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

New York Times ^ | 11-05-03

[GeronL]

...and the liberals will try to use this how..?

[SouthernFreebird]

Bummer.... ;)

[oceanview]

Perle's 15 minutes of fame are up. he needs to go away now.

[Right_in_Virginia]

...the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.

I don't know who this "Lebanese-American businessman" is...but I know he now understands we do not negotiate with terrorists.

I hope he passes this message on....

[SJSAMPLE]

If this is true, Saddam could have made his case in any liberal American newspaper or the odious UN. Any one of them would have jumped at the chance to step in front of our tanks to be the hero.

[Skwidd]

Ah yes, another completely unverifiable "The War Could Have Been Avoided" story.

I'll put this tall tale in my 'Revisionist History' file, along with the story that the Japanese surrendered after the first atomic bomb, but the mean old bloodthirsty Americans just couldn't stop themselves from killing more Japanese babies. Gag.

[Trust but Verify]

Oh sure, the whole, "Let's meet in Beirut to talk it over" routine. Right.

[moodyskeptic]

I remember this was reported, and ignored for its transparency, as it happened.

Ho hum.

NYT: this all ya got?

[weegee]

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.

Impossible. There were no terrorists in Iraq, let alone any who were connected to the bombing attempts on the WTC. The left has told us this repeatedly.

[pierrem15]

I'm waiting to hear how Space Aliens and Bat-Boy also assured the President that there were no WMD in Iraq.

[MJY1288]

"Mr. Hage said that when he told Mr. Obeidi that the United States seemed adamant about forcing Saddam Hussein to give up power, Mr. Obeidi bristled, saying that would be capitulation. But later, Mr. Hage recounted, Mr. Obeidi said that Iraq could agree to hold elections within the next two years."

ROFLMAO, Mr. Obeide sounds more like Baghdad Bob.

This is such garbage that I'm surprised it's in print. I don't doubt the story at all, it worked very well for them for through the 1990's to the "Peace at any price" crowd. But after 9/11 the bullsh*t games were over.

If the Liberals think this is some kind of big story, they need to take the Crack Pipe out of their mouth

[weegee]

Mr. Perle said he found it "puzzling" that the Iraqis would use such a complicated series of contacts to communicate "a quite astonishing proposal" to the Bush administration. But former American intelligence officials with extensive experience in the Middle East say that many Arab leaders like Mr. Hussein have traditionally placed a high value on back channels communications, failing to understand that such informal arrangements are considered suspect in Washington.

Of course if Mr. Hussein really wanted to come clean he could have done so when Dan Rather came to visit.

[Pikamax]

"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.
uh yeah.. okay..

[Brian S]

Hell, Perle is just getting warmed up:

Perle warns Germany: stop backing France

U.S. Hawk Wants Russia Out of G-8; Richard Perle has called for Russia to be expelled...

Perle: Force Against N. Korea Only Option

[livius]

Oh, please. More stalling from Saddam. If this story is true, it worked with the UN, worked with the French and the Russians (plus the addition of lots of dinars didn't hurt), but it didn't work with us. Tough for Saddam.

[new cruelty]

No meetings took place, and the invasion began on March 20. Mr. Hage, speaking in Beirut, wonders what might have happened if the Americans had pursued the back channel to Baghdad. "At least they could have talked to them," he said.

blah blah blah. saddam knew the risks. He brought his ticket. He knew what he was getting into. I say, let him crash!

[F.J. Mitchell]

This reads like the script for another Mini Series, that CBS may be considering.

[wimpycat]

This wouldn't be the first time the media have tried to report news we remember happening as some sort of "revelation". I remember during the first Gulf War, when they reported as some sort of scoop or revelation how the US used to sell weapons to the Iraqis. Well, DUH! I remember hearing about that back in the 80's. It wasn't a secret!

And who in their right minds thinks we were going to "negotiate" with Saddam Hussein anyway?

[Toskrin]

Even if this guy is telling the truth, I doubt it was Saddam himself that wanted to broker peace. He could have easily done so secretly through more diplomatic channels. He had a U.N. ambassador in New York.

It sounds more like some Saddam official had a brief moment of clarity and tried to stop the war on his own.