Saddam Hussein welcomes Scott Ritter, the alleged CIA-spy and former UN weapons inspector, to film a documentary of the weapons sites in Iraq. Although Russia occupies a pro-Iraqi attitude in the UN Security Council, the Russian President puts his foot down to encourage Iraq to cooperate with the UN weapons inspections. In 1991, the UN Security Council agreed to lift sanctions if the UN certified Iraqi disarmament. 10 years later, Iraq is rejecting UN weapons inspectors, and the UN Security Council will not press the disarmament issue until after the US presidential election in November. Scotland Yard investigates the possibility of trying Saddam Hussein and Tarik Aziz for war crimes.
Western sources are skeptical, thinking it is a strategy to weaken sanctions.
To compensate for the erosion of sanctions on Iraq and their decreasing popularity, Bill Clinton has decided to pump more money into the ineffectual Iraqi opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress. Robert Fisk of the Independent looks at Saddam s character, his actions, and the West s mistakes in dealing with him. It s not a pretty picture. A satirical little piece by Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post , who first interviewed Saddam in 1975, touching on the Western silence on Iraqi regime. Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, argues that Saddam Hussein rejected the hand held out by the UN Security Council, and purposely worsened the suffering of Iraqi citizens under sanctions.