Free Republic

In the morning of March 11, 2004, Susan Lindauer woke to find five F.B.I. agents at her front door. After reading her her rights, the agents took Lindauer from her home in Takoma Park, Md., to the F.B.I. field office in Baltimore, where she was charged with having acted as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government and otherwise having elevated the interests of a foreign country above her allegiance to the United States. ''The only visible sign of stress is that I'm chain-smoking,'' she said when I met with her recently. Forty-one and free on bail, she wore...

WASHINGTON - A Lebanese-American businessman who acted as a conduit for a last-ditch peace offer from Iraq to the United States faces federal charges of attempting to bring weapons on a commercial aircraft. The charges were filed Nov. 6 against Imad Hage, months after he was stopped at Dulles International Airport outside Washington when a .45-caliber handgun, five ammunition magazines and four stun guns were detected in his checked luggage. Hage said by telephone Thursday from Beirut that he intends to return to the United States in a few weeks to fight the charges, which he suggested were only brought...

U.S. Advisor Says Iraq Peace Offer Was a Trap(2003-11-09) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A last minute peace deal offered by a top Iraqi official in the run up to the war that toppled Saddam Hussein was a trap designed to discredit U.S. policy, an advisor to the Pentagon said on Sunday.Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Advisory Board who had met with a Lebanese businessman who conveyed the Iraqi offer meant to prevent an invasion, said the offer had not been credible.Perle told ABC television's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" that the offer by former chief of intelligence, Gen....

<p>BEIRUT, Nov. 7 ? Iraqi intelligence officials seeking a last-minute deal with Washington to avert war appeared to have the backing of Saddam Hussein, a Lebanese businessman who relayed the offer to U.S. officials said on Friday. Click here for rest of report.</p> <p>"As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal," the New York Times reported Wednesday night.</p>

Aide: Saddam Behind Last-Ditch Attempt To Stop War Purported Deal Said To Have Crumbled When U.S. Demanded Saddam Step Down POSTED: 5:53 p.m. EST November 7, 2003 UPDATED: 5:56 p.m. EST November 7, 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein personally initiated an attempt to reach a last-minute deal with Washington to avoid the U.S.-led invasion that ousted his regime, a former Iraqi government official said Friday. The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Iraqi officials had Saddam's "full consent" when they approached the United States with the deal, offering oil contracts for U.S. companies...

Bush administration officials on Thursday played down the significance of an Iraqi effort to avert war by holding last-ditch negotiations with Washington through a back channel in the weeks before the war began in March. Top Iraqi intelligence officials tried to open a secret communications channel with the administration, according to intermediaries and others familiar with the channel. The Iraqis told a Lebanese-American businessman that they no longer had any illicit weapons, that Baghdad would allow American experts to conduct an independent search and that Saddam Hussein would turn over a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But...

U.S. Says It Exhausted All "Credible" Efforts to Avoid War with Iraq Saddam Hussein had no need for alleged "backdoor contacts," spokesmen sayBy Wendy S. RossWashington File White House Correspondent Washington -- The Bush administration "exhausted every legitimate and credible opportunity" to resolve peacefully the world's differences with Saddam Hussein, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters November 6, and offered the Iraqi dictator's government "any number of channels" to communicate with it."There simply was no need for backdoor contacts. The front door was wide open. If people wanted to communicate with us, they knew how to do...

     An opportunity to avoid war lost by the Bush administration or an opportunity taken advantage of by ABC News to push its anti-war agenda? ABC led Wednesday night with “an ABC News investigation” of what Peter Jennings characterized as “what appears to be an opportunity lost” to work with “a man who was in the process of trying to broker a deal that might have avoided war with Iraq.”      Brian Ross proceeded to recount how in the weeks before the war a Lebanese businessman forwarded an offer from Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chief to allow U.S. agents to travel...

Thu November 6, 2003 01:45 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday said the United States had exhausted peaceful alternatives to war with Iraq, as it sought to play down reports it had rejected a last-minute Iraqi offer to avert an invasion. "The United States exhausted every legitimate and credible opportunity to resolve this peacefully with Iraq ... Saddam Hussein had ample opportunity to comply," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. He declined to say whether Bush was aware of the reported Iraqi offer to disarm and turn over a top al Qaeda operative in custody...

<p>WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have told Fox News that reports of a frantic last-ditch effort by Iraq to avert an impending war were simply a facade by "third parties, charlatans and independent actors" aimed at preventing the U.S.-led invasion.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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 Wednesday evening. The chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and other Iraqi officials had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction...

By JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal. Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, and they offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct an independent search. They also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the...

Imad Hage, a prominent businessman and an emerging political leader in Lebanon, said the U.S. missed a chance to avert war with Iraq.ABCNEWS.com   Possible Deal Aborted? Claim: U.S. Government Spurned Peace Talks Before the War With Iraq By Brian Ross and Chris Vlasto ABCNEWS.com Nov. 5— A possible negotiated peace deal was laid out in a heavily guarded compound in Baghdad in the days before the war, but a top former Pentagon adviser says he was ordered not to pursue the deal, ABCNEWS has learned. The secret meeting involved a Lebanese-American businessman and Iraqi intelligence officials and came...