Posted on 10/30/2006 4:10:24 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
Saddam Accepted the American Ultimatum Before the US Invasion, According to Rights and Freedom International
Monday October 30, 4:35 pm ET
TORONTO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A former political adviser to Saddam Hussein's son said today that Saddam was willing to yield to all American demands before the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- but that the Bush administration refused his offers.
The disclosure was made by Hossam Shaltout, a Canadian aerospace engineer, former American pilot, and founder of the peace organization Rights and Freedom International (http://www.rightsandfreedom.com), who said that war could have been averted, but Bush aides blocked his efforts to announce Saddam's decision.
"Saddam was willing to yield to all American demands, announced and unannounced, to reach peaceful resolution," said Shaltout, "but the Bush administration, including Elizabeth Cheney, undersecretary of State, David Welch, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt, and Gene Cretz, his political attache, did not respond to his offers."
Shaltout said he was planning to fly from Amman to Baghdad to announce Saddam's decision, but the Royal Jordanian Airlines officials claimed that the US ordered the flight to leave five hours earlier causing him to miss the flight, preventing him from announcing on CNN that Saddam would bow to the Bush ultimatum. Shaltout said he traveled by road to Baghdad, delaying him almost one day, but raced to get the communique approved from Saddam to broadcast over international TV stations broadcasting from Baghdad.
Couple of hours before the expiration of the Bush ultimatum, Saddam ordered Colonel Amer, his strongman, to facilitate Shaltout's broadcast of the communique. Colonel Amer ordered Allaa Mecky, the head of the Iraqi Channel 2 television, to accompany Shaltout and help him broadcast the communique."
It was very late at night and CNN in Baghdad was closed. So they went to al-Jazeera, and Shaltout told al-Jazeera Washington correspondent Hafez Almirazy on the air that he had the Iraqi government's official reply to the Bush ultimatum. Moments after Mirazy asked him for a brief, the plug was pulled on the transmission. Shaltout has a copy of that interrupted broadcast.
Shaltout said that when the Americans arrived in Baghdad, he offered his assistance to U.S. military officials. Instead he was arrested by Marines who went to his hotel suite taking his documents. Shaltout has the videotape of his arrest, and several supporting documents.
Funny when I was a kid I would always give in to my older brothers ultimatums just as he started to wail on me.
Bush's ultimatum was that Hussein and his sons leave Iraq immediately. Never happened.
What is this really? Is this like saying "Uday's best friend said..." and we're supposed to believe it?
This is a very bad October surprise if we're supposed to toss out Republicans because the friend of Saddam's son said so.
And shame on the media for passing it along.
-PJ
I don't know that the plain common sense you exhibited by caving in to your big brother would be consistent with what the suicide-bomber mentality would endorse.....
How many ways can one say bull sh**?
Why didn't we hear of this during 2004? Very suspicious.
BINGO! You hit the nail on the head.
Oh well....perhaps they should pay closer attention to the deadlines....
You know, we Americans are too damn nice. The U.S. Army should have shot that petty tyrant while they had the chance!
What a bunch of pure BS. I was going to buy my wife a 2 carat diamond solitare, but; the bank and all my credit card companies shut down for five hours. It is always they were going to do something. What happened to the saying-"A man who wants to do something finds a way-A man who does not finds and excuse."
Which Democrat came up with this idea?
It is PR Newswire....this isn't even news.
Just a press release from some nobody.
BS
to spin nov 7th
FYI, in the future, if you ever see PRNewswire, don't consider it news, for it isn't. It is only a press release.
That is all PRNewswire is.
Dumbie shouldn't have waited until the deadline to give the response. What an (censored)!
You nailed it.
I thought those were symptoms of islamitis.
Of course I think you may be trying to read into my remarks a little too seriously as it was meant as a joke. Are we really supposed to believe some lying islamopignazi advisor to Uday? I mean really the whole reporting of this guys comments is a joke in the first place. I guess Bagdad Bob was busy so the reporter had to find another person to bash Bush.
No flames for you.
"... founder of the peace organization Rights and Freedom International ..." Um, yeah. No reason to doubt this guy. Sure.
Sounds like a load of crap. If true, why all the rigamarole? Just announce it. It's not like there was no Bagdad Bob.
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