http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3120046.stm
Thursday 18 September 2003 By Barnaby Mason - BBC diplomatic correspondent
Blix Adds to US and UK worries
The former head of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, Hans Blix, has
accused the American and British Governments of using spin and hype
in making the case for war.
And in Washington, after months of stressing a link between Saddam
Hussein and al-Qaeda, President George W Bush has said explicitly
that there is no evidence that the former Iraqi leader was involved in
the suicide hijackings of 11 September 2001.
As one would expect, Dr Blix focused in a BBC interview on the
alleged past threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Washington and London had over - interpreted the evidence, he said -
a careful way of saying they exaggerated it.
Witch-hunt
In a trenchant phrase, Dr Blix compared the two governments'
behaviour to people in Europe in the Middle Ages who were
convinced that witches existed and so found them when they
looked for them.
He was asked in particular about the British dossier on Iraqi
weapons published last September - for the past few months
it has been at the heart of a bitter dispute between the government
and the BBC.
Tony Blair remains adamant that Saddam Hussein was a threat
Dr Blix added his own doubts about the British Government's
famous statement that Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical
and biological weapons within 45 minutes.
As he noted, it has emerged at the inquiry in London into the
death of a government weapons expert that this referred only
to battlefield weapons, not longer-range missiles - which makes
it hard to classify them as weapons of mass destruction.
The head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, told
the inquiry this week that the 45-minute statement had been
misinterpreted. And he conceded that, withhindsight, it had
been given undue prominence in the dossier.
The fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found
in Iraq so far is particularly damaging to Tony Blair, since he
founded the public case for war overwhelmingly on that threat.
Encouraging support
President Bush was much more explicit about the simple need
to remove what he called an evil regime.
But he also put more emphasis on an alleged link between Saddam
Hussein and Osama bin Laden's organisation, al-Qaeda.
By constantly juxtaposing the two, the administration encouraged
the belief of about 70% of Americans that Iraq was actually implicated
in the 11 September attacks.
Now, responding to some overstated remarks on Sunday by his
Vice-President, ***** Cheney, Mr Bush has had to spell out that
in fact there is no evidence for that.
It is not clear how damaging this may be, since very large numbers
of people in the US and Britain already believe they were misled
by their governments.
But the impression of a culture of spin and hype, as Hans Blix put it,
means there is less public support for both Mr Bush and Mr Blair
when things go wrong in Iraq.
It is also harder to convince other countries to come in and help
them with troops and large sums of money.
The justification for the war is looking increasingly shaky.
Ultimately, though, the course of events on the ground in Iraq is
likely to be the deciding factor in the political future of both leaders.
Story from BBC NEWS :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3120046.stm
Published: 2003/09/18 13:56:45 GMT © BBC MMIII
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