Blix left out data from U.N. testimony
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://washingtontimes.com/national/default-20033111737.htm
The White House yesterday questioned why chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix omitted from his public testimony that Iraq is developing combat drones and cluster bombs capable of unleashing chemical and biological agents.
Those details were contained in Mr. Blix's new written report to the U.N. Security Council that was released yesterday. The report also says Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein continues to deceive inspectors about the fate of chemical and biological weapons, including deadly anthrax.
The head of an anti-Saddam group said Mr. Blix's only motive for leaving out the data in his public testimony Friday was to defeat a pending U.S. resolution to authorize an invasion of Iraq.
"It is hard to believe that Blix's Friday statement was based on this devastating written report," said Randy Scheunemann, president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a Washington-based group of current and former U.S. government officials.
"He managed not to mention a new missile type, and a drone, which are clear smoking guns, and he ignored pages of evidence with dozens of examples of Iraqi noncompliance in every facet of their [weapons of mass destruction] programs."
He added: "Blix's only agenda can be enabling Saddam's defense lawyers in Paris to thwart the U.S. in the Security Council." At the White House, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, "There are outstanding questions, and all members of the Security Council, I think it's safe to say, look forward to hearing the answers."
Asked whether the Bush administration believed that Mr. Blix had deliberately left important items out of his testimony, Mr. Fleischer said, "That's why there are questions, and I'm sure those questions will get answered."
"The single most devastating discovery that the inspectors have come across was omitted from Blix's verbal discussion at the U.N.," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Buster Glosson, who designed the Operation Desert Storm air war during the 1991 Persian Gulf campaign and has written a book, "War with Iraq: Critical Lessons."
"They hid it in the back pages of their report, that being the drones and bombs that have the capacity of dispensing biological and chemical weapons."
On the drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, the written report said, "Recent inspections have also revealed the existence of a drone with a wingspan of 7.45 [meters] that has not been declared by Iraq."
