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Nation & World News Saddam wanted secret U.S. talks, officials say Although a U.S. official says Saddam wanted to avert war, several meetings with Iraqi leaders fell through By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) WASHINGTON — Intermediaries for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein made numerous attempts to open se cret contacts with the Bush adminis tration to head off a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but the administration re buffed or ignored the efforts, U.S. offi cials said Wednesday. Early this year, a Lebanese-Ameri can businessman, Imad El Haje, re layed word that Saddam would allow U.S. experts and troops into Iraq to verify that he had no weapons of mass destruction, said the officials, who re quested anonymity. El Haje sent his message through a Department of Defense official, F. Michael Maloof, who was involved in a Pentagon effort to find links be tween Saddam and Osama bin Laden, and Richard Perle, the head of a Pen tagon advisory panel that was a lead ing advocate of invading Iraq. U.S. officials said none of the ap proaches went anywhere. They 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 only on the con dition of anonymity because intelli gence matters are classified. The Bush administration publicly refused to negotiate with Saddam. It demanded that he abide by U.N. reso lutions that required Iraq to cooper ate 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. A second senior U.S. official said that in the months before the March invasion, individuals, foreign govern ments and intelligence services con tacted the United States with what they claimed were Iraqi offers to discuss Bush's grievances against Saddam. "Whenever it (an approach) was relatively plausible, we sent word that we were ready to listen," said the sec ond senior U.S. official. "But the Iraqis never showed up." The first approach came more than a year ago, when self-declared inter mediaries for Saddam contacted the CIA and offered to meet in Morocco. The Iraqis never showed up for the meeting, U.S. officials said. In another instance, Osama al Baz, the national security adviser to Egypt ian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally, sent a message via intermediaries to the State Department that Iraqi offi cials wanted to discuss U.S. allegations that Saddam was hiding biological and chemical weapons and was supporting al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. After that approach also went nowhere, the officials said, the Iraqis evidently tried to get through to the Pentagon. Weeks before the war, another ap proach was made through El Haje, an aspiring politician in Lebanon and pres ident of the Beirut-based American Un derwriters Group, which has an office in Vienna, Va., and extensive business dealings in the Middle East and Africa. According to a defense official, El Haje contacted Maloof about a month before the war began and said Iraqi of ficials had asked him to open a secret channel to the Bush administration. The discussions between El 1 laje and the Iraqis began in Beirut, but at one point, the businessman went to Bagh dad to meet with senior Iraqi officials. The Iraqi officials included Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush al Tikriti, Sad dam's intelligence chief and the jack of diamonds on the U.S. playing cards depicting the most-wanted members of Saddam's regime, and former deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Saddam wanted to avert a war and was ready to discuss allowing U.S. in spectors and U.S. troops into Iraq to verify his contentions that Iraq was not secretly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, said the defense official. "More than 5,000 troops were be ing proposed," said the defense offi cial. Like the other U.S. officials, the defense official spoke on condition that he was not identified. The Iraqi offer was conveyed to El I laje because the Iraqis knew he was acquainted with Maloof, who had close ties to hardliners in the Penta gon who were pushing for an inva sion, the defense official said. Maloof and David Wurmser, who now works for Vice President Dick Ch eney, oversaw a Pentagon effort to find evidence that Saddam was supporting bin Laden's terrorist operations. Maloof believed El Haje was con veying a "serious offer" and took his message to other Pentagon officials. They included Jaymie Durnan, the chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, a military aide to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and Perle, said the defense official. Perle agreed to pursue the matter if he received approval from the ad ministration, but the go-ahead nev er came. One reason may have been because El 1 laje was detained at Dulles Inter national Airport, near Washington, last January for trying to carry a .45 caliber handgun out of the United States without an export license. 1 le was not charged and eventually was permitted to leave the country. Maloof, a Pentagon veteran and re cipient of the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award, declined comment when reached by telephone, and Perle was not imme diately available. (c) 2003, Knight Ridder/ Tribune Information Services. vm produced by I OoodoqbQbdoo ticketmaster Get Tickets at... Concerts hob.com JMStlVl 1 J 0 I FIND OUT HOW: Info Session • Thursday, November 6 5 - 6:30 pm 089 Prince Lucien Campbell (PLC) www.teachforamer i^a . o rg
