Stewart Stogel
Friday Feb. 28, 2003

A letter sent to Alawi by assistant U.S./U.N. ambassador Patrick Kennedy on February 13, demanded that the Iraqi leave the country within "15 days". Kennedy alleged that Alawi was engaged in activities that "threatened the security of the United States." The "threat" was not detailed.

While it is commonly believed that numerous employees at Iraq's U.N. mission are in fact members of the Mukhabarat, or Iraqi intelligence, Alawi's expulsion marks the first time Washington has accused a non- diplomat of such activity.

On January 24, 2003 NewsMax revealed that Iraq's current dep. U.N. amb. Mohammed Salman Ali is believed to be the current NYC station chief for Iraqi intelligence ("Where Is Iraq's U.N. ambassador?").

Since the NewsMax story, Ali has rarely been seen at U.N. headquarters, preferring to work out of Iraq's U.N. mission on the Upper East Side.

Ironically, the Iraqi News Agency ran the NewsMax story about the alleged spying of Ali. Mohammed Alawi was the reporter.

In a brief interview with NewsMax before he left for Iraq, Alawi denied the spying charges:

"It is not true, I can tell you that again," he said.

"I am a journalist, you know that, I have done nothing. I am not a spy. They (the U.S.) say I am a threat to the national security. Can you believe that?"

Alawi spoke as members of the U.N. press corps stopped by his office to say goodbye.

Those who came included representatives of the AP, BBC, CNN and The Washington Post.

Alawi's expulsion highlighted the constant campaign by the U.S. government to seek or control the flow of intelligence within the U.N. community in New York City.

In late 2001, Washington granted political asylum to two senior Iraqi UN diplomats days before they were to return to Baghdad.

Also in 2001, a senior Russian diplomat at the U.N. mission in NY turned up in Washington's hands. It was later revealed that the Russian eventually led the U.S. to arrest Robert Hansen, the infamous FBI mole.

However, there have been also been cases of FBI harassment of foreign nationals in the "interest" of national security.

In 1990, the NYC office of the FBI vandalized an auto belonging to a UN correspondent of TASS (the Soviet News Agency).

The special agents seized a newly purchased laptop computer by the TASS reporter.

The computer's hard drive was searched for intelligence information.

The computer was new and as such the hard drive was clean.

The computer was never returned to the reporter, in fact the FBI bragged (to this reporter) about how they pilfered the computer while the TASS reporter was retrieving clothing from a dry cleaner.

Another TASS reporter was mugged in the Bronx that year, the FBI witnessed the event and did nothing.

"It would have blown our cover," it was explained.

Such activities brought a series of complaints from then US/UN ambassador Tom Pickering to the Department of Justice. Eventually, Secretary of State James Baker removed Pickering from the U.N. post, a year before his term was due to expire.

In Alawi's case, a State Department official flatly denied that the expulsion order was harassment:

"Definitely not, this was not harassment, it was espionage," explained the official who insisted on confidentiality.

The official went on to say that the U.S. had enough "evidence" on Alawi to have arrested and prosecuted him:

"We could have arrested him, but we were afraid of retaliation against U.S. reporters in Baghdad," he explained.

In fact, the Iraqi government did order the expulsion of several Fox News personnel in Baghdad. Fox is attempting to appeal the Iraqi decision. Several Fox employees have been allowed to remain in Iraq, however its correspondent Greg Palkot remains in Amman, Jordan.

Alawi claimed that the expulsion order came shortly after an official of the U.S./U.N. mission came to his office for a "chat." He refused. The U.S. mission will only say that the visit was related to his alleged spying activities. The mission also added that Alawi was under surveillance for more than six months, an assessment Alawi agrees with.

But, the question remains, just what was Alawi caught with?

He says documents related to his U.N. reporting. Documents any intrepid U.N. reporter would want to cover news coming out of the organization. Nothing The New York Times would not want for its reporter.

The US/UN mission denies it, but would not elaborate.

However, a quick survey revealed that documents from UNMOVIC (U.N. Monitoring, Observation, Verification and Inspection Commission) often pass through officials in Kofi Annan's office as well as the U.N.'s language translation pool. None of the personnel in those offices have had the intensive security checks that UNMOVIC personnel have been subjected to.

"This has been a weak leak (in security) for a long time," revealed one UN official, "but there is little we can do about it."

Meanwhile, as Alawi, his wife and five children left for Baghdad he ventured one last thought:

"Perhaps I will get back (to Baghdad) only a day or two before the bombs fall. It will give me more news to write about."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Homeland/Civil Defense
Saddam Hussein/Iraq