The AP reports (as Jason noticed earlier today as well) that “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,” according to federal prosecutors. The trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti “who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam’s regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.”

Here’s what happened: Al-Hanooti needed some anti-war politicians to travel to Iraq as to put pressure on the US government not to attack Saddam. Saddam had to look good. Or at least not bad. So he looked around a bit and decided that Democratic lawmakers Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California were ideal targets.

He told them that if they’d go to Iraq, the trip would be paid for by “Life for Relief and Development, a charity formed after the first Gulf War to fund humanitarian work in Iraq.”

In reality, however, the trip was paid for by Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service.

So the American lawmakers went to Iraq and they did exactly what Saddam wanted them to do: they tried to convince the American public that Bush was lying, that Saddam could be trusted, and so on. Because of his anti-war and pro-Iraq stance, McDermott was dubbed “Baghdad Jim” by conservatives.

None of the lawmakers are accused of committing any crimes / breaking any laws. Despite what Dan Riehl thinks, not knowing is in these cases actually a good defense. Legally, it was perfectly acceptable for them to think that the charity paid for their trip.

That doesn’t necessarily excuse their behavior morally or politically of course. One could argue that it’s still a sign of incompetence, at least. Or as Jason put it: “useful idiots.”

Al-Hanooti is currently in prison; he’s being held on $100,000 bail. He “pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities.”

Lastly, Michelle Malkin links to this article:

Saddam’s Cash
From the May 5, 2003 issue: And the journalists and politicians he bought with it.
by Stephen F. Hayes
05/05/2003, Volume 008, Issue 33

Editor’s note, 1/30/04: 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. Al Khafaji also contributed $400,000 to the production of Scott Ritter’s film “In Shifting Sands.” Finally, al Khafaji arranged travel and financing for the “Baghdad Democrats”–Jim McDermott, Mike Thompson and David Bonior–last fall. Following the trip, al Khafaji contributed $5,000 to McDermott’s Legal Defense Fund. THE WEEKLY STANDARD has contacted McDermott’s office about returning the contribution. McDermott spokesman Mike Decesare said this morning that he had not yet spoken with McDermott, since it’s three hours earlier on the West Coast. Asked about the contribution and the subsequent allegations about al Khafaji and oil, Decesare said, “I don’t know anything about it.” THE WEEKLY STANDARD will post a response from McDermott’s office as soon as we get one. In the meantime, it’s worth taking a second look at “Saddam’s Cash.”