““U.S. Spied on Iraq Under U.N. Cover, Officials Now Say,” a front-page New York Times headline announced on Jan. 7, 1999. The article was unequivocal: “United States officials said today that American spies had worked undercover on teams of United Nations arms inspectors ferreting out secret Iraqi weapons programs…. By being part of the team, the Americans gained a first-hand knowledge of the investigation and a protected presence inside Baghdad.”
A day later, a followup Times story pointed out: "Reports that the United States used the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq as cover for spying on Saddam Hussein are dimming any chances that the inspection system will survive."<br /> <br /> … But such facts don’t assist the conditioned media reflex of blaming everything on Saddam Hussein. No matter how hard you search major American media databases of the last couple of years for mention of the spy caper, you’ll come up nearly empty. George Orwell would have understood.”
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