Saddam accepted exile right before the invasion

[firefox]

There is a big fact left out of the Iraq discussion and that is that Saddam accepted exile and agreed to turn over Iraq to the Arab League and the UN. This AP article is dated October 30th, but if someone has other links it would be appropriate to post them.

From http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1030saddam30.html#

Saddam accepted exile before invasion by U.S.

Associated Press
Oct. 30, 2005 12:00 AM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Saddam Hussein accepted an eleventh-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, but Arab League officials scuttled the proposal, officials in this Gulf state claimed.

The exile initiative was spearheaded by the late president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, at an emergency Arab summit held in Egypt in February 2003, Sheik Zayed's son said in an interview aired by Al-Arabiya TV during a documentary.

<sentence omitted>

A top government official confirmed the offer on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Saddam reportedly accepted the offer to try to halt the invasion and bring elections to Iraq within six months, claimed the official and Sheik Zayed's son.

<two paragraphs snipped>

Here are Google results for invasion "Saddam accepted exile"- http://tinyurl.com/bhlk4

[wallwriter]

1. But he wanted to keep the oil rights,

so it was a no go.

[Cleita]

2. I remember that and that was back when I watched

a lot of the news channels 24/7. It seems that Saddam didn't meet *'s time table. I mean he let the deadline pass because he was playing cat and mouse with the US. When he realized that Bush was serious about war, he backed off and agreed to go into exile. But Bush invaded anyway. Bush really IMHO didn't want to avoid war. I think he would have invaded no matter what Saddam had done.

I mean even when it was revealed that there were no WMD's from the inspectors, he still changed the conversation that there were all these terrible weapons still there that the inspectors hadn't found. He would have invaded no matter what. It was his purpose and no one was going to stop him who had a brain in their head.

I hope he is brought to justice about this in the end.