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Minnesota lawmaker cuts short Iraq trip, military says
A Minnesota state legislator who traveled to Iraq on his own has apparently left the country after criticism from U.S. and Iraqi officials, according to a military spokesman quoted in a St. Paul Pioneer Press story Tuesday. But the whereabouts of Rep. John Lesch were not clear Tuesday afternoon, and a new posting on the St. Paul DFLer's blog failed to clarify his location. Lesch's legislative assistant, Elizabeth Emerson, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had spoken to her boss a day earlier and that he was still in Baghdad, with no indication he was planning to leave. Lesch's brother, Jim Lesch, told the newspaper on Monday he didn't know his brother's whereabouts. A message left Tuesday by The Associated Press for a Jim Lesch in St. Paul was not immediately returned. According to the Pioneer Press report, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday that Lesch had left the country but offered no further information. The military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said he was relieved the 33-year-old lawmaker left the country. "This grandstanding has no place here," Johnson said. "Stay home." U.S. and Iraqi soldiers could have been forced to endanger themselves had Lesch been kidnapped, Johnson said. The two-term lawmaker flew to Iraq on Jan. 29, saying he wanted to see for himself the conditions facing Iraqi citizens in the wake of the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003. State Department officials and his own friends tried to discourage Lesch, who speaks no Arabic and knew no one in the region, from making the trip. In a blog dedicated to the trip, Lesch recounted a number of missteps upon his arrival in Iraq. He haggled with U.S. Embassy officials over attempts to get a visa, and had trouble getting around the city as British contractors warned him that foreigners who ride in Iraqi taxis often get kidnapped. The contractors ultimately paid for a taxi driven by a sympathetic Iraqi because Lesch had no cash. In a new blog entry posted Tuesday afternoon, Lesch wrote that "life goes on as usual." He then writes about his stay in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel but doesn't make clear if he's still there. Mithal Alusi, founder of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, said he spoke with Lesch last week in Baghdad and reprimanded him. Alusi has dodged several assassination attempts since the U.S. invasion, and his two sons were slain in January 2005. "I told him, 'You are crazy,"' Alusi said. "I don't like to talk to politicians this way, but he made me very sad." Hadn't heard of this guy before seeing the article on a local TV channel's website. His blog is found here: http://johnlesch.blogspot.com Posted by: ExtremeModerate 2006-02-08 |
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