Federal agents have arrested a Des Plaines, Illinois man as a deep-cover Iraqi spy living undercover in the US for eleven years, awaiting orders from his IIS handler that apparently never came:

After the arrest of Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 57, prosecutors said he became a naturalized citizen after making false statements to immigration officials in 1999 and planned to "lay low" until contacted by his Iraqi handler.

Latchin entered a not guilty plea at a hearing Monday.

According to a federal indictment returned July 21 and unsealed Monday, Latchin worked for the Iraqi Intelligence Service, known as the Mukhabbarat, the foreign intelligence arm of the Iraqi government.

The indictment said that in addition to failing to disclose his ties to Iraqi intelligence, Latchin, a Baath party member, lied about overseas trips he made in 1994, 1996 and 1997.

Latchin, who was born in Dohuk, Iraq, and has lived in the United States for nearly 11 years, told authorities he was traveling on vacation when, in fact, he met with his Iraqi intelligence handler and received payment for his services, the indictment alleges.

Now this seems fairly important regarding the Iraq question. If Iraq had sleeper cells in the US, with their agents waiting for instructions from their handlers, one has to wonder what those instructions eventually would be. Deep-cover agents are not typically used for information-gathering exercises -- they initiate aggressive action, and they're dangerous because they appear out of nowhere.

Obviously this is just an arrest, not a conviction, so we have not tested the evidence in court. But if true, this provides yet another example of the danger Saddam presented to the United States, and another reason why deposing him and getting our hands on the files of the IIS were critical to winning a war on terrorism.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Laurie Mylroie sent me this item by e-mail.

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