intelNews.org

Was woman convicted of hi-tech exports to Iraq victim of CIA plot?

Dawn Hanna

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The case of a Detroit woman convicted of exporting mobile communications equipment to the Saddam Hussein regime took an unexpected turn this week, after the man who mediated in the equipment transfer said he was acting on behalf of the CIA. A Detroit jury convicted Dawn Hanna last March for exporting the hi-tech equipment to Iraq, in violation of a US and UN-imposed embargo against the Saddam Hussein regime. The jury was apparently not convinced by Hanna’s claim that the purchaser of the equipment, who mediated in the transfer, had told her that the intended user of the hardware was the government of Turkey. But the case turned more complex this week, after Emad al-Yawer, a Jordanian businessman who mediated in the transfer, gave an interview to a Detroit TV station, in which he claimed he was working for the CIA when he facilitated the mobile equipment transfer. He told the station that the CIA intended to use the hi-tech equipment to track Saddam Hussein’s movements, in order to “send a smart bomb and blow him into smithereens”. Hanna’s parents point to this new, unexpected turn of events, and are requesting that the case be reopened. But the judge has so far refused to grant a new trial.