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February 27, 2004
Posted 8:55 PM
by Mary
Claims Of Spying At U.N. Mount: "Claims Of Spying At U.N. Mount
Friday, February 27, 2004
Australian diplomat Richard Butler said today his phones were routinely bugged during his tenure as chief U.N. weapons inspector in the 1990s, following yesterday's allegations by a former British government minister that the United Kingdom spied on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Butler said he was forced to meet contacts in New York's Central Park because the telephones in his office at U.N. headquarters were insecure.
'I was utterly confident that in my attempts to have private diplomatic conversations trying to solve the problem of the disarmament of Iraq [in the 1990s] that I was being listened to by the Americans, the British, the French and the Russians,' he said."
February 26, 2004
Posted 8:32 AM
by Mary
News: "UK spies bugged UN chief, claims Short
By John Deane, Chief Political Correspondent, PA News
26 February 2004
British agents spied on the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraqi war, the former International Development Secretary Clare Short claimed today.
Ms Short - who quit the Cabinet in protest against the war - made the claim while being interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the implications of the collapse of the case against GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun.
Asked whether British agencies had been involved in spying activities against Mr Annan, Ms Short said: 'I know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's conversations.
'Indeed, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war thinking 'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will see what he and I are saying'.'
Ms Short was asked whether she believed that British spies had been instructed to carry out operations within the United Nations on people such as Kofi Annan.
She replied: 'Yes, absolutely.'"
February 25, 2004
Posted 10:42 PM
by Mary
t r u t h o u t - Hans Blix Says Iraq War Was Unfounded: "Hans Blix Says Iraq War Was Unfounded By The Associated Press
Tuesday 24 February 2004
EDINBURGH, Scotland - Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix argued Tuesday Saddam Hussein had not been an immediate threat, making the justification for the war against Iraq unfounded.
The U.S.-led invasion nearly a year ago damaged the authority of the United Nations Security Council and the credibility of the nations that went to war, Blix told an audience of 1,000 at the University of Edinburgh.
'The justification for the war - the existence of weapons of mass destruction - was without foundation,' Blix said. 'The military operation was successful, but the diagnosis was wrong.
'Saddam was dangerous to his own people but not a great, and certainly not an immediate, danger to his neighbors and the world,' he added. "
February 21, 2004
Posted 9:15 PM
by Mary
t r u t h o u t - U.S., U.K. Spies Wrecked U.N. Peace Move: "British Spy Op Wrecked Peace Move
By Martin Bright, Peter Beaumont and Jo Tuckman
The Observer UK
Sunday 15 February 2004
A joint British and American spying operation at the United Nations scuppered a last-ditch initiative to avert the invasion of Iraq, The Observer can reveal.
Senior UN diplomats from Mexico and Chile provided new evidence last week that their missions were spied on, in direct contravention of international law.
The former Mexican ambassador to the UN, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, told The Observer that US officials intervened last March, just days before the war against Saddam was launched, to halt secret negotiations for a compromise resolution to give weapons inspectors more time to complete their work. "
February 20, 2004
Posted 10:04 PM
by Mary
UN Wire: An Independent News Briefing About the UN: "Mexico Alleges U.S., U.K. Spying At U.N.
Friday, February 13, 2004
Mexico has asked the United States and the United Kingdom to explain recent accusations that they spied on U.N. delegations last year, when the Security Council was debating a resolution authorizing war against Iraq, the Chicago Tribune reports today (Hugh Dellios, Feb. 13).
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Mexico's former U.N. ambassador, said yesterday it was common knowledge that the United States had obtained sensitive information through covert means. His comments came a day after Mexico acknowledged it sent a letter in December to the two countries asking them to address the claims.
Aguilar Zinser was recalled from his U.N. position in November after remarks that the United States treated its southern neighbor like its 'backyard.' He was at the United Nations when the spying was alleged to have taken place, however.
'It was very obvious to the countries involved in the discussion on Iraq that we were being observed and that our communications were probably being tapped,' he told Associated Press. 'The information was being gathered to benefit the United States.'"
February 1, 2004
Posted 10:46 PM
by Mary
MSNBC - We Had Good Intel?The U.N.'s
By Fareed Zakaria
NewsweekFeb. 9 issue - "We were all wrong," says weapons inspector David Kay. Actually, no. There was one group whose prewar estimates of Iraqi nuclear, chemical and biological capabilities have turned out to be devastatingly close to reality—the U.N. inspectors. Consider what Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, told the Security Council on March 7, 2003, after his team had done 247 inspections at 147 sites: "no evidence of resumed nuclear activities ... nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any related sites.
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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