Back in 2002, Democrat Senators Jim McDermott, Mike Thompson and David Bonior went on an all expenses trip to Iraq, paid for by Saddam Hussein.

The Baghdad Democrats -Stephen Hayes

AP:

Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion.

An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti 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.

In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.

The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

HA! “There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.” Is that so.???

Well at least we know that Saddam’s oil was put to use beyond George Galloway’s ridiculous fake charity, the Miriam Appeal…it was spread out among OTHER America-haters besides George Galloway.

These lawmakers came back from that trip to Baghdad spouting the lies of Saddam’s regime…

On October 25, McDermott received a check for $5,000 from Shakir al-Khafaji.

Debbie Schlussel points out that she’s been writing about this as far back as 2003. And that Al-Hanooti, is not only a “former chief of CAIR-Michigan” but “was indicted for acting as a spy for Saddam Hussein in America.”

To me and anyone who followed the story and read a newspaper, that isn’t news. In fact, the indictment is far too little, far too late. The indictment says that a trip taken by three Congressmen–liberal Democrats Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Mike Thompson–to Iraq in 2002, was funded by Saddam Hussein, using a third party to arrange the financing, and Al-Hanooti to put the trip together. Again, not news, since I wrote about it repeatedly on this site and also in The New York Post as far back as 2003.

Back to McDermott’s $5,000 gift for his ‘legal expense trust’ from Al-Hanooti:

The money, first reported by Amy Keller in Roll Call, had been deposited in an account for the McDermott Legal Expense Trust, a fund the congressman set up to pay legal bills in a lawsuit brought against him by Rep. John Boehner. (In 1996, McDermott had released to the media the transcript of a phone conversation between Boehner and Newt Gingrich, taped by a Florida couple.)

No one has accused McDermott of being a mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein simply for financial reasons.

I don’t know why not…

Indeed, McDermott has been saying stupid things for years with no evidence anyone has paid him to do so. A spokesman for McDermott says he “doesn’t know off the top of [his] head” whether McDermott has plans to return the money.

Riiiight. In other words, another possible explanation is …he’s a ‘useful idiot’…and like Barack Obama, was very willing to take money from extremists associated with Saddam’s Iraq..which seems to be a pattern with democrats. (Did Obama ever return the money HE received from Rezko and Rezko’s Saddam-connected Islamic fundraisers?)

The formidable task of sifting through the mountains of documents Saddam’s regime left behind is only beginning. Many of the answers at this point are obscured by more questions.

But George Galloway most assuredly wasn’t the only person lining his pockets by defending Saddam Hussein. Journalists and diplomats and businessmen have been doing it for years. Their stories will be told.

Although they won’t be told by the terrorist-loving MSM any time soon…

See David Horowitz: “The March to Save Saddam Hussein”. Those people who were paid by Saddam’s regime to talk his regime’s talking points are no different than the communists and other totalitarian supporters who promote Iraqi Baathist style propaganda during the pre-invasion period:

myths about starving children and about alleged mercernary interests behind American policy; all of them had one purpose — to disarm the American force already in the Middle East and allow Saddam to fight another day.

Fortunate for us, it didn’t work, Saddam was deposed and eventually captured and hung by the Iraqis themselves.

Still, it gives us another glimpse into the true motivation behind what the democrats are doing and have done regarding pandering to our enemies.