MORE EVIDENCE that resolution takes you farther than equivocation where arms-control is concerned:

The U.S. government has obtained potentially valuable new information on Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons programs in recent days from scientists and intelligence agents confronted outside Iraq with threats that failure to cooperate could mean unpleasant consequences when Baghdad falls, according to two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

In a top-secret adjunct to an openly reported diplomatic initiative, U.S. and allied intelligence services summoned scores of Iraqi operatives in foreign capitals to present a stark choice. They were told “they could either ‘turn,’ ” said one official, using an expression for switching sides, or be expelled back to Iraq “to enjoy your very short stay in Baghdad.”

Another official with access to written accounts of the conversations said the Iraqis were told that when the United States sorts friends and enemies after toppling President Saddam Hussein, “they’ll be putting themselves and their families at the mercy of the new Iraqi government.”

Hmm. Why didn’t Hans Blix think of this approach? I’d ask him, but first I’d want to ask him where these scuds came from all of a sudden. . . .