Friday, January 31, 2003

Getting desperate? Seems Iraq may be a little afraid of what Powell will be bringing to the UN next Wednesday.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said Washington might try to use its "technological superiority in the techniques of espionage, fabrication, deception and misleading" to plant false evidence against Iraq.

The full text of the letter to Annan was not made public. But according to a statement from the ministry, Sabri described U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's pledge to take evidence about Iraq's programs to the UN Security Council on Feb. 5 as an act in a "theatrical production."

"The American administration has in the past presented more than one report that is filled with claims and accusations that lack any evidence," the statement said.

And when did Blix become a terrorism expert? And when did he get the information that the US government may have, showing Saddam's al Qaeda ties?

Blix, speaking in an interview published Friday in the New York Times, said he had seen no persuasive indications of Iraqi ties to the terrorist group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks in the United States. "There are other states where there appear to be stronger links," like Afghanistan, Blix said.

The Swedish diplomat also disputed an allegation by Powell that the inspectors had found that Iraq was moving illicit materials to prevent their discovery, nor had he seen convincing evidence that Iraq was sending weapons scientists abroad to prevent them from being interviewed.

I don't think Powell said that the inspectors reported this, I think he said we have proof of it.

Blix also said there was no reason to believe, as Bush also indicated in his speech, that Iraqi agents were posing as scientists or that sensitive information from his inspection agency might have been leaked to Baghdad.

Blix's proof? There is proof inspectors have been bribed, followed, intimidated and had their rooms tapped among other things. They are followed by five Iraqi minders for every inspector. The entire nation is a police state and yet Blix finds it outlandish that some of the scientists they come across could be agents?

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