On their second day of arms inspections in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspection teams deployed Thursday to an old animal vaccine factory that U.N. inspectors shut down in the mid-1990s for producing biological weapons. The al-Daura hoof-and-mouth vaccine plant is located about eight kilometers (five miles) southwest of Baghdad. Inspectors spent about four hours at the plant, where they spoke with the facilities director. Reporters, who were given a look at the site in August by Iraqi officials, were allowed into the facility when the inspectors finished their work. The equipment at the vaccine lab was destroyed in 1996 by U.N. weapons inspectors who said Iraq was using it to produce banned nerve agents.
Although the first day of the resumed U.N. inspections in Iraq went smoothly Wednesday, chief inspector Hans Blix warned that "there is a very strong power behind us" if Iraq obstructs future efforts.
The first day's not the one where we'd expect obstruction. I give 'em a month before they start quibbling, two months before they start arguing. Once they find where Blix's limits are, they'll keep the irritations pegged at that point until somebody screws up and pulls a rod. The Iraqis are hoping that'll come when it's too late to comfortably mount an offensive, and the buildup will have to be withdrawn because it simply costs too much for the U.S. to maintain. They can be slapping the inspectors around this time next year, and if the buildup's withdrawn they know nothing will happen except for maybe a Tomahawk or two... |