The United States military, the CIA and Iraqi exiles began an extensive clandestine effort inside Iraq at least three months before the war to forge alliances with Iraqi military leaders and convince commanders not to fight, the New York Times reported, citing people involved in the effort.
In its Sunday edition, the paper, quoting US officials, said that even after the war against Saddam's regime began, the Bush administration received word that senior officials of the Iraqi government, most prominently the defense minister, General Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai, might be willing to cooperate to bring the war to a quick end and to ensure a postwar peace.
General Hashem's ministry was never bombed by American troops in the course of the US-led war, and the Pentagon's decision not to knock Iraqi broadcasting off the air permitted him to appear on TV with what several Iraqi exiles have called a "veiled signal to troops that they should not fight the invading allies".
However, Washington's war planners decided not to try to keep him or other Iraqi leaders around after the war to help them keep the peace, a decision some now view as a "missed opportunity", according to the report.
According to the Times, high-level Arab officials and some US officials said General Hashem was identified as a "potential ally" as early as 1995, when he became defense minister. His fate is currently unknown. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
