Report: U.S. Offered Peace Deal Before War with Iraq
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Scarletwine
New Yorker
I saw an more detailed look into the deal on Primetime last night. Very interesting to say the least. I wouldn't put it past the admin. to ignore any overtures.
Scarletwine
New Yorker
An update. This is getting deeper all the time.
The New York Times and Newsweek are reporting that the Bush administration rebuffed a last minute deal from Saddam Hussein to stop the invasion of Iraq. According to the reports, Iraqi representatives offered to give the U.S. rights to Iraqi oil, to hold elections in Iraq, to allow for an intensive search for weapons of mass destruction and to hand over an Iraqi man who was connected to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Iraq also agreed to support the U.S. so-called war on terrorism and back any U.S.-written Middle East peace proposal.
The offer came about through back-channel negotiations between a Lebanese-American businessman, Pentagon advisor Richard Perle and the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
Perle told The New York Times that he met with the Lebanese-businessman but the CIA refused to pursue the negotiations further.
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There was a back channel attempt to avert a war in the months prior to the U.S. invasion.- In which some very unusual characters seemed to have played a role.-The key one seems to have been a Lebanese-American businessman named IMAN Al-Hajj who has been active in Lebanese politics and contacted a friend of his at the pentagon, Michael MALUF, who has a very influential role at the pentagon. He was a co-founder, really, of the secret intelligence team that was reviewing intelligence -- U.S. intelligence on Iraq for the bush administration.- Mr. MALUF set Mr. Hajj up with some pretty powerful people, Richard Perle, members of the defense policy board, and also Paul Wolfowitz -- I'm sorry, a top aide to Paul Wolfowitz, and Mr. Hajj was passing along an offer he said was from senior Iraqi officials, including the chief of Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Habusch and the basic proposal seems to have been we will let, we the Iraqis, will let the Americans station several thousand weapons inspectors into Iraq, even hold free elections to avert a war.- The proposal was not followed up, not taken seriously, in part because there were sort of a lot of questions about who these characters were, particularly Mr. Hajj.-
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: You know, there are a lot of games being played on this story and that's why it has to be murky at this point. It is hard to know. You have various agendas. Mr. Perle and his allies inside the pentagon have been at war with the C.I.A. for some time about this.- You have congressional investigators that are raising questions about the role of Mr. MALUF, who was a member of the secret pentagon intelligence team that was reviewing intelligence and back channel diplomacy that was not going through proper channels, not being reported to Secretary of State Powell and the diplomats who were responsible for this. So, it is -- It is very hard to know what to make of this at this point with a lot of--perhaps a lot of different agendas being pushed on this one.-
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Mr. Maluf has lost his security clearance. He has been petitioning to try to get it back and this incident in his dealings with Mr. Hajj have been -- have been cited as a reason for continuing to deny him his security clearance. Mr. MALUF did play a pretty important role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.-He and a colleague, then colleague of his, David Wormser who has since gone on to work for vice president Dick Cheney, were the two people who were sort of culling through intelligence files, looking for evidence of Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and that Intelligence became quite influential.-That analysis, the Maluf-Wormser analysis became quite influential within the pentagon and was being cited by a lot of pentagon officials as evidence to make the case for war.-So you have sort of -- You know, even cross agendas within Mr. Maluf that don't quite add up here.-
Self destruction?
The New York Times and Newsweek are reporting that the Bush administration rebuffed a last minute deal from Saddam Hussein to stop the invasion of Iraq. According to the reports, Iraqi representatives offered to give the U.S. rights to Iraqi oil, to hold elections in Iraq, to allow for an intensive search for weapons of mass destruction and to hand over an Iraqi man who was connected to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Iraq also agreed to support the U.S. so-called war on terrorism and back any U.S.-written Middle East peace proposal.
The offer came about through back-channel negotiations between a Lebanese-American businessman, Pentagon advisor Richard Perle and the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
Perle told The New York Times that he met with the Lebanese-businessman but the CIA refused to pursue the negotiations further.
