|Home > After Saddam > Article||Tuesday April 22, 2003|
Clad in nondescript clothes and a baseball cap, he pointed to several spots in the sand where he said chemical materials were buried.
The Americans said the scientist told them that Saddam Hussein's government had destroyed some stockpiles of deadly agents as early as the mid-1990s and had recently focused its efforts instead on research and development projects that are virtually impervious to detection.
The officials' account of the scientist's claims and the discovery of the buried material supports the Bush Administration's charges that Iraq continued to develop those weapons and lied to the United Nations about it.
The officials' accounts also give an explanation for why US forces have not turned up caches of banned weapons in Iraq.
Military spokesmen at the Pentagon and at Central Command headquarters in Qatar could not confirm that an Iraqi chemical weapons scientist was providing US forces with new information.
Terms of accreditation to report on the activities of the team meant this reporter was not permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days. The copy was then submitted for a check by military officials, who asked for the deletion of details of chemicals that were uncovered.
They said they feared the information could jeopardise the scientist's safety.
The New York Times
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War On Iraq
US won't say how long it will stay
Returned exiles vie for power
Scientist claims to show buried proof of illicit weapons
Files under wraps to protect informers against vengeance
Shi'ites gather for massive pilgrimage in Iraq
Hundreds found in prison pits
Greenback injection to tide country over
Fears of violence in Mosul
Syria wins praise for playing ball
Same uniforms, different loyalties
Graves of nearly 1000 Iraqi political prisoners found
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