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Activist charged
Hat tip LGF. EFL.
The government is accusing a one-time journalist and Congressional aide of secretly becoming a paid Iraqi intelligence agent before trying to influence her distant cousin — the White House chief of staff — on U.S. policy.
Eep.
Charges brought Thursday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan against 41-year-old Susan Lindauer hinted at Hollywood-style espionage with packages left in what the prosecutor’s office described as prearranged "dead drop" operations in Baltimore.
Dead drop, eh?
But the defendant told WBAL-TV outside the Baltimore FBI office that prosecutors were mistaken in charging her with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and with engaging in prohibited financial transactions with the Iraqi government. "I’m an anti-war activist and I’m innocent," she said after her arrest in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md. "I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible." In court, Lindauer was relaxed and smiling as she faced charges that carry a potential penalty of 25 years in prison. She declined to speak afterward, as did two court-appointed defense lawyers.
Only 25?
She was released to a halfway house in Baltimore, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey ordered a psychiatric evaluation and said she can be released as soon as bond is posted for her $500,000 bail.
"Bailiff, check her for lunacy!"
The indictment said she accepted $10,000 for working for the Iraqi Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2002, including payments for lodging at the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad and expenses during meetings in New York City with Iraqi agents.
Viqi Shesh of Kuat!
The government portrayed the agency as a spy nest responsible for foreign intelligence collection, counterintelligence, covert actions and terrorist operations including the attempted assassination of former President Bush.
Only 25 years?
The indictment makes no mention of Lindauer’s congressional staff work. She was not directly charged with espionage.
Oh.
What would the indictment have to do with her congressional staff work? Or was she being indicted for that?
According to the indictment, Lindauer delivered a letter "to the home of a United States government official" on Jan. 8, 2003, in which she described her access to members of dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime "in an unsuccessful attempt to influence United States policy." The U.S. official was not identified. But a government official, speaking on condition on anonymity, said the recipient of the letter was White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, a distant cousin of Lindauer.
"Won’t you do this for a relative?"
"Get stuffed, beauzeau."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the last time Card recalls seeing or talking to Lindauer was during January 2001 inaugural events. McClellan said the FBI interviewed Card about his contact with Lindauer and that Card cooperated fully. Card told the FBI that Lindauer had tried to contact him on behalf of the former regime several times. The indictment did not specify a motive.
Posted by: Steve from Relto 2004-03-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=27968