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.
BS....Remember folks..SADDAM KICKED CNN OUT OF IRAQ A WEEK BEFORE THE ENVASION!! The guy is lying!!
They can't pull the same crap as they did with the "Japan was ready to surrender 2 seconds before Hiroshima."
Saddam could have gone on any TV station instantaneously.
opps..Invasion...LOL. Not very good at multi tasking here...
Pretty dispicable for sure.
WHAT KIND OF OCTOBER SURPRISE CRAP IS THIS?!
Yahoo is doing DNC dirty work again?
Didn't this story come out a couple of years ago too? I'm not criticizing, it just seems familiar
I think it's bunk but I don't recall it.
Yahoo is at it again!
NYT tomorrow?
Maybe next Monday
Look at the list of items he claims were taken from him (and notice the organization from whence the link comes from):
List of Items Stolen
Several official Iraqi governmental documents and letters
Several photographs of lraqi officials and some of the National Folklore Company
Canon Camera with the roll of film inside
Toshiba Notebook computer
Valid Canadian Passport
Two voided Canadian Passports
Egyptian Passport
Three Japanese Saving Accounts Bank Books
Two Taiwanese Accounts Saving bank Books
Three Egyptian Bank Accounts Books
$1 18,700 (US$) cash hidden in hotel room
$300 (US$) cash on person
$200 (Iraqi currency) cash on person
Casio Address Book organizer and contents
Address book
Hotel rooin key taken out of pocket
Hotel ID card
Canadian citizenship card
Wallet
Canadian social insurance card
US social security card
US "Green Card" (INS certificate)
Florida drivers license
Bank of Montreal ATM card
Airline reservation voucher and used tickets
Business contacts cards
lraqi visa and official letters
Transcript of health book
Private pilot's license (US)
Aircraft and power plant license (US)
Aircraft Maintenance Engineer License (Canada)
Pilot log book
Pulse Generator (a German invention)
Engineering degree transcript
Egyptian military service exemption
Birth certificate
Exhibit I Page 1 - List of Stolen Items
http://www.aclu.org/projects/foiasearch/pdf/DOD045924.pdf
Ha, ha ha! What's next? President of the Universe? The guy is a loon.
"There is nothing new in this speech, and even if there is, he won't do it," said Osama Shaltout, who is active in politics and is the director of the Organization for Rights and Freedom International. "If he wants to abolish the emergency law, why didn't he do this a long time ago? He is saying this now so he can get the chance to rig the elections because he wouldn't win in a real free and fair elections."Mubarak Starts Bid for 5th Term Like a Western Politician
What a lie.
Just another instance of many stalling efforts by Saddam Hussein.
Thank you bump.
"...and an obsessive desire for death."
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I think that might be muzzie-talk...
Hossam Shaltout (Image via Summer's Daydreams) LAVoice.org is not LAVoice.com, and never the twain shall meet - without a lease - says Hossam Shaltout.
As our own Perry Crowe pointed out Monday, LAVoice.com resolves to a static page for an Arabic newspaper, Allahab.com. As I pointed out in comments, that domain has belonged to Shaltout since at least 2002, when I first started building this site.
And as Marc Salvatierra pointed out in a later comment, Shaltout might be the same Egyptian-born Canadian citizen who was captured in Iraq by U.S. soldiers, accused of being a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein and then allegedly tortured by U.S. special forces.
Well, he is that man ...
I wrote to the tech-contact email address for LAVoice.com yesterday, and Shaltout e-mailed back confirming his identity.
He also said (quite courteously) that he would only lease the LAVoice.com name to me since he doesn't plan to sell it.
Ah, well. As I said the other day, people don't seem to have any trouble finding us at the dot-org address.
Meanwhile, Googling "Hossam Shaltout" turns up some pretty interesting background on him. I'd be curious to know what LAVoice.org users make of it all:
- His arrest in April, 2003 by U.S. forces. haltout had gone to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down but instead he was arrested and taken to Camp Bucca. - His release from detention in April, 2004
- His charges of torture against the U.S. government: Shaltout says he was arrested by US soldiers outside his hotel in Baghdad during a riot in April 2003, and taken to the Bucca detention facility in Umm Qasr, southern Iraq. He had travelled to Iraq on behalf of his peace group "Rights and Freedom International" in a bid to convince Iraqi leaders to step down to avoid a war with the United States.
After he was taken to Bucca in an armoured personnel carrier, Shaltout claims he was subjected to a daily diet of interrogation and torture.
Right-hand man
"Mr Shaltout was accused of being both a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein as well as his 'right-hand man,'" said Shaltout's Portland, Oregon-based lawyer Thomas Nelson in the complaint lodged with the US Army last week.
"When Mr Shaltout refused to confess, he was beaten in a variety of ways - he was hit with open hands, fists, shoes, and gun butts.
"The most alarming form of torture was when the interrogators put gun muzzles at his head or body, which put Mr. Shaltout in great fear of imminent death."
Shaltout, who is in Saudi Arabia and could not be immediately contacted Wednesday claims that he was kneed in the groin and hit about the face while in leg irons and handcuffs after he launched a hunger strike.
He is claiming $350 000 in damages, claiming he now suffers depression, post traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental ailments. - And his announcement last July that he is campaigning to become president of Egypt. Hossam Shaltout, an Egyptian peace activist and president of Rights and Freedom International, He announced that he will be running for President of Egypt in the upcoming election. ââ¬ÅI think that the time has come for reform in Egypt, and I know that I'm the person to accomplish it, " he said at a press conference ..
Shaltout, a successful businessman, is a 58-year old graduate from Cairo University's Aerospace engineering school. His extensive international experience positions him well to guide Egypt in the future. Shaltout has lived in Canada and the United States, and thus understands Western culture thoroughly. He risked both his financial and his personal health in attempting to prevent America from attacking Iraq in 2003; indeed, as a result he was mistakenly arrested, detained, and tortured by American forces in Iraq.
Shaltout has an aggressive agenda that would pull Egypt out of its economic and political slump. Among his campaign
Shaltout stated that Egypt is in crisis and that new leadership is needed. "It's time for us all to work for a better future for ourselves and, more important, for our children. My presidency will result in that better future," he said during his news conference
Thoughts, anyone?
http://lavoice.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1528
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Just another lying muzzie scum.
I was going to try and pass that along to the President, but I had too much of a hangover the next day and couldn't get out of bed. I think the CIA spiked my Jack Daniels to prevent the offer from being delivered. I think I'll write a book on this.
Correct. Saddam also had CNN on his leash and they would have carried his message in a moment.
We can believe him, but not the Iraqi general who said that the WMD were moved to Syria.
A press release, written by the subject of the story itself? Ridiculous. This is not news...
Although Yahoo should make it easier for gullible people to identify the source... so many people will see this and think "it's on yahoo news - it must be true". It they are going to publish this crap at all, it should have a big disclaimer on the top explaining that it's NOT journalism.
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