Over several years continuing until 2003, Vincent talked to Kemp roughly once a month about his proposal to improve U.S.-Iraqi relations, according to Kemp and Lanny Davis, a Washington lawyer and friend of Kemp's who discussed the matter with him and offered to speak for him to NEWSWEEK on this matter. Davis, who was the former White House special counsel to President Clinton, said the discussions took place when Vincent would either come by Kemp's office in Washington or call him on the phone.

Davis confirmed that in 2001, Kemp personally approached Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell about a version of his proposal, in which Kemp and other emissaries would fly to Iraq and negotiate an arrangement by which United Nations inspectors would be allowed back into the country in exchange for a gradual phase-out of U.N. sanctions. Kemp talked to Cheney at a social gathering about the plan and was rebuffed, Davis and Kemp said. Kemp also telephoned Powell about his proposal in which the former congressman would be joined on a trip to Baghdad by Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, and an associate of former president Jimmy Carter. Powell "showed no interest," Davis said. (In September 1999, Vincent arranged for a delegation of Iraqi religious leaders to visit the United States and meet with Carter and Billy Graham, the Los Angeles Times reported today.)

Spokesmen for the State Department and Cheney's office declined to respond to questions about contacts from Kemp on the grounds that the matter was under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Kemp said that Vincent had told him that Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister at the time, and other Iraqi officials were open to the idea of permitting U.N. inspectors back into Iraq. "I thought he was being honest with me," Kemp told NEWSWEEK. "Call it naivete, but that was the extent of it." He added that he is "happy" that Vincent is now cooperating with the Justice Department in its ongoing probe.

Kemp, who first became famous as a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, today is chairman of an energy-trading company called Free Market Global and cochairs a conservative policy group called FreedomWorks. He maintains close contacts with top members of the Bush administration. Just last month, Kemp attended the White House ceremony at which President Bush presented the Medal of Freedom awards to former Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks, former CIA director George Tenet and former U.S. administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer. Kemp attended as a personal guest of Franks, who serves on the board of Kemp's energy firm.

In July 2003, shortly after the war, Kemp issued a statement declaring that he was trying to set up what he called "a 21st Century Marshall Plan" to foster economic development in the Middle East. A press release that Kemp issued at the time listed Vincent as a member of the committee developing the plan, along with such notables as former secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of State James Baker and former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke.