STOCKHOLM, 2 November 2003 — Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, a central player in the hotly debated build-up to the Iraq war, revealed in an interview yesterday he was working on a book about his experiences.
“I am trying to write a book. I’m trying to be in peace to do it. It is hard. I will need to work 24 hours a day to have time,” the 75-year-old Swede told the daily Expressen.
Blix said the book would focus on Iraq “with the central point the first three months of this year”, when Blix’s team carried out inspections which failed to unearth any evidence of Saddam Hussein’s alleged arsenal of banned arms.
“I have lots of elements on that and many things to say,” added Blix, who now heads an independent commission in Sweden on weapons of mass destruction.
Blix retired earlier this year after three years as head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which carried out 15 weeks of inspections in Iraq in the run-up to the US-led invasion.
Since the end of the war, Blix has launched a series of attacks on US policy leading up the war, which he now says was not justified.
Blix has accused the United States and its chief ally Britain of overinterpreting intelligence information and also alleged that Washington jumped to conclusions over its claim that the Saddam regime had built up an arsenal of banned weapons.
Washington and London used the claim that Iraq possessed banned weapons as the main justification for launching the war on March 20, an argument that has been ferociously disputed ever since.
The ex-weapons inspector said that despite his age he has no intention of thinking of retirement, noting that he only took one day sick during his three years at the United Nations.
“I am having fun. Why should I stop? It’s fascinating,” said Blix.
