RIGHT-WING EDITOR: OBJECTIVELY PRO-SADDAM?

Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor at large of the Washington Times and United Press International, was determined to land an interview with Saddam Hussein.

So determined, in fact, that he told the Iraqi leader 21/2 years ago he hoped such a sit-down "would lead to a reappraisal of American policy toward Iraq."...

In a Jan. 11, 2001, "Your Excellency" letter -- recently retrieved from Iraqi intelligence files -- de Borchgrave said he could "guarantee" that an interview with him "will have worldwide resonance as well as two entire newspaper pages in The Washington Times, the newspaper of choice of the Republican establishment."...

In the letter, de Borchgrave reminded Hussein that he "had the honor of interviewing you" as a Newsweek correspondent in the 1970s. The election of George W. Bush, he suggested, made his request particularly timely:

"I wrote to you last year to respectfully suggest that the time was ripe for a major interview with the hope that it would lead to a reappraisal of American policy toward Iraq...."

--Washington Post

De Borchgrave never got a Saddam interview. Dan Rather did. Here's the hypocritical response of de Borchgrave's newspaper:

Is it a scoop, or was he duped?... did the interview become a vehicle for Iraq's agenda in the process?