Top McCain Staffer William Timmons Lobbied for Saddam Hussein

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The head of John McCain's presidential transition team, Washington lobbyist William Timmons, was involved in lobbying efforts for the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein according to a report by Murray Waas in the Huffington Post. Over a five-year period beginning in 1992, according to Waas, Timmons worked closely with two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, in efforts on behalf of Saddam to ease international sanctions against his regime following the Gulf War of 1990-1991.

In close communication with top Iraqi aides Tariq Aziz and Nizar Hamdoon, Timmons, Vincent, and Park worked a deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract worth at least $45 million to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. While Vincent and Park later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein's government, Timmons escaped prosecution claiming ignorance of the others' ties to Iraq while federal investigators lacked evidence to contradict him. Court records researched by Waas, however, indicate that Timmons was in fact far more aware of an Iraqi connection than he had admitted to investigators, as Waas discusses in detail.

At the time of Timmons' work with Vincent and Park on behalf of Saddam, Iraq was classified as a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism, and John McCain was a strong supporter of both military action and tough sanctions against Iraq. Timmons was directly involved in illegal lobbying efforts on behalf of Saddam's Iraq during this period, and now heads up John McCain's presidential transition team. Given his recent efforts to tie Barack Obama to terrorists even by the weakest of links, McCain may have a hard time wiggling out of this one.

There is a bright side to all of this for McCain and Timmons, however: In the event that Timmons is fired or forced to resign, McCain will have little need to hire a replacement, and Timmons won't miss much by not being around, since in all likelihood there will be no McCain presidential transition to worry about.