Word: unscom
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Anyone who wanted to predict the timing of the air strikes merely had to consult Richard Butler's calendar. The head of the U.N.'s Iraq inspection team, known as UNSCOM, had been telling diplomats for weeks that he intended to give the Security Council a crucial report on Iraqi compliance by Dec. 15. Delivered right on schedule, it showed that the Iraqis had been up to their usual tricks: concealing equipment that could be used to make bioweapons, blocking interviews with workers at suspicious sites, lying about sealed documents detailing the military's past uses of chemical agents...
...President needed no prodding for war. A month earlier, Clinton had ordered a meticulously planned assault and called it off only at the last minute, when Saddam promised full cooperation with UNSCOM. At the time, Clinton declared that war would come without warning if Saddam misbehaved again. Months of Iraqi duplicity had convinced the White House that UNSCOM wouldn't get compliance. So when he got advance word on the contents of Butler's report on Sunday, Dec. 13, the President, in Jerusalem at the beginning of his Middle East trip, had no good choice but to act. He gave...
...grumblings about the campaign's awkward timing. "Saddam has been kicking Bill Clinton in the teeth for more than five years," said an Army officer. "And we have to attack on the eve of his impeachment? Give me a break." Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz lashed out at UNSCOM for giving Washington an advance look at its report, calling Butler "a cheap pawn in the hands...
...Iraq. China has long called for a lifting of the embargo to ensure an uninterrupted flow of imported oil. Lawmakers in Moscow too muttered darkly about unilateral removal of trade restrictions. Even if sanctions survive, there's no guarantee that Saddam will become less dangerous, just as a toothless UNSCOM didn't keep him in check...
...leaning on Kofi Annan to leave UNSCOM with its teeth, and is promising to use its council veto to keep sanctions intact. But TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell points out that after the bombings, the Security Council just isn?t what it used to be. ?Nobody got a chance to veto when the U.S. and Britain acted alone,? he says. ?For the U.S., which doesn?t even pay its dues, it?s going to be hard to insist on having its way again. Iraq may simply cease to be a Security Council issue.? Which is why Pentagon head William Cohen...