Re: Rumsfeld offered to free Saddam
**Saddam rejects Rumsfeld offer of release: Daily **
JERUSALEM: US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld paid a secret visit to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and offered him freedom and possible return to public life if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces, a media report said.
Saddam promptly rejected the offer, Ynetnews reported quoting a London based Al Quds Al Arabi daily. The visit came during Rumsfeld’s visit to Iraq about two weeks ago and was known only to a few Iraqi officials in Jordan, the Arab daily reported quoting sources.
**Some two weeks ago the British Telegraph had reported that Iraqi gunmen were offered a “deal” to halt all terror attacks in return for a reduced sentence for Saddam, likely to be sentenced to death. **