Hans Blix: Bush and Blair behaved as if they were on a 'witch hunt' over I

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=65210

Hans Blix is chuckling as he emerges from his study and settles into an armchair in his spacious Stockholm flat to leaf through a document.

The document is no laughing matter: it is the Blair Government's now-notorious dossier from September, 2002, which framed the case for war on Iraq, and indirectly led to the death of David Kelly, the government arms expert. But Mr Blix, the former chief UN weapons inspector, smiles as he cites examples of the Prime Minister's "faith-based" approach to intelligence.

"Listen to this," he says. "This is Blair speaking, 'I believe the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt'." Mr Blix is mocking Mr Blair's uncritical view of intelligence, which prevented the Prime Minister backing down even when the UN inspectors returned from Iraq unable to report that they had the "smoking gun" which would demonstrate "beyond doubt" that Saddam Hussein had rebuilt his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

Today he is angry at the lack of attention paid by the British and American governments to the inspectors' findings in the rush to topple Saddam. "Why the hell didn't they pay more attention to us?" he asks.