Clinton ordered them out so we could BOMB!
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The spy charges caused irreparable damage to UNSCOM and gave Baghdad a ready-made reason to halt cooperation with the arms controllers. In December 1998, Butler pulled his inspectors out of Iraq. Less than 24 hours later, the United States, along with Great Britain, launched Operation Desert Fox.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/unfinished/war/index3.html UNSCOM and Desert Fox
Standoff over arms inspectors leads to another strike in the Gulf
This is a text adaptation of CNN's Special Report, "The Unfinished War: A Decade Since Desert Storm," hosted by Brent Sadler, which debuted on Tuesday, January 16, 2001, on CNN and CNN International.
Clinton orders another attack on Baghdad
(CNN) -- On March 3, 1991, President George Bush reported to the U.S. Congress that "aggression is defeated, the war is over."
The victory was sweet, but the reality of dealing with a defeated Iraq would leave a bitter taste.
But the U.N. arms inspectors charged with dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM) have yet to give Saddam Hussein a clean bill of health.
"The fundamental obligation was on Iraq to hand over the weapons. They never did. They concealed, ... they made false declarations. They blocked inspections and they told us a series of lies about their weapons program," says Richard Butler. Butler became executive director of UNSCOM in 1997.
UNSCOM's insistence on inspecting Saddam Hussein's own presidential properties became a flash point. The Iraqis claimed these inspections were an affront to Iraq's sovereignty -- that there were no weapons there. They invited journalists to tour the palaces to make their case.
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