E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Iraq Scientist, U.N. Experts Study Mound
An Iraqi scientist left his home Thursday with U.N. experts and accompanied them to a field outside Baghdad where together they inspected what appeared to be a man-made mound in the earth.
The events — unprecedented since inspectors in Iraq resumed their search for banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in November — came after the U.N. experts, going through documents outside the scientist's house, appeared to have a heated discussion with Iraqi liaison officials.
"I'm not happy about all of this," Dimitri Perricos, a team leader among the U.N. experts, could be heard telling the Iraqis as he got into a vehicle with the scientist — physicist Faleh Hassan, who carried a box stuffed with documents — and an Iraqi official.The inspections Thursday at the Baghdad homes of Hassan and his next-door neighbor, nuclear scientist Shaker el-Jibouri, were the first at private houses. At 9 a.m., inspectors cordoned off their street in Baghdad's al-Ghazalia neighborhood, then entered the homes. The experts were later seen going through documents at a table set up near Hassan's front door and having an animated discussion with Iraqi liaison officials. At the end of the six-hour visit, the silver-haired Hassan — a physicist and director of al-Razi, a military installation that specializes in laser development — got into a U.N. car with Perricos and an Iraqi official. They drove in a convoy about 10 miles west of Baghdad and stopped at an agricultural area known as al-Salamiyat. There, Hassan, two inspectors and a liaison officer walked across a footbridge over a canal to a bare field that contained what appeared to be a manmade earth mound.
Wonder how they knew the mound was there? Could it be they had satellite photos from, er, someone?
The group spent about five minutes looking at the mound before returning to their vehicles and heading back to Baghdad. There, Hassan along with several Iraqi liaison officers were seen entering a hotel where some inspectors are living, carrying the box the size of a small television set visibly stuffed with documents. The inspectors, as is usual, did not speak with reporters and it was not clear why they were interested in the mound. Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi later said Hassan had taken the inspectors to a farm he once owned but sold in 1996. Al-Saadi offered no other information on the site.
We heard reports that the Iraqis were hiding WMD material in peoples homes. Maybe buried something on the farm. Bet that mound is being watched to see if anybody tries to dig it up.
It was also not known what caused the heated discussion or angered Perricos. The inspectors have been demanding they be allowed to speak with scientists alone — away from the Iraqi liaison officers whose official job is to help smooth the way for the inspectors, but who likely also act as the government's eyes and ears. The Iraqis, in turn, have complained that the inspectors are too intrusive. After the visit, a visibly angry el-Jibouri told reporters the inspectors spent two hours in his home — and cordoned it off for much longer — looking into everything, "including beds and clothes." "This is a provocative operation," el-Jibouri said. "They did not take away any documents but they looked at personal research papers."
Push hard enough and they might throw the UN out of the country again. Now wouldn't that be too bad. Bwa-ha-ha-ha
Posted by: Steve 2003-01-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=9313