Excerpts from previous updates, by subject

Removed on April 28, 2004

Two Iraqi scientists speak out

In early March, Iraq's top two nuclear scientists decided to speak publicly about their country's banned weapon programs. While presenting a coauthored paper at a conference in Beