Blix: I was smeared by the Pentagon
“Hans Blix, the UN chief weapons inspector, lashed out last night at the “bastards” who have tried to undermine him throughout the three years he has held his high-profile post.
In an extraordinary departure from the diplomatic language with which he has come to be associated, Mr Blix assailed his critics in both Washington and Iraq.
Speaking exclusively to the Guardian from his 31st floor office at the UN in New York, Mr Blix said: “I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much.
“It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant.”
In a wide-ranging interview Mr Blix, who retires in three weeks’ time, accused:
·The Bush administration of leaning on his inspectors to produce more damning language in their reports;
·”Some elements” of the Pentagon of being behind a smear campaign against him; and
·Washington of regarding the UN as an “alien power” which they hoped would sink into the East river.”