Hit and Run Diplomacy: Galloway Blows the Whistle

Galloway Blows the Whistle Time was when any US politician could achieve his 15 minutes of fame by directing a few random barbs in the direction of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the UN. The Egyptian diplomat was an early victim of the US belief that the UN needs to be recast in its own image. But his replacement as UN secretary general by the more amenable Kofi Annan has not ensured a durable truce. Early in 2003, when UN weapons inspectors were proceeding fitfully but inexorably towards the conclusion that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in its possession, the chief of the disarmament mission, Hans Blix, came in for special attention from the US. Background checks were conducted on his tenure as head of the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and dark rumours floated that he had suppressed evidence of an unmanned aircraft the Iraqi regime could use to spread death over a wide expanse.