Are we in negotiations with Saddam Hussein?

[spooky3]

An Australian newspaper reported that a British tabloid reported that we are:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/21/1064082853908.html

"Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had been in secret negotiations with US forces in Iraq for the past nine days, a British tabloid newspaper said today.

According to the Sunday Mirror report, Saddam was demanding safe passage to the former Soviet republic of Belarus in exchange for information on weapons of mass destruction and his bank accounts.

US President George W Bush was being kept up to date on the talks by his national security adviser Condoleeza Rice who was coordinating negotiations led by US general Ricardo Sanchez, the Sunday Mirror said. ..."

I don't know if any of this is reliable.

[tsipple]

1. If "British Tabloid" Isn't Enough...

It's the Sunday Mirror.

The Mirror is Britain's ultra-nationalist, royalist, Tory-lovin' screed. Other headlines from the current issue:

Blair's Exit: Labour Poll Crisis
Tony Blair secretly plans Downing Street exit to save Labour from General Election humiliation...

Love-Split Sophie Finds New Man
Pop diva Sophie Ellis Bextor falls for a handsome rocker, just a week after her split with long-term lover...

Hooker Reveals High Life of Sin Girls
High-class hooker reveals exactly what a top pop star got for #15,000...

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

3. not at all Tory lovin'

But yes, very sensationalistic tabloid fodder. Piers Morgan has tried to turn it into a left-wing Daily Mail (& was pretty successful through 2002) but the celebrity stories & sillyness have sadly taken over.

I certainly wouldn't call it "royalist" or "ultra-nationalist" either -- I know that Morgan is somewhatofa Republican & it certainly doesn't fawn over the Royals the same way that the Sun, Express & Mail do (it led the charge with the Paul Burrell story from recent history).

Sadly I think it showed it's true (£££) colours though sadly when it scooped the exclusive interview with Tony Martin (allegedly netting him £100,000 in the process) who, putting aside the moralities of shooting a burglar in the back, is extremely right wing & shouldn't have a purportedly left-wing paper giving him a mouthpiece.

[tsipple]

4. It's Changed, Then

Guess my information is a bit dated. (I lived over there a bit.)

Maybe I am thinking of the Mail. Thanks for the correction. The general point still holds, though.

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Yeah they're asking Saddam to come back and take over in Iraq

to haul their asses out of the Iraqi fire. I'm sure they'll be really tough negotiators and make him promise not to invade Kuwait again once he's back in charge. </sarcasm>

[T Bone]

5. Be very careful here

They negotiate in secret. get hold of a bunch of his $$ in return they set Saddam up to come back weakly into power after the 04 election, and after a Bush exit from the whouse, then all hell breaks loose in the Reublican meadia attack machine that the new Dem president has 'allowed' Saddam back into power.

For some reason I believe they would try to engineer it.