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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (105505)	7/15/2003 11:40:07 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Neocon; Re: "Blix clearly did not think it was normal "seepage", but thought that the stockpiles existed himself. #reply-19105772 My reply was: Look, my opinion is that you are a complete liar who loves to misquote. Why don't you prove me wrong by coming up with a quote from Blix, dated to late 2002 or early 2003, verifying that he believed in the existence of WMD stockpiles in Iraq. The truth is that Blix said that the Iraqis had not proved that WMDs were destroyed, not that he believed in their existence, liar. Hey, go find the quote and I will apologize right on this thread to you. Or live with being a liar. #reply-19110068 Your response is to quote back to me an old news report of Blix's report to the UN. It doesn't mention a single word about what Blix "thought". It quotes the Blix report, which also didn't mention anything to the effect that Blix "thought" that Iraq still had WMDs. Here's Blix himself saying (back in January) that he had no proof of WMDs in Iraq: ... These reports do not contend that weapons of mass destruction remain in Iraq, but nor do they exclude that possibility. They point to a lack of evidence and inconsistencies which raise question marks which must be straightened out if weapons dossiers are to be closed and confidence is to arise. They deserve to be taken seriously by Iraq, rather than being brushed aside as evil machinations of UNSCOM. ... cnn.com The rest of the report is a list of the various inconsistencies etc. There is no statement as to what Blix himself thought of it, but there is an explicit note that the report gave no evidence of WMDs. Here's some more Blix quotes. From February, this is as good as it got: ... Hans Blix, executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said they were still investigating and had not ruled out the possibility that Iraq does possess chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. ... cnn.com Here's the March transcript: ... This is not to say that the operation of inspections is free from frictions, but at this juncture we are able to perform professional, no-notice inspections all over Iraq and to increase aerial surveillance. ... As I noted on the 14th of February, intelligence authorities have claimed that weapons of mass destruction are moved around Iraq by trucks, in particular that there are mobile production units for biological weapons. The Iraqi side states that such activities do not exist. Several inspections have taken place at declared and undeclared sites in relation to mobile production facilities. Food-testing mobile laboratories and mobile workshops have been seen as well as large containers with seed-processing equipment. No evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found. ... There is a significant Iraqi effort under way to clarify a major source of uncertainty as to the quantities of biological and chemical weapons which were unilaterally destroyed in 1991. A part of this effort concerns a disposal site, which was deemed too dangerous for full investigation in the past. It is now being re-excavated. To date, Iraq has unearthed eight complete bombs, comprising two liquid-filled intact R-400 bombs and six other complete bombs. Bomb fragments are also found. Samples have been taken. The investigation of the destruction site could, in the best case, allow the determination of the number of bombs destroyed at that site. It should be followed by serious and credible effort to determine the separate issue of how many R-400-type bombs were produced. ... One can hardly avoid the impression that after a period of somewhat reluctant cooperation, there's been an acceleration of initiatives from the Iraqi side since the end of January. This is welcome. But the value of these measures must be soberly judged by how many question marks they actually succeed in straightening out. ... cnn.com "But I think we were vindicated in the prudence that we showed. We consistently maintained that unaccounted for is not the same thing as saying things exist. They might exist, they might not exist and I think everything shows that that was wise." ... Blix believes Iraq may have destroyed most of its dangerous weapons but questions remain why Saddam did not produce data showing he had disarmed. ... Blix's relationship with the U.S. has increasingly worsened. He has become more openly critical of intelligence he received from Washington and other capitals. He told the Council on Foreign Relations last week he was "not impressed" by some of the evidence presented to the U.N. edition.cnn.com Some more places to look for a quote from Blix proving that he believed that Iraq still had WMDs (best of luck, liar): cnn.com cnn.com -- Carl