U.S.: Saddam Paid For Lawmakers' Iraq Trip

Absolutely disgraceful if true:

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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, federal prosecutors said
Wednesday.

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.