Right DougR. And as usual, we are still waiting for you to cite *your* "facts" in support of your claims. All you ever do in these threads is come in, make spurious and dubious claims that you never back up with any information. You then ALWAYS project "bias" onto everyone else's information.

Those sorts of tired old Republican tactics are obvious to some of us. But your down home, folksy style of "getting along" with the Mudcat regulars keeps too many in this forum from challenging both your claims, your source of information, as well as your motives.

Now, as to the history of weapons inspections, here is a relevant clip from FAIR's website, on an article from Aug 1, 2002:

Quote of article starts here:

Three and a half years ago, some key information about U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq briefly surfaced on the front pages of American newspapers -- and promptly vanished. Now, with righteous war drums beating loudly in Washington, let's reach deep down into the news media's Orwellian memory hole and retrieve the story.

"U.S. Spied on Iraq Under U.N. Cover, Officials Now Say," a front-page New York Times headline announced on Jan. 7, 1999. The article was unequivocal: "United States officials said today that American spies had worked undercover on teams of United Nations arms inspectors ferreting out secret Iraqi weapons programs.... By being part of the team, the Americans gained a first-hand knowledge of the investigation and a protected presence inside Baghdad."

A day later, a followup Times story pointed out: "Reports that the United States used the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq as cover for spying on Saddam Hussein are dimming any chances that the inspection system will survive."

With its credibility badly damaged by the spying, the U.N. inspection system did not survive. Another factor in its demise was the U.S. government's declaration that sanctions against Iraq would remain in place whether or not Baghdad fully complied with the inspection regimen.

But such facts don't assist the conditioned media reflex of blaming everything on Saddam Hussein. No matter how hard you search major American media databases of the last couple of years for mention of the spy caper, you'll come up nearly empty. George Orwell would have understood.

End quote

Here is the link to the article in full:

http://www.fair.org/media-beat/020802.html