*Ø* Blogmanac | US 'snubbed last-minute effort to avoid war'

The Guardian

"Just days before the invasion of Iraq US representatives rebuffed a last-ditch attempt to avert the war by officials claiming to represent a frantic Iraqi regime, according to reports.

"Richard Perle, an influential adviser to the Pentagon, received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman indicating that Saddam wanted to make a deal, ABC News and the New York Times reported last night.

"The chief of the Iraqi intelligence service and other Iraqi officials had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction and offered to let American troops and experts do an independent search, the New York Times said."

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