White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer on Friday dodged a question about whether the U.S. was advocating the abduction of Iraqi scientists. “I can’t speak to all scenarios,” he said. “Obviously, if somebody is willing to leave the country, it’s a much easier matter.” Fleischer’s evasive reply stopped well short of a denial.

For his part, Blix angrily rejected the U.S. proposal, declaring Friday: “We are not going to abduct anybody and the U.N. is not going to run a defection agency.”

There is much truth to the saying “The method is the man.” To characterize the Bush administration as a clique of political gangsters is not merely an epithet. It came to power on the basis of electoral fraud and intimidation, and is prepared to use criminal methods—from assassination and illegal imprisonment to kidnapping—to pursue its predatory objectives.

This latest proposal follows a full week of weapons inspections in which U.N. personnel have found no evidence to back up Washington’s allegations that the war-ravaged country is working to produce “weapons of mass destruction.” The more the inspections discredit Washington’s pretext for war, the more the administration dismisses their importance and seeks other excuses to launch an invasion.