Somebody besides DUers noticed the "ignore" on Perle/contact story!!!

[LittleApple81]

From Today's papers on Slate:
snip...
In a double-column off-lead, the NYT has what seems to be a giant story: According to emails and named sources, in February Saddam tried to convey through backchannels that he was willing to do just about anything—including holding U.N.-supervised elections and letting U.S. investigators roam around Iraq looking for banned weapons— to avoid an invasion. Approached by intermediaries about the potential offer, White House advisor Richard Perle told the Times though he was "dubious" he dutifully passed the offer up the chain of command at which point he was told the bosses weren't interested: "The message was, `Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad.' " (ABC News and Newsweek also have similar reports.)

Before you get too excited: The WP, which plays follow-up and files a short dispatch, essentially dismisses the alleged backchannel. It avoids any spicy quotes from Perle (see above) and instead suggests that Perle agreed with the White House's decision. "I had doubts about whether there was a real offer, because the Iraqis had a lot of ways to get in touch with the U.S.," Perle told the Post.

Meanwhile, the Times' case that the backchannel offer was a serious missed opportunity relies heavily—in fact, almost exclusively—on the intermediary who approached Perle, a Lebanese-American businessman named Imad Hage. Hage details the various meetings he had with top Iraqi officials and how they were begging to do anything to avoid war. "At least could have talked to them," says Hage, in the last, line of the article.

Despite the reliance on Hage, the Times doesn't tell readers what might be motivating his decision to tell his story, seven months after the invasion. Blogger/journalist Josh Marshall, meanwhile, has a solid theory, namely that Hage is trying to make himself and particularly one of his co-intermediaries look like angels. And though the Times doesn't mention it, Hage might have another job apart from his gig as Mr. Give Peace a Chance. According to an August Knight Ridder story, Hage is "under federal investigation for possible involvement in a gun-running scheme to Liberia."

snip...
http://slate.msn.com/id/2090849/

And here is the link to Josh Marshall....

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_11_02.html#002171

[Mairead]

1. I think if you go into the DU archives

you'll find that that offer was being talked about among the punditocracy then, and that it was known that SmirkCo. turned it down.

[prolesunited]

2. Discussion in LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=201626&mesg_id=201626

Of course the media is going to warn this. Do you want to tell the families, both U.S. and Iraqi, that the whole invasion and occupation could have been avoided?

[htuttle]

3. 'Could they have avoided war?' is a stupid question

Of COURSE Bush could have avoided war.

Bush STARTED the damned war. Nothing was 'inevitable' until the cruise missles started flying and the bombs started dropping. Who decided Iraq 'needed invadin' in the first place? Bush. Who built up 100,000 troops in the region? Bush. Who gave the order to invade? Bush.

(I say this, since when I've seen this story covered in the last day or so, such as on ABC, that's the question that is being posed, "Could Bush have avoided war.")

I don't know if this story is true or not, but I'm not sure *why* it matters. Are they trying to make it seem like war was more inevitable than it was?

[grannylib]

4. Total agreement...of course it could have been "avoided"

but that was not Shrub's plan -
Wonder what the hell he would have used as a pretext for war had it not been for 9/11??

[Guaranteed]

5. These back channels have often been used before

i.e. the Cuban Missile Crisis.