Hans Blix and the Inspectors
Today’s Report is provided by Dr. Stephen Bryen of JINSA’s Advisory Board, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and founder of the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA).
Today’s Report is provided by Dr. Stephen Bryen of JINSA’s Advisory Board, former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and founder of the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA).
As International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General for 17 years (until 1997), Hans Blix played a major role in allowing Iraq and Iran to develop their nuclear programs. He pronounced Iraq’s nuclear reactors “safeguarded,” meaning there was no threat that equipment could be diverted to nuclear bomb making. He thus made it possible for Western countries to export nuclear-related goods and technology to Saddam with IAEA approval. Dr. Blix should be in a dock answering about his complicity in the development of Iraq’s arsenal, not conducting negotiations with Saddam for the return of UN inspectors.
In 1995, Hussein Kamel defected to Jordan from Iraq with a tremendous amount of information about Iraqi WMD – indicating that UNSCOM had failed on all fronts to get major parts of Iraq’s programs. Much of the information about Europe’s URENCO and the transfer of sensitive information about centrifuges had been hidden from inspectors. When UNSCOM under Rolf Ekeus got the information, it moved rapidly on the sites Kamel indicated, leading to the confrontation that ultimately ended with the elimination of UNSCOM and its replacement by the much weaker UNMOVIC. Ekeus was not moved over to UNMOVIC; instead Saddam’s favorite inspector – Hans Blix – got the job, with the clear idea of winding up the inspections and normalizing the world’s relations with Saddam. One of the byproducts was the UN “Oil-for-Food” program, which shows clear signs of being the “cash cow” for Saddam’s purchases of uranium and equipment for his nuclear and other WMD programs.
Part of the reason the Europeans want Iraq inspected by the compliant Dr. Blix rather than, let’s say, the 82nd Airborne, is that they don’t really want anything to be found. Ditto the Russians. In fact there is a large supply network fueling Iraq and many firms in Europe, in Russia and in Asia that are helping Saddam with his WMD programs. Our anti-American European friends don’t want the world to find out they are big hypocrites: that their “peace-now” political rhetoric is really cover propaganda to let them supply nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities to one of the world’s most dangerous tyrants.
Why the U.S. is allowing UNOMOVIC to conduct negotiations with Iraq before a new UN Resolution is in place is astonishing. Our government should have said we have no confidence in either UNMOVIC or Dr. Blix. (The fact that we agreed to both in 1999 does not mean that we could not change our minds now.) The current approach to the UN looks more like a sub-plot to undermine the President than a carefully thought out policy-based approach designed to reach specified goals supporting the President’s objective of removing Saddam Hussein from power and eliminating the WMD threat.