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: There was a back channel attempt to avert a war in the months prior to the U.S. invasion.- In which some very unusual characters seemed to have played a role.-The key one seems to have been a Lebanese-American businessman named IMAN Al-Hajj who has been active in Lebanese politics and contacted a friend of his at the pentagon, Michael MALUF, who has a very influential role at the pentagon. He was a co-founder, really, of the secret intelligence team that was reviewing intelligence -- U.S. intelligence on Iraq for the bush administration.- Mr. MALUF set Mr. Hajj up with some pretty powerful people, Richard Perle, members of the defense policy board, and also Paul Wolfowitz -- I'm sorry, a top aide to Paul Wolfowitz, and Mr. Hajj was passing along an offer he said was from senior Iraqi officials, including the chief of Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Habusch and the basic proposal seems to have been we will let, we the Iraqis, will let the Americans station several thousand weapons inspectors into Iraq, even hold free elections to avert a war.- The proposal was not followed up, not taken seriously, in part because there were sort of a lot of questions about who these characters were, particularly Mr. Hajj.-
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: You know, there are a lot of games being played on this story and that's why it has to be murky at this point. It is hard to know. You have various agendas. Mr. Perle and his allies inside the pentagon have been at war with the C.I.A. for some time about this.- You have congressional investigators that are raising questions about the role of Mr. MALUF, who was a member of the secret pentagon intelligence team that was reviewing intelligence and back channel diplomacy that was not going through proper channels, not being reported to Secretary of State Powell and the diplomats who were responsible for this. So, it is -- It is very hard to know what to make of this at this point with a lot of--perhaps a lot of different agendas being pushed on this one.-
...
MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Mr. Maluf has lost his security clearance. He has been petitioning to try to get it back and this incident in his dealings with Mr. Hajj have been -- have been cited as a reason for continuing to deny him his security clearance. Mr. MALUF did play a pretty important role in the run-up to the war in Iraq.-He and a colleague, then colleague of his, David Wormser who has since gone on to work for vice president Dick Cheney, were the two people who were sort of culling through intelligence files, looking for evidence of Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and that Intelligence became quite influential.-That analysis, the Maluf-Wormser analysis became quite influential within the pentagon and was being cited by a lot of pentagon officials as evidence to make the case for war.-So you have sort of -- You know, even cross agendas within Mr. Maluf that don't quite add up here.-
Self destruction?
There is no evidence that this was a valid offer to comply with anything from Saddam. This is one of nearly a thousand similar offers from "credible" people.
The way out for Saddam was very simple and was open to him for 12 years. Compliance with 17 UN resolutions did not require any sort of back channel deal. Saddam said he was going to comply with the UN inspectors when they went back into Iraq and he never did. He never verifiably disarmed of all WMD despite have the means to do so. The terms of the 1991 Ceacefire Agreement that ended the first Gulf War were very clear.
This looks to be fluff, but I'm sure Oliver Stone might be able to spin a movie out of it.
The way out for Saddam was very simple and was open to him for 12 years. Compliance with 17 UN resolutions did not require any sort of back channel deal. Saddam said he was going to comply with the UN inspectors when they went back into Iraq and he never did. He never verifiably disarmed of all WMD despite have the means to do so. The terms of the 1991 Ceacefire Agreement that ended the first Gulf War were very clear.
This looks to be fluff, but I'm sure Oliver Stone might be able to spin a movie out of it.
Scarletwine
New Yorker
Then Richard Perle is not the man Bush thinks he is. These are from his statements.
Richard Perle offered to meet to discuss, but that does not mean he would have come away with a solid agreement or thought the offer was 100% legitamite. People meet in this way often and very little of anything happens. Richard Perle has not been jumping up and down the past 7 months saying we missed an opportunity to disarm Saddam peacefully.
Scarletwine
New Yorker
Of course not. This is only coming our because the public's perception of the war has changed and major media always follow the $.
saddam hussein had agreed to numerous "peace" accords and other agreements for years... he had also broken each and every one. 
why should this time have been any different?
why should this time have been any different?
