|
  |
|
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iraq: Scientist in private U.N. quiz
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. inspectors are holding their first private interview with an Iraqi scientist linked to previous banned weapons programs, an Iraqi official said Thursday. Iraq last month agreed to encourage scientists to talk with inspectors outside the presence of Iraqi government officials, but said the scientists were refusing to undergo such interviews. Thursday's report was the first word that any scientist has done so. Hiro Ueki, U.N. spokesman in Baghdad, told Reuters: "I can confirm that we had requested a private interview at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT)." He gave no further details. The breakthrough was revealed at a news conference in which Iraq rejected as "outrageous and unconvincing" a U.S. report that it was hiding banned weapons, saying it would send a letter to the U.N. Security Council rebutting the allegations point by point. "Due to the circumstances that are now prevailing and the tension, some of our scientists came back and said we don't insist on witnesses and one of them today, in fact, as I'm speaking, is being interviewed alone," presidential scientific adviser Gen. Amir al-Saadi told a news conference. CNN's Nic Robertson said the headline news was buried in response to Powell's speech. Access to scientists without Iraqi officials present had been a major sticking point with inspectors until recently, he said. He added that a number of other scientists had indicated their willingness to be interviewed when they were called. "The general said one scientist was undergoing interviews right now," Robertson said. Al-Saadi said that the scientist had decided that because there was so much international pressure on Iraq he felt it was important to undergo interview. The U.N. has been calling for about two scientists a day for the last week or so and they have been turning up or not but only with an Iraqi official or a colleague -- but that all now seems to be at an end, Robertson reported. The development came as Iraq rejected as "outrageous and unconvincing" the report to the U.N. by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that it was hiding banned weapons, saying it would send a letter to the U.N. Security Council rebutting the allegations point by point. Al-Sa'adi accused Powell repeatedly of "quoting out of context" and "conveniently ommitting" details. The Iraqi adviser said that the recordings of conversations between Iraqi military officers played by Powell were "fabrications unworthy of a superpower." "I will not grace them with any more comments. They were below the level of a superpower. One can... fabricate anything in this regard and they are no evidence at all," al-Saadi said. "Without any convincing evidence the allegations were more outrageous," he added. "We have military secrets connected with our right to self-defense, nothing more," al-Saadi said. He denied Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and said thousands of pages of paper taken from an Iraqi scientists home had been made available to U.N. inspectors some time previously. He said that missiles identified by Powell in one part of the report were missiles, but much smaller than the ones alleged and not prohibited. He said Powell's speech Wednesday was for ordinary Americans to gear them up for a war. "The purpose of the show that went on at the Security council was mainly for home consumption for the uninformed," he said. "This is the message that was being told to the world and to the American public opinion," said al-Saadi.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
