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The Independent
UN struggles to explain away presence of weapons inspector with S&M fetish
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
29 November 2002
The United Nations inspection mission in Iraq has been fully prepared for
controversy over chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Instead, the
first crisis it faces concerns sado-masochism, pansexuality and leather
fetishes. Senior officials were trying to explain yesterday how such a
crucial mission came to include an American former Secret Service officer
who has no specialised degree in any of the relevant sciences, but
considerable expertise in unusual sexual practices.
Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge was nominated for the mission by the United
States government. The revelation of his personal details has also led to
the disclosure that no background checks have been made on any of the
monitors.
Mr McGeorge, who once served in the US Marines, is waiting in New York to
join the Unmovic (UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) in
Baghdad.
He runs a business offering seminars on "weaponisation of chemical and
biological agents" at $595 (£380) a session, and advertises his services as
a "certified United Nations inspector". An internet search has also revealed
that Mr McGeorge offers training seminars of a different kind involving
"various acts conducted with knives and ropes". This relates to his role as
co-founder of Black Rose, a "pansexual S&M group" based in Washington, and
also as a founder of Leather Leadership Conference IN, which "produces
training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochistic/
leather/fetish community". Mr McGeorge said a State Department official
invited him to apply for a job with the UN team, and neither the Americans
nor the United Nations asked about his S&M background. He was interviewed by
Hans Blix, the chief inspector, and trained with Unmovic in February 2001.
He told The Washington Post: "I have been very upfront with people in the
past about what I do, and it has never prevented me from getting a job or
doing a service. I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am – not one bit."
He added that he was now considering resigning his UN post.
Iraqi officials, who have always claimed that American members of the team
may not be what they seem, were still digesting the news.
A Foreign Ministry official said: "It is very disturbing that the Americans
have put forward someone like this. Apart from his strange sexual life, he
does not have the academic qualification for these complex issues. And he is
also a former member of their Secret Service. How many other of these types
are they getting into the UN mission?"
A UN official said in Baghdad: "It is very difficult. We are hoping the man
will now resign, and we can draw a veil over this." Ewen Buchanan, an
Unmovic spokesman, said: "As the UN, with people applying from many
countries, we do not have the capacity to carry out background checks. I
believe Mr McGeorge is technically very competent. He knows his subject,
which is weapons."
A State Department official confirmed that Mr McGeorge was recommended to
Unmovic, and that no background checks were made.
The Bush administration has been accused of undermining the Iraq mission,
and US officials have claimed that Mr Blix had chosen an inexperienced team,
leaving out inspectors with previous experience of working in Iraq who were
deemed to be too aggressive in pursuing their task. There have also been
complaints from Washington that not enough American and British personnel
were chosen for the teams.

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Weapons Inspectors' Experience Questioned
Va. Man Is Cited As Example; Hiring Process Criticized
By James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 28, 2002; Page A01
The United Nations launched perhaps its most important weapons inspections
ever yesterday with a team that includes a 53-year-old Virginia man with no
specialized scientific degree and a leadership role in sadomasochistic sex
clubs.
The United Nations acknowledged yesterday that it did not conduct a
background check on Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge of Woodbridge, who was in
New York waiting to be sent to Iraq as a munitions analyst. McGeorge was
picked for the diplomatically sensitive mission over some of the most
experienced disarmament sleuths in the world. A U.N. spokesman said McGeorge
was part of a group recommended by the State Department, which in turn said
it was merely forwarding names for consideration.
The disclosures about McGeorge's qualifications come as concerns are being
raised among some former U.N. weapons inspectors that the current team lacks
experience. The former inspectors, who worked for the United Nations Special
Commission created after the Persian Gulf War, say the new inspectors have
been selected in part to avoid offending Iraq. These critics say that Hans
Blix, the executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), is bypassing some experienced inspectors
because they were opposed by Iraq as too aggressive in the earlier
inspections.
Former inspectors also say that rules requiring applicants to quit their
government jobs meant that some of the best-qualified experts did not apply,
leaving many positions to be filled by applicants, such as McGeorge, from
the private sector. The former inspectors also say the current inspection
team lacks the size, mobility and equipment to do its job adequately, and
that the new U.N. policy of not sharing information with intelligence
agencies could further handicap the team's ability to find weapons sites.
U.N. officials defended their team of inspectors, saying that they are
highly qualified and among the best in the field. But they acknowledged that
they conducted no background checks.
"As the United Nations, with people applying from many countries, we do not
have the capability to do that," said Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for
UNMOVIC. "How would you check?"
McGeorge is a former Marine and Secret Service specialist who offers
seminars on "weaponization of chemical and biological agents" for $595 a
session. Since 1983, he has been president of his own firm, Public Safety
Group Inc., which sells bioterror products to governments. One online ad
promotes his role as a "certified United Nations Weapons inspector."
McGeorge does not possess a degree in one of the specialized fields -- such
as biochemistry, bacteriology or chemical engineering -- that the United
Nations says it seeks in its inspectors. U.S. and U.N. officials said a
background check apparently was not conducted on McGeorge or any of the
inspector applicants.
