Iraqi Scientists Deny Existence of WMD Programs

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 01, 2003

Iraqi Scientists Deny Existence of WMD Programs

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Despite vigorous efforts, the US government has been unsuccessful so far in soliciting evidence from key senior Iraqi scientists to support its prewar claims thatousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was pursuing a program to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the Washington Post reported Thursday.

When interviewed under the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency, four senior Iraqi scientists and more than a dozen at lower levels have denied that Saddam had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons since the United Nations inspectors left in 1998, the report said.

Some scientists have been arrested and held for months, others have made deals in return for information and at least one has agreed to be interviewed outside Iraq, the report added.

Several key Iraqi officials questioned the significance of evidence cited by the Bush administration to suggest that Saddam was stepping up efforts to develop new WMD programs.

Bush administration has hoped that extensive debriefings of former top officials of Saddam's government would provide some of the backing for its prewar assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States.

So far, the United States has discovered no undisputed physicalevidence that Saddam had stocks of chemical or biological weapons or was reconstituting his nuclear weapons program.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Iraq Might Have Destroyed WMD: US President

Blix Slams UK Iraq WMD Claim

Saddam Tape Broadcast against US Charge of WMD

Taiwan Ties Mar Japan's China Interests: News Analysis ( 36 Messages)

Shortage of Electric Power, an Ordeal for China's Economy ( 4 Messages)

Using "E-mail" Concerns Chinese Purification & National Dignity? ( 22 Messages)

US, China Co-operate to Fight Taiwan Referendum Plan ( 3 Messages)

60 Chinese Senior Officials to Be Trained in Harvard University ( 3 Messages)