An interview of Hans Blix, conducted yesterday by the BBC, is revealing on many levels. First, take note of this exchange:

Lyse Doucet of the BBC: What about you? You're the man who's supposed to find the evidence (but) if you don't get the intelligence to do it...
Hans Blix: I've felt in the past at some time that they were a bit like librarians who had books that they didn't want to lend to the customer. But I think that is changing.
LD: But it's not just a library we're talking about here, we're talking about a potential war which could have devastating consequences and they are not giving you full co-operation.
HB: Well, I am not saying that they are not giving us adequate co-operation at the present time - it is changing.

Who are the secretive “they” hiding information? Did you guess its the Iraqis who are “not giving … full co-operation” and inviting war? Nope…it’s the Americans who aren’t giving Hans enough intelligence to find weapons of mass destruction. This fundamental fact seems to keep slipping away: it is not up to the United States, or the United Nations, or Hans Blix to dig up intelligence. It is up to the Iraqis to demonstrate that they have no weapons…a point addressed earlier in the interview.

HB: Well, the US actually (holds) the view that it is the Iraqis who have to come up with the goods - with a smoking gun. They say - and I think rightly - that we are there to verify and Iraq is to declare, and they are to provide verifiable evidence. We're not supposed to chase around the country in search of hidden material.

Great…finally we agree on something, Hans. Now, have you found that “smoking gun”?

LD: You've made hundreds of visits - or your inspectors have. You've said to the Security Council there's no smoking gun. But have you found even a whiff of smoke - anything suspicious?
HB: We have found several cases... (where) it is clear that Iraq has imported weapons-related material in violation of the prohibitions of the Security Council. Whether these discoveries or these items are related to weapons of mass destruction is a matter that we still need to determine.
But there have been a considerable amount of imports in the weapons sector which clearly is smuggling and in violation, and we have found large quantities.

Always always always there’s the extenuating circumstances. They’ve imported “weapons-related material” but we don’t know if they’re going to us them for weapons?!? Did I fall through a rabbit-hole?

“One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- Alice & the White Queen in “Through the Looking Glass”