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| Down Under |
| US pressure over Saddam scientist |
| 2010-12-20 |
| What biological weapons? THE United States secretly pressured Australia to place one of Saddam Hussein's former top biological weapons scientists at Victoria University in Melbourne. But the federal government rejected a March 2008 request from the US to accept Professor Ali al-Za'ag, a microbiologist and genetic engineering expert, under a State Department program to provide employment for Iraqi experts in weapons of mass destruction. A cable sent from the US embassy in Canberra in March last year confirms that Professor Za'ag had been refused a visa after Australian officials cited ''a range of compelling security, immigration and legal reasons''. |
| Posted by:tipper |