Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, while serving on a Congressional investigation into September 11 intelligence failures and Saudi Arabia’s role in the attacks, agreed to sell his home for three and a half million dollars—to the public relations flack hired by the House of Saud: Edwards OK’d Home Sale to Saudi PR Man.

WASHINGTON - While a member of Congress’ investigation into U.S. and Saudi intelligence failures, presidential hopeful John Edwards agreed to sell his home for $3.52 million to the public relations expert hired by Saudi Arabia to counter charges it was soft on terrorism.

Edwards, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Friday he learned sometime during the course of the 2002 transaction — months after the initial offer was signed but before the deal fell apart — that Michael Petruzzello worked for Saudi Arabia.

Though the sale broke off nearly a year ago, Edwards hasn’t returned or publicly disclosed Petruzzello’s $100,000 deposit, which remains in a real estate escrow account as the senator decides what to do with it. Edwards recently sold the house to another buyer for a half-million dollars less than Petruzzello’s offer.

After reading the following paragraphs from AP’s story, you’ll have to excuse me while I reset my BS detector. Because it just maxed out.

Edwards said he handled the transaction through real estate agents and doesn’t believe he had any obligation to try to learn about Petruzzello’s clients. He said he never had any suspicions, even after learning of the Saudi connection while he and other Intelligence Committee members were still investigating Saudi Arabia’s possible complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“This guy never said anything to me about Saudi Arabia,” Edwards said, noting he was critical of the Saudis both before and after the house deal. “So it is an arms length transaction with a stranger, and he ends up backing out of the deal, which created a financial loss for us.”

Petruzzello, a registered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia since shortly after Sept. 11, said his offer had nothing to do with the Saudis. “My wife loved it (the house), and I just wanted to make her happy,” he said.