Iraqi scientists fear arrest, assassination
Saddam's experts say weapons 'fully destroyed'
By LARRY KAPLOW
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Some Iraqi weapons scientists who surrendered to U.S. authorities or were arrested months ago remain in custody, out of contact with their loved ones.
One, after talking to the Americans, was gunned down by Iraqis in an apparent assassination.
And a former weapons scientist returning to Iraq via Amman, Jordan, in late May was detained in the Amman airport by Jordanian authorities. They delivered him to a five-star hotel where American investigators kept him for three months of what he said was friendly but frustrating questioning. They allowed him to move about the city and offered him money and jobs, but wouldn't return his passport until they were done with him, he said.
Now home in Baghdad, he waits in the limbo of the vanquished capital, occasionally summoned to meet polite U.S. investigators who want to verify new details.
"I asked them, 'Please tell me what you are considering us, criminals, terrorists, scientists or what?' " said the man, who admits producing nerve gas in the 1980s and agreed to be quoted only by his family nickname, Abu Humam.
U.S. search continues
David Kay, the chief of U.S. efforts to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said last week that the search will go on for months more. Meanwhile, the former regime's weapons scientists in Baghdad wonder about their status as they continue to meet with secretive American inves- tigators.
In recent interviews, three weapons scientists said they are among a large number trying to lead normal lives in Baghdad and cooperating with U.S. investigators whenever requested. They spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from other Iraqis for cooperating with the authorities.
The fact that Kay's 1,400-staff Iraq Survey Group has not found any biological or chemical weapons caches does not surprise the scientists.
"All the capabilities of Iraq have been destroyed, fully destroyed," Abu Humam said Friday. Weapons production "is not simple work. This is heavy work. It takes equipment, reactors, people."
Another scientist, who worked on the country's missile program until it ended with the American invasion, said he believes Kay's supposition that Saddam Hussein wanted to keep Iraq's brain power on hand for a return someday to weapons production.
"We all expected to have to be ready for them any time," said the genteel, middle-aged army officer and chemist, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. "If I had run away and they captured me, they would have executed me and maybe my family."
The scientists theorize that Kay's group has focused more on biological weapons scientists, based on several arrests they know about. In contrast, nearly all former chemical weapons scientists have been allowed to remain free, they said.
There were about 500 scientists known to the United Nations for their work on Saddam's weapons programs. The Iraqi scientists say that fewer than 10 are in U.S. custody, though they acknowledge that they know little about scientists outside their fields of expertise.
A prominent scientist in the VX nerve gas program was apparently detained and released. He now works for the Ministry of Oil and declined interview requests.
The missile scientist believes that the American investigators have softened their approach since the days after Baghdad fell in April and are now less likely to imprison scientists to try to win their cooperation.
Their word- of-mouth network hasn't carried news of any arrests in the three months since Kay's group replaced Army teams searching for weapons.
"There are people afraid to be arrested," he said. But "for now it has changed to the contrary. There is a very good cooperation. The people meeting with us now are treating us well."
Scientists reticent
The scientists aren't sure what they're allowed to say about their meetings with the Americans. But they seem to feel that they and their country cannot move on to rehabilitation until the world understands two points: They are cooperating and they have no weapons to hide.
Kay said Friday that one scientist who cooperated with his group was killed and another badly wounded in separate attacks.
The missile worker said he worries about a campaign by some Iraqis to threaten or kill scientists and professors -- not just weapons scientists -- in the city. He keeps a Kalashnikov rifle in his study.
Some still work at the National Monitoring Directorate, the Iraqi agency that used to be the liaison for the U.N. weapons inspectors, until they left before the war in March.
One of the former managers, Alaa al-Sayeed, 52, is now the director of the office under the newly formed Ministry of Science and Technology.
The point man in the Iraqi cat-and-mouse game with the U.N. inspectors was presidential adviser Amir al-Sa'adi. He was among the Americans' 55 most-wanted Iraqis. He turned himself in shortly after the regime fell in April and, according to al-Sayeed, is still detained.
Al-Sayeed said his office was visited several times by officials with the U.S.-led coalition in May and June, before Kay's group arrived. In early May, officials came for four scientists who were in the office and took them away. All four had worked on biological programs and none has been released.
"Even when they took the four scientists," al-Sayeed said, "they were polite."
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