Could Iraq War been averted?

http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/World/hage031105-1.html Should have looked through the posts closer.

Who do you have to sleep with to start a scandal around here??

:puke:

Possible Deal Aborted?
Claim: U.S. Government Spurned Peace Talks Before the War With Iraq

By Brian Ross and Chris Vlasto


Nov. 5 — A possible negotiated peace deal was laid out in a heavily guarded compound in Baghdad in the days before the war, ABCNEWS has been told, but a top former Pentagon adviser says he was ordered not to pursue the deal, ABCNEWS has learned.
...
{Habbush was an official Iraqi spokesman}

Hage said Habbush repeated public denials by the regime that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction but offered to allow several thousand U.S. agents or scientists free rein in the country to carry out inspections. "Based on my meeting with his man," said Hage, "I think an effort was there to avert war. They were prepared to meet with high-ranking U.S. officials."

Hage said Habbush also offered U.N.-supervised free elections, oil concessions to U.S. companies and was prepared to turn over a top al Qaeda terrorist, Abdul Rahman Yasin, who Haboush said had been in Iraqi custody since 1994.

Yasin is one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, indicted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Hage says Habbush claimed the United States had refused earlier offers to turn him over. "He said we want to show good faith," Hage told ABCNEWS.

That's how he slides out of everything...

That doesn't sound Kosher.

...THE WHOLE DAMNED PLANET...

Yes, obviously the Iraq war could have been averted. Bush pushed past every objection, every word of caution, every lesson from history with a wave of his imperial wrist as if it didn't matter.

In fact, there was absolutely no rational excuse for the invasion of Iraq. Bush pulled the whole country, and the whole Middle East, into a mess that will cause damage to the US for decades.

1) I think Bush made up his mind to go to war in Iraq not long after 9/11, so with or without this alleged offer, it was a foregone conclusion.

2) I think this story is highly implausible. If Saddam wanted to avoid war and was willing to open his country to thousands of US inspectors, he had many opportunities to do so, to say nothing of cooperating with UN inspectors. If he had really made a determined effort to cooperate, there's a slight chance he could have embarrassed the administration sufficiently to prevent war.

given 48 hours to Leave? Not surrender, but Leave? We have troops hunting him down all over the world right now according to reports just this morning. Special OPS Troops, and Saddam was given notice to Leave?
arghhhhhhhhhh! Maybe this reporter just misquoted the "US Official."

Quote from last sentence in the ABC Report:

Newspaper stories see the light of day for all sorts of strange and inscrutable reasons. Often the nominal 'story' is like the calm or slightly rippled surface of a lake in which all sorts of hidden business is taking place beneath.

Why are you hearing about a given story now? Who dropped a dime on who? The surface story is often at least as important as the backstory. But the backstory is something you want to know too.

Here's one of those cases.

You've likely already seen or will soon see the story running in several major news outlets this evening about apparent last minute overtures that Iraq made to the US, looking for a deal just before the outbreak of the war.

The story centers on an apparent back channel (or attempted back channel) using a Lebanese-American businessman who had a relationship with an analyst in Doug Feith's shop at the Pentagon, Michael Maloof. (Richard Perle was part of the potential back channel too.)
More at........................
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/