Blix speaks

In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix admits that the Bush administration leaned on him to provide more damning language on Iraq's weapons programs to sway US critics on the UN security council. He also described the Pentagon's smear campaign against him: "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much... It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning, an irritant."