INDIANAPOLIS, 5 March 2005 — A federal grand jury has indicted an Indiana man on charges he tried to sell names of US intelligence operatives in Iraq to Saddam Hussein’s government before the US invasion.
Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, 52, was charged with agreeing to act as a foreign agent for Iraq and with immigration violations, federal prosecutors said Thursday following Shaaban’s arrest.
Shaaban traveled in late 2002 from Chicago to Baghdad, where he agreed to sell the names of US intelligence agents to Saddam’s government for $3 million, said Susan Brooks, the US attorney for southern Indiana. The Iraqi government paid for the trip, the indictment alleges.
“The deal was never consummated,” Brooks said.
Shaaban sought the names from foreign sources, but investigators believe he never obtained them, Brooks said.
