BAGHDAD

By DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

Walking into a conference room at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Baghdad for a private meeting on Dec. 14, U.N. inspection chief RICHARD BUTLER thought he was there to gain access to SADDAM HUSSEIN's palaces and Republican Guard facilities. Instead he encountered four video cameras mounted on tripods. Their purpose was just to make an accurate record of the meeting, promised Deputy Prime Minister TARIQ AZIZ. Nothing will be leaked, he said. Aziz then delivered Iraq's bottom line: inspectors would never be allowed in the palaces or most other sensitive facilities. Later that night, Butler flipped on the TV set. The Iraqi newscast was airing the video of his meeting with Aziz. Welcome to Saddam's theater.

--By Douglas Waller/Washington