Not Your Sweetie

Robert Fisk :You Wanted to Believe Him But It's like something out of Becket

Powell's presentation was a mixture of
awesomely funny recordings of Iraqi Republican
Guard telephone intercepts à la Samuel Beckett
that just might have been some terrifying little
proof that Saddam really is conning the UN
inspectors again, and some ancient material on
the Monster of Baghdad's all too well known
record of beastliness. I am still waiting to hear the
Arabic for the State Department's translation of
"Okay Buddy" – "Consider it done, Sir" – this from
the Republican Guard's "Captain Ibrahim", for
heaven's sake – and some dinky illustrations of
mobile bio-labs whose lorries and railway trucks
were in such perfect condition that they
suggested the Pentagon didn't have much idea of
the dilapidated state of Saddam's army.