DID SADDAM TRY TO OFFER PEACE AT THE LAST MINUTE?
That's What ABC News and the New York Times Would Like You to Believe

But as with all other stories, this one has at least two sides to it, as reported by Fox News in reply to the Establishment Media's reports this morning:

Messages from Baghdad, first relayed by [businessman Imad] Hage in February to an analyst in the office of Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy and planning, were part of an attempt by Iraqi officers to persuade the Bush administration to open talks through a clandestine channel, people involved in the discussion told the Times.

One U.S. official told Fox News that while there were numerous offers and leads as the war neared, they were all thoroughly investigated and it was determined that they weren't in a position to deliver anything that would have been acceptable to the United States.

Additionally, this official says there were several attempts to meet with Iraqi intelligence officers, but each time, those officers were no-shows.

The attempts were portrayed by Iraqi officials as having Saddam's endorsement, but it was not clear if American officials viewed them as legitimate.

...[Pentagon advisor Richard] Perle told the [New York] Times in Wednesday's story that he was dubious Saddam would make legitimate proposals in such a circuitous fashion. "There were so many other ways to communicate," he said. "There were any number of governments involved in the end game, the Russians, French, Saudis."

So things may not be quite as the P. T. Barnums of American journalism would have them appear. Taking their version uncritically may be akin to buying used stock from Enron.