Suspected spy: Twin to blame

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Palestinian man accused of conspiring to sell U.S. intelligence secrets to Saddam Hussein's government told jurors Tuesday he was secretly working for the U.S. government and may be confused with his dead identical twin.\n"I have served this country with all my heart," Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban said during animated opening statements delivered through interpreters in U.S. District Court.\n"... I refuse to say I am one person with my brother. I refuse to answer for him on his behalf, and the evidence will show that."\nProsecutors said they would prove that Shaaban, 53, maintained multiple identities, intimidated a witness and tried to broker a $5 million deal with the Iraqi intelligence service to sell the names of 60 U.S. agents who were working in Iraq or who were to enter the country before the 2002 invasion.\n"(Iraqi) intelligence officers found a person in the U.S. who wanted to help the government of Iraq, and they found the defendant, Mr. Shaaban," said Sharon Jackson, an assistant U.S. attorney. \nThe case -- which is expected to include tales of espionage, scores of wiretapped phone conversations and testimony from disguised witnesses -- was not brought because of Shaaban's support for a Palestinian state and, in turn, Saddam Hussein, she said.\n"The defendant is free to believe and advocate anything he wants," she said. "He is free to disagree with the U.S. for going into Iraq. He is not on trial here for his beliefs, he is on trial here for the actions he took."\nShaaban was working as a truck driver and living in Greenfield, about 20 miles east of Indianapolis, when arrested in March.\nHis trial began with jury selection Monday and is expected to take three weeks. It will include testimony from a former agent for the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, who claims he arranged for Shaaban to travel to Baghdad in November 2002 to discuss the deal face-to-face.\nProsecutors say negotiations broke down before the U.S. coalition-led invasion toppled Hussein's regime. The former Iraqi agent, who will not be named in court and will testify wearing a disguise, has since been captured and has received "financial assistance" from the U.S. government, Jackson said.\nShaaban, who is representing himself with the help of two standby public defenders, said he never entered Iraq and was stopped at the Syrian border. He also said he was working to protect U.S. troops deployed in the region.\nHe said he is one of 24 children -- including five sets of twins -- born to a Lebanese mother and an Azerbaijani father. Shaaban said he was sold as a child and did not know of his twin until the two were reunited years later in Moscow.\nThe twins moved to the United States and both worked as truck drivers, he said.\nHe said his twin died in Chechnya. \nProsecutors said the tale of a twin is far-fetched. They planned to have experts testify that the fingerprints contained in two separate immigration files belonged to the same person -- Shaaban.\nA federal grand jury indicted Shaaban in March on charges of illegally procuring naturalization and a driver's license, acting as a foreign agent, violating sanctions against Iraq and conspiracy. A later charge of witness tampering was added after prosecutors said he threatened another brother who lives in California and had agreed to testify against him.\nIf convicted, Shaaban faces up to 65 years in prison and more than $1.5 million in fines.