Spies In Indiana?

Take one Palestinian man, an alleged evil twin, a plan to sell out American agents abroad, and strange late night truck movements in a sleepy Indiana suburb. Mix, and what do you get?

Prosecution: Shaaban was motivated to sell U.S. names to Iraq so he could fund his dream

Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban thrived on international travel and political intrigue. He dreamed of launching his own satellite TV station with Arab shows in the United States.

In a last-ditch effort to realize that dream, the 53-year-old Palestinian gambled that he could convince agents from Iraq's now-disbanded intelligence agency that he had U.S. secrets to sell them. That's the portrait of Shaaban painted by prosecution testimony during a trial in U.S. District Court centered on allegations that he offered to make a deal with Iraq. Much of the damaging testimony has come in Shaaban's own words, captured by FBI wiretaps and surreptitiously recorded conversations.

Hooray for wiretapping!

Shaaban says a damaging 21/2-hour videotaped statement he gave federal authorities last March at Indianapolis International Airport was packed with lies and that he was "tricked" by the FBI into saying he had gone to Iraq.

He has said the key to his defense would be to show the FBI has confused him with other male relatives, including an identical twin brother who he says was killed in 2003 working for the CIA in Russia, near Chechnya. To vigorously pursue his identical-twins defense, Shaaban fired Dazey and defense attorney Michael J. Donahoe in December. He said he feared they might be conspiring with prosecutors to "topple" him.

This is a truly odd tale.

As my super-duper secret source on this suggested: This fella's either the real deal or a seriously paranoid schizophrenic.

h/t Cheree from IFIRE (a shameless plug for some good folks doing some great things!)

Indiana
Palestinian Spies
Homeland Security