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Iraq arms inspector Blix warned of weak war evidence
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Iraq arms inspector Blix warned of weak war evidence
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Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix arrives to give evidence to the Iraq Inquiry at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in London July 27, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Stefan Wermuth
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World »
By Mohammed Abbas
LONDON |
Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:33pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix warned Washington and London in the weeks before the 2003 invasion of Iraq that he was growing less confident in evidence Iraq had banned weapons, he said on Tuesday.
He told a British inquiry Iraq was not a threat in 2003, and that years of anarchy triggered by the invasion may be worse than the tyranny of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"The interesting thing, was Iraq a danger in 2003? They were not a danger. They were practically prostrate .... What they got instead was a long period of anarchy. And one conclusion I would try to draw is that anarchy can be worse than tyranny," he said.
Iraqis had suffered for years before the invasion under strict U.N. sanctions for Saddam's 1990 attack on Kuwait. At the time of the 2003 invasion, Saddam's ousting was touted as one of the justifications for war.
The United States and Britain argued that Saddam had chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and needed to be disarmed. After the invasion no banned weapons were found. Years of sectarian bloodshed ensued.
Blix's comments added weight to negative appraisals given by other senior figures at the inquiry which has raised tough questions about the decision by then U.S. President George W. Bush and then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to invade.
Blix, who has long been an outspoken opponent of the decision to invade, told the inquiry that Washington was "high" on military power, and the U.S. military timetable was "out of sync" with the diplomatic timetable, which would have given his team more time to carry out inspections.
Blix headed a U.N. team searching for banned arms, known as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. He said his group's failure to find any WMDs should have caused Washington and London to question their intelligence.
"I talked to Prime Minister Blair on 20th February 2003 and then I said I still thought that there were prohibited items in Iraq but at the same time our belief in the intelligence had been weakened," Blix told the inquiry.
"I said the same thing to Condoleezza Rice .... I certainly gave some warning that things had changed," Blix said, referring to the U.S. Secretary of State at the time of the invasion.
The United States and Britain had both published intelligence reports in the lead-up to the war which they said showed Iraq had WMDs or the capability to make them.
ABSURD
Blix had criticized Iraq before the invasion for not being transparent about its weapons programs, but his reports fell short of giving Bush and Blair compelling evidence to U.N. support for war.
The United States and Britain tried to persuade the U.N. Security Council to endorse their decision to invade Iraq, but when the council failed to pass a new resolution, they invaded anyway, arguing earlier resolutions justified the assault.
"When she (Rice) said that the military action was simply upholding the authority of the (U.N.) Security Council, it strikes me as totally absurd," Blix said.
Blair's successor Gordon Brown set up an inquiry last year, chaired by former civil servant John Chilcot, to learn lessons from the war. Blair and Brown's Labour Party, in power since 1997, was defeated in an election in May this year.
The former head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency told the inquiry last week there had been only a low risk of an Iraq-backed attack on Britain before the war, but that the country was "swamped" by terror threats after the invasion because the conflict had radicalized some Muslims.
Blair has been criticized at home for committing Britain to the invasion, which was unpopular with the British public, including among leading figures within his left-leaning Labour Party. British troops have since withdrawn.
The inquiry is expected to conclude at the end of this year. Previous probes have cleared the government of any wrongdoing.
(Editing by Maria Golovnina)
World
Comments
See All Comments (4) | Post Comment
Jul 27, 2010 1:35pm EDT
Either way, Saddam had nothing to do with the towers being hit, which is something our President tried manipulating the People with in an effort to justify himself and his decision to invade Iraq. The WMDs were simply a deterrent as are the terrorist who flew the planes into the towers. What’s the real story? Is our Gov’t. sick enough to kill their own People in an effort to pump fear into the same People so they will stand behind their country (Gov’t.) going to war, hence the invading of Iraq in the months proceeding. We the People are not stupid, some admit it and while many others are cowardice about it. True story.
WAKE UP AMERICA! If We have the vote, then We should be able to make some positive changes that benefit US. After all, the majority of the voters in this country are also the majority of the middle class, who are also many of the People who provide all the tax money to Washington that they ALL continue to carelessly waste without regard to Us, Our futures, they say a lot of it is for Our safety, but at the same time they are the ones putting Us in danger.
I could go on for a while but I am sure some of you understand what I am talking about. Go on Washington…waste a bazillion of Our dollars again today, there’ll be more tomorrow. Let Us not be fools anymore We the People.
dailynews0727
Report As Abusive
Jul 27, 2010 2:40pm EDT
So what was the lesson of Iraq?
More to the point, what was the lesson of Vietnam?
If any thing, the Vietnam lesson was that listening to the Pentagon and to the Intelligence Community is listening to a vested interests in waging and continuing the war, driven by the revolving doors and bank accounts of the arms industry.
As a result, according to the economist John Kenneth Galbraith, the Pentagon wings were not trimmed… in fact, its budget was expanded and orders for more toys, more expensive toys, were made. The Pentagon represented the defeat in Vietnam a matter of weaponry. And its defenders in the legislative and administrative branches stood by it, and here we are 40% of the discretionary spending goes to finance a war machine that no ‘ordinary’ American would approve of, if he would hear about it.
Iraq, its oil, and enabling the hegemony of a particular ‘ally’ in the Middle East seemed to be bright opportunities for the Bush administration. The voter discovered that rather early and gave the Democrats a chance to lead the legislative process having been bitterly attacking its manipulations and the result of such manipulation by the Republicans.
And the result? a carbon-copy performance. From the White House down to the narrowest isle in Congress and the smallest Government office in Washington. Afghanistan is our destiny, we must own the Middle East, pay lip service to renewable energy and keep mums after that. Forget about an energy legislation, and soon, we shall have the sleepover parties with BP, of which we began to hear.
It is too late. We are moving down the incline so fast. We don;t even have time to look at the mirror any more and wonder “who is the prettiest of them all” as we used to do, so often.
RBurton
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Jul 27, 2010 2:59pm EDT
When Cheney was head of Halliburton, he and the head of Enron visited both Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, seeking permission to build a gas pipeline through those companies to support a major project of Enron’s in India.
Both Saddam and the Taliban sent them packing.
The next thing you know is Cheney ios Vice President and the US (and its allies) were invading Iraq again. The next thing you know, 9/11 happens and we’re invading Afghanistan.
Saddam was torn from power and, eventuially, hanged. The Taliban were torn from power but, as we know all too well, are ‘hanging’ around.
Another American foreign policy ‘coincidence’? I hardly think so. After the invasion, because of Cheney’s relationship with Halliburton, Halliburton was banned from being a contractor in the rebuilding of Iraq. It was though to be an obvious conflict of interest. So, the government let Halliburton work as a SUBcontractor – making billions of taxpayer dollars. Another obvious conflict of interest to everyone BUT the government
Almst every country that suffers political or social upheaval is a country that either:
A. Possesses natural resources we want/need
B. Enjoys some other strategic importance like geographocal location
C. They are a political thorn in our side.
This has been the case for generations. American corporate policy has become American foreign policy.
The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan was thoght to be justification for the indictment of both Bush & Cheney but that was ruled out for political reasons.
It is also a good reason to take a serious look at 9/11 to see if there was any US government involvement. After all, the republikan administration has motive, means and opportunity AND they would be the ones carrying out the investigation.
There’s STILL time to indict Bush & Cheney.
Joe200011
Report As Abusive
Jul 27, 2010 4:07pm EDT
Like this is news. It was pretty obvious after the Iraq invasion that nothing Iraq was accused of, with regards to WMD’s, was true.
killyridols
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