Blix Tells Spanish Radio 45-Minute Claim 'Alarmist'

In statements broadcast on Spanish radio, Hans Blix said the US and UK governments "must have known" that the evidence presented by their intelligence services about places in Iraq where there might be WMD "was erroneous", because "we made it known to them". He denounced a lack of "analytical thought" regarding intelligence reports, and said the 45-minute claim in the British dossier is a "very good illustration" of blurring the line between simplifying information for the general public and resorting to propaganda or exaggeration. The following is an excerpt from report by Spanish news agency EFE:

Madrid, 16 February: Hans Blix, the former head of the UN weapons inspectors, said today that "in no part" of his last report presented to the UN "did it say that there were" weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, although he acknowledged that the possibility "was left open".

In statements to Cadena Ser [radio station] reported by EFE, Blix gave this answer on being asked about the fact that the Spanish government is referring to the UN inspectors' reports to justify the military intervention in Iraq. [passage omitted]

He said that "in no way had the inspections reached a dead end in March," when the military intervention was decided upon, for which reason "they should have carried on", although he admitted that he did not make this "explicit" request to the [UN] Security Council, "because I felt that I could only do so if I was certain that I could resolve the issue in the time they were asking".

"I think that at that time, the United States already had a lot of troops, it had 300,000 troops there, and it was only going to get hotter in the spring, so they were not interested in how well the inspections were going. Moreover, at that time we had already shown that a good part of the evidence that the United States and Great Britain had presented was not correct," he added.

Blix said that "in the nuclear sector, which was the most important, the evidence was doubtful", and reiterated that he has "criticized and questioned some of the evidence" the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, "presented in that 'big show' before the Security Council".

He said that the US and UK governments "must have known" that the evidence presented by their intelligence services about places in Iraq where there might be WMD "was erroneous", because "we made it known to them".

"I think that the United States and Great Britain were not sufficiently thorough in their thinking, they assumed that the Iraqis had something and as a result they took anything as proof in that respect. It was a very poor analytical attitude," he said.

He referred to what he called the lack of "analytical thought" on the part of politicians and governments and said "it is true" that "they have to simplify" their message for the general public, but stressed that "the line between simplification and propaganda or exaggeration is very important when dealing with matters of war and peace."

In this respect, he said "the famous statement about the 45 minutes it would take for them [the Iraqis] to launch a bomb" which appeared in the British dossier "is a very good illustration of this", and wondered if it meant "they had rockets which they could fire, or a phial of anthrax that could be launched against a tank".

"This is to erroneously lead the general public to a much more alarmist conclusion than was in reality justified," he added.

(Description of Source: Madrid EFE in Spanish — Spanish semi-official independent news agency)