A judge in New York has ruled that a former congressional aide accused of helping an Iraqi spy agency while Saddam Hussein was in power is mentally unfit for trial. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska announced her finding in the case of Susan Lindauer. The defendant was arrested in 2004 on charges including that she conspired to act as a spy for the Iraqi intelligence service. Lindauer worked in the press offices of several members of congress and as a magazine journalist.

The judge said late Monday she based her decision largely on the
testimony of a psychiatrist who was brought into the case by
prosecutors. Psychiatrist Stuart Kleinman said at a hearing that Lindauer has a long-standing mental disorder that includes grandiose delusions. Lindauer is a distant relative of President Bush's former chief of staff Andrew Card. She also has worked in the press offices of four Democratic members of Congress and as a journalist for two
magazines, two newspapers and a television news company.

Her father, John Lindauer, once owned an Alaska newspaper chain
and ran for the state's governorship in 1998.