On 18 March 2003 the UN team searching for Saddam Hussein’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were forced to leave under the deadline for war set by the US and Britain. Two days later barrages of missiles and bombs, “shock and awe,” began one of the most bitterly divisive wars in recent history.
The day before the inspectors pulled out, I met some of them at their headquarters in Baghdad’s Canal Hotel. They were bitterly cynical about what had happened. “It’s what we won’t find that is so worrying the people in Washington and London,” said one of the most senior members of the team. “We needed a bit more time, that’s what they couldn’t allow.”
