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Adolfo Aguilar Zínser, a man who dared to question
(Aug 25 2008)

Adolfo Aguilar Zínser (1949-2005) was a Mexican scholar, diplomat and politician who served as a UN Security Council Ambassador in the midst of the US invasion of Iraq. He was one of the few dissenting voices to make very strong and detailed criticisms and was partly responsible for the US not receiving the UN's blessing to invade Iraq. These events were dramatised in the BBC TV series 10 Days to War.

Zínser repeatedly asked for "full proof" of Iraq having WMDs and details of their location, and the former lawyer found the evidence lacking. The evidence presented by the British security services contrasted strongly with the official UK government position. He also could not understand how such well-hidden weapons could be prepared for use in 45 minutes, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair had stated.

He resigned his post at the UN in 2003 after being told he would have to leave due to causing difficulties to US - Mexico relations (it was a US request) and died in a car accident near his summer chalet in Tepoztlán, Morelos, on June 5, 2005, at the age of 55.

Related links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/10_days_to_war/7263801.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jun/08/guardianobituaries.jotuckman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/08/iraq.unitednations