WAR ON IRAK

ZMAG/Media Lens: Blair's Betrayal: Part 2 by David Edwards
The Newsnight Debate: Dismantling The Case For War


In Part 1 we showed how Tony Blair profoundly misled the British public on the 'threat' posed by Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during a recent BBC2 Newsnight interview and debate.

Blair claimed that Unscom inspectors (1991-98) were thrown out of Iraq - they were withdrawn.

Blair claimed that inspectors left in December 1998 because they couldn't do their work - Unscom achieved 90-95% success in eliminating WMD, leaving Iraq "fundamentally disarmed" by December 1998. Iraq's reward for cooperating was Operation Desert Fox - three days of air bombardment using intelligence gained during inspections - and continued sanctions.

Blair claimed that inspections failed because inspectors could not do their work - inspections were deliberately undermined by US machinations seeking conflict. (For the reasons see our Media Alert: 'Iraq and Arms Inspectors - The Big Lie, Part 1', October 28, 2002,) ..........