, Lindauer tried to influence U.S. foreign policy by delivering to the home of a U.S. government official a letter in which she conveyed her access to and contacts with members of Saddam's regime. The official was not identified in the indictment.

The United States invaded Iraq in March of last year, and the government fell the following month.

The indictment said she met on two occasions in Baltimore in June and July with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a Libyan intelligence representative who was seeking to support resistance groups in postwar Iraq. It said she discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support these groups.

According to the indictment, she continued to correspond with the undercover agent until last month and followed the agent's instructions to leave packages on two occasions in August in "dead drop" operations.

Lindauer, who has not yet been assigned a defense lawyer, faces up to 10 years in prison on the most serious charge and five years on the lesser charge if she is convicted, prosecutors said.

Over at the corner, They did some googling, and found that name in a few different places.

Quote:Just from Googling: Here appears to be some backstory, from the Lockerbie bombing. And, unless this is another woman with the same name, she was a staffer for former Democratic presidential candidate Carol Moseley-Braun. (More googling: and may be a former US NEWS reporter, and Peter DeFazio and Ron Wyden staffer. AND anti-war, a peace-petition signer.) Trojan HorseshoesNeed Help coming up with arguments against mine?Edited by: Meddik at: 3/11/04 12:53 pm

Kelthana
03-11-04, 10:43 AM
(tangential)

Something that bugged me about the training I received at my old job: they teach that when someone approaches you with an offer to purchase secret material, you're supposed to refuse outright. WTF? It always seemed more sensible to feign consideration, then report back to your superiors about the offer. That way, you could possibly accept and then feed the enemy misinformation, thus tying up foreign intelligence resources and simultaneously degrading the quality of their data.

Then I thought about some of my other coworkers in the military intelligence field. They usually weren't that bright or sane. The guy who was lead database administrator for a warhead tracking system was ousted for drug use. An airman in my office was sent to the shrink after having a nervous breakdown in the chow hall.

Not even the high-ranking officers were particularly stable. From the colonel who came into work drunk to the lieutenant who went outside and slit his wrists on the coldest day of the year(losing 7 fingers to frostbite but not dying), they weren't the kind of people who you'd want to give any leeway. But they're the ones responsible for protecting our country. Sleep easy.

Biral
03-11-04, 11:16 AM
Wow thats really close to where i live. Glad to know the FBI was on the ball at least.

Yalum
03-11-04, 12:59 PM
String her up, she violated UN sanctions!

What did Iraq get for their ten grand?

EZ_Emmrys
03-11-04, 06:52 PM
Sounds like the prosecution's case is a bit flimsy from what I've heard.

EZ_Meecham AB
03-12-04, 10:12 AM
Who needs a strong case, can't they just stick her in Guantanamo until she breaks down and confesses? Or do they not do that to American citizens? Edited by: Meecham AB at: 3/12/04 10:13 am

EZ_Emmrys
03-12-04, 10:14 AM
Touche.