Alfred Hitchcock was fond of McGuffins--meaningless plot devices on which the characters obsess while the real, gruesome story moves on elsewhere. The mother of all McGuffins has to be the CD-ROM that Iraq must hand over by December 8 carrying what UN hands call the "FFD." That is a "Full and Frank Disclosure" of, as Security Council Resolution 1441 puts it:

all aspects of its programmes to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other delivery systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles and dispersal systems designed for use on aircraft, including any holdings and precise locations of such weapons, components, sub-components, stocks of agents, and related material and equipment, the locations and work of its research, development and production facilities, as well as all other chemical, biological, and nuclear programmes, including any which it claims are for purposes not related to weapon production or material.

Since this breathlessly comprehensive legal prose comes from Washington, it is a test designed for Iraq to fail. But the hopes pinned on it by hard-liners there are unlikely to be realized. December 8 will not be the early Christmas they hoped for.

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