Inspecting Iraq, Take 3

Returning arms inspectors can expect the hail-fellow-well-met treatment from Baghdad -- at least for now. Inspectors were welcomed back by Iraqi officials who were cooperative and even eager to see them get back to work. "The Iraqis won't hinder inspectors right now because they're confident that UNSCOM won't find anything," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "Everything will have been moved, and it'll take UNSCOM a couple of weeks to develop new leads -- they don't raid an installation unless they have reason to believe they'll find something."

With Washington wanting to test Saddam's intentions while its strike force remains on alert, UNSCOM chief Richard Butler may have found a fast track to turning the screws on Iraq. He sent a letter to Baghdad Tuesday demanding two documents concerning Iraq's chemical and biological warfare programs. "That's a good approach, since the Iraqis are almost obsessive about keeping documents about everything," says Dowell. Document retrieval, however, hasn't been Baghdad's strong suit. Perhaps they simply need a good librarian.