US, Britain allowed ‘spin’, says Blix
Dr Blix claimed that the two countries allowed "spin" to infect their presentation of intelligence about Iraq's military capabilities ahead of the war.
Dr Blix, interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, was asked if the US and Britain had talked up the case for war.
He said: "They over-interpreted. They were convinced that Saddam was going in this direction (of developing weapons of mass destruction) and I think it is understandable against the background of the man that they did so.
"But in the middle ages when people were convinced there were witches, when they looked for them, they certainly found them. We were more judicious, we wanted to have the evidence."
Asked whether spin had become involved he said: "I think it was. The British paper, the document in September last year, with the famous words about 45 minutes, when you read the text exactly, I get the impression it wants to convey to lead the reader to conclusions that are a little further-reaching than the text really means."
Dr Blix said it was ironic that the US and Britain had not been prepared to give the UN inspection teams the time they needed to complete their work, but those same governments were now insisting that their own inspectors be given sufficient time to complete their own investigations, which had yet to uncover any weapons of mass destruction.
"So the patience they are requiring for themselves now is not anything they wanted to give to us."
Dr Blix said: "I cannot help but feel that the exaggeration, the spin, the hyping, is something that damages the credibility of governments.
"We will hope that governments may be more cautious in the use of, especially, intelligence."
Dr Blix was asked if he was surprised that no evidence of weapons of mass destruction had been found.
He replied: "No, not really, we did not find anything when our UN inspectors were there, except some minor things.
"We have had a number of months, the US and Britain have been there, they have had all the possibilities in the world to interview people who are not intimidated and to go anywhere. They have not found anything."
He described claims of a contract between Iraq and Niger for the supply of yellow cake, which turned out to have been based on forged documents, as "a scandal".
He added it now appeared even the US Department of Energy had doubted information about aluminium tubes, another possible component for a nuclear weapons programme.
Mobile laboratories cited as possible WMD production facilities appeared to have been for the production of hydrogen, and drone aircraft appeared to have been for surveillance purposes rather than the distribution of biological or chemical weapons.
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