Susan Lindauer

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Susan Lindauer bigraphy, stories - American journalist

Susan Lindauer : biography

17 July 1963 –

Susan Lindauer (born 17 July 1963) is an American journalist and antiwar activist.

In 2003 she was accused of conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for the Iraqi Intelligence Service and engaging in prohibited financial transactions with the government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Lindauer was found mentally unfit to stand trial in two separate hearings. During her incarceration she won the right to refuse forced antipsychotic medication which the United States Department of Justice claimed would render her competent to stand trial.; Brakel, Samuel Jan; Davis, John M. 52 St. Louis U. L.J. 501 (2007–2008). ; Klein, Dora W. 46 San Diego L. Rev. 161 (2009) She was released in 2006 and all charges were dropped in 2009.

Arrest

On 8 January 2003, she delivered a letter to Andrew Card. In her letter, she urged Card to intercede with President George W. Bush to not invade Iraq, and offered to act as a back channel in negotiations. Andrew Card is her second cousin. Her first politically related contact with former Chief of Staff was around 2001.

On 11 March 2004, Lindauer was arrested in Takoma Park, Maryland by five agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). She was taken to the FBI office in Baltimore. Outside of this office, she told WBAL-TV: "I’m an antiwar activist and I’m innocent. I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everybody else said it was impossible."Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "" Los Angeles Times, 12 March 2004. Lindauer later said she was charged under the PATRIOT Act."", Scoop, 10 March 2009.

Lindauer was charged with "acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government". The indictment alleged that she accepted US$10,000 from the Iraqi Intelligence Service in 2002. Lindauer denied receiving the money, but confirmed taking a trip to Baghdad. Lindauer was also accused of meeting with an FBI agent posing as a Libyan, with whom she spoke about the "need for plans and foreign resources to support resistance groups operating in Iraq." Lindauer says she came to this meeting because of her interest in filing a war crimes suit against the U.S. and U.K. governments.

Congresswoman Lofgren released a statement saying she was "shocked" by the arrest, that she had no evidence of illicit activities by Lindauer, and that she would cooperate with the investigation. Robert Precht, Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, said the charges were "weak" and that Lindauer was more likely to be a "misguided peacenik".Melissa Block and Allison Aubrey, "Analysis: Federal prosecutors charge a Maryland woman with spying for Iraq", All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 11 March 2004; accessed .

Education and employment

Lindauer attended East Anchorage High School in Anchorage, Alaska, where she was an honor student and was in school plays. She graduated from Smith College in 1985. She earned a masters degree in public policy from the London School of Economics. She worked as a temporary reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1987, and as an editorial writer at the The Everett Herald in Everett, Washington until 1989. She then was a reporter and researcher at U.S. News & World Report in 1990 and 1991.

She then worked for Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon (1993) and then Representative Ron Wyden, D-Oregon (1994) before joining the office of Senator Carol Moseley Braun, D-Illinois, where she worked as a press secretary and speech writer. In 2003 she was working for Representative Zoe Lofgren, D-California.Amy Keller, "Hill Aide Subpoenaed in Spy Case", Roll Call, 29 March 2004; accessed .

Other activities prior to arrest

Lindauer claims she was conducting peace negotiations with representatives of Muslim countries (including Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, and Yemen) in New York. According to transcripts Lindauer presented to the New York Times in 2004, these included meetings with Iraqi Muthanna al-Hanooti, another peace activist later accused of spying. Lindauer also says that the U.S. intelligence community was aware of these meetings and monitoring her. (She also discussed them directly in communications with Card.)