Iraqi national admits spying for Saddam

BALTIMORE, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- An Iraqi national admitted in federal court Monday he conspired to spy on the United States for the now-deposed Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. Justice Department said Saubhe Jassim al-Dellemy, 67, a resident of Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. Al-Dellemy faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced March 5, 2009, court documents in Baltimore said.

Patrick Rowan, an assistant attorney general for National Security, noted al-Dellemy is one of "at least a dozen people" U.S. authorities have charged with spying on the United States for Saddam Hussein or his intelligence service, the Mukhabbarat, since U.S. and other coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003.

"The number of these cases underscores the reach of Saddam's intelligence service in America and the extent to which the former Iraqi regime was concerned with defectors and expatriate groups here," Rowan said.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said documents recovered in Iraq by U.S. military personnel led to al-Dellemy's confession that he secretly worked as an agent of the Iraqi Intelligence Service under Saddam Hussein, using his restaurant as a meeting place and passing information to Iraqi agents.

Under the plea agreement, al-Dellemy admitted he routinely recruited individuals, both in and out of the United States, to support Hussein's regime.

Al-Dellemy, who became a permanent U.S. resident in 2000, was born in Iraq and was a member of the Baath Party. He came to the United States as a student in the 1980s.