THE BLIX REPORT….The UN news was pretty anticlimactic. Hans Blix said this:
Earlier this week UNMOVIC missile experts met for two days with experts from a number of member states to discuss these items. The experts concluded unanimously that based on the data provided by Iraq, the two declared variants of the Al-Samoud 2 missile were capable of exceeding 150 kilometers in range. This missile system is therefore proscribed for Iraq, pursuant to Resolution 687 and the monitoring plan adopted by Resolution 715.
And then Colin Powell, who’s been so hawkish recently, replied this way:
Mr. Powell stopped short of definitively declaring Iraq in breach of United Nations disarmament mandates, and he did not comment on a much-discussed Iraqi missile program that could have been fodder for an argument that Baghdad is in breach.
Isn’t that odd? Since Blix’s team definitively concluded that the missiles are proscribed, you’d think that Powell would at least ask the Security Council to call on Iraq to destroy them. I wonder why he didn’t?
Wheels within wheels….
