A Life Shaped by Unwavering Loyalty to Iraq

To begin to understand the complex history of Samir A. Vincent, consider what his hands have borne: a baptism certificate in Baghdad, a baton in the Olympics, a secret peace plan to Washington, cash bribes, and now, a criminal conviction.

Vincent, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally receiving millions of dollars from Saddam Hussein’s regime in exchange for lobbying U.N. and U.S. officials to lift sanctions on Iraq, has interesting personal and professional relationships that stretch back decades and to unexpected echelons.

Born in Iraq in 1940, he attended a Jesuit high school in Baghdad with Nizar Hamdoon, who later became Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations. He has lived in the United States since 1958 and graduated in 1962 from Boston College, where he was a track star, competing in the high jump, long jump, triple jump, hurdles, discus and javelin, according to a university website.

He maintained an allegiance to his home country, competing for Iraq in the 1964 Olympics. He also became a U.S. citizen and settled in Annandale, Va.

For years, the two nations have competed for his loyalty.

As differences between the U.S. and Iraq built in the last 15 years, Vincent tried to bridge them. In 1990, shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Vincent fled Baghdad in a taxi with a secret. In his pocket, he carried a peace plan written by his high school friend, Hamdoon, who had recently returned from his post as Iraq’s ambassador to Washington.

Vincent contacted then- national security advisor Brent Scowcroft with the peace proposal, said Col. Carl Bernard, who helped Vincent. Scowcroft turned down the proposal.

As the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq a few months later, Hussein was holding 21 Americans hostage at a hotel in Baghdad, and former Rep. Charles Wilson (D-Texas) asked Vincent to help get them out, said Charlie Schnabel, a former Wilson aide.

In the end, Vincent accompanied Oscar Wyatt, a Texas oil tycoon, on a mission to pick up the hostages and whisk them out of Iraq on Wyatt’s corporate jet.

Two years later, offended by his native country’s gradual devastation under strict international sanctions, Vincent offered his help to Hussein.

From 1992 to 1996, he pushed U.N. officials to lift the sanctions or at least lighten them. Eventually, the world body approved the oil-for-food program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil and buy basic goods with U.N. oversight. It is unclear how influential Vincent’s efforts were, but he testified Tuesday in federal court in New York that he received “millions” for his work.

“The Iraqi government obviously continued to pay him for seven years, so you might draw from that the conclusion they were pleased with the results,” said U.S. Atty. David Kelley.

Just as his connections from high school remained important in his work, so did his religious ties. In September 1999, Vincent, a Catholic, helped Iraqi religious leaders come to the United States and meet former President Carter, New York Cardinal John O’Connor and the Rev. Billy Graham, among other prominent figures.

“I think [Vincent] is a really big-hearted guy who hated seeing his country ground to a pulp,” an acquaintance of Vincent’s told The Times last year. “This was a way to do something.”

In the run-up to the war in Iraq, former congressman Jack Kemp named Vincent to a commission to create a “21st Century Marshall Plan” for Iraq -- a reference to the program to rebuild Europe after World War II.

The commission was designed to help revive the Iraqi oil sector after the war. Kemp selected Vincent because of his contacts in the Iraqi oil industry, but the commission collapsed after failing to secure funding, a Kemp spokesman said last fall.

On Tuesday, Vincent offered his cooperation in the Justice Department’s oil-for-food investigation in exchange for a reduced sentence.

“His view into the oil-for-food program is a broad one,” said Kelley, the U.S. attorney. “We’re going to pursue it as quickly and aggressively as we can.”