Iraq TV shows 3 men it labels CIA spies

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BAGHDAD, March 28 (UPI) -- Iraqi TV Friday showed three men it said were spies recruited by the American CIA to provide information on military camps, police posts and Baath Party centers.

The official TV station said Friday three satellite telephones and a quantity of TNT were seized from the three Iraqis -- who were all said to have confessed to spying for the United States.

There was no immediate comment from the CIA in Washington.

One of the men identified himself as 48-year-old Farid Ahmed Hammadi, married with six children, and said he was recruited by two people who live in his neighborhood. He named them as Maguid and Ahmed.

"I received this equipment (a Thuraya satellite phone) via a mediator from Kirkuk," Hammadi said, adding it was the first time he saw such equipment and that he only learned later what it was.

His mission was to gather information on camps and party offices in return for a very small amount of money. He said he used to drive in a car with two other men "all the way to a specific site and write down in English the distance."

Another of the accused spies, Ali Hussein from Baghdad, said he met a CIA official he identified as "Gen. Mike" soon after he fled in the year 2000 to northern Iraq where he worked briefly with the Iraqi opposition.

Hussein said he escaped from Baghdad because he did not want to join the military and because of "a case of embezzling government funds."

He said Gen. Mike "claimed Iraq is finished and they (the United States) will take over and that the Iraqi people do not like the (Saddam) regime who is losing hold on security."

"He promised us high posts and assured we will be their agents as they will get out (of Iraq) and we will stay," Hussein said.

The third accused man, who said he was given the TNT shown on TV, said his mission was to collect information on certain sites that could be missed by the U.S. forces.