IRAQ: The former UN chief weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix, has attacked what he called the "spin and hype" behind US and British allegations of banned Iraqi weapons used to justify war against Saddam Hussein.
Dr Blix, who said this week he believed Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, told BBC radio yesterday that the US and Britain "over-interpreted" intelligence about Baghdad's weapons programmes.
In response, the British government said it stood by the case it had made to the public for going to war. Dr Blix compared London and Washington to medieval witch-hunters, saying they convinced themselves on the basis of evidence which was later discredited, including forged documents about alleged attempts to buy uranium for nuclear weapons.
"In the Middle Ages when people were convinced there were witches they certainly found them. This is a bit risky," said Dr Blix, whose inspectors left Iraq on the eve of war.
Dr Blix said a pre-war British dossier on Iraqi weapons "leads the reader to conclusions that are a little further-reaching" than was the case. "What in a way stands accused is the culture of spin, the culture of hyping . . . Advertisers will advertise a refrigerator in terms that we don't quite believe in, but we expect governments to be more serious and have more credibility," he said.
"I cannot help but feel that the exaggeration, the spin, the hyping, is something that damages the credibility of governments . . . we will hope that governments may be more cautious in the use of, especially, intelligence," he said.
Five months after President Saddam's overthrow, no banned weapons have been found. President Bush and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, have said the search will take time and that evidence will eventually be uncovered.
"The patience that they require for themselves now was not anything that they wanted to give to us," said Dr Blix, whose inspectors were forced to pull out of Iraq in March after just 3½ months' work.
He said the few "minor things" which his teams had uncovered in Iraq were more likely to have been "debris from the past" than "tips of the iceberg" of an existing weapons programme.