Who do we believe?!

Dr. Hans Blix seems to be taking on Bush and Blair as the row over Iraq’s weapons grows.

Dr Hans Blix said the secret info they gave didn’t help him find any evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing illegal weapons.
…

Dr Blix said his team went to the places which were supposed to contain weapons - but they found nothing.
…

“Only in three of those cases did we find anything at all, and in none of the cases were there any weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

This comes when British PM Tony Blair is facing hell about misleading the public over the alleged possession of WMDs by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. In particular, Blair’s pre-war contention that Saddam could launch dooms-day weapons within 45 minutes, has come uder a lot of fire. So much so that Blair is now facing a parliamentary probe over his (mis)handling of intelligence reports about the existence of Iraqi WMDs.

On the other hand US President, George W Bush, has managed to steer clear of controversies as his popularity ratings have stayed high even as Blair is finding life tough in UK. But the Democrats are slowly drawing their knives out for him.

On a ‘thank you’ visit to Qatar, Bush gave a speech to the troops stationed there.

Speaking to troops in Qatar, Bush suggested it shouldn’t be surprising that no such weapons have been found, despite the fall of Saddam’s regime and the presence of coalition forces in Iraq for more than two months.

“This is a man who spent decades hiding tools of mass murder,” Bush said. “He knew the inspectors were looking for them. You know better than me he’s got a big country in which to hide them. We’re on the look. We’ll reveal the truth.”

Also, BBC reports…

Greg Thielman, who was until September 2002 a top official in charge of non-proliferation and strategic affairs in the US state department’s intelligence bureau, has expressed doubt over the objectivity of the US evidence presented to the world.

“Evidence has been distorted and the public has really been misled on issues that helped inform the decision about war and peace,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

‘Chemical Ali’ may still be alive

U.S. MILITARY officials told NBC News that they had changed the status of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous “Chemical Ali,” suspected of ordering the 1988 gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in the northern Iraqi village of Halabja, from “believed dead but unconfirmed” to “unknown.”

Now this is interesting. The death of ‘Chemical Ali’ was touted as one of the major successes in the run up to the fall of Baghdad. Pentagon was sure that they had got their man when the military bombed his residence in early May. But CIA, it seems, had been insisting since early May that there was a 40 percent chance that man who gassed the Kurds might still be alive.

If thats the case with ‘Chemical Ali’, then I guess Saddam Hussein is sure to be alive. They were never certain about him anyways!

“There’s nothing interesting here, just a lot of rubble,” said Pfc. Walter Phillips, 30, of Chicago, as he stood near his backhoe at the edge of a 15-foot crater.

Iraqis nearby doubted whether the soldiers would find the remains of Saddam, who they suspect was hiding at another house, just yards away.

“No, no - Saddam ran away. He’s hiding,” said Munther Meki, a grocer whose shop — its front window gone and shelves empty — is next to the destroyed house.