Julian Borger was lead author of an article in March 2002 that reported
Iraqi claims of spying:
"Iraq's vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, last night said his country
would not allow UN weapons inspectors to return.
"'Iraq's rejection of the teams of spies to return back to Iraq is firm and
won't change,' Mr Ramadan was quoted as saying by the official Iraqi News
Agency INA. 'Iraq is fully convinced that there is no need for them to
return. They had carried out vicious spying activities in Iraq for more than
eight years.'" (Julian Borger and Richard Norton-Taylor, 'Bush in new
warning to Iraq,' The Guardian, March 11, 2002)
Given Borger's own report on the Washington Post's revelations three years
earlier, his and Norton-Taylor's response to these allegations is truly
remarkable:
"UN weapons inspectors withdrew at the end of 1998 after confrontations with
the Iraqi regime over access to Saddam Hussein's palaces and other
restricted sites." (Ibid)
Not a word about the fact that "American espionage in Iraq, under cover of
United Nations weapons inspections, went far beyond the search for banned
arms", as Borger had himself reported in 1999. The silence in response to
the Iraqi vice-president's fierce and repeated allegations reads as a
contemptuous dismissal of claims deemed unworthy of comment.
Iraqi claims of spying:
"Iraq's vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, last night said his country
would not allow UN weapons inspectors to return.
"'Iraq's rejection of the teams of spies to return back to Iraq is firm and
won't change,' Mr Ramadan was quoted as saying by the official Iraqi News
Agency INA. 'Iraq is fully convinced that there is no need for them to
return. They had carried out vicious spying activities in Iraq for more than
eight years.'" (Julian Borger and Richard Norton-Taylor, 'Bush in new
warning to Iraq,' The Guardian, March 11, 2002)
Given Borger's own report on the Washington Post's revelations three years
earlier, his and Norton-Taylor's response to these allegations is truly
remarkable:
"UN weapons inspectors withdrew at the end of 1998 after confrontations with
the Iraqi regime over access to Saddam Hussein's palaces and other
restricted sites." (Ibid)
Not a word about the fact that "American espionage in Iraq, under cover of
United Nations weapons inspections, went far beyond the search for banned
arms", as Borger had himself reported in 1999. The silence in response to
the Iraqi vice-president's fierce and repeated allegations reads as a
contemptuous dismissal of claims deemed unworthy of comment.