Stewart Stogel
Friday, Nov. 7, 2003

Revelations about a "deal" to avoid war with the U.S., recently reported by The New York Times, were just some of many efforts made by the Iraqi strongmnan to remain in power.

NewsMax has learned that about a year after Iraq accepted a cease fire to end Operation Desert Storm (February 1991), Saddam began a concerted effort to "strike a deal" with the White House.

Enter Nizar Hamdoon

In early 1992, Nizar Hamdoon was named as Iraq's United Nations ambassador. Hamdoon, well known in diplomatic circles as a "protege" of Saddam's, was sent to New York City to open a "back channel" with Washington.

In the mid-1980s, Hamdoon was Iraq's ambassador to the United States. While in Washington, Hamdoon made a point to move amongst the heavy hitters in the nation's capital. The Iraqi diplomat proudly displayed personal photos taken with President Ronald Reagan, Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, as well as one with Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas.

Coincidentally, Clinton was elected president only months after Hamdoon arrived at U.N. headquarters in New York.

In diplomatic circles, Hamdoon's U.N. assignment was a signal that Baghdad was seriously looking for a deal with the White House. At the U.N., Hamdoon opened an "unofficial" channel to Washington through deputy chief Iraq arms inspector Charles Duelfer. Duelfer, a former State Dept. official, served at the U.N. from 1993-2000,when arms inspections were taken over by Hans Blix. The former U.S. diplomat, is now a resident scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

Duelfer, who had numerous "unofficial" meetings with Hamdoon, often acted as a conduit between the Iraqi diplomat and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who herself personally met Hamdoon several times when she was U.S./U.N. ambassador.

Another channel used by Iraq was former U.S. Senator David Boren from Oklahoma, now President of the University of Oklahoma. Boren's path crossed with Hamdoon's when two Oklahoma oil men mistakingly crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq in the late 1990's.

The two were taken into custody by the Iraqi Army, who claimed they were spies. Hamdoon was able to free the oil men on a request from Boren.

In the end, according to Hamdoon, no accommodation could be reached with Washington.

The Iraqi diplomat, returned home empty handed in 1999 and took up new duties as an advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Hamdoon, retired from government in 2002, to be treated for a recurrent cancer. The Iraqi died in New York City in July 2003 while being treated for his advancing illness.

In November 1993, Hamdoon met senior officials of NBC News at its Rockefeller Center headquarters. According to those in attendance, Hamdoon spoke about deals Baghdad was willing to offer the White House:

One was, an assurance that Iraq would provide "long-term" crude oil contracts to Washington at prices "well below" those set by OPEC.

Hamdoon insisted that if the White House really wanted to ensure a "continuing flow of oil" to the U.S., Baghdad was willing to sweeten any deals the Americans had with the Saudis and Kuwaitis.

Another was a "guarantee" that Iraq would not attack any U.S. interests with WMD or any other weapons.

Hamdoon told the NBC executives that "it would be suicide to attack the U.S., especially with WMD." The Iraqi insisted that Saddam "was under no illusion of what would happen to him if he ever used WMD."

"We are not crazy," he told the gathering. He insisted that any WMD, which Iraq may have had, was long destroyed.

Enter Madeleine Albright

At almost every turn, Hamdoon explained his offers would "hit" a brick wall. That wall was Madeleine K. Albright. Albright continuously rebuffed Hamdoon and any others acting on Baghdad's behalf, confided several former Iraqi diplomats.

Albright it is said, had one agenda: Not WMD, not disarmament, just the removal of Saddam Hussein. This despite that President Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush repeatedly stating on the record that the removal of Saddam Hussein was not the objective of the U.S. government.

Some diplomats at the U.N. tell NewsMax that Albright's determination to get rid of Saddam had become very "personal." Staffers at Iraq's U.N. mission often referred to the Secretary of State as a "wicked witch."

Former President Bush, though, repeatedly told reporters that an overthrow of the Iraqi president "was never authorized" under Security Council resolutions. Bush insisted that Operation Desert Storm had one objective and only one objective: evict Iraq from Kuwait.

Enter George W. Bush

That eventually changed when President George W. Bush gave the Iraqi strongman 48 hours to leave the country or "face war" during his address to the nation on March 17, 2003. Bush simply took the occasion to confirm what had been the "unofficial" cornerstone of U.S. policy for over a decade.

In April of 1995, then U.N. Iraq arms chief Rolf Ekeus, briefed the Security Council on his latest findings on chemical and biological weapons (WMD):

"She [Albright, then U.S. ambassador] did not seem to care about or understand the importance of the findings," explained Ekeus. "She was more interested in what was going on in Saddam's presidential palaces," he added.

In fact, Hamdoon confirmed, that the issue of WMD was never really an issue between Baghdad and Washington:

"What they wanted was the one thing we could not give them, Saddam Hussein."

Hamdoon once explained that the White House conveyed the message: "Get rid of Saddam and then all things are possible."

Saddam is out of power, but not gone; a fact that continues to dog the Bush administration.

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