Inspectors Find Iraq’s ‘Smoking Gun,’ but Chirac Vows Veto to Protect Saddam

Inspectors Find Iraq’s ‘Smoking Gun,’ but Chirac Vows Veto to Protect Saddam

Chuck Noe, NewsMax.com
Monday, March 10, 2003

U.N. arms inspectors have found a new, illicit type of cluster bomb in Iraq that could be filled with chemical or biological weapons and wreck havoc over populated areas. Despite this development, French President Jacques Chirac vowed today to protect his business ally Saddam Hussein with a U.N. veto despite all evidence.

"It's incredible. The report is going to have a clearly defined impact on the people who are wavering,” a senior diplomat from a swing-vote Security Council nation told the London Times. “It's a biggie."

"It's a matter of no small concern because of how dangerous these weapons can be and the fact that they can carry chemical and biological” agents, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said today.

“Armed with this new information, U.S. officials are expected to press chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to admit he has found a ‘smoking gun’ – the irrefutable evidence many countries have been looking for before they agree to wage war against Baghdad – in a closed-door session of the U.N. Security Council on Monday,” reported Fox News Channel, which along with the New York Times today revealed Baghdad’s latest weapons violation.

However, Blix’s failure to inform the U.N. Security Council on Friday of the discovery of an Iraqi drone with a 24-foot wingspan raises questions about who is Saddam’s bigger ally: Blix or Chirac.

Weasly Chirac: Saddam Can Do Anything

"Our position is no matter what the circumstances, France will vote 'no.' Because we think tonight there is no cause for war to achieve the objective that we fixed: the disarmament of Iraq," Chirac said in a televised interview.

"When one of the five permanent members – the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France – votes no, even if there is a majority [in favor], the resolution is not adopted. That is called the right of veto," he said.

The French leader is eager to protect Saddam, and France’s multibillion-dollar deals with the genocidal Iraqi dictator, at all costs. “No matter what the circumstances” excuses all of Saddam’s ties to terrorism and his atrocious record on human rights, including the torture and murder of children.

Russia, another business and military partner of Saddam’s, also said Monday it would vote against a revised U.N. resolution giving Iraq until March 17 to show proof of disarmament or face military action.

As for Blix, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the inspector should have been more forthcoming about the evidence against Iraq.

"When you look at page after page of what the Iraqis have done over the years to hide, to deceive, to cheat, to keep information away from the inspectors, to change facts to fit the latest issue, and once they put that set of facts before you, when you find you those facts are false, they come up with a new set of facts. It's a constant pattern," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Meanwhile, in Kofi’s Fantasy Land …

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan remains under the delusion that the sovereign United States needs his permission to act, despite President Bush’s reassurances to the contrary.

A military strike against Iraq without the Security Council’s approval would be acting outside the organization's charter, and "the legitimacy and support for any such action will be seriously impaired," he said Monday.

If members of the council "can come together ... then the council's authority will be enhanced and the world will be a safer place," Annan claimed in The Hague, where the sovereignty-destroying International Criminal Court, which the U.S. is not taking part in, is being inaugurated Tuesday.

'Novel Approaches for Chemical and Biological Weapons'

The Times reported Monday: “According to the detailed report by the inspection team, which was circulated at the United Nations during the Security Council's debate on a new resolution to authorize the use of force against Iraq, Baghdad has a long history of exploring novel approaches for chemical and biological weapons. It remains unclear whether the Iraqi cluster warhead is a newly developed one, devised during the absence of inspectors over the last four years, or whether its existence was kept secret before 1998, when the inspectors left.”

Iraq has been working on new chemical warheads since 1996 at a facility known as Haidar Farm, where inspectors found documents and other evidence of banned programs, the newspaper noted.

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Editor's note:
France Hates America and Is in Bed With Saddam - Boycott Cowardly France!