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Veterans of Iraq inspections pessimisticExperts say new effort will be hamstrung if rights are curtailed
From David Ensor
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A former United Nations inspector who looked for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq four years ago is not optimistic about success for a new round of proposed inspections. At recent talks with Iraqi officials in Austria, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix failed to obtain the rights that inspectors will need to conduct a successful weapons inspection in Iraq, according to ex-inspector David Kay. "Without the rights that he did not successfully negotiate in Vienna with the Iraqis -- that is -- the right to go anywhere, anytime, the right to conduct aerial inspections over the whole country in safety, and -- most importantly -- the right to conduct interrogations of Iraqi scientists and engineers without their security-minders being shoulder-to-shoulder with them," Kay said. "It's a hopeless effort." Iraq must be forced to abandon its "cheat and retreat" strategy for allegedly hiding evidence of its alleged weapons program, veteran inspector Tim Trevan said. "They'd cheat with a lie about what they held and they would retreat when they were confronted with the evidence and would come up with a new lie," Trevan said. U.N. inspectors were last in Iraq in 1998, leaving after Iraq allegedly refused to allow them access to certain sites. Four days of U.S. and British airstrikes against Iraq followed. During his 2002 State of the Union address to Congress on January 29, U.S. President George W. Bush denounced Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil" and embarked on a campaign to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction; chemical; biological; and nuclear weapons. "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world," Bush said. "By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. "We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction," the president continued. "... all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security."
Iraq has repeatedly denied possessing or developing such weapons, and has accused past inspectors of being U.S. spies. Blix, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Sweden, is the man who is expected to lead a new group of 220 U.N. inspectors to Iraq. Blix said he has considered what strategy to use with the Iraqis. "What works best as a matter of psychology -- shouting or soft-speaking with some leverage?" Blix said. "Well I don't know, my habit is not to shout." U.S. officials have accused Iraq of using three specific locations for its alleged weapons programs, an accusation Baghdad denies. CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson was one of a large group of journalists that was allowed access to one of the sites this week, said to be a so-called dual use facility housing machines that could be used for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes. Washington says the building was meant to house a centrifuge enrichment facility that could be used in the process of constructing a nuclear weapon. The tools inspectors will use are likely to include satellite photographs of suspected Iraqi weapons sites and CD-ROM computer discs that the Iraqis gave to U.N. officials, which are said to contain Baghdad's version of activities at dual use facilities during the past few years.
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