An Internet search of open Web sites conducted by The Washington Post found
that McGeorge is the co-founder and past president of Black Rose, a
Washington-area pansexual S&M group, and the former chairman of the board of
the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. He is also a founding officer of
the Leather Leadership Conference Inc., which "produces training sessions
for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochism/leather/fetish
community," according to its Web site. Several Web sites describe McGeorge's
training seminars, which involve various acts conducted with knives and
ropes.
McGeorge said yesterday that a State Department official invited him to
apply for the U.N. team, and officials at State and the United Nations did
not ask about his S&M background. But he said he would tender his
resignation to Blix if The Post printed a story about it.
"I have been very upfront with people in the past about what I do, and it
has never prevented me from getting a job or doing service," McGeorge said.
"I am who I am. I am not ashamed of who I am -- not one bit. But I cannot
allow my actions, as they may be perceived by others, to damage an
organization which has done nothing to deserve that damage."
A State Department official said that the Bureau of Nonproliferation
collected résumés from potential UNMOVIC candidates and then passed along,
without recommendation, those who appeared to meet the general criteria of
the jobs. However, the official said he believes that background checks were
not conducted before the résumés were forwarded.
Half the 100 inspectors picked so far were recommended by governments, and
the other half applied directly to the United Nations. Buchanan added that
the United Nations considers McGeorge's private life irrelevant to his role
as a munitions analyst.
"I believe that Mr. McGeorge is technically very competent," Buchanan said.
"He knows his subject, which is weapons. As a general principle, I think
what people do in their private life, as long as it doesn't interfere with
[their] professional life -- and I'm not aware that it has interfered -- or
doesn't break any rules or laws, shouldn't be a significant issue."
Interviewed by telephone, McGeorge defended his training and experience. "I
was a military ordnance explosive disposal specialist," McGeorge said. "I
was very well trained on chemical and biological agents."
McGeorge's résumé indicates that he trained as an inspector with UNMOVIC in
February 2001 in Vienna. He said he was interviewed in person by Blix and
joined the team as a temporary staff member in December 2001.
McGeorge's professional background reveals he served for a few years each as
a Marine ordnance disposal technician and a munitions countermeasures
specialist with the Secret Service, both stints occurring more than 20 years
ago.
On his résumé, McGeorge lists an honorary doctorate from a Russian institute
in Moscow. McGeorge received an associate's degree in security management
from Northern Virginia Community College in 1983. He also lists numerous
articles on chemical and biological weapons in such publications as Defense
and Foreign Affairs and NBC Defense & Technology International.
One of his most cited achievements is preparing, under contract with the
federal government, a compendium of incidents involving biological and
chemical agents dating back to the 1940s.
Past weapons inspectors have criticized the selection of inspectors, saying
experienced candidates, including former missile inspector Timothy V.
McCarthy, were passed over. The critics say the new team needs seasoning if
it is to find minute evidence of weapons-making in a country the size of
Texas.
"We just knew too much," said Richard Spertzel, former head of the
biological weapons inspection team for the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq.
"They couldn't pull the wool over our eyes."
The two renowned experts retained, Igor Mitrokhin and Nikita Smidovich, will
not be conducting field inspections.
Mitrokhin, a respected Russian chemical weapons expert, has been named the
chief of the agency's health and safety division. Smidovich, a Russian
missile expert whose encyclopedic knowledge of Iraq's missile program has
long made him unpopular in Iraq, has been appointed head of inspector
training.
Smidovich said during a break at recent training session that although there
is a "new culture" at UNMOVIC, the agency still has "very tough inspectors."
He said that the less experienced inspectors can learn everything they need
to know from a massive archive that includes a recording of virtually every
meeting with the Iraqis. "We have it all on tape," he said.
Blix defended the abilities of the new inspectors, saying that his chief
inspector, Demetrius Perricos, "probably has the greatest experience in the
world."
"He has 30 years of inspections behind him," he added. "He handled the whole
North Korea business in the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]; he
was in Iraq in the beginning of the '90s; he was in South Africa and handled
the verification of the disarming of their nuclear weapons."
A U.N. Security Council diplomat said that Washington wants to increase the
number of inspections and double the size of the inspection team's roster,
which now consists of 300 people. The Bush administration has been pressing
UNMOVIC to move up the date of the next scheduled training session from
January to December. One council official said that Blix was likely to begin
"a sort of worldwide trawl" for new inspectors.
Another council diplomat acknowledged the new inspection agency lacks the
experience of its predecessor and that it will take time to reach full
speed. "A lot of the inspectors are inexperienced, and it's a matter of not
trying to push UNMOVIC to run before it can walk," said a council member.
Former inspectors also were concerned about reports that members of the
current UNMOVIC team work in the private sector and might have products to
sell. A stint on a U.N. inspections team can boost an inspector's profile,
bringing media attention and lucrative business opportunities, as some of
the former inspectors found.
One current inspector works for a company developing a sensor to detect
biological substances, such as anthrax spores.
"I don't know of any technology out there for biology that you could wave
over and say this is a bad building," said former inspector and biological
warfare expert David Franz.
Correspondent Colum Lynch and researcher Alice Crites also contributed to
this report.