FBI continues arrests of Iraqi intelligence operatives in US

Using Iraqi intelligence documents recovered during the 2003 US invasion, the FBI is continuing its arrests of Iraqi agents on US soil. On December 23, Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, an American citizen of Iraqi origin, pleaded guilty to having “served for more than a decade as an agent of the regime of Saddam Hussein”. FBI documents state that Al-Dellemy exploited the proximity of his Maryland restaurant to the National Security Agency to “gather information about the US government”. On December 24, Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi origin, was arrested while entering the United States from Canada, and charged with acting as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government before, during, and shortly after the US invasion of Iraq. Darwish, who used to work as an accountant and driver at Iraq’s diplomatic mission in Washington, DC, appears accused of having been a paid employee of Mukhabarat, the Iraqi Intelligence Service. The FBI documents do not specify the exact amount that either Al-Dellemy or Darwish were paid for their services. Neither of them appear to have had access to classified US government information. [JF]