[Frank_Discussion]

Wow... this reporter has a lot of "unnamed sources" doesn't he?

[Miss Marple]

Well, I wasn't stunned, and neither were a whole bunch of people on this forum. It was to be expected, and I am certain that the administration was prepared for this contingency.

That is why there was no mention of inspections in the President's UN speech.

[Uncle Miltie]

"The White House was taken by surprise by Iraq's agreement to the return of United Nations weapons inspectors"

This is patently ridiculous. The White House had a pre-written press release out within minutes of Iraq's "agreement." The Administration clearly had prepared for exactly this move by Saddam; not a beat was missed.

[hapsgroupie]

'...although the term "unconditional" referred only to military locations.'

Great. Now all Saddam has to do is store the nukes somewhere else and let us find nothing. Then he's free for another 12 or so years.

[vbmoneyspender]

Come on, this is silly. The very first thing the administration expected Hussein to do was make some bogus concession regarding inspectors/inspections. They particularly expected this to happen given that this is not the first time Hussein has done this. In fact, Hussein has done this over and over and over again - which just goes to show that Hussein never learned the moral from the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, which is 'never to tell the same lie twice.'

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The White House was taken by surprise by Iraq's agreement to the return of United Nations weapons inspectors and the turn of events has apparently forced the Pentagon to delay its planned attack on Iraq until February.

Surprised by what? That Saddam made another sham offer to allow UN inspectors to inspect nothing?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Saddam stunned no one, except for this imbecile.

[Nik Naym]

"Saddam's move stunned both U.S. and Israel,..."

Umm, No it didn't.

"...stalls war plans"

Umm, No it didn't.

Amazing thing is, some idiot got paid to write this stuff.

Nik

[Coop]

The White House was taken by surprise by Iraq's agreement to the return of United Nations weapons inspectors and the turn of events has apparently forced the Pentagon to delay its planned attack on Iraq until February.

There is absolutely no way on God's green Earth that Saddam's move caught anyone at the White House by surprise.