U.S. Blocks U.N. Weapons Inspectors

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Although the U.S. is allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit Iraq briefly, it has rejected calls for the return of United Nations inspectors to Iraq to join in the hunt for alleged weapons of mass destruction, and chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has sharpened his public criticism. In a BBC interview, Blix said he had been disappointed with the tips his office received prior to the war from British and US intelligence. of the information he received prior to the war from British and U.S. intelligence sources. "Only in three of those cases did we find anything at all, and in none of these cases were there any weapons of mass destruction, and that shook me a bit, I must say," Blix said. "I thought - my God, if this is the best intelligence they have and we find nothing, what about the rest?" His comments came as U.S. officials fought to minimize the political damage from their own leaked intelligence analysis of September 2002, which reported "no reliable evidence" on Iraqi weapons.