Blix: Bush, Blair Knew They Were Hyping Case for War

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=14&u=/nm/20040308/ts_nm/iraq_blix_diary_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - George W. Bush and Tony Blair (news - web sites) probably knew they were exaggerating the threat from Iraq (news - web sites) when they were making the case for war, according to former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.


The U.S. president and the British prime minister ignored the few caveats in reports from intelligence services on Iraq's nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs, he writes in his account of the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion.


Blix says it was "probable that the governments were conscious that they were exaggerating the risks they saw in order to get the political support they would not otherwise have had."


Blix was head of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997 and later chief of UNMOVIC (the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) until 2003.

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[grannylib]

1. Wow, really? You mean, they LIED?? What a revelation!!!

[KansDem]

3. Not only did they lie,...

they're being allowed to walk freely among the rest of us.

Where's the "accountability?"

[ladjf]

8. You are correct!

"they're being allowed to walk freely among the rest of us"

We are only one hero away from justice.

There are dozens, if not not hundreds of people, who have evidence that could bring the crooks down. Until one of them is ready to make any sacrifice to do so, they will continue to get away with their nefarious activities.

[UpInArms]

2. related article: 'Iraq was free of weapons'

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1495108,00.html

Beirut, Lebanon - The father of Iraq's nuclear bomb programme, speaking publicly for the first time since US forces occupied Baghdad, called for a UN probe of what nuclear inspectors knew before the US-led invasion of Iraq on Monday and denied Saddam Hussein had tried to restart his atomic programme.

Jafar Dhia Jafar, speaking during a discussion about the repercussions of the occupation of Iraq organised by the Beirut-based Centre for Arab Unity Studies, said UN inspectors had "reached total conviction" that Iraq was free of nuclear weapons before the US-led invasion of Iraq.

"It was clear that reports of the United Nations to the Security Council should have been clear and courageous," Jafar said.

"I believe the United Nations should also investigate the facts that were known before the war and why they (nuclear inspectors) did not declare them to the security council."

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[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Here's the nuclear inspectors' report

As I have reported on numerous occasions, the IAEA concluded, by December 1998, that it had neutralized Iraq's past nuclear programme and that, therefore, there were no unresolved disarmament issues left at that time. Hence, our focus since the resumption of our inspections in Iraq, two and a half months ago, has been verifying whether Iraq revived its nuclear programme in the intervening years. We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear related activities in Iraq. However, as I have just indicated, a number of issues are still under investigation and we are not yet in a position to reach a conclusion about them, although we are moving forward with regard to some of them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,895890,00.html

In other words, they said openly that they had found no evidence of any program yet, but wanted to keeping looking. It was Cheney et al who were hyping this into a program, not the inspectors.

[hlthe2b]

4. Blix may be continuing to state the obvious, but thank God he IS...

The more it gets out there, the more likely even some of the most apathetic among us will hear it...

[SmokeyBlues]

6. No way!

Say it ain't so Hans! Say it ain't so!!!

[otohara]

7. They .... probably knew

is that like being a little bit preggers?

[Mountainman]

9. Current average rating on this story is 3.36 w/ 586 votes

Rate it a 5 if you can.

[Barrett808]

10. Current rating: 3.35 with 993 votes n/t

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