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Blair "over-interpreted` Iraq`s arms threat, says Blix

IRNA

London, Sept. 18, IRNA -- Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix 
Thursday accused the British government of "over-interpreting" 
information about Iraq`s alleged weapons of mass destruction. 
He criticised both the US and the UK of allowing the "culture of 
spin, of hyping" to infect their presentation of intelligence about 
Saddam Hussein`s threat ahead of the Iraq war. 
His accusation adds weight to reports, led by the BBC, that Prime 
Minister Tony Blair`s government exaggerated the case for war in its 
controversial dossier on Iraq`s weapons of mass destruction, 
published last September. 
It comes amid the inquiry into the death of former Iraq arms 
inspector, David Kelley, that followed his exposure as the suspected 
source of the BBC`s claim. 
Speaking on BBC radio Thursday, Blix referred to the controversial 
claim in the British government dossier that Iraq could use weapons 
of mass destruction within 45 minutes and said that it leads the 
reader "to conclusions that are a little further reaching than the 
text needs to mean." 
He compared the way Britain and America wanted evidence about 
Iraq`s arms to the way people in the Middle Ages found witches when 
they were convinced they existed. 
When asked directly whether the UK and US talked up the reasons 
for going to war against Iraq, the former chief weapons inspector 
said "they over-interpreted" the case. 
On Wednesday, Blix told an Australian radio station that Iraq had 
probably destroyed all of its weapons of mass destruction more than a 
decade ago. 
HC/212 
End