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Sunday, January 19, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:27 AM:
U.N. to Iraq: Time's Running OutTop U.N. officials warn Saddam of fast-approaching Jan. 27 deadline for weapons inspectors; U.S. general says Iraq still has time to come clean
Among the details:
One inspection was scrubbed after Iraqi officials insisted on following a U.N. team by helicopter into the northern "no-fly" zone from which Iraqi aircraft are banned, the United Nations said.Why weren't the Iraqis simply informed that they were not allowed to follow and would face consequences for doing so? The UN is doing its best to take a tough enough line that it will be at least a little difficult for the Bush administration to tut-tut them as too spineless to stand for their own resolutions, but when Iraq gets a partial pass on one resolution being enforced by threatening to break another the UN is falling short. Incidentally, here's the UN's take on that little game:
The U.N. team said a group of missile inspectors gathered at an air base Saturday to fly to a site in northern Iraq. The team canceled the mission "for safety reasons due to the insistence by the Iraqi side to fly their helicopter into the no-fly zone following (U.N.) helicopters," a statement said.Given the way the UN handles things, I'd want anonymity too if discussing the ways in which the UN can be made to play the fool and beg for more insults. Here's one guy from the UN who's not so cowed, however:
U.S. and British jets patrol no-fly zones in the north and south of the country to protect Iraqi Kurds and Shiite Muslims. A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the Iraqi attempt as "indirect interference" in the inspections.
ElBaradei said the documents appeared to be related to the use of lasers to enrich uranium, possibly for nuclear weapons. ElBaradei said that if the Iraqis had not disclosed information contained in the documents, "it obviously doesn't show the transparency we've been preaching."At least in the story, however, El Baradei (seemingly Blix's right hand man) doesn't connect the dots to the implications of that.
It looks more and more like Iraq is not merely being disingenuous; it's making idiots out of those who try to defend them. How long will it take for Schroeder and Chirac to lose patience? We'll see, though the latter case does involve a country that has shown a remarkable penchant for coming up on the losing side of conflicts ever since they sent Napoleon to Elba.
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