AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Hans Blix; Vindication For a Skeptic.(former chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission)(weapons inspections in Iraq)(Interview)
Byline: Stryker McGuire
Hans Blix, 75, the former chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, led the hunt for WMD in the run-up to war in Iraq. Sidelined after American and British troops invaded the country, he's in the news again with a new memoir, "Disarming Iraq," being released in the United States and Britain this month. Like its author, the book is punctiliously diplomatic. Even so, it makes unsettling reading for anybody with doubts about the legitimacy of the war. NEWSWEEK's Stryker McGuire spoke with Blix last week at his home in Stockholm. Excerpts:
MCGUIRE: You write that you believed Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction. Having found no evidence of them, what caused you to believe it?
BLIX: Up to the middle of January 2003, my gut feeling was, "Yes, they have WMD." But by then we were performing inspections at sites that had been given to us by intelligence [agencies]. In no case did we find any WMD--for the simple reason that there weren't any, as it turns out.
I'm not against intelligence, but it requires critical thinking. Take the much-talked-about British dossier of September 2002. I must say that when I saw the claim [that Iraqi WMD could be activated on 45 minutes' notice], I thought, "Hey, isn't this overselling it a bit?" If you are dealing with a question of going to war over this or not, and thousands of people will be killed, then my view as a citizen is that I would like our leaders to be a little less in advertising and a little more in reality.
Under U.N. resolutions, intelligence agencies were instructed to turn over WMD intelligence to your inspectors. But you didn't get very much, did you?
We got intelligence from some organizations, though I will not specify which ones. We got very little from the U.S.
- Syria pushes WMD-free Mideast; Monday the UN Security Council is set to discuss...
- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor December 29, 2003 700+ words
...intensified pressure to give up their WMD programs. But neither country...prospects for an imminent WMD-free zone in the volatile...look bleak. The United Nations Security Council meets Monday at the request...a Syrian proposal to abolish WMD from the Middle East. The draft...
- Commentary: What if no WMD in Iraq?
- News wire article from: United Press International April 24, 2003 700+ words
...and destruction of WMD remains under the...the United Nations Security Council. Meanwhile, concerned that no WMD will be found...destroy Iraq's WMD, will be put in...hold the UNSC, the Security Council must continue to
- Iran Continues To Seek WMD Capability, New Intelligence Report Finds.
- Newspaper article from: C4I News March 8, 2001 700+ words
...traditional recipients of WMD and missile technology could...determined Iranian efforts to acquire WMD- and ACW-related equipment...inspectors into Iraq as required by Security Council Resolution 687, the report...U.N. at known and suspect WMD facilities in Iraq is no longer...
- Iran Continues To Seek WMD Capability, New Intelligence Report Finds.(Brief...
- Newspaper article from: Defense Daily February 27, 2001 700+ words
...traditional recipients of WMD and missile technology could...determined Iranian efforts to acquire WMD- and ACW-related equipment...inspectors into Iraq as required by Security Council Resolution 687, the report...U.N. at known and suspect WMD facilities in Iraq is no longer...
- What did you do in the war, Alastair? The government, the BBC and WMD.(The...
- Magazine article from: The Economist (US) July 5, 2003 700+ words
...include a claim that Iraq had WMD that could be launched within...Saddam Hussein could launch WMD within 20-45 minutes. At...there would be a story about WMD next day but was not alerted...lauded it in an address to the UN Security Council. Mr Campbell takes the blame...
- A policy of prevention; The administration's strategy against WMD is...
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times December 30, 2003 700+ words
...weapons of mass destruction (WMD) marks a watershed moment in...reached a head in the U.N. Security Council a year ago), producing documentation...Iraq about the state of play on WMD. As for forward deployment...grounds that nuclear and other WMD proliferation by states is inherently...
- N.K. chemical weapons, WMD program pose gravest threat to U.S.: Senate hearing.
- News wire article from: YON - Yonhap News Agency of Korea January 13, 2007 700+ words
...and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program pose the greatest threat...international opprobrium, flout U.N. Security Council restrictions on their nuclear programs...in combating the proliferation of WMD. "We focus on North Korea and Iran...
- U.S. blacklists N. Korean firm for involvement in WMD proliferation.
- News wire article from: YON - Yonhap News Agency of Korea July 31, 2009 700+ words
...arms and agencies of North Korea's WMD and missile programs, prohibiting...firms blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council earlier this month under resolution...involvement in the development of WMD," adding Ryonbong "specializes...