Thanks for Nothing

Six Iraqi separatists who helped the CIA in its attempts to overthrow Saddam Hussein were flown to the U.S. for asylum by the Department of Defense. But the FBI and the INS, desperately trying to cover up their blunders on the case, have been trying to get them deported.

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For all those who believe that the term “military intelligence” is an oxymoron, here’s your proof. From 1996 until late last month, six Iraqis languished in prison, on the brink of deportation — and almost certain execution by the Iraqi government — by the very country for which they risked their lives. The six had been coopted by the CIA in the early 1990s for the agency’s unsuccessful plot to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Last month, after nearly three years in California detention facilities, five of the refugees agreed to be deported to a neutral third country. Part of the deal required the five men to “admit” they had entered the country illegally, although, in fact, they were escorted to the United States on airplanes chartered by the Department of Defense.

The lone holdout, a Kurdish doctor named Ali Yassin Mohammed-Karim, plans to stay in prison to fight allegations that he’s an Iraqi double agent. His lead attorney, Niels Frenzen, has a bigger goal: to expose the dirty dealings of FBI, CIA, and U.S. immigration officials that have turned the case of the Iraqi Six into an international bureaucratic nightmare.

The case has been mired in controversy from the beginning. Much of the evidence against Ali and his five compatriots was based on secret evidence withheld by the FBI. Furthermore, recently declassified files reveal U.S. intelligence and immigration communities as prone to outrageous errors, overt anti-Arab stereotyping and prejudice, and doing downright sloppy work. This autumn, armed with these newly declassified documents, Ali’s attorney will finally come face to face with his client’s accusers, a host of FBI agents and immigration officials who up until now have hidden behind a wall of secrecy.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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