Not just antiwar…
A top democrat not only propped up the brutal Saddam Hussein Regime but took money from Saddam agents linked to the Oil for Food Scandal.
U.S. Congressmen David E. Bonior (D-Mi) (L) and Jim McDermott (D-Wa) join Salem al-Kubaisi (C), head of the Arab and Foreign Relations Committee, in attending the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, September 30, 2002. Three U.S. Congressmen, on a humanitarian fact-finding mission in Iraq, visited the southern port city of Basra on Sunday to check the living conditions and health of civilians after more than a decade of U.N. sanctions. (REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber)
On January 25, 2004, a daily newspaper in Iraq called al Mada published a list of individuals and organizations who it says received oil from the now-deposed regime. Among those listed is Shakir al Khafaji, an Iraqi-American from Detroit, who ran “Expatriate Conferences” for the regime in Baghdad.
More on Al-Khafaji:
In 2004 he was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have received funds from Saddam Hussein and to have helped bankroll the lobbying activities of former weapons-inspector turned anti-sanctions activist, Scott Ritter – notably $400,000 for a 2000 documentary In Shifting Sands on the effects of the sanctions. Al Khafaji admitted to the Financial Times to selling oil he received from Hussein’s government to Italtech, an Italian company. The newspaper estimated he made around $1.1m from the oil for food programme.
Al Khafaji’s name appears at least twice in the 2004 Duelfer Report, for oil export contracts M/8/117 and M/10/24. He was one of two Americans on the 270-name Al Mada list.
Al Khafaji also contributed $400,000 to the production of Scott Ritter’s film “In Shifting Sands” on the effects of the UN sanctions. Finally, al Khafaji arranged travel and financing for the “Baghdad Democrats”—Jim McDermott, Mike Thompson and David Bonior—in 2002. Following the trip, al Khafaji contributed $5,000 to McDermott’s Legal Defense Fund. McDermott was under investigation for leaking an illegally recorded Republican telephone conversation. On March 29, 2006, the court ruled 2-1 that McDermott violated federal law when he turned over the illegally recorded tape to the New York Times and other media outlets.
