EFL.
Senior Iraqi weapons scientists who are in hiding from US troops have contacted former UN inspectors to discuss giving themselves up. But they fear they will be jailed if they do not tell their interrogators what they want to hear.
Just the stuff that can be verified will do.
One of the ex-inspectors contacted, David Albright, a Washington-based hired gun expert on nuclear proliferation, said the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime had not brought an end to the climate of fear hanging over Iraqi scientists. "A sizeable group from the nuclear programme want to cooperate with the US, but they don't want to be detained if they turn themselves in," Mr Albright told the Guardian. "They worry that if they go in, the US investigation is going to focus on one thing: 'If you tell us where the weapons are we'll treat you kindly.' But they may genuinely know nothing about it."
"We know nothing!"
Mr Albright said that all the Iraqis he had talked to denied knowledge of recent weapons programmes, but he added that that was hardly surprising as they were talking over open telephone lines, and might want to use what knowledge they had as a bargaining chip for better treatment.
Ah, so they might know something!
Mr Albright, who runs the left-leaning shill organization Institute for Science and International Security, said that after the fall of the regime, he had contacted some of the former Iraqi scientists he had met during earlier UN inspections. Some, including a senior Iraqi nuclear scientist, cluelessly had sought him out. The nuclear scientist had been found by journalists but said he would only to talk to them if they could put him in touch with Mr Albright. He said he knew of other former inspectors who had also been contacted by fearful Iraqis. The scientists, having lived for so long in fear of reprisals if they spoke about Iraqi weapons programmes, are also unconvinced that the threat from the ousted regime has passed. "We're worried that if they are seen as cooperating they could be targeted by Saddam loyalists as collaborators," Mr Albright said. "The regime was always ready to punish families. We're talking about fears here, but given the security problems in Baghdad they're not unfounded." Another former UN inspector, Stephen Black, said: "No one has said to these people that there are not going to be trials for people who had been secretly involved in programmes to make weapons of mass destruction. So why should they cooperate?"
I think you answered your own question just one sentence back, Skippy.
"This is a little bargaining game. They have something of use to us. They are looking for ways to maintain their nice lifestyle that they had before," Mr Black said.
It's the "Werner van Braun" solution.
He added he had not personally been approached by any Iraqi scientists and didn't want his telephone tapped. US-led forces in Iraq have so far failed to find any conclusive proof that Saddam had developed banned weapons in recent years. Former leaders from the regime already in custody have also denied such weapons programmes existed. The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the hunt would turn its focus to lower-level scientists and officials who might be persuaded to talk openly. |