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| Oak Lawn Man Found Guilty On Spy Charges | |
| 2004-01-13 | |
| EFL: A federal jury has found a suburban newspaper publisher guilty of failing to register as an agent of the Iraqi government and lying to federal officials. Twelve jurors deliberated for about a two hours Monday before convicting Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi of spying on people opposed to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime. Dumeisi was convicted of two counts of perjury and one count each of acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Gillogly said Dumeisi used his role as owner of the "Al Mahjar" newspaper, a pro-Hussein publication, to spy on the Iraqi opposition. He received direction and guidance for his job as a spy from the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York. Dumeisi "crossed the line" of being a reporter. "He in fact became a paid publicist for Iraq," Gillogly said. Gillogly said Dumeisi had two motives for acting as an Iraqi agent: money and admiration for Hussein, because he was the one person who stood up for Palestinians. The week-long trial opened with a video of Dumeisi making a speech in which he called Saddam "our inspired leader." Ouch! The "Baghdad file," which federal authorities recovered last June after the fall of Iraq, contained reports, phone numbers and photographs of Al-Shammari, who defected to the United States in 1986 and began an Iraqi opposition group in 2000. Gillogly reviewed testimony in which people identified three of about six pages in the file, which belonged to Iraqi intelligence group known as the Mukhabarat, as being written in the hand of Dumeisi. Double ouch! His conviction could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon set March 30 for sentencing. Dumeisi has been held in custody since his arrest last year — one day before he was set to leave the country for Jordan. Grabbed him just in time.
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| Posted by:Steve |