they were given full access as soon as the threat of war was brought out.
Is that why we didn’t have support of the UN?
No they weren’t given full access. I was there, providing security for some of those inspections teams. They were never given full access, the Iraqi government was playing a constant shell game the entire time.
You were there in 2003?
B/c when UN inspectors went to places the US told them to in 2/03:
Example: satellite photographs purporting to show new research buildings at Iraqi nuclear sites. When the U.N. went into the new buildings they found “nothing.”
Example: Saddam’s presidential palaces, where the inspectors went with specific coordinates supplied by the U.S. on where to look for incriminating evidence. Again, they found “nothing.”
Example: Interviews with scientists about the aluminum tubes the U.S. says Iraq has imported for enriching uranium, but which the Iraqis say are for making rockets. Given the size and specification of the tubes, the U.N. calls the “Iraqi alibi air tight.”
So frustrated have the inspectors become that one source has referred to the U.S. intelligence they’ve been getting as “garbage after garbage after garbage.”
Febuary 14th, 2003
“Iraq has provided immediate access to all inspection locations” -Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency
“No convincing evidence that Iraqis have known in advance of inspectors’ plans” - Hans Blix
Iraq: ‘No blocks to inspections’ - Saturday, October 12, 2002
yeah I know, and I know that Iraq was blocking access, etc… But in 02/03 when the threat came from the US, all doors opened…which was supposed to be the point of the IWR to use the threat of force to come to a diplomatic solution if possible. However the Bush Administration decided that since they got hard, they might as well shoot a load off.