Hans Blix in Time Magazine

[Please visit our sponsor:]

[Erik]

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030303/wblix3.html

I thought he said some interesting things:

TIME: So the buildup of U.S. forces actually has helped you?

Blix: I don't think there would have been any inspection but for outside pressure, including U.S. forces.

and

TIME: So when you say to them, what happened to the anthrax? They say, well, there was a hole in the ground in the desert and we put it in?

Blix: Yes. It was not a hole in the ground; they poured it in the ground. They did the same with the VX.

TIME: Do you believe them?

Blix: I'd like to see evidence of it. I don't work by gut feelings. I have to be the lawyer. Some people say, Jump at this. I'd like to see evidence. I'd like to interview the people. If they have contemporary documents, we can establish whether the documents are authentic.

TIME: How could there be no documents? Hasn't the Iraqi regime in the past had a Prussian-like efficiency in terms of keeping records?

Blix: Well, they've been one of the best-organized regimes in the Arab world. But then, if they destroyed their documents with that efficiency, there might be relatively little left. But when they've had need of something to show, then they have been able to do so.

TIME: So this is all a bit odd.

Blix: Yes, it's a bit odd.

[Neil Mick]

Yes, Eric: Time's interview IS interesting. Why you think it merits a new thread. I don't know. But then again, so is this...

"Inspectors Call U.S. Tips 'Garbage'"

In fact, the U.S. claim that Iraq is developing missiles that could hit its neighbors – or U.S. troops in the region, or even Israel – is just one of the claims coming from Washington that inspectors here are finding increasingly unbelievable. The inspectors have become so frustrated trying to chase down unspecific or ambiguous U.S. leads that they've begun to express that anger privately in no uncertain terms

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/iraq/main537096.shtml

and

"But while Blix said he could not certify that all of the proscribed materials Iraq once possessed had been destroyed, neither did he find evidence that any remain. In private, some inspectors do not rule out the possibility that Iraq truly is free of banned weapons: "We haven't found an iota of concealed material yet," one unnamed UNMOVIC official told Los Angeles Times Baghdad correspondent Sergei Loiko (12/31/02), who added: "The inspector said his colleagues think it possible that Iraq really has eliminated its banned materials." "

http://www.fair.org/press-releases/iraq-weapons.html