LONDON - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans
Blix accused London and Washington on Sunday of exaggerating
the threat of Iraqi weapons to justify waging war and said they
should have been more sincere.
He said he would not accuse President Bush or Prime
Minister Tony Blair of acting in bad faith as they made their
arguments about the threat posed by Iraq and its alleged banned
weapons.
But he added: "The intention was to dramatize it just as
the vendors of some merchandise are trying to exaggerate the
importance of what they have.
"From politicians, our leaders in the Western world, I
think we expect more than that, a bit more sincerity," Blix
told BBC television.
His comments will fan the flames of arguments in the United
States and Britain over the reasons for ousting Saddam Hussein.
Nearly 10 months after the Iraqi leader was toppled, no
biological or chemical weapons -- the reasons Blair, like Bush,
gave for war -- have been found.
Prior to the war, Blair said Iraq posed a "serious and
current" threat, that it had continued to produce banned
weapons and that it could deploy some of them within 45
minutes.
Try as he might, Blair cannot shake off troubles cause by
last year's invasion of Iraq.
Last week he bowed to growing pressure and set up an
inquiry into possible intelligence failings over Iraqi weapons.
Bush has set up his own commission to investigate alleged
flaws in the intelligence used to justify military action, as
the issue climbs the political agenda in an election year
there.
London and Washington went to war in March last year, after
failing to secure a U.N. resolution authorizing military action
and ignoring pleas from other Security Council members to give
Blix's team in Iraq more time to search for weapons.
"We said that we had seen no evidence of any...weapons,"
Blix said. "We had, I think, issued the correct warnings.
Nevertheless, they didn't take them seriously."
Blix said the intelligence community had to shoulder some
of the blame too.
"They clearly believed too much in what defectors said," he
said. "They were relying upon defectors and much of what they
got there was wrong."
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said last year
that supposed banned weapons were just one of several reasons
for invading Iraq and the decision to stress the arms threat
was taken for "bureaucratic" reasons in order to help justify
war.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd
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