Oh dear, this could cause a world of trouble for the Democrats this year.
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.
Those three members of Congress are believed to be Representatives David Bonior, Jim McDermott, and Mike Thompson, all Democrats. Bonoir and McDermott especially were vocal mouthpieces for Saddam Hussein and against our using the military to depose him. All three lawmakers took a trip to Baghdad and were featured very prominently by Hussein around the same time as the events mentioned in the indictment.
Lots more after the jump.
I went searching for a few quotes from either of them from around that time and came away with this treasure-trove of tyrant-appeasing and butt-kissing published in the Weekly Standard. It looks like Bonoir and McDermott knew they were being used by Saddam Hussein and didn’t care one bit.
Ed Morrissey also found the same story and notes that this trip cost Hussein 2 million barrels of oil, which is small potatoes compared to the other bribes he was laying out around that time. You’ll remember that he was using the cover of the Oil for Food Program to bribe politicians and media figures into pressuring their nations into lifting the sanctions. Both Democrats said they were there “for the children” but none of them seemed to wonder why so many kids were dying while the program was supposed to be buying food and medicine to prevent that from happening.
Bonoir and McDermott weren’t simply convenient dupes. They were working for Hussein, willingly and eagerly. Worse, their fellow Democrats in Congress couldn’t be bothered to speak out against their Qusling compatriots. They sat on their hands while these two despicable creatures badmouthed the President and praised the beast Hussein to the skies. Ed disagrees but I think he’s giving them far more credit than they deserve. They knew what they were walking into, even if they didn’t know that Hussein paid for the trip. They knew they were being used for anti-American propaganda. They went their and accepted everything the tyrant had to say without question, came back here, and told us that “you have to take the Iraqis on their face value” even though everything Hussein had done to that point, including continued blatant violations of the 1991 cease-fire resolution demonstrated that we could not take him at face value.
I very much hope that the Democrats still in Congress are made to answer up for their silence in 2002. I hope the the tacit approval they gave their fellow party members burns in their guts in a hot ball of shame. Perhaps one day they’ll get the courage to apologize for being silent when they should have been standing up against tyranny’s friends.
Honestly, I read your post, then I read the AP article. I’ve concluded that you might have misrepresented it a wee bit.
Anyway, do you honestly think that the Dems are going to take a political hit because a few of them flew to Iraq to discourage an invasion that now 60% of the American public view as a mistake? Whatever you’re smoking, I want some.
Wait a second, maybe I don’t.
BTW- It’s Quisling, and “They went there and accepted…”
Anyway, do you honestly think that the Dems are going to take a political hit because a few of them flew to Iraq to discourage an invasion that now 60% of the American public view as a mistake?
Like how the weasels try and rewrite their fantasy lands of history and hide behind “unpopular war”
These idiots either choose to erase, are ignorant or just flat out dishonest by neglecting to mention that mere 3 years before these bonehead tyrant bootlicker Democrats made their first class trip ala Saddam, Democrat Bill Clinton considered Saddam enough of a menace to lob missiles at every other month, not to mention Saddam was shooting at our service members routinely – an act of war.
3 Democrats apparently were especially cool with that I suppose.
Sounds like Chen is too.
Chen, it does not surprise me, given your other comments here, that you would come to that conclusion. Still, the visit did happen, those statements were made, and money that should have gone to buy medicine and food for Iraqis who died for lack of them ended up paying for a propaganda visit by Democrats.
I know none of that matters to you, but it does matter to quite a few other people. I suspect that as the American people learn more of what is really happening in Iraq, and what really happened there in the past, you will find yourself in a much less comfortable political position. That day will come as a great joy to me. Any time those who coddle tyrants lose influence anywhere, I’m happy.
[...] Saddam Bought Himself a Couple Democratic Mouthpieces : The Sundries Shack [...]
I don’t see it as “coddling tyrants”; I see it as an attempt to avoid doing something really stupid.
I noticed that you failed to mention that the trip was approved by Bush’s State Department. Are they not complicit in this? Granted, with the Bush administration, you can always make the claim that they are so incompetent that they can’t possibly be held accountable for anything they do. I’d also add that Saddam’s biggest defender was Ronald Reagan, but as a Republican, he gets a pass from the supposedly liberal media for defending Saddam’s gassing of the Kurds (among other pro-Saddam atrocities). Yet these congressmen will be crucified for simply being fooled just like the State Department was. The congressmen obviously deserve criticism for this, but so does the administration for approving it.