Now lead article in NYTimes:Iraq Made 11th Hour Appeal to Avert War!

http://nytimes.com/2003/11/05/international/worldspecial/05CND-INTEL.html?hp

November 5, 2003

Iraq Made 11th-Hour Appeal to Avert War, Intermediaries Say

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.

Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, and they offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct an independent search. They also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who was being held in Baghdad. At one point, the intermediary said in an interview, the Iraqis pledged to hold elections.

The messages from Baghdad, first relayed by the intermediary in February to an analyst in the office of Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy and planning, were part of an attempt by Iraqi intelligence officers to open last-ditch negotiations with the Bush administration through a clandestine communications channel, according to people involved in the discussion.

The efforts were portrayed by Iraqi officials as having the approval of Saddam Hussein, according to interviews and documents.

The overtures, following a decade of evasions and deceptions and a number of other attempts to broker last-minute meetings with American officials, were ultimately rebuffed. But the messages from Baghdad raised enough interest that in early March, Richard N. Perle, an influential adviser to top Pentagon officials, met in London with the Lebanese-American businessman, Imad Hage. According to both men, Mr. Hage laid out the Iraqis' position to Mr. Perle, and he pressed the Iraqi request for a direct meeting with Mr. Perle or another representative of the United States.

more

:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:

I swear, I think they tried to float that Dem Intelligence Committee Memo to blow smoke over this.

Frankly, I think Junior MADE THE DEAL with Saddam and just had the Invasion anyway for the television footage.

So he could be Wartime President.

:puke:

Could be - but the Rethugs will spin it that Hussein couldn't be trusted

He should be strung up by his gonads.

He's not a government official. He's just a guy with an agenda and a seat on the Defense Policy Board, NOT a government agency but more of a lobbying organization for the defense INDUSTRY. Why is PERLE meddling in affairs of state?

unelected people and neocon think tanks running the foreign policy of the U.S. This USED to be a democratic republic.

And by this deduction, the Bush administration ordered the murder of Iraqi citizens. This also means that every soldier killed in this operation only has Bush's hunger for war to blame. The diplomatic process was not exhausted. Yet, Bush himself gave the order to initiate hostilities, bringing us to where we are now.

This is one reason why Bush is such an inveterate liar. The whole run up to war, there was never a chance at diplomatic solutions. Every time he said so, he lied.

The agenda was set, the PNAC blueprint was on schedule.

This is not a big deal, it seems to me.

One of the arguments of the neocons was that Saddam had said he would do this or that but then didn't.

The only way it could possibly mean anything, it seems to me, is if the Hage guy had documents which could prove Saddam's pledges were likely true.

And even then, Saddam is the tyrant du jour that we no longer want to prop up, so any claims would be quickly discredited.

Bush exhausting all diplomatic means to prevent war. :eyes:

Traced back to Reagan and Papa Bush.

Who leaked all these emails and documents to Risen at the NYT? And what would the leaker's purpose be?

Is this another CIA dump?

Strategic thinkers, put your minds to this.

Perhaps someone in the State Department? No, probably not.

Or someone who used to work in the office of counterterrorism in the White House, perhaps? Or ex-CIA?

Or the obvious choice, Michael Maloofm the analyst who worked for Douglas Feith, in the secret Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon.

"It is unclear if Mr. Durnan's (Wolfowitz's chief of staff) boss, Mr. Wolfowitz, was informed of the messages that were being relayed by Mr. Maloof. (In May, Mr. Maloof, who has lost his security clearances, was placed on paid administrative leave by the Pentagon.)"

because Perle is blaming the CIA for not taking the deal.

Mr. Perle said the C.I.A. officials said they did not want to pursue this channel and indicated they had already engaged in separate contacts with Baghdad. Mr. Perle said the response was simple: "The message was, `Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad.' "


Saddam was an evil, evil man. He was part of the axis of evil. He was killing his own people. He was a brutal dictator. He was killing the Kurds. He wouldn't let the inspectors inspect. He needed to be removed from office. How many people did you want him to kill before we took him out? He had WMD. He had nuclear weapons capabilities and on and on and on it will go. Excuse after fucking excuse. They will spin their way out of this. Do you really think any Democrats will pick this up and run with it? They should but won't. Just watch.

This will be spun as "he wasn't trustworthy, not a real representative, we talked but they're all liars and cheats etc. etc."

I don't see it going anywhere.

:(

Bush wouldn't talk turkey with Sadaam because he thought he was going to kill Sadaam in the opening strike of the war. Guys, our military has been working without a plan ever since that first bombing.

.... is to insist - INSIST that the white house release the Iraq war documents. The timing of this is interesting. We get a supposedly dem memo stolen and then this leaks ....

Independent investigation time ...

If Sadaam opened the doors and let the US in, Bush could still have kept troops massed at the borders as insurance.

Jeeze if the rest of the media got off their butts and covered it could be a big deal.

TO COMPLY. I HAVE TO FIND THE SPEECH.

THIS IS HUGE

THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THIS WILL REVERBERATE WORLDWIDE. He slaughtered the Iraqis and killed our soldiers when he had the chance to back away from this nightmare.

FOUND IT

Bush: Saddam and His Sons Have 48 Hours to Leave

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

In a poignant and powerful address to the nation Monday night, President Bush articulated, “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.” Failure to comply “will result in conflict,” he warned, admonishing that inspectors and journalists should pack up and leave immediately. “We have come to the final days of decision.”

one of many links to speech
https://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/3/17/213602.shtml

This is enormous.

And in the back of my mind I recall someone mentioning this obliquely. Was it Joe Wilson? Or Larry Johnson? Or Jay Rockefeller?

SOMEONE said weeks ago there was a back channel effort by Saddam to stop the war.

As I recall, the Taliban made a last-ditch effort to turn over Osama as well, and Dubya turned that down.

needs to be read.