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Nov. 6th, 2003 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravencallscrowsThe more I hear of things the Bush Administration is doing, the more overwhelmed at how duplicitous and conniving these people are.
Iraq made last-minute move to avert war, reports say
Full story
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Just days before U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq, officials claiming to speak for a frantic
Iraqi regime made a last-ditch effort to avert the war, but U.S. officials rebuffed the overture, according to
news reports.
An influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman
indicating that Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal, ABC News and The New York Times reported last night.
The chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and other Iraqi officials had told the businessman that they
wanted the U.S. to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction and offered to let American troops
and experts do an independent search, The New York Times said. The Iraqi officials also offered to hand over a
man accused of being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who was being held in Baghdad.
Messages from Baghdad, first relayed by the businessman in February to an analyst in the office of Douglas
Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy and planning, were part of an attempt by Iraqi officers to
persuade the Bush administration to open talks through a clandestine channel, people involved in the
discussion told The New York Times.
The attempts were portrayed by Iraqi officials as having Saddam's endorsement, but it was not clear if
American officials viewed them as legitimate.
In early March, Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and an influential hawk on Iraq, reportedly met in London
with the Lebanese-American businessman, Imad Hage. According to both men, Hage laid out the Iraqis' position
and pressed the Iraqi request for a direct meeting with Perle or other U.S. representatives. Perle said the
CIA authorized his meeting with the Iraqis, but he said CIA officials eventually told him they didn't want to
pursue the channel.
Perle told The New York Times that the officials said they had already engaged in separate contacts with
Baghdad.
Perle said, "The message was, 'Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad.' "
Perle said last night in a telephone interview with The Washington Post that he was approached last winter
by Hage with what was described as an offer by Saddam to hold elections and perhaps to permit the entry into
Iraq of a small number of U.S. troops.
The Times quoted internal Pentagon e-mails from Mike Maloof, the analyst in Feith's office, to an aide to
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, outlining the Iraqi overtures. Maloof, who lost his security
clearance over another issue, is on paid administrative leave from the Pentagon.
Hage previously lived in suburban Washington, where he started an insurance company. He moved to Lebanon in
the 1990s and has been trying for 10 years to break into politics there but with little success so far.
Newsweek reported yesterday on its Web site that a secret Bush administration intelligence unit had arranged a
meeting earlier this year between Hage and a top Pentagon official. But the report said the overture never
went anywhere, in part because immediately after the meeting the businessman was detained at Washington's
Dulles International Airport last January for trying to carry a .45-caliber handgun out of the U.S. without
an export license. He was not charged and eventually was permitted to leave.
According to a defense official, Hage contacted Maloof about a month before the war began and said Iraqi
officials had asked him to open a secret channel to the Bush administration.
The discussions between Hage and the Iraqis began in Beirut, but at one point the businessman went to Baghdad
to meet with senior Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi officials included Saddam's former chief of intelligence, Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush al Tikriti, and
former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Hage told ABC that he met in February with Habbush and in March with Perle.
Hage said that to avert war, Habbush offered "disarmament" to be validated by U.S. agents and to turn over a
top al-Qaida operative who was in custody in Iraq, according to ABC. The network quoted Hage as saying that he
sent the offer on to officials in the office of Wolfowitz.
"There was no interest in pursuing it," Perle said last night from Berlin, where he is visiting. "And I had
the impression that they'd already had overtures of this kind." At any rate, Perle said, "I had doubts about
whether there was a real offer, because the Iraqis had a lot of ways to get in touch with the U.S."
A U.S. official with knowledge of the peace feeler was equally dismissive, describing it was "the standard
stuff in the run-up to any war — people sending signals, maybe stalling for time, some people trying to
make some money." In this case, the official told The Post, "there was no hint of any serious offer."
"During the run-up to the war there were a wide variety of people sending signals that some Iraqis might have
interest in negotiation. These signals came from a broad range of foreign intelligence services, other
governments, third parties, charlatans and independent actors," a U.S. official said told Reuters.
U.S. officials told Knight Ridder Newspapers the approaches were deemed either fraudulent or attempts by
Saddam to stall for time to allow international opposition to a U.S.-led attack to build, they said.
