Stewart Stogel
Monday, Jan. 26, 2004

Duelfer, originally a State Dept. deputy assistant secretary in the political-military affairs department, joined the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1993. He replaced another U.S. diplomat Robert Gallucci, who left the U.N. to join the US team charged with disarming the nuclear weapons of the nations of the former Soviet Union and freezing North Korea's atomic program.

While at the U.N., Duelfer had numerous dealings with then U.S.-U.N. ambassador Madeleine K. Albright who later became secretary of state in the Clinton administration's second term.

At UNSCOM, Duelfer first served under veteran Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, then under the flamboyant Australian Richard Butler. Duelfer left the U.N. in 2000, when Hans Blix was recruited to run the U.N. arms inspection effort. He was replaced by Dimitri Perricos (Greece), a veteran of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It is believed that Blix was "uneasy" with a U.S. official in such a high post inside the U.N.'s inspection organization.

It is Perricos who runs the scaled back U.N. inspection effort today.

Duelfer's current Iraq assignment for the White House is the second in less than a year. NewsMax has learned that Duelfer first entered Iraq shortly after U.S.-U.K. troops invaded in March 2003.

Neither the U.S. government nor Duelfer would disclose what he was doing in the Persian Gulf war zone during the period in question.

NewsMax has also learned that during his final months at the U.N., Duelfer had numerous dealings with the Bush-Cheney campaign, specifically Condoleezza Rice. Sources at the U.N. claim that the acting U.N. arms chief was "unofficially" providing "thoughts" on Iraq to the Bush campaign. If true, the activity would have been a violation of U.N. policy guidelines.

In a Friday conference call with selected reporters, Duelfer, who had previously expressed skepticism as to whether any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) would ever be found, apparently backtracked, claiming he would now have greater access to inspection data than he had before.

U.N. officials tell NewsMax that the abrupt departure of Duelfer's predecessor David Kay, and Kay's contention that Baghdad had most likely destroyed most its WMD many years ago was a "serious setback" for the Bush administration.

Doubts on CIA Competency on Iraq

In numerous conversations with this reporter during his U.N. tenure, Duelfer often expressed serious doubts as to the competency of the Central Intelligence Agency to effectively handle any matter related to Iraq.

Now with the CIA, such past criticisms seemed to have been forgotten. When Duelfer served under Richard Butler at the U.N., he was approached by Iraq's U.N. ambassador Nizar Hamdoon. Hamdoon, a veteran Iraqi troubleshooter and protégée of Saddam Hussein, had been sent by the Iraqi strongman to open a secret channel with the White House.

Hamdoon, who died in 2003, confessed that Baghdad knew for the last decade the White House was determined to overthrow Saddam.

It was a decision taken by the Clinton White House and acted on by George W. Bush.

Hamdoon was entrusted to try and head off the overthrow campaign. The effort took place between 1993 and 1998 -- when Hamdoon left the U.N. to join the staff of deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz.

The Iraqi diplomat told this reporter that just about everything "was on the table" -- everything but the removal of Saddam Hussein.

The problem was how to "discreetly" convey this directly to Washington.

Early in the second Clinton administration, Duelfer was "unofficially" given the OK by Albright to sign on to the back-channel effort.

As the U.N.'s deputy chief arms inspector, contact with the Iraqi U.N. ambassador would not raise questions. If anyone should stumble onto the effort, it would be explained away as "U.N. - related" business.

The problem was that Duelfer's boss, chief inspector Richard Butler, was originally kept in the dark.

'None Too Happy'

According to former members of Butler's staff, when the Aussie diplomat found out what Duelfer was up to "he was none too happy." It is said that Butler believed dealings between Hamdoon and Duelfer on such bi-lateral matters should not involve the U.N. Special Commission, which was supposed to be free of such political dialogue.

Therefore, Butler prevented meetings between the American and the Iraqi from taking place in the UNSCOM offices.

The two then moved their diplomatic contacts to various locations around the U.N. and New York City, including the popular Delegates Lounge inside U.N. headquarters. The diplomatic "dance" lasted almost two years.

According to Hamdoon, Albright, acting through Duelfer, was flexible on "Issues" confronting Washington and Baghdad but had one precondition: the removal of Saddam Hussein.

Both men left their U.N. posts empty-handed.

Hamdoon once relented: "The one thing she wanted (the removal of Saddam) was the one thing we could not give her."

Duelfer returned to Washington in 2000, working for various think tanks until his Iraq assignment in 2003 and his current CIA posting.

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