[Mb-civic] Blix Says Iraq War Stimulated Terrorism

[Michael Butler]

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Group Beheads Two Iraqi Intelligence Men - Web Site    €

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    Blix Says Iraq War Stimulated Terrorism
    By Patrick McLoughlin
    Reuters

     Wednesday 13 October 2003

     Stockholm - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix says the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had failed tragically in its aim of making the
world a safer place and succeeded only in stimulating terrorism.

     Blix, in implicit criticism of the main protagonists U.S. President
George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, said on Wednesday the action
had also failed to deter any ambitions on the part of Iran or North Korea to
develop nuclear weapons.

     "The acknowledged gain of the war was that a treacherous and murderous
dictator (Saddam Hussein) was removed, but the rest has been tragedy and
failure," he told Reuters in an interview.

     "It Has Stimulated Terrorism."

    Many critics of the invasion argue it opened Iraq to Islamist militants
involved in an insurrection against coalition forces, while distracting
attention from a campaign against the al-Qaeda group blamed for September,
2001 attacks on the United States.

     "Is the world safer? No. It's not safer in Iraq," he said in his native
Stockholm. "If North Korea and Iran are contemplating going for weapons of
mass destruction, then it hasn't stopped them. It has not solved the Middle
East conflict."

     Other Issues Neglected

    Blix suggested Washington and London had lost perspective in focusing on
Saddam who, it has since emerged, was not involved in developing nuclear
arms.

     "Of course they were concerned with North Korea and Iran. But...they
focused a great deal of their efforts on Iraq while other things were left
simmering."

     Iran denies U.S. accusations it is developing nuclear arms. Experts say
North Korea has an arsenal of between two and nine nuclear bombs.

     Blix, who retired from the U.N. last year and now chairs a
Swedish-sponsored Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, also cast doubt on
the Iraqi government's comments on Tuesday that U.N. weapons inspectors were
welcome to return.

     "The Iraqi government would need to offer guarantees of safety," said
the 75-year-old former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who
led the U.N. inspections team until 2003. "But to go to sites which
satellites have already found to be empty is perhaps not meaningful."

     Iraqi Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar issued the invitation
after an IAEA report on Monday said neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared
to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once
closely monitored by IAEA.

   

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    Group Beheads Two Iraqi Intelligence Men - Web Site
    By Reuters

     Wednesday 13 October 2004

     Dubai - An Iraqi group led by suspected al Qaeda ally Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi has beheaded two Iraqi intelligence officers and posted a video
of the killings on the Internet on Wednesday.

     The video from the Tahwid and Jihad Group showed a closeup of the two
men's identification cards which said they were Iraqi intelligence officers.
Militants later cut off the two men's heads.

     The two men said in the video they were captured on Sept. 28 in
Baghdad's Haifa street, a militant stronghold, while trying to remove the
body of a slain female colleague, Nadia Abdulwahhab Matlak.

     They admitted to working for Iraqi intelligence and warned other Iraqis
to abandon working for the security forces.

     "I advise my brothers, the sons of Iraq, who are working for the
government agencies, in intelligence, the armed forces and the police to
repent,'' one of the men said.

     Last month, Tawhid and Jihad said it had killed Matlak and abducted
three of her colleagues during clashes with members of the Iraqi National
Guard in Haifa Street.

     Washington says Zarqawi is its number one enemy in Iraq and his group
has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest suicide bombings and
attacks against U.S. forces and Iraqi government officials.

     The group has also killed several foreigners it kidnapped. The latest
hostage to be beheaded was Briton Kenneth Bigley who was abducted in Baghdad
along with two American colleagues, who were also beheaded.

  

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