April 24, 2004

Former U.N. weapons inspector Blix compares WMD search to witch-hunts

By CRAIG KAPITAN
Eagle Staff Writer

In some ways, the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq were similar to “the witch-hunts of past centuries,” former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told a crowd at Texas A&M University on Friday night.

For those who believe in witches or weapons of mass destruction, he said, “the evidence does not have to be all that strong. You will take it.”

“ It seems to me that the U.S. and U.K. leadership were so convinced that there were weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq] that they couldn’t imagine they weren’t there,” Blix surmised.

In addition to his own book, Blix repeatedly referred Friday to passages from Bob Woodward’s new book, which he described as “probably selling better than I do.” That book, “Plan of Attack,” states that the Bush administration decided to go to war long before the inspections were concluded.

http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/042404hansblix.htm