'I learnt I had been vilified, crucified & made to look like an imbecile."

[Khephra]

(Dear Mods: this is one of those pieces that fall between the cracks. It's not quite news, yet it is. It's not quite an editorial, yet it is. I see this as more a public statement by an important public figure. I'll understand if you don't agree and move it to Editorials, but it would be a shame if most of the board missed this one.)

'I learnt I had been vilified, crucified and made to look like an imbecile'

US tried to force the issue of 'smoking guns' without finding hard evidence

Hans Blix
Saturday March 6, 2004
The Guardian

On February 24, the college of commissioners met ... The normally calm expert group heard some rather heated exchanges, notably between John Wolf and myself ... He said the document provided only a readable historical account testifying to Iraqi deception. Moreover, it spent only a few pages on events after 1998. What had the Iraqis done since then? There was also no adequate account of the question of unmanned aerial drones, about which Colin Powell had spoken. There was no sign of any change of the Iraqi mind, which was all that mattered.

The tone of his comments could have been more courteous. The disdain shocked and surprised the other members of the college. I felt indignant and I did not hide it. We had worked hard and long on a line that had had the full approval of the council, including the US government. Now that government seemed to abandon the line altogether. OK, but was it fair to combine this abandonment with criticism of our work for irrelevance and inadequacy?

The heated exchange was one thing. The concrete points Wolf had raised about the drones and the period after 1998 were another. The nearly four-year gap between the end of 1998 and the return of inspectors to Iraq was, indeed, a problem. We had little solid information about the period apart from satellite images showing a variety of refurbishments and new buildings, most of which we had checked in inspections without finding anything proscribed. We would have to admit, as it has been aptly put, that "you don't know what you don't know."

John Wolf supplemented his oral comments with a letter. "The genuine 'dramatic change' by Iraq would have necessitated that it admit openly, not under pressure, that it had and has WMD and WMD programmes. This change would have had Iraq voluntarily take inspectors to the secret hide sites. Iraq would have shown the facilities where production has/is taking place; Iraq would have elaborated the illegal procurement networks ... That is not what Iraq did. That is not what Iraq is doing."

more.....................

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1163427,00.html

[kysrsoze]

1. I'd love to see that shown here. But I'm not hopeful

What's going on right now with the RW and religious fundamentalists really scares the crap out of me. I hope the rest of us have enough sense to put a stop to it.

[Khephra]

2. kick

[Judi Lynn]

3. Some shabby people really took their nasty frustration out on Blix

They took such savage shots at him as they stumbled around, trying to plant their propaganda points:

On the same Sunday, Colin Powell appeared on Fox TV ... He focused on the drone and said the US would "be making some news about it in the course of the week". They did.

There was no doubt that this time the administration was set to inject the drone and cluster bomb as issues - indeed, even as "smoking guns", which the inspectors had deliberately chosen to belittle

James Bone, the UN correspondent of the London Times, easily outdid Washington. He now repeated the incorrect Washington assertion that I had not mentioned the drone in my council presentation, and characterised this as "an apparent attempt by Dr Blix to hide the revelation to avoid triggering war".

the drone and the cluster bomb were taken up in some detail by US Ambassador Negroponte, albeit without any direct criticism of Unmovic or myself. He said the drone had not been declared and that this was a serious omission.
(snip)

Maybe he who smirks last will smirk best here!

[Disturbed]

4. Obvious

It is obvious to anyone that is half paying attention the Blix and team were sabotaged and pulled out because the NeoCons didn't want the same conclusion coming forth that David Kay announced. Seems that the majority of the American people either don't care or are oblivious to the Big Lie.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. But no one could figure out that Saddam had

no means of getting the drone over the ocean to attack the US? No one could figure out that Saddam had absolutely no back up at all to any act of aggression he would perform on the US or anywhere else for that matter. It takes more than four years to rebuild an air force, navy or effective army.

No one could figure out that he was no threat at all because he had no military capabilities? A little country like Iraq does not go about invading great big countries like the US with little drones. The stupidity shown in this entire undertaking by many people, including Tony Blair, is absolutely mind boggling.

[reprehensor]

6. *bump* n/t

[xchrom]

7. indeed

blix and team were treated very badly by the u.s and the u.k.

[Khephra]

8. kick

[Duck90MPH]

9. learnt

Does anyone else see the irony in using "learnt' and imbecile in the same phrase?

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

10. The irony

is you think there's an irony.

[republicansareevil]

11. snicker!

beautiful.

[JoFerret]

12. A decent, truthful, highly skilled expert

subjected to the BushBlair empire of evil