AN INSIDE JOB?

Tales of intrigue, corruption and trysts inside the Al-Rasheed hotel...and that is after it came under our control...

A contractor supplying kitchen staff and secretaries for the Al Rasheed Hotel, the scene of yesterday's rocket attacks, was allied to Saddam Hussein's security services and might have been providing intelligence to the anti-U.S. resistance, an Iraqi informant said yesterday.

The hotel is one of the most sensitive sites in Baghdad, serving as office and residence to top coalition officials as well as many members of the Iraqi Governing Council...

The informant, who works with the newly trained Iraqi police, detailed his charges about a fifth column in the hotel kitchen in a letter to U.S. coalition officials almost two months ago but appears to have been ignored...

The informant, who identifies himself fully in his letter but declined to have his name published, focuses his charges on Muslel Muhammed Farhan Al-Dilemi, 53, the manager of the Al-Tamoor Trading Co. which provides services to the hotel.

Mr. Al-Dilemi "used to meet with [Saddam´s] heads of security, intelligence and ... most of the Ba'ath Party officials," the Sept. 2 letter says, adding that the walls of his office are decorated with photographs of him posing with top Ba'athist officials.

The letter says Mr. Al-Dilemi placed several people with jobs in the hotel kitchen and staffed the hotel with a number of "beautiful secretaries" for whom he arranged sexual liaisons.

"His people are the ones who get the hotel kitchen food ... and he gets half of what they get on a daily basis," said the letter, implying that Mr. Al-Dilemi was running a food-smuggling racket.