The news story shows that no matter what Saddam or the UN
offered up war was inevitable.
--
JoettaB
--Ability is not determined by four walls.
Saddam Seen to Have Backed Iraq Peace Envoys
Fri Nov 7, 8:13 AM ET
By Joseph Logan
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi intelligence officials
seeking a last-minute deal with Washington to avert war
appeared to have the backing of Saddam Hussein (news - web
sites), a Lebanese businessman who relayed the offer to U.S.
officials said on Friday. Imad Hage, who told U.S. officials
of proposals to let Washington scour Iraq (news - web sites)
for weapons of mass destruction and hand over an al Qaeda
figure, said the Iraqis were rattled by the threat of war
and apparently chose him for his Pentagon (news - web sites)
contacts.
"I had had no prior dealings with him," Hage told
Reuters of a meeting in Beirut in February with Hassan
al-Obeidi, a senior official of Iraq's intelligence service,
brokered by a Lebanese associate of Hage's.
Asked whether the peace offers undertaken before war
broke out in March had the backing of Saddam, Hage replied
that the Iraqi peace envoys left little doubt.
"He (Obeidi) came with this associate, who said 'This
is real.' I was flabbergasted as to why me in particular. I
had lived in the United States, know people in Washington
and this apparently made them consider me a means to
communicate this."
Hage said he had a series of meetings with Obeidi and
a second intelligence official, Tahir Habboush, in Lebanon
and Iraq over the course of February and March, in which the
Iraqi proposal took shape.
"The broad outline had to do with allowing as many as
2,000 U.S. agents, whether FBI (news - web sites) or
scientists, to visit Iraq and verify the absence of weapons
of mass destruction," he said, adding it came to include
turning over Abdul Rahman Yasin, wanted in connection with
the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
"This was to be in addition to concessions on oil
deals for the United States, agreeing not to obstruct any
U.S. peace deal in the Middle East and to having free
elections within two years," he said.
PERLE MEETING
Hage, an insurance executive educated in the United
States, described the proposal as it unfolded to personal
acquaintances in the Defense Department with the aim of
reaching Richard Perle, an influential Pentagon adviser whom
he himself met.
"I had met Richard through acquaintances in the past,
and thought he'd be one of the people to pass it on to," he
said of his March meeting with Perle, who he said seemed
willing to at least hear the offer.
"He said he would meet with them but he needed
approval of higher-ups in Washington," Hage said. "It came
back that there was no interest in this proposal."
The White House said on Thursday it exhausted all
peaceful opportunities before invading Iraq on March 20,
without clarifying whether President Bush (news - web sites)
had been aware of the offer relayed by Hage.
Hage said that his Iraqi interlocutors continued to
contact him up until the days before the war, apparently in
hopes of renewing the offer Perle had said Washington didn't
want.
"When Richard said it was no go, I considered it a
dead deal. But Obeidi kept on calling this office," he said.
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