Saddam Hussein's intelligence service operated in the United States, probably far more effectively than our CIA did in Iraq. A trial has just begun of a man accused of being an intelligence officer for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Via the Chicago Tribune

Federal prosecutors began laying out their case Tuesday against a Des Plaines man accused of being an officer for the Iraqi Intelligence Service under Saddam Hussein.

Sami Khoshaba Latchin worked for years as a gate agent at O'Hare International Airport, but he was really a "sleeper spy" recruiting operatives to gather information on groups opposing Hussein's regime from inside the United States, prosecutors said.

Secret documents that fell into American hands after the 2003 invasion of Iraq point to Latchin as an Iraqi operative, first in Greece and then in the Chicago area, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Conway told jurors.

"There's a spy in this room," he said.

Before his arrest in 2004, Latchin had been planted in the U.S. as a long-term operative, directing collaborators and awaiting further instructions from Baghdad, Conway said.