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.
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