The London-based Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi stated in its April 28, 2005 issue that the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would have secretly met Saddam Hussein during his lightning visit to Iraq last April 14. Rumsfeld would have proposed the overthrown president a golden immunity and exile plan for him and his major team members if Hussein had accepted to appear before the TV cameras to urge his people to cease the resistance, but this would have been rejected.
That information, unverifiable, was not denied and spread up like a torch within the occupation troops. The fact of being regarded as probable though not true by U.S. soldiers showed general uncertainty.