UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix is talking about some "bastards" in Washington

[Klaus]

UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix is talking about some "bastards" in Washington

From BBC News :

Blix stung by 'Pentagon smear'

The UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has lashed out at the US Defence Department, saying some "bastards" in Washington tried to undermine him in the run-up to the Iraq war.

In an interview with the UK's Guardian newspaper, Mr Blix said there were US officials who had "spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media".

"It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant," he said.

According to Mr Blix, as the US build-up for an invasion of Iraq intensified, US administration officials had leaned on his weapons inspectors to use more damning language in their reports on Iraq.


The UN inspectors searched more than 200 sites over three-and-a-half months but failed to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

But the US-led coalition insisted there were weapons to be found. Its failure to find any WMD in Iraq to date has triggered a storm of criticism about the issue, which was the main US and UK justification for the war.

Mr Blix said that, despite the actions of his "detractors" in Washington, "by and large, my relations with the US were good".

However, he said Washington now viewed the United Nations as an "alien power".

"There are people in this [US] administration who say they don't care if the UN sinks under the East river, and other crude things."

Mr Blix's deputy Dimitri Perricos, a veteran UN arms expert, has been named to replace him as head of the UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission (Unmovic).

Mr Blix is retiring after more than three years as UN chief weapons inspector.

Last week Mr Blix criticised the quality of the US and UK intelligence given to him on alleged Iraqi WMD, saying his inspectors had found nothing after acting on tip-offs.

In his last report to the UN Security Council, he recorded an open verdict over whether Iraq had WMD.

Saddam Hussein's regime might have hidden weapons, or it might have destroyed them, Mr Blix said.

 

[Scarletwine]

I guess the GOP is raising a stink about a possible investigation.

With good reason, I'm sure they don't want the nation to know how they cooked the evidence.

 

[Klaus]

Scarletwine:
Well god is on their side, they know the truth -> they don't need no stinkin investigations.

Klaus

p.s. sorry, i'm a little bit sarcastic today

 

[hiphop]

"There are people in this [US] administration who say they don't care if the UN sinks under the East river, and other crude things."

Congratulations.

 

[Scarletwine]

I'm sure God will make sure we find some WMD's

 

[Salome]

that's not very diplomatic

 

[verte76]

I don't doubt that the Administration did everything in their power to make things tough for Blix. They still haven't found the WMD's. I don't like Rumsfeld either.......he's a IMO.

 

[Rono]

that's not very diplomatic

Lucky for us,....it seems that we can not trust diplomats.

 

[Klaus]

Now he's retired

from NYTimes:

The Legacy of Hans Blix

Today is the last day of work at the United Nations for Hans Blix, the septuagenarian Swedish diplomat who led the team of international inspectors that was searching for biological and chemical weapons in Iraq until the eve of the invasion. With an intense allied search for "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq still under way, it is too early to reach a final verdict on his legacy. But with each passing day that the allies fail to find any "smoking gun" evidence of terror weapons in Iraq, the carefully calibrated judgments of Mr. Blix and his inspectors are looking ever more credible.

Mr. Blix has taken fire from hawks who believe he should have raised a greater alarm about the danger of Iraqi weapons and from doves who believe he should have suggested more vigorously that Iraq probably had no weapons worth worrying about. In his precise and lawyerly way, Mr. Blix always stuck close to the available evidence. He noted that the Iraqis had acknowledged having biological and chemical weapons and never fully documented their destruction. Some weapons and materials were bombed during the first gulf war and others were dismantled while international inspectors watched after the war. But a residue of uncertainty remained as to whether substantial quantities of forbidden agents or weapons had been squirreled away somewhere.

Iraq raised great suspicion because it repeatedly stonewalled and lied to the first U.N. inspection teams in the 1990's and dragged its heels in dealing with Mr. Blix's follow-up team before the war. No one yet knows what the Iraqis were up to, but lately Mr. Blix has sounded as if he gives some credence to the possibility that Iraq really did destroy virtually all of its weapons and toxic agents, retaining only the ability to start banned programs up again once the world stopped looking.

If the current hunt for terror weapons ultimately hits pay dirt, the discovery will be a warning that even quite intrusive inspections like those by the Blix team are no guarantee of safety. But if the allied search comes up empty, that will suggest that the inspections were successful in containing a potential weapons threat. Mr. Blix and his team will deserve our congratulations.

 

[verte76]

I'm sure Dr. Blix is one happy retiree. What a job.