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Blix Discusses UNMOVIC Experience As Controversy
Over Iraq's Weapons Continues
For Immediate Release: June 20, 2003
Press Contacts: Daryl
Kimball, Executive Director, (202) 463-8270 x107; Paul
Kerr, Research Analyst, (202) 463-8270 x102
(Washington, D.C.): Although the United States has
stepped up its search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD),
no such weapons have yet been found. As a result, Congress is holding
inquiries into the use of pre-war intelligence on Iraq's prohibited
weapons by the Bush administration. Investigating this intelligence,
however, is only part of the larger task of evaluating the effort
to deny Iraq nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and how
to deal with other states intent on acquiring WMD.
Hans Blix, outgoing Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification,
and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and former Director General
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), shared his perspective
on a number of Iraq disarmament issues during a June 16 interview
with Arms Control Today editor, Miles Pomper, and ACA research
analyst, Paul Kerr.
Regarding the fact that U.S. forces have not yet found prohibited
weapons in Iraq, Blix told Arms Control Today: "I would
not say I am surprised, but nor would I have been surprised if they
had found something. Our position was always that there was a great
deal that was unaccounted for, which means that it could have been
there and the Iraqis had not explained what had happened to it.
Except to say in a general way that it was all destroyed in the
summer of 1991." He added, "We warned, and I warned specifically
and explicitly, against equating 'not accounted for' with 'existing.'"
Blix answered questions on other issues, including:
- UNMOVIC's experience performing WMD searches in Iraq;
- The future role for UNMOVIC in Iraq;
- The role of international weapons inspections elsewhere; and
- Why U.S. inspectors have not found prohibited weapons and why
Iraq was not more forthcoming.
Excerpts from the Blix interview will appear in the July/August
issue of Arms Control Today, which will include two feature
articles on the role of national intelligence in combating weapons
proliferation:
Greg Thielmann, a recently retired senior State Department intelligence
official, details how a 1998 commission chaired by Donald Rumsfeld
manipulated threat assessments on foreign ballistic missile development
to justify proposals for the rapid deployment of a national missile
defense.
Gregory V. Treverton, a senior RAND analyst and former Vice-Chairman
of the National Intelligence Council, questions whether U.S. intelligence
alone can support a policy of preemption to take out nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons programs in states of concern.
The full Blix interview is available at
http://www.armscontrol.org/events/blixinterview_june03.asp.
More information resources on Iraq are available online at http://www.armscontrol.org/country/iraq/.
# # #
The Arms Control Association is an independent, nonprofit membership
organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and
support for effective arms control policies to address security
threats posed by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well
as conventional arms.
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