The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Growing Crisis of Global Security

Product Description Civilization may face no greater enemy than Saddam Hussein, and yet the major powers allowed Saddam to face them down. Here, Richard Butler tells the inside story of the UN's failed attempt to stop Saddam and explains the terrible cost of that failure. As the head of UNSCOM, the special United Nations commission that was supposed to regularly inspect Iraq for weapons violations, Butler had the authority to shut the Iraqis down if he caught them cheating--but that authority was undermined behind his back. Kofi Annan, in the name of diplomacy, agreed to Hussein's outrageous demands, and Russia's foreign minister took secret payoffs from the Iraqis in exchange for his support. The French, eager to do business with the dictator, undercut American efforts to force Hussein to comply, and Butler found himself the target of a major Iraqi and Russian propaganda campaign, ultimately alone. About the Author Richard Butler was appointed to lead UNSCOM on July 1, 1997. From 1992 to 1997, he was the Australian ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. In 1994 Butler was elected president of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In 1995 he chaired the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, and in 1996 Butler led the United Nations to adopt a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.Simon Vance is an award-winning actor and an AudioFile Golden Voice with over forty Earphones Awards. He has won thirteen prestigious Audie Awards and was Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London.