Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has assailed his critics in Washington and Baghdad in strikingly blunt language.
And, asked if Iraq still harboured weapons of mass destruction, he said he "remains agnostic."
"It's true the Iraqis misbehaved and had no credibility but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were in the wrong. It could have been bad brinkmanship," Blix said.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper today, he abandoned diplomatic language to deliver blunt assessments.
"I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much."
"It was like a mosquito bite in the evening that is there in the morning as an irritant," he added, claiming that "some elements" of The Pentagon were in a smear campaign against him.
There was also state-sanctioned sniping from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's side. He said Iraqi enemies spread rumours about him being homosexual and "going to Washington to pick up my instructions every two weeks."
Blix is retiring at the end of June after heading the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) since March 2000, which fielded inspectors to Iraq to search for banned Iraqi weapons between November 2002 and March 2003.
The United States, which toppled Saddam in April, has faulted Blix for failing to produce tough reports on the Iraqi government.