Humboldtian

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Michigan charity official with setting up a junket to Iraq paid for by the regime of Saddam Hussein, six months before the U.S. invasion, for three U.S. congressman, one of whom was Mike Thompson, a Democrat who represents the North Coast.

Thompson and two other Demoratic congressmen believed the trip was sponsored by Life for Relief and Development, a charity formed after the first Gulf War to fund humanitarian work in Iraq, which the official, Muthanna Al-Hanooti, managed.

Prosecutors now claim that Sadaam's intelligence agency paid for the trio's visit, and that Al-Hanooti received two million barrels of Iraqi oil for his work. The U.S. Justice Department says that none of the congressmen knew Sadaam was involved.

"Obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated," Thompson said in a statement released to the Associated Press.