This has got to be one of the most ignorant Press Releases in quite some time:
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, 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.
Let me see, so now Saddam was going to give up but his efforts to tell the world were stopped by the evil Bushitler.
Only problem with this whole thing is that if Saddam was going to give up he could have went on Iraqi TV and ta-da! Crisis averted. Or how about just leaving, like he was told to do? But no, some peacenik hippie was the only one entrusted to get the word out but was thwarted in his attempt at peace……
My favorite line:
It was very late at night and CNN in Baghdad was closed.
On the eve of the deadline before all out war is started the CNN office just decided to close up shop for a few winks of shuteye…..
Sure thing.
But anyways, thought I would do a bit of fact checking on this guy and what do you know:
With the White House Wednesday under heavy fire over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, a Canadian businessman is claiming he endured daily torture by American soldiers after being seized in Baghdad.
Hossam Shaltout, 57, an Egyptian-born Canadian who lives in Los Angeles, is demanding damages of $350 000, in a complaint filed with the US Army.
He says his five-week ordeal which ended when he was deported to Egypt, left him suffering from depression, flashbacks, and an obsessive desire for death.
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.
So this peacenik with doller signs on his mind and a grudge to grind because the US didn’t accept Saddam’s LATE offer for more time all of sudden sends out a PR a few days before the mid-terms…how convenient.
Silly silly lefties.
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