Posted on 11/07/2003 6:17:35 AM PST by Brian S
Nov. 7 — By Joseph Logan
BEIRUT (Reuters) - 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.
Imad Hage, who told U.S. officials of proposals to let Washington scour Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and hand over an al Qaeda figure, said the Iraqis were rattled by the threat of war and apparently chose him for his Pentagon contacts.
"I had had no prior dealings with him," Hage told Reuters of a meeting in Beirut in February with Hassan al-Obeidi, a senior official of Iraq's intelligence service, brokered by a Lebanese associate of Hage's.
Asked whether the peace offers undertaken before war broke out in March had the backing of Saddam, Hage replied that the Iraqi peace envoys left little doubt.
"He (Obeidi) came with this associate, who said 'This is real.' I was flabbergasted as to why me in particular. I had lived in the United States, know people in Washington and this apparently made them consider me a means to communicate this."
Hage said he had a series of meetings with Obeidi and a second intelligence official, Tahir Habboush, in Lebanon and Iraq over the course of February and March, in which the Iraqi proposal took shape.
"The broad outline had to do with allowing as many as 2,000 U.S. agents, whether FBI or scientists, to visit Iraq and verify the absence of weapons of mass destruction," he said, adding it came to include turning over Abdul Rahman Yasin, wanted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
"This was to be in addition to concessions on oil deals for the United States, agreeing not to obstruct any U.S. peace deal in the Middle East and to having free elections within two years," he said.
PERLE MEETING
Hage, an insurance executive educated in the United States, described the proposal as it unfolded to personal acquaintances in the Defense Department with the aim of reaching Richard Perle, an influential Pentagon adviser whom he himself met.
"I had met Richard through acquaintances in the past, and thought he'd be one of the people to pass it on to," he said of his March meeting with Perle, who he said seemed willing to at least hear the offer.
"He said he would meet with them but he needed approval of higher-ups in Washington," Hage said. "It came back that there was no interest in this proposal."
The White House said on Thursday it exhausted all peaceful opportunities before invading Iraq on March 20, without clarifying whether President Bush had been aware of the offer relayed by Hage.
Hage said that his Iraqi interlocutors continued to contact him up until the days before the war, apparently in hopes of renewing the offer Perle had said Washington didn't want.
"When Richard said it was no go, I considered it a dead deal. But Obeidi kept on calling this office," he said.
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I'm not wondering why, but I've certainly noticed.
Sadly, I know all too well why.
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