ERBIL () - United States Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Raad Alanbagi in the Metro Detroit area after an HSI-led investigation uncovered information tying him to prior service as a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer during the Saddam Hussein era, HSI Detroit announced in a social media post on Saturday.
"HSI special agents arrested Raad Alanbagi after an HSI-led investigation uncovered information tying him to prior service as a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer during the Saddam Hussein era,"the agency confirmed.
.@HSIDetroit gets results.
— Homeland Security Investigations (@HSI_HQ) September 13, 2026
HSI special agents arrested Raad Alanbagi after an HSI-led investigation uncovered information tying him to prior service as a high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officer during the Saddam Hussein era.
HSI continues to safeguard our communities and… pic.twitter.com/fVQhKvjff8
HSI has not publicly disclosed Alanbagi's exact rank, his specific intelligence role within Saddam's apparatus, his alleged conduct during that period, his current immigration status in the United States, or the specific charges against him. Further details are expected to be released as the case proceeds through the legal system.
The arrest raises serious questions about how an individual allegedly connected to Saddam Hussein's intelligence services was able to enter and remain in the United States. American citizens have repeatedly been told that federal agencies maintain rigorous screening procedures for foreign nationals seeking entry into the country, yet the case demonstrates the persistent challenge of identifying individuals who conceal prior service in foreign intelligence or security services.
Saddam Hussein's intelligence apparatus was one of the most feared and brutal in the modern Middle East. The regime was responsible for widespread persecution, torture, executions, and other atrocities against political opponents and minority communities, including the Anfal genocide campaign against the Kurdish people between February and September 1988 that killed an estimated 50,000 to 182,000 Kurdish civilians and destroyed more than 4,000 villages. The chemical weapons massacre at Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, in which the regime killed between 3,200 and 5,000 Kurdish civilians using mustard gas and nerve agents, represented the most lethal chemical weapons attack on a civilian population in history. Iraq's intelligence services played a central role in enforcing the dictator's rule and implementing the systematic campaigns of repression that defined the Baathist era.
The arrest is part of a broader Trump administration effort to identify and remove individuals who entered the United States while concealing prior involvement in foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, or human rights abuses. HSI's mandate includes identifying war criminals, human rights abusers, and individuals who procured immigration benefits through fraud or misrepresentation of their past.
