Chicago Palestinian Convicted of Spying For Saddam

By
Omri Ceren
– January 13, 2004Posted in: Palestinians

Palestinian-born Chicago resident Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi has been convicted of delivering intelligence on Iraqi exiles to the secret police of Saddam Hussein. He did it by maintaining contacts in Iraq’s UN mission in New York:


A suburban community newspaper publisher was convicted of spying on Iraqi exiles in this country for Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service, a charge that could land him in prison for years.

Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, 61, remained calm Monday as the federal court jury delivered its verdict after deliberating less than three hours.

Dumeisi could be sent to prison for 25 years if he were sentenced consecutively, though he is likely to get much less time under federal guidelines at sentencing, set for March 30….

“The Iraqi intelligence service is a service that you wouldn’t want to have information about you,” U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said following the verdict…

Prosecutors say he was controlled through the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York.

Was it the money? Was it that Saddam gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Palestinians who blew themselves up in Israeli cafes? Well, the AP says it was both:


According to prosecutors, Dumeisi spied on Iraqi dissidents in part because he admired Saddam as a friend of the Palestinians and partly because he was being paid.

But according to the prosecutors, it was more the blowing up little kids part than the money part:


An Arabic-language community newspaper publisher accused of spying on Iraqi dissidents for Saddam Hussein’s government was motivated by zeal for the Palestinian cause, prosecutors said Monday.

“He believed that Saddam Hussein was the only Middle Eastern leader that really supported the cause of the Palestinians,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Peters told jurors as the trial for Khaled Dumeisi began.
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