I guess it's official now. Something we have suspected for a long time: UN weapons inspectors were working towards alienating the Iraqi government, thus legitimizing an invasion by US and British led forces. All this is revealed by former chief Rolf Ekéus. This is a summary and analysis of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladets's article on the topic.

Ekéus led the team of UN inspectors from 1991-1997. Their mission was to see if Iraq was harboring, or trying to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, or if they were in the position to acquire forbidden nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

According to an interview with Ekéus on Swedish Radio 3, the US tried to use UN inspectors as their own spies.

Ekéus said that it was a constant struggle for his team to try to distance itself from the pressures of several of permanent residents of the UN Security Council. The worst perpetrators were the US, which managed to infiltrate the group with their CIA operatives — something Ekéus was made aware of only after he resigned.

"We were tough as nails and my people were very loyal, or so I thought. It became my knowledge at a later date that two of my most loyal men were in fact CIA operatives." (Source of quote: Svenska Dagbladet, 2000-07-28) "We were infiltrated, and I was extremely irritated when I found out."

Ekéus also accuses the US of trying to persuade the inspectors to exceed their authorities and conduct spying operations. They tried to map out the whereabouts of Mr. Hussein and spy on Iraq's conventional weapons.

The Americans wanted to provoke Iraq by staging illegal inspections of, among other things, strategic government buildings and historical buildings. "The US jeopardized our UN-work in Iraq, which led to suspicion on the behalf of the Iraqi government."

He doesn't think that the efforts of the US were very successful though. "I fought all the time for the preserved integrity of the weapons inspectors. It was foolish (by the US) to try to influence the course of our legitimate work."

So, there you have it. Official word of CIA infiltration of the UN. I haven't had time to check through the major news outlets to see if they've carried this story, but I doubt it's stirred up major headlines.

Great, some of y'all may think. This is good news for all of us who have suspected something like this for a long time. But I'm not 100% who Mr. Ekéus "works" for.

Keep this is mind after you've read this. Ekéus is as loyal as a Social Democrat you can get in Swedish politics (loyal and politics don't always go hand in hand, I know), and the Swedish government has tried to distance themselves from the super-mega-cuddly-relationship between Sweden and the US.

Some background story. We Swedes are what you might call the worlds most Americanized Anti-American country in the world. (This was said by Noam Chomsky, not me. And Chomsky's always right, right?) We embrace everything American when it comes to consumer-confidence, yet whenever the Bush junta does something bad we roar like the Swedish Vikings we are.

As you might or might not know, former Swedish Chief of State Olof Palme was a loud opponent of America's participation in Vietnam and their financial support of the Apartheid Regime in South Africa. This led to strained relations between the two countries.

Ever since Palme was assassinated in 1986, the Swedish government has gone out of its way to show support for the US, always kissing American administrations' behinds. This took a very large hit when the US announced that three Swedish citizens were listed as terrorists by President Bush as terrorists, on his ugly list of last September 24th. These three Swedes, Abdirisak Aden, Abdulaziz Ali and Ahmed Yusuf, were involved with a company called al Barakat, a money wire operation, mostly used by Somalians to send money to their relatives in that war ravaged country.

These three men were as normal as you could get, and no evidence whatsoever was put forth indicating they had ties to Al Qaeda — except that they were on Bush's list. Barakat's assets were frozen and these three men had all their rights stripped illegally, creating a vacuum in Swedish laws.

When pressed on the subject by Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, US Secretary of State Colin Powell eventually conceded and said that there was no actual proof of wrongdoing, only that these individuals were put on the list for precautionary measures. (Source: BBC, January 24th).

On July 14, after 245 days, they were released from this list, having to sign papers to never again be associated with al Barakat. When later pressed on why the Swedish government was so mum about this subject, Anna Lindh responded by saying that any country who did not do as they were told could be hit with economic sanctions by both the US and the UN, in the same way as Iraq. This caused an uproar here in Sweden, although nowhere near the uproar it deserved to cause.

So, you can look at the Ekéus admittance from two sides. Either it was made headline news to try to distance Sweden from the current US foreign policy (thus distancing themselves from the rage and uproar that will follow after the US invades Iraq, which it will, no matter what). The possibility is that the US knows that the current inspections, led by another Swede, Hans Blix, might not lead to the desired outcome that they want (i.e., to steal Iraq's oil reserves and install a Karzai-like puppet). Therefore, by legitimizing Iraq's suspicion and contempt of the whole weapons inspectors circus, they'll further provoke the Iraqis by staging other illegal and provocative inspections. Certainly, what the US don't need right now is a cooperative Saddam Hussein. Now, Saddam might stop the weapons inspectors at the border, citing that they are nothing more than the American-led puppets that they are. And that's all it would take to sway the public's opinion in favor of invading Iraq.

I'm more in line with the first side, that the Swedish government wants to distance themselves from the US led colonialization of the Arab world.

Earlier articles from Frank in Stockholm:
The so called "dangers of socialism"