US: Foreign ministers and diplomats will crowd into the UN Security Council in New York this morning, expecting to witness an event with the theatrical potential of the exposé of Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis four decades ago.
On that occasion, October 22nd, 1962, US ambassador Adelai Stevenson dramatically produced 26 blown-up photographs taken by U2 spy planes to prove that the Soviet Union had installed missiles in Cuba.
Today, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to provide photographs of mobile weapons labs and transcripts of secretly recorded conversations among Iraqi officials to make the case that Iraq has failed to disarm as required under Resolution 1441.
Just how high the stakes have become was underlined by a warning to Iraq yesterday, from chief UN weapons inspectors Dr Hans Blix, that it was now "five minutes to midnight".
Talking to reporters at the UN, Dr Blix pleaded with the Iraqi government to show active co-operation during his visit to Baghdad this weekend.
"I don't think that the end is there, that a date has been set for an armed action," he said. "But I think that we're moving closer and closer to it and, therefore, it seems to me that the Iraqi leadership must be well aware of that. I'm pleading for Iraq to enter co-operation on substance," Dr Blix said.
Mr Powell, the highly respected moderate in the Bush administration, will get a respectful hearing today, but the quality of the evidence will have to be compelling for sceptical council members.
Yesterday, French President Jaques Chirac, after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Le Touquet, said the weapons inspectors needed more time but that France was waiting to see what Mr Powell had to say.
Paris has a veto on the 15-member council and, so far, is resisting UK attempts to consider a new resolution authorising the US to wage war. However, France sent an aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean yesterday - a strong signal this could change.
According to reports from within the US administration, there has been a fierce debate among Washington intelligence services about what to release to the court of world opinion to strengthen Mr Powell's hand.
Any de-classification of top-secret transcripts of conversations among Iraqi officials could reveal the extent of US eavesdropping in Iraq, some officials argued.
Mr Powell's portfolio will contain, according to one intelligence official quoted by Newsweek, the most significant release of sensitive material since President Ronald Reagan revealed telephone intercepts showing a link between Libyan leader Muammar Kadaffi and a bombing in West Berlin.
Reports indicate that some of the excerpts will show Iraqi officials apparently talking about moving materials in advance of a visit by inspectors, coaching scientists on what to say during interviews, and boasting about how they seemingly defeated the inspectors.
Mr Powell, his personal prestige at stake, is expected to bring CIA director Mr George Tenet to New York with him to lend credibility to his case that such deceptions are serious enough to justify war.
Much of the intelligence used by US President George Bush in speeches against Iraq was supplied by Baghdad defectors and filtered through a special Pentagon intelligence unit under Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz before being passed to the White House and then to the CIA to test its reliability.
Mr Powell has said he will not have a specific "smoking gun" such as the pictures Mr Stevenson produced to confound Russian ambassador Valerian Zorin, who had refused to deny that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba.
"I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over," said Mr Stevenson, in one of the most memorable put-downs in Security Council history. He added: "If that is your decision I am prepared to present the evidence in this room."
Playing the role of Mr Zorin this time will be Iraqi Ambassador Mr Mohammed Al-Douri, who will be given an opportunity to try to convince the 15-member council that the US intelligence is flawed.