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| Iraq |
| U.S. Pays to Retain Iraqi Scientists |
| 2003-12-20 |
| EFL from Newsday BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S.-led administration will spend $2 million to retain Iraqi scientists and engineers for rebuilding the country and stop them from selling their skills aboard, officials said Saturday. Money well spent in my book. Top scientists who earned thousands of dollars a month under Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime now are being paid just hundreds, and some already have gone to Iran, Syria and Sudan, officials have said. If the coalition is sucessful, the economy and freddom will bring the scientists back. "The knowledge and skills of these individuals are one of Iraq’s most valuable resources, and badly needed for the reconstruction of Iraq," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said in a statement Saturday. Two weeks ago, The Associated Press reported that only eight Iraqi scientists remain in the hands of U.S. forces searching for weapons of mass destruction, and that dozens of other experts were cleared or released. Many have been rehired by the new American-run Science Ministry in Baghdad, in part to keep them from leaving the country. Khidhir Hamza, the U.S.-appointed adviser to the ministry, told the AP that top scientists who were paid $8,000 a month by Saddam’s government were recently earning just $400. Hamza should help them prepare resumes for them. Many will probably end up working for multi-national corporations if this works out. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |