[Peace-discuss] we destroyed them

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Blix Says Iraq Probably Destroyed WMDs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 7:16 a.m. ET

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix 
believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, 
but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack.

In an interview with an Australian radio station broadcast Wednesday, Blix 
said it was unlikely that the U.S and British teams now searching for weapons in 
Iraq would find more than some ``documents of interest.''

``I'm certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they 
maintained, destroyed all, almost, of what they had in the summer of 1991,'' Blix 
told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

``The more time that has passed, the more I think it's unlikely that anything 
will be found.''

Blix indicated he thought the U.S.-led coalition had backtracked on the issue 
of Iraq's weapons.

``In the beginning they talked about weapons concretely, and later on they 
talked about weapons programs. Maybe they'll find some documents of interest,'' 
he said.

Blix, who spent three years searching for Iraqi chemical, biological and 
ballistic missiles as head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection 
Commission, said Iraq might have tried to fool the United States into believing 
it had weapons of mass destruction over the years in order to deter attack.

``I mean, you can put up a sign on your door, 'Beware of the Dog,' without 
having a dog,'' he said from his home in Sweden.

The United States and its allies Britain and Australia invaded Iraq in May 
after saying Saddam Hussein's regime was developing nuclear arms as well as 
chemical and biological weapons.

However, a search by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group -- which is made up of 
some 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts -- has failed to 
uncover any weapons of mass destruction since the conflict ended.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have come under 
increasing pressure to prove that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction.