Message Board

Is the US acting as a sole superpower by snubbing UN? Post your views

London: Even as the controversy over reports that United Kingdom "sexed up" the intelligence dossier on Iraq to plead its case for war rages, former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on September 18 accused the United States and UK of "over-interpreting" information about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Blix claimed that the two countries allowed "spin" to "infect their presentation" of intelligence about Iraq's military capabilities ahead of the war.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Blix was asked if the UK and US had talked up the case for war.

He said, "They over-interpreted. They were convinced that Saddam was going in this direction (of making weapons of mass destruction) and I think it is understandable against the background of the man that they did so."

Blix's latest comments come a day after he said Iraq probably destroyed all of its weapons of mass destruction more than a decade ago.

He compared the way Britain and America were sure Iraq had weapons of mass destruction programmes to the way people in the Middle Ages were convinced that witches existed and so found them when they looked.

Responding to Dr Blix's criticism, a British Foreign Office spokesman said Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a matter of fact and the search for them continues.

"Successive UN Security Council resolutions concluded not only that he had them, but also had used them against his own people. Dr Blix's own 173-page report set out in great detail Saddam's history of obstruction of the UN inspectors.

"The process of search for weapons of mass destruction is continuing. It will be thorough and deliberate, despite the difficult security environment," the spokesman said.

He stressed that Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee had concluded there was convincing intelligence that Iraq had active chemical, biological and nuclear programmes and the capability to produce chemical and biological weapons, as well as continuing to develop ballistic weapons.

Dr Blix's comments come amid the Hutton inquiry into the death of British government scientist Dr David Kelly, who apparently killed himself after he was named as the source for a BBC story that the government "sexed up" the dossier.

Dr Blix said, "The UK paper that came out in September 2002 with the famous words about the 45 minutes – when you read the text exactly I get the impression it wants to convey to the reader and lead the reader to conclusions that are a little further reaching than the text needs to mean.

"One can read it restrictively, but one can also lead to far-reaching conclusions and I think many people did."

He argued that exaggeration, spin and hype damaged government credibility.

"We know that the advertisers will advertise a refrigerator in terms they do not quite believe in, but you expect governments to be more serious and have more credibility," he said.

PTI