Please Help : What were the circumstances under which the arms inspectors

left Iraq?

Saddam didn't throw them out did he? The lead U.N. inspector, an American named , ______________ _________________ , picked quarrels and increased tensions right? Until he had an excuse to pull the inspections out . . . . ? Is this how it happened?

I've got someone on another board who's got it wrong, I believe.

This would have been the last time they left before we actually invaded in 3/03, so maybe around late summer '02?

You can look it up in your Funk & Wagnalls.

he even considered exile

http://www.geocities.com/iraqinfo/index.html?page=/iraqinfo/sanctions/sarticles3/imaginary.html

"Time heals wounds, and can blur inconvenient facts. A plethora of anniversary reports in the U.S. media "reminded" the public that it had been one year since Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled U.N. weapons inspectors, leading to the December 1998 "Desert Fox" bombing campaign against Iraq.

But Saddam Hussein's oft-invoked expulsion of the arms inspectors never took place. It was Richard Butler, head of the U.N. weapons inspection program known as UNSCOM, who voluntarily withdrew the inspectors from Iraq, giving President Bill Clinton a rationale for launching military strikes on Iraq."

<snip>

"In fact, Butler's report admitted that "the majority of the inspections of facilities and sites under the continuing monitoring system were carried out with Iraq's cooperation," but still concluded that the "commission is not able to conduct the substantive disarmament work mandated to it." With this confused explanation, Butler ordered all his weapons inspectors out of Iraq on December 15, and the next day the United States began airstrikes."

on edit: This looks like what you want:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&art_id=qw1047900420406B262&click_id=2813&set_id=1

"United Nations - The United States has advised the United Nations to pull its weapons inspectors out of Iraq, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday in the clearest signal to date that war is imminent.

The advice, late on Sunday, followed an ultimatum from President George Bush that the world body had just one more day to give its blessing to a resolution sanctioning the use of force to rid Iraq of suspected weapons of mass destruction."


BBC, 17 March 2002:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/17/iraq/main544280.shtml

"(AP) U.N. weapons inspectors climbed aboard a plane and pulled out of Iraq on Tuesday after President Bush issued a final ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to step down or face war.

A plane carrying the inspectors took off from Saddam International Airport at 10:25 a.m. It landed an hour and a half later in Laranca, Cyprus where the inspectors have a base. "

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/17/iraq/main544280.shtml

Weapons Inspectors Leave Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 18, 2003



U.N. Inspectors Vacate Iraq


A portrait of Saddam Hussein stands vigil over the road, as U.N. weapons inspectors head out of Iraq on orders of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. (Photo: AP)



U.N. weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad for the first time in four years on Nov. 27, 2002. During four months of inspections, arms experts traveled the length of the country hunting for banned weapons of mass destruction.



(AP) U.N. weapons inspectors climbed aboard a plane and pulled out of Iraq on Tuesday after President Bush issued a final ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to step down or face war.

A plane carrying the inspectors took off from Saddam International Airport at 10:25 a.m. It landed an hour and a half later in Laranca, Cyprus where the inspectors have a base.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday ordered all U.N. inspectors and support staff, humanitarian workers and U.N. observers along the Iraq-Kuwait border to evacuate Iraq after U.S. threats to launch war.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-17-inspectors-iraq_x.htm

U.S advises weapons inspectors to leave Iraq

VIENNA, Austria (APOnline) — In the clearest sign yet that war with Iraq is imminent, the United States has advised U.N. weapons inspectors to begin pulling out of Baghdad, the U.N. nuclear agency chief said Monday.


By Suhaib Salem, Reuters

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the recommendation was given late Sunday night both to his Vienna-based agency hunting for atomic weaponry and to the New York-based teams looking for biological and chemical weapons.

"Late last night ... I was advised by the U.S. government to pull out our inspectors from Baghdad," ElBaradei told the IAEA's board of governors. He said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council were informed and that the council would take up the issue later Monday.

U.N. officials have said the inspectors and support staff still in Iraq could be evacuated in as little as 48 hours.