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Maryland man pleads guilty to spying for Saddam-era Iraq

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] An Iraqi national living in Maryland on Sunday pleaded guilty to charges of spying for the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein. Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, a former Baath party member, pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government," and faces up to five years in prison. Al-Dellemy allegedly assisted in the shredding of documents that could have compromised the Hussein regime and made his restaurant available as a meeting place for Iraqi intelligence agents. Sentencing is scheduled for March 5. To date, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged at least a dozen people with spying for the Iraqi government in the US. In July 2007, an Iraqi-born naturalized US citizen living in Michigan, pleaded guilty to spying for the Iraqi government, admitting in Detroit federal court that he provided the Iraqi intelligence agents with information about anti-Hussein organizations and individuals. Under the plea agreement, Al-Awadi, who was 78 years old and in poor health, received a prison sentence of no more than 51 months. Al-Awadi and fellow Iraqi spy Najib Shemani, were exposed following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which allowed US authorities access to Iraqi intelligence documents. In 2005, a federal grand jury in Indianapolis indicted a naturalized US citizen on charges of trying to sell the names of US intelligence operatives in Iraq to Hussein's government.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).