"They were all non-starters because they all involved Saddam staying in power," said a senior administration
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are classified.
Asked about the report, a White House spokeswoman said the ousted Iraqi president had ample opportunity to
avoid war. "It was Saddam Hussein's unwillingness to comply after 12 years and some 17 U.N. Security Council
resolutions, including one final opportunity, that forced the coalition to act to ensure compliance," the
spokeswoman said.
The Bush administration had publicly refused to negotiate with Saddam. It demanded that he abide by U.N.
resolutions that required Iraq to cooperate unconditionally with U.N. arms inspectors and make a full
accounting of its illicit biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
President Bush rejected Saddam's assertions that he had no illicit weapons programs and declared that only
the Iraqi leader's unconditional surrender or departure from Iraq could avert war.
Army trying to replace Halliburton as oil importer
Excerpted in toto from the Seattle Times Iraq Notes
WASHINGTON — The Army said yesterday it is negotiating to replace Vice President Dick Cheney's former company as an importer of oil products into Iraq, but it denied the talks were related to Democratic allegations of price gouging by Halliburton.
Robert Faletti, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Army must find a long-term importer for the Iraqi population and is talking with the U.S. military's fuel-delivery agency.
Faletti confirmed the negotiations after they were disclosed by Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan, two Democratic critics of the company that Cheney led before he ran for the vice presidency.
The lawmakers said the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center imports military fuel from Kuwait to Iraq for $1.08 to $1.19 per gallon, compared with the $2.65 per gallon that Halliburton charges the U.S. government under a no-bid Army contract.
Halliburton has said its price is controlled by the need for more expensive, short-term contracts and the high cost of transportation in a war zone. The company has denied gouging U.S. taxpayers.
Iraq made last-minute move to avert war, reports say
Full story
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Just days before U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq, officials claiming to speak for a frantic
Iraqi regime made a last-ditch effort to avert the war, but U.S. officials rebuffed the overture, according to
news reports.
An influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman
indicating that Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal, ABC News and The New York Times reported last night.
The chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and other Iraqi officials had told the businessman that they
wanted the U.S. to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction and offered to let American troops
and experts do an independent search, The New York Times said. The Iraqi officials also offered to hand over a
man accused of being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who was being held in Baghdad.
Messages from Baghdad, first relayed by the businessman in February to an analyst in the office of Douglas
Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy and planning, were part of an attempt by Iraqi officers to
persuade the Bush administration to open talks through a clandestine channel, people involved in the
discussion told The New York Times.
The attempts were portrayed by Iraqi officials as having Saddam's endorsement, but it was not clear if
American officials viewed them as legitimate.
In early March, Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and an influential hawk on Iraq, reportedly met in London
with the Lebanese-American businessman, Imad Hage. According to both men, Hage laid out the Iraqis' position
and pressed the Iraqi request for a direct meeting with Perle or other U.S. representatives. Perle said the
CIA authorized his meeting with the Iraqis, but he said CIA officials eventually told him they didn't want to
pursue the channel.
Perle told The New York Times that the officials said they had already engaged in separate contacts with
Baghdad.
Perle said, "The message was, 'Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad.' "
Perle said last night in a telephone interview with The Washington Post that he was approached last winter
by Hage with what was described as an offer by Saddam to hold elections and perhaps to permit the entry into
Iraq of a small number of U.S. troops.
The Times quoted internal Pentagon e-mails from Mike Maloof, the analyst in Feith's office, to an aide to
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, outlining the Iraqi overtures. Maloof, who lost his security
clearance over another issue, is on paid administrative leave from the Pentagon.
Hage previously lived in suburban Washington, where he started an insurance company. He moved to Lebanon in
the 1990s and has been trying for 10 years to break into politics there but with little success so far.
Newsweek reported yesterday on its Web site that a secret Bush administration intelligence unit had arranged a
meeting earlier this year between Hage and a top Pentagon official. But the report said the overture never
went anywhere, in part because immediately after the meeting the businessman was detained at Washington's
Dulles International Airport last January for trying to carry a .45-caliber handgun out of the U.S. without
an export license. He was not charged and eventually was permitted to leave.
According to a defense official, Hage contacted Maloof about a month before the war began and said Iraqi
officials had asked him to open a secret channel to the Bush administration.
The discussions between Hage and the Iraqis began in Beirut, but at one point the businessman went to Baghdad
to meet with senior Iraqi officials.
The Iraqi officials included Saddam's former chief of intelligence, Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush al Tikriti, and
former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Hage told ABC that he met in February with Habbush and in March with Perle.
Hage said that to avert war, Habbush offered "disarmament" to be validated by U.S. agents and to turn over a
top al-Qaida operative who was in custody in Iraq, according to ABC. The network quoted Hage as saying that he
sent the offer on to officials in the office of Wolfowitz.
"There was no interest in pursuing it," Perle said last night from Berlin, where he is visiting. "And I had
the impression that they'd already had overtures of this kind." At any rate, Perle said, "I had doubts about
whether there was a real offer, because the Iraqis had a lot of ways to get in touch with the U.S."
A U.S. official with knowledge of the peace feeler was equally dismissive, describing it was "the standard
stuff in the run-up to any war — people sending signals, maybe stalling for time, some people trying to
make some money." In this case, the official told The Post, "there was no hint of any serious offer."
"During the run-up to the war there were a wide variety of people sending signals that some Iraqis might have
interest in negotiation. These signals came from a broad range of foreign intelligence services, other
governments, third parties, charlatans and independent actors," a U.S. official said told Reuters.
U.S. officials told Knight Ridder Newspapers the approaches were deemed either fraudulent or attempts by
Saddam to stall for time to allow international opposition to a U.S.-led attack to build, they said.
"They were all non-starters because they all involved Saddam staying in power," said a senior administration
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are classified.
Asked about the report, a White House spokeswoman said the ousted Iraqi president had ample opportunity to
avoid war. "It was Saddam Hussein's unwillingness to comply after 12 years and some 17 U.N. Security Council
resolutions, including one final opportunity, that forced the coalition to act to ensure compliance," the
spokeswoman said.
The Bush administration had publicly refused to negotiate with Saddam. It demanded that he abide by U.N.
resolutions that required Iraq to cooperate unconditionally with U.N. arms inspectors and make a full
accounting of its illicit biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.
President Bush rejected Saddam's assertions that he had no illicit weapons programs and declared that only
the Iraqi leader's unconditional surrender or departure from Iraq could avert war.
Army trying to replace Halliburton as oil importer
Excerpted in toto from the Seattle Times Iraq Notes
WASHINGTON — The Army said yesterday it is negotiating to replace Vice President Dick Cheney's former company as an importer of oil products into Iraq, but it denied the talks were related to Democratic allegations of price gouging by Halliburton.
Robert Faletti, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Army must find a long-term importer for the Iraqi population and is talking with the U.S. military's fuel-delivery agency.
Faletti confirmed the negotiations after they were disclosed by Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan, two Democratic critics of the company that Cheney led before he ran for the vice presidency.
The lawmakers said the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center imports military fuel from Kuwait to Iraq for $1.08 to $1.19 per gallon, compared with the $2.65 per gallon that Halliburton charges the U.S. government under a no-bid Army contract.
Halliburton has said its price is controlled by the need for more expensive, short-term contracts and the high cost of transportation in a war zone. The company has denied gouging U.S. taxpayers.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-06 04:41 pm (UTC)Maybe his mother should have aborted him.
Gah.
Bad, bad week.
Still sorting things out. May forego sleep to get essential shit done. My missing duck is the golden duck and it's f-ing pissing me off. Five years ago I was pregnant and had people confronting me about an abortion. I didn't have too much more time to consider it before it was too late (didn't like the idea of baby stabbing). Glad I kept him. Now I'm trying to figure how to keep him. Heh. Feh. All that jazz.
Could I talk to you tonight, like after 11 my time? *hafta watch ER* You can say no, because it's about leaving your kids, and now that I've been faced with the possibility of losing Jonah, even if it's temporary. Touchy subjects are always veto-able. Let me know.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-06 06:47 pm (UTC)