Hans Blix, the head of the UN arms inspection team (UN Special Commission on Iraq or UNSCOM). headed for Iraq, has a poor track record. In sixteen years as head of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Blix has presided over many inspection programs that have missed nuclear weapons development programs. This includes North Korea and Iraq. Blix was selected to head UNSCOM because he was the only official that the key pro-Iraq nations (France, Russia and China) would agree to.

Unlike past inspection teams, which were employees of the nations they came from, all the members of this team are UN employees. 

Saudi Arabia just finished a week long training exercise for a thousand fire fighters. The exercise was to train the firemen on new equipment obtained for fighting large oil field fires.