The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
Powell's argument is "threadbare". The information receceived from defectors is "old news" - given in return for a new start in the US. Iraq's nuclear scientists of old are "either dead, have left the country or are living in poverty in Iraq", said Imad Khadduri in an interview with the Toronto Star. Mr. Khadduri is a former Iraqi atomic scientist, who left Iraq in 1998 and is now living in Markham, Ontario (Canada). ------------Start fwd----------- [Toronto Star] Feb. 6, 2003. 01:00 AM U.S. argument `threadbare,' ex-Iraqi atomic scientist says He claims nuclear effort ended in '91 Played part in plan to build bomb KEVIN DONOVAN STAFF REPORTER U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's assessment of Iraq's nuclear capability shows how "threadbare" the American case for war really is, former Iraqi atomic scientist Imad Khadduri said yesterday. "I sat and listened to Colin Powell and saw how he has no shred of evidence," said the 59-year-old Khadduri, who left Iraq in 1998 and now lives in Markham. He said he believes the international community will remain unconvinced, and push the Americans to allow further inspections instead of galloping off to war. "It showed me how threadbare are the strings the U.S. is trying to use to lead the world to war," said Khadduri, who now teaches computer systems at Seneca College. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Khadduri was a key player in Iraq's plan to build a nuclear bomb similar to those used by the Americans in Japan in 1945. But, in an interview with The Star last week, Khadduri maintained that Iraq's nuclear effort was finished by destruction caused in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In his speech to the U.N. Security Council yesterday, Powell said Iraq has been covertly working throughout the 1990s and into the present on the bomb project. Khadduri angrily rejected this. "Where are the giant buildings where Iraqi scientists are supposedly trying to manufacture fissile material (needed for a bomb)?" he asked. "They (the inspectors) have looked and not found any evidence of this. Why does (U.S. President George W.) Bush not realize Iraq has no nuclear program?" Khadduri said Iraqi nuclear scientists who once worked to produce a bomb are either dead, have left the country or are living in poverty in Iraq. He said Powell's reference to information received from defectors in 1991 and 1995 is old news. Those defectors, he said, exchanged old information from Iraq's nuclear program in the 1980s for help from the CIA to start new lives in the United States. As for Powell's comments about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein trying to buy high-grade aluminum tubes, Khadduri said these are needed for conventional weapons - not nuclear ones. If the U.S. goes to war in Iraq based on such "flimsy" evidence, it should outrage the international community, he said. ------------End------------ http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_ =3cc57a5f77a44d2f&pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c= Article&cid=1035777505718&call_pageid=970599119419 _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk