Published: 4 February 2003, Reporter: Channel 4 News

Tonight a world exclusive - Saddam Hussein in his own words.

At the weekend, the veteran labour politican Tony Benn travelled to Baghdad to meet and interview the Iraqi President. Tonight we hear why - according to Saddam - Iraq has no interest in war and possesses NO weapons of mass destruction.

Here is the transcript:

By Ian Williams, Globalvision News Network, 3 February 2003

It's quiz time: Who said, "The spectacle of the United States, armed with its weapons of mass destruction, acting without Security Council authority to invade a country in the heartland of Arabia and, if necessary, use its weapons of mass destruction to win that battle, is something that will so deeply violate any notion of fairness in this world that I strongly suspect it could set loose forces that we would deeply live to regret?"

No, it was not Nelson Mandela. He was the one who said, "One power, with a president who has no foresight and who cannot think properly, wants to plunge the world into a holocaust," and called Tony Blair "Bush's Foreign Minister."

By Judith Miller and Julia Preston in New York, February 1 2003

Days after delivering a broadly negative report on Iraq's cooperation with international inspectors, Hans Blix challenged several of the Bush Administration's assertions about Iraqi cheating and the notion that time was running out for disarming Iraq through peaceful means.

In an interview on Wednesday, Dr Blix, the United Nations chief weapons inspector, seemed determined to dispel any impression that his report was intended to support the United States' campaign to build world support for a war to disarm Saddam Hussein.

If Bush wins in Iraq with 'acceptable' casualties, we will enter a more dangerous period than any in the last half century

By Fergal Keane, 1 February 2003

Jan 31 2003, John J Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt

If the US soon goes to war with Iraq, the immediate cause is likely to be Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with the new UN inspections regime to the satisfaction of the Bush administration. But this failure is not the real reason Hussein and the US have been on a collision course for the past year.

Jan 31 2003

Britons against attack on Iraq...Just 2% say we will be safer...2 out of 3 want referendum

By David Seymour

AN astonishing 84 per cent of the nation oppose a US-British war on Iraq.

The huge No vote to a Bush-Blair military assault is revealed in a poll for the Daily Mirror and GMTV.

It is an increase on the number who opposed action before last Monday's critical report on Saddam Hussein by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Two in three people also think a referendum of the entire country should be held before any decision is taken.

The survey shows that 41 per cent believe there must be no war without a fresh mandate from the United Nations.

Mandela savages Bush and says Blair's become US foreign secretary

By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor, Jan 31 2003

FURIOUS Nelson Mandela yesterday charged President Bush with risking a holocaust for the sake of Iraqi oil.

The Nobel prize winner and former South African president also said Bush "cannot think properly", accused the US and Britain of undermining the UN and suggested they were racist.

Mr Mandela declared: "It is a tragedy what Bush is doing in Iraq. All he wants is Iraqi oil. We must expose this as much as possible. He is making the greatest mistake of his life by trying to cause carnage."

30/01/2003 08:21 - (SA)

United Nations - Key members of the UN security council said the United States had so far failed to convince them that time had run out for a peaceful resolution to the crisis with Iraq.

At a crucial council meeting on Wednesday, one day after President George W Bush's State of the Union speech, 11 of the 15 members supported giving more time to weapons inspectors to pursue Iraq's peaceful disarmament, council diplomats told The Associated Press.

France, Russia and China, who all have veto power, want more time, as well as Germany, Mexico, Chile, Guinea, Cameroon, Syria, Angola and Pakistan.

Of course most Iraqis don't want their country invaded and occupied

Seumas Milne, Thursday January 30, 2003, The Guardian

Tony Blair's government is running scared of the British people and their stubborn opposition to war on Iraq. The latest panic measure is to try to ban what has been trailed as the biggest demonstration in British political history from Hyde Park, where a giant anti-war rally is planned for February 15. As the US administration accelerates its drive to war, its most faithful cheerleader is having to run ever faster to keep up.

Jan 29 2003

John Pilger: His most damning verdict on Tony Blair

William Russell, the great correspondent who reported the carnage of imperial wars, may have first used the expression "blood on his hands" to describe impeccable politicians who, at a safe distance, order the mass killing of ordinary people.

In my experience "on his hands" applies especially to those modern political leaders who have had no personal experience of war, like George W Bush, who managed not to serve in Vietnam, and the effete Tony Blair.

There is about them the essential cowardice of the man who causes death and suffering not by his own hand but through a chain of command that affirms his "authority".