Blix Accuses Pentagon of Smear Campaign

Blix stated that during a 3-year period in which he struggled to fulfill a very important assignment, some "scoundrel" persons at the U.S. Department of Defense tried to sully him. Blix compared the slanderous remarks to mosquito’s bites, saying, "It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant."

Claiming that the U.S. administration put pressure on him and other inspectors to use more damning language in their reports, Blix said that Pentagon authorities started a smear campaign against him, spreading around gossips. Blix said that some Iraqi people also spread gossip about him, saying that he was a homosexual. Blix accused the Washington administration of considering the UN to be an "alien power." Additionally, the chief weapons inspector stated that Washington was particularly upset because UN inspectors had been unable to find much evidence for weapons of mass destruction during a time when tensions ran high in Iraq. Blix asserted that U.S. officials are angry because the weapons inspectors could not supply justification for UN support.

aa / London / UK