Posted on 03/08/2003 7:47:00 PM PST by areafiftyone
SADDAM Hussein and his family are to be given 72 hours on Tuesday to accept an offer of exile, while 50 of Iraq's top military brass will be offered an amnesty in return for full co-operation with the United Nations in a secret plan to be tabled at its New York headquarters. The highly sensitive proposal was tabled by Pakistan during a closed-door meeting of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council on Friday and was brokered by Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and moderate Arab states. Failure by Saddam to agree to the plan would clear the way for war.
If the proposal, understood to be in the form of a short paragraph, becomes part of a second resolution and is adopted by the Security Council, the UN would oversee the establishment of a post-Saddam government and the UN, not the US, would take stewardship of Iraq's oilfields.
The Iraqi generals and top ranking officers would have to co-operate fully with UN inspectors to oversee the total elimination of any weapons of mass destruction.
Pope John Paul II has dispatched his emissaries to meet all the key parties during the past two weeks. His special envoy and per manent observer at the UN, Archbishop Renato Rafaele Martino, has been discussing the proposal with all the Security Council members.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Pio Laghi, a former Papal Nuncio, met with President George W Bush, while Cardinal Angelo Sodano has met with Tony Blair. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray met with Saddam in Baghdad and discussed the subject of exile, which he said Saddam did not rule out.
American sources have confirmed that the US and Jordan have recently discussed the prospect of using the UN to offer a formal exile and amnesty package to Saddam and his inner circle.
Last month, Saddam rejected informal pleas to choose exile over war. But the US is aware that one of the attractions of an amendment that extends the offer to his family and military leaders is the likelihood it may trigger a coup, leading to his assassination by a member of his inner circle.
It is thought that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, would push for a safe passage out rather than face a cataclysmic end in a Baghdad bunker. 'Uday might be the first to shoot his father if he refused an amnesty,' one senior Jordan official is quoted as saying.
The proposed amendment is still at a low rung on the UN procedural ladder but the non-permanent members believe it represents a last best chance to avert a war. But, from the Security Council's point of view, it offers a compromise that would allow its members to unite and vote for a second resolution.
UN sources have also indicated that a second resolution on Tuesday with the March 17 ultimatum -- incorporating an offer of exile -- would provide an attractive compromise that would let the French to come on board without 'losing face' or appearing to have capitulated to the US.
Again: "THE UN WOULD OVERSEE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POST SADDAM GOVERNMENT AND THE UN NOT THE US WOULD TAKE STEWARDSHIP OF IRAQ'S OILFIELDS."
God forbid. Our President said we are liberating Iraq and its oilfields for the IRAQI PEOPLE.
I'm thinking the UN weasels are seeing their welcome days in the US are numbered and are now looking for another sugar daddy....well my my....looky over there! A bunch of oil wells just WAITING to be donated to the UN cause!
But as an aside, how do the UN and Euroists justify Sadaam in Paradise and Milosevic in the Gulag?
Not to mention the billions he will have at his disposal to cause mischief and fund terrorists. OBL only had around $200 million. Think what a free Saddam could do for terrorism with his billions.
This guy has to die.
Except that this would not victory. Iraqi would simply be trading one corrupt brutal master for another. And the US would be blamed.
No. No. No. We have done it the UN way before. It has always ended up a mess. Take a look at North Korea. Never again.
Uday would kill Saddam???
Plus I don't thing he'll take the offer
Also .. why do these countries care if Saddam lives ?
okey dokey :o)
He's a dead man either way. A living, breathing Saddam from his anticipated French lair would still be able to direct a terrorism network with his stolen billions lying in Swiss banks...
And IMO, Bin Laden is already done in secretly to avoid fueling his martyrdom.
I agree. The UN will install an anti-american government. That will eliminate our ability to base in Iraq. With basing in Iraq, we are much less dependent on coalitions in the middle east. With it, we can pressure Iran, the Saudis and Syria to start participating in the War on Terror.
US control in Iraq means a complete change in the correlation of forces in the middle east. UN control means little change. In fact, under UN control, Iraq will probably become the haven of choice for al Quaeda.
The French/Germans/UN do not have our interests at heart. I would bitterly oppose any measure that results in UN (read French/German/Chinese/Russian) control of Iraq when we spent blood and money to make it possible.
Recently I heard one of Sadaam's former officials say that he didn't trust even his sons.
So therefore he has no alternative, if he goes hes dead, if he stays hes dead. And presently Saddam is a dead man walking.
Sheesh, what a nightmare THAT would be.
Bill becoming head of the U.N. is a terrible prospect. Even Rush Limbaugh said it was on his radar screen, with a possibility that Hillary might be in the White House.
When does Kofi Anan's term expire? I thought it was 2006? That's two years before Hillary could (conceivably if Bush wins a second term) be elected.
Yikes. (music from JAWS plays in the background)
Okay you guys, this must NEVER happen. We've got to work our butts off, and pray much harder than we work.
I don't see Saddam doing a Hitler impersonation in some underground bunker. I do, however, see him take a Manuel Noriega approach. He could go to a "friendly" embassy and seek asylum.
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