By Associated Press
CHICAGO -- A man in suburban Chicago was arrested today on charges of secretly gathering information on Iraqi opposition figures as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service.
Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi, 60, was charged based on papers seized in a Baghdad safehouse in April, allegedly run by Iraqi intelligence, as U.S. troops moved in.
Federal officials also said unnamed informants identified Dumeisi as having contact with Iraqi intelligence agents attached to Saddam’s mission to the United Nations - including one expelled as a spy.
Dumeisi was not charged with espionage, and officials said they do not think he was an officer of the Iraqi intelligence service. But they said he reported to the intelligence service and violated U.S. law by acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and conspiring to act as one.
Dumeisi gathered information on one U.S.-based critic of Saddam’s regime by using a pen containing a hidden microphone and camera, a device provided to him by the intelligence agents, according to an FBI affidavit.
Dumeisi has been in the U.S. for a decade as an unregistered alien and heads a company that publishes an Arabic language newspaper. Immigration records show he applied for citizenship but was denied after failing to provide the required documents, authorities said.
He has been living in Oak Lawn, a Chicago suburb. Officials said he identifies himself as a Palestine-born Jordanian citizen. The affidavit quoted one unnamed informant as saying Dumeisi said he had received training in Baghdad on how to gather information.
The charges against Dumeisi carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted.