December 4,
2008: As U.S. troops became more familiar with Iraq, and the details of
Saddam's foreign espionage efforts came to light, it became known that Saddam
had some U.S. citizens on the payroll. Over a dozen suspects were uncovered,
and most were charged, if not prosecuted, for espionage. In Michigan, where the
largest concentration of Arab-Americans live, four U.S. citizens have been
prosecuted in the last few years. Some of Saddam's agents even took jobs as
interpreters in Iraq after 2003.
Saddam was
not looking for James Bond grade spies, but simply people who could provide
Iraqi intelligence with an accurate picture of what was going on in the United
States, at least as it related to Iraq. Having many agents in Michigan (mainly
in and around Detroit) also enabled Saddam to monitor Iraqi expatriates who
worked to overthrow him.
Because
these Iraqi agents were operating at such a low, grassroots, level, they rarely
appeared on the FBI radar. Saddam's espionage service was efficient enough to
set up ways to get information to and from his American spies. This is nothing
new. Many other nations, both friendly and hostile, have similar spy networks
inside the United States. And many of these low level spies are never caught.
