iCal sending decline e-mails when it purges old calendar entries

I have iCal version 4.0.4. I have enabled the "Delete events 30 days after they have passed" preference option. When iCal purges these events, it is sending a decline e-mail to the event organizer.

Is there a way to stop iCal from sending decline e-mails when it automatically purges calendar entries?

I turned off my internet connection. Declined(works for Accept as well) the invites in iCal.

iCal sends the messages to your email client. I deleted them from the Mail/Outbox manually.

Then I turned the wifi card back on.

Done.

Turn off automatically retrieve invitations from mail if you don't intend to handle them sooner manually.

Once the invitation is in iCal - it's job is to send a decline message when it gets declined or deleted. There is no easy way to delete the notification or temporarily ask mail to not send mail before the purge happens.

Just wait until Mobile Me changes again and all your old accepted invitations get an email that you are again accepting their past invitations. ;-)