1/15/2003

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix wrote, in January 2003: “On a visit to a large ammunition store that had been declared by Iraq and had been inspected several times before, our inspectors found a crate of warheads designed for chemical weapons. There were no chemical agents in them, but they should have been declared. The big question was, were they the tip of the iceberg, or debris from the vast chemical weapons program of the past? The Iraqis almost immediately appointed a commission of officials to look for any further weapons that might have been ‘overlooked.’ More were found, both by them and by us. Did the new commission signify a genuine effort or was it merely a show? We did not know.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq, Pages Pages 117-118