That's enough on this topic for today

Cheers
MichaelP
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Butler's UNSCOM Report A "Set Up" - Scott Ritter
Friday, 18 December 1998, 3:51 pm
Staff Reporter: Alastair Thompson

The New York Post is reporting that a report by the top United Nations
weapons inspector used as a trigger for US and British military strikes on
Iraq was a political "set up" by Washington.

Scott Ritter, who resigned from the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in
August, told the New York Post that "what [UNSCOM chairman Richard] Butler
did last week with the inspections was a setup."

Mr Ritter, a former US Marine, left UNSCOM complaining that the United
Nations and the US administration was soft on Iraq.

He is reported in the Post saying that Mr Butler was told by US officials
as he completed the report, "to sharpen the language in his report to
justify the bombing."

Mr Butler's report, sent to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, concluded
that not only had Iraq failed to live up to a November 14 promise to
cooperate fully and unconditionally with the UN inspectors, but had placed
new obstacles in their way.

The paper reports that US government sources told Mr Ritter that when the
inspections resumed last month after a three-month break, "the two
considerations on the horizon were Ramadan and impeachment."

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