Silence on deaths of Iraqi scientists troubles lawmaker

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A Republican congressman says U.S. arms inspectors need to make the public better aware that Iraqi insurgents are assassinating scientists who could hold the key to Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

"I want the world to be informed that these individuals are being assassinated, and it's not because they have a new cooking recipe," said Rep. Steve Buyer, Indiana Republican and chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee

Like Mr. Buyer, U.S. officials are wondering why Saddam loyalists are killing his weapons scientists if the Iraqi dictator did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

David Kay, the CIA's former top inspector in the Iraq Survey Group, resigned in December. He later told Congress he did not believe Iraq had stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003. U.N. inspectors found huge stockpiles of such weapons after the 1991 Gulf war.

Mr. Buyer said he learned of the assassinations during a closed-door briefing by Mr. Kay and wondered then why the inspector and other officials are not doing more to publicly expose the killings as significant events.

Mr. Kay was succeeded by Charles Duelfer. Mr. Duelfer reported to Congress last week that weapons of mass destruction have not been found, but that the search is far from over. President Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq to disarm Saddam of weapons that could fall into the hands of al Qaeda and other Islamist terror groups.

Nine Iraqi scientists have been killed since Saddam was ousted April 9, 2003.

One of the country's most prominent nuclear scientist, Majid Hussein Ali, was found slain, shot twice in the back. He had been questioned by the Survey Group, as had the other eight slain scientists.

The killings began last year. Mr. Kay said in October that two scientists then cooperating with his team were slain. "We think it was because, in fact, he was engaged in discussions with us," Mr. Kay said of one killing.

"It's not being talked about," Mr. Buyer said in an interview. "My plea to [Mr. Kay] was 'How do you feel? You went and interviewed and now they're being assassinated. Don't you feel compelled to come out and talk about this?'"

"Pure logic leads you to conclude that these leading scientists who spoke to David Kay were not mugged, and are being selectively assassinated so they cannot tell, which is further evidence of hiding Iraq's weapons."

Mr. Kay told Congress that Iraq had maintained programs banned by the United Nations that could be restarted quickly. Mr. Kay also said he found evidence that Baghdad was reviving its nuclear-weapons program.

Mr. Duelfer told senators last week he was struck by how reluctant Iraqi managers and scientists are to talk to the Survey Group nearly a year after Saddam was deposed.

"Many perceive a grave risk in speaking with us," he said.

He added that although the Iraq Survey Group has met with hundreds of scientists, "We have yet to identify the most critical people in any programmatic effort. Many people have yet to be found or questioned, and many of those we have found are not giving us complete answers."