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| Axis of Evil |
| Conditions set for new Iraq inspections |
| 2003-02-02 |
| The United Nations chief weapons inspectors have set tough new conditions on holding a fresh round of talks with Iraqi officials. Second verse, same as the first. UN officials said Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei will return to Baghdad on 8 February, but are insisting on greater co-operation from Iraq on issues including surveillance flights and interviews with scientists. Insist all you want, boys, but if I was you, I'd be doing my insisting with the 101st Airborne. Just a suggestion. US President George W Bush has warned he will not tolerate any attempt by Baghdad to delay possible military action by "stringing along" inspectors. A cynic might argue that's been exactly what has been happening so far. George, we just have to pull the trigger at some point. Arms experts were stymied again on Saturday when a 17th Iraqi researcher refused to meet them alone. "Please don't kill me!" A UN spokeswoman said Mr Blix and Mr ElBaradei wanted "to do everything they could to achieve disarmament through inspections". The UN spokeswoman also believes that we should think "world peace", all of us at the same time. Before accepting Iraq's invitation, both men said they would seek substantial progress in areas of concern. Specifically, they want the Iraqis to: Address data said to be missing from Iraq's weapons declaration such as the whereabouts of suspected stocks of VX nerve gas and anthrax, We don't want them to address the data, we want them to show us where the stuff is. Support private interviews of scientists, How about doing something about the pre-signed death certificates? That might help. Accept surveillance flights from U-2 spy planes I think the Iraqis could bear to accept the U-2's if they were accompanied by Wild Weasels. Inspectors inside Iraq failed to interview a scientist on his own on Saturday. "Please don't kill me!" It was the 17th request for one-on-one talks - where inspectors hope the witnesses could be more candid - which had been denied, inspectors' spokesman Hiro Ueki said. Hiro, it's taken you 17 failed interviews to detect a pattern? Iraq has said it is not preventing scientists from meeting privately, but officials suggest the scientists might fear having their words misunderstood Also on Saturday, teams from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) checked 11 sites for banned chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Wonder if the Iraqis knew where they were going beforehand? "Hello, inspector." "Uday, what a lovely surprise! Nice to see you again!" "Yes, inspector, we just want to facilitate your work in my country." "How sweet of you. You guys have any anthrax here?" "Nope, not a drop." "All right, thanks then. See you tomorrow." Count on it, inspector." Their findings will be presented to the Security Council on 14 February when Mr Blix and Mr ElBaradei give their Since the war won't start before early March, Colin, let's be careful with exactly how many cards we show them. President Bush continues to accuse Baghdad of failing to disarm as demanded by the Security Council. He believes a resolution passed by the council last November permits the use of force to ensure Iraq has no banned weapons, though he said he was happy for there to be a second, more explicit, ruling. He's keeping up the "nice doggie" trick while he builds a big pile of rocks. After discussing the crisis with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday, Mr Bush dismissed the Iraqi invitation as a ploy meant to "string the inspectors along". "The idea of calling inspectors in to negotiate is a charade," he said. "Yeah, if we wanted spineless negotiations we would have sent in the Both leaders said time was running out for Saddam Hussein to show he was co-operating with UN demands. But the Security Council has appeared split over allowing inspectors more time or pushing for action. Iraq is set to be the focus of talks on Tuesday between Mr Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, who has been one of the leading Great, I'm sure he'll be a big |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 I'm sure Blix and Co are thinking about being close to the "doggie" before they buy their r/t tickets. I'd be thinking of evacuating inspectors out real soon. Two can play the game as well as one. Bush should keep the fear factor going, too, except make sure that it is not a bluff. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-02-02 20:35:11 |
| #3 "Address data." Norton/Kramden, "address the ball. Hello, ball." |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-02 20:31:23 |
| #2 RE: "He's keeping up the "nice doggie" trick while he builds a big pile of rocks." Best laugh I've had all day. Still chuckling. Thanks. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-02 19:24:33 |
| #1 Bush administration should'nt pay attention to all these agitations. Chirac and his band of 'girlfriends' just want to be seen as important persons(i know them, i worked for them a couple of years). US government should ignore them and they will become sweet. In fact they have the psychology of a young french girl, they can't stand to be ignored. |
| Posted by: Sacha 2003-02-02 08:37:23 |