Do you remember the story of the “baby milk” factory in Baghdad that was hit by U.S. bombers during the Gulf War?

This story is very relevant to the mission of U.N. weapons inspectors in Baghdad, and to the potential for war with Iraq.

Back in 1991, Iraqi officials dragged CNN to film the factory wreckage. U.S. officials claimed the factory had been making biological weapons. They were right.

In the spring of 1991, I met a British businessman in Tehran who had delivered equipment to this factory. He told me that he and his team were strictly forbidden to pass behind the milk-production facade to a walled-off, secret section behind it. They were left with no doubts that dangerous materiel was being produced in the facility’s tightly guarded rear.

Back then, CNN cameramen weren’t allowed to peek beyond the milk machines. After the war, U.N. weapons inspectors were abused and lied to by Iraqis.

So it’s no wonder that many are skeptical about U.N. weapons inspections. I used to be, too, but I’ve changed my mind.

I think the inspections process will lay bare the real threat Saddam poses – a threat to the Mideast, where he is most likely to use chemical, biological, or – if he can get them – nuclear weapons. When this threat is laid out before the world, new options for getting rid of Saddam without a war may appear.

How can this happen when Saddam is a master of deception? For two reasons: the U.S. threat of war has produced a U.N. resolution with real teeth, and the inspectors have technical tools they never had before.

By the time inspectors pulled out of Iraq in 1998, their jobs had become a joke. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had made a deal with Saddam that put scores of presidential palaces off-limits to inspectors – which made them the perfect places to hide secrets.

But today, thanks to defectors and U.S. and other intelligence, the inspectors have compiled a list of 100 priority sites where they believe Iraq is hiding the goods. None of those sites will be off-limits.

Saddam is required to submit a comprehensive list by Dec. 8 of his weapons sites, even though he still denies he has any. He is trapped. If he lies big, it will be obvious. If he lies small, he will have to reveal ugly weapons programs he’s denied having. Those revelations will trigger new searches.

Inspectors can get help from powerful spy satellites, from miniature sensors that monitor air, water and soil, and from portable germ detectors. They can use new radar systems that penetrate below ground for tunnels and bunkers.

And there is one more key tool. The new U.N. resolution gives inspectors the option of moving Iraqi weapons scientists and their families outside Iraq for interviews. This is tricky, because anyone who defects might put his entire clan at risk of death. But one such defector could spill the beans on a whole weapons program.

With the tide turning against Saddam – as evidenced by the 15-0 Security Council resolution – all Iraqis have to be on edge. Recent demonstrations by families of Iraqi political prisoners show a crack in the wall of fear.

Iraqi weapons scientists know Saddam is planning to use chemical weapons against his own people in case of war. Well-informed sources in the Iraqi opposition tell me he has distributed stocks of poison gas to towns all over southern Iraq, with orders to use them against Shiites if a war starts. The aim: to cause massive carnage and blame it on the Americans.

Perhaps one Iraqi scientist will not be able to bear this on his conscience and will defect. At any rate, Saddam will soon be trapped in a pattern of lies about his weapons programs, which he will never fully reveal.

This process may lead to war. But as Saddam is forced to reveal his secrets, his aura of invincibility among his own people may start to fade. The international focus on his lies may turn global opinion against him.

Informed sources tell me that the diplomatic process that produced this new U.N. resolution was full of unexpected, and useful, surprises – for U.S. and other diplomats alike. U.N. inspections will be full of surprises, too.

That is why it is worth letting the U.N. inspection process play out. This time, inspectors won’t be stopped by any baby milk facade.