YES, BUT THERE IS THAT PESKY LITTLE MATTER OF THE TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS...

A distant cousin of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who was a press secretary to four members of Congress including U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, was charged Thursday with working with Iraqi intelligence before the war started last year.

Investigators said Susan Lindauer, 41, had tried to influence U.S. policy toward Iraq by presenting herself as an intermediary to a highly placed relative.

She was arrested Thursday morning by federal agents at her home in Takoma Park, Md., outside Washington. In New York, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment that said she had met repeatedly with representatives of the Iraqi intelligence service starting in 1999 and that she had traveled to Baghdad in 2002 for meetings with Iraqi intelligence officials.

She also accepted $10,000 for her work with the Iraqi intelligence service, according to the indictment.

``I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent,'' Lindauer told WBAL-TV as she was led to a car outside the Baltimore FBI field office. ``I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible. I'm very proud and I'll stand by my achievements.''