Blix pulls no punches over US hawks

LONDON - Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix has assailed his critics in Washington and Baghdad in strikingly blunt language.

And, asked if Iraq still harboured weapons of mass destruction, he said he remained "agnostic".

"It's true the Iraqis misbehaved and had no credibility but that doesn't necessarily mean they were in the wrong. It could have been bad brinkmanship."

In an interview with the Guardian, Blix abandoned diplomatic language to deliver blunt assessments.

"I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared much.

"It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning as an irritant," he said, claiming "some elements" of the Pentagon were in a smear campaign against him.

There was also state-sanctioned sniping from the Iraqis.

Iraqi enemies had spread rumours about him being homosexual and "going to Washington to pick up my instructions every two weeks".

Blix retires this month after heading the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission since March 2000. The commission fielded inspectors to Iraq to search for banned Iraqi weapons between November 2002 and March this year.

The US has faulted Blix for failing to produce tough reports on the Iraqi Government.

In an interview with AP, Blix said the failure to turn up weapons of mass destruction in Iraq might have been nothing but a reflection of the truth, and he called American criticism of the prewar search "misdirected".



But he also welcomed the US-led ousting of Saddam Hussein.

"He was an ancient-type ruler who got control of a country with an oil income and could use 21st century weapons. That was a very dangerous combination, and I think we all feel a great relief he is out of action."

Blix wished the US teams searching for banned weapons "good luck".

"We want to find out what was the real truth" - whether Saddam was concealing illegal weapons or destroyed them before he was attacked.

He was critical of intelligence his teams received from the US and other countries before the war began, saying the information was "not very good ... and that shook me a bit".

In the weeks before the war, some US officials strongly criticised Blix's reports to the Security Council for failing to support the Bush Administration's contention that Saddam had an active illegal weapons programme.

Blix reported that his inspectors had not found such weapons, but still had many outstanding questions about the country's weapons programmes.

Blix credited the US military buildup for pressuring Iraq to allow UN inspectors to return last November after four years.

While many people in the US Government believed inspections would not work, Blix said he thought President George W. Bush was sincere in initially wanting to give inspections a chance and not go to war.

Even in late February, if Saddam had come forward and confessed "everything" about his weapons programme that could have averted war, he said.



Blix pondered Saddam's reasons.

"The longer one does not find any weapons in spite of people coming forward and giving information, etc, the more I think it is important we ask, 'If there were no weapons, why was it Iraq conducted itself as it did for so many years?'

"They cheated, they retreated, they changed figures, they denied access, etc. Why was that if they didn't have anything really to conceal? I have speculations. One could be pride.

"Saddam Hussein regarded himself as an emperor of Mesopotamia, some said, and he regarded inspectors as impostors."

Nonetheless, he said, UN inspectors could not jump to conclusions - and the Bush Administration should not have either.

"They should remember that in the future, too, that the international inspection that is not on a leash is the inspection that has the greatest credibility," Blix said. "It might even be right."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq