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Blix attacks U.K. Govt. over Iraq dossier

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON SEPT. 18. In a blistering attack on the way the British Government handled intelligence on Iraq, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has likened its approach to that of advertisers who "will advertise a refrigerator in terms they do not quite believe in.'' "You expect governments to be more serious and have more credibility,'' he told the BBC's Today programme on Radio 4 on Thursday sharply criticising the controversial British dossier with its claim that Iraq could deploy its weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

"The U.K. paper that came out in September last year with the famous words about the 45 minutes ...when you read the text carefully I get the impression it wants to convey to the reader and lead the reader to conclusions that are a little further-reaching than the text needs to mean,'' he said adding that the hype had damaged the government's credibility.

Mr. Blix, who has consistently maintained that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, said Britain and the U.S. behaved like the people in the "Middle Ages'' who, contrary to all evidence, were convinced that there were `witches'. "They (Britain and America) were convinced that Saddam Hussein was going in this direction and I think it is understandable against the background of the man. But in the Middle Ages people were convinced there were witches. They looked for them and they certainly found them. This is a bit risky. I think we (weapons inspectors) were more judicious saying we want to have evidence,'' he said.

Mr. Blix's remarks came after he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a widely reported interview that he did not think any weapons would be ever found in Iraq.

He said he believed Saddam Hussein destroyed them in 1991 but kept up the appearances out of sheer bravado. "I mean you can put up a sign on your door, Beware of the Dog, without having a dog,'' he said.

He added: "I'm certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed all-almost-of what they had in the summer of 1991. The more time that has passed, the more I think it's unlikely that anything will be found.''

His intervention would further embarrass the Blair Government already under pressure over allegations of "sexing up'' the Iraq dossier.

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