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| Blix says basis for Iraq war flawed: paper |
| | www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-09 18:20:58 |
LONDON, July 9
(Xinhuanet) -- Hans Blix, former chief UN arms inspector in Iraq, has told a
British inquiry that the intelligence used by Britain and the United States to
support
their case for war on Iraq was inaccurate, the Financial Times in
London reported Friday.
The threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was
overstated,the newspaper quoted Blix as telling the independent inquiry led by
Lord Butler into the British handling of intelligence on Iraq'sbanned weapons
before the US-led war against Iraq.
The British government
did not exercise sufficient critical judgment in analyzing and presenting the
intelligence it was given,and the work of the UN inspectors was not taken
seriously enough, Blix told the inquiry that was expected to report its findings
next Wednesday.
"My belief is that intelligence failed and
it was presented in a way that did not have sufficient caveats and which
politicians were prepared to believe," Blix said in an interview with the
paper.
"There was a lack of critical thinking on WMD, and
the government shares the responsibility with intelligence," he
said.
Blix said he had pleaded with British Prime Minister
Tony Blair for more time to find WMD before the US-led invasion of Iraq, only to
be told that all the intelligence agencies around the world agreed with Britain
and the United States that there were.
"He (Blair) was
genuinely convinced," Blix said.
Blix stressed that the
Butler inquiry should hold both the intelligence agencies and the British
government responsible for embarking on an unpopular and bloody war on the basis
of a
misjudgment.
Blair persuaded the British parliament
to support the US-led war against Iraq on the grounds that former Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical and biological weapons
within 45 minutes.
However, the US-led Iraq Survey Group has not found any evidence of Iraq's alleged banned weapons so far. Enditem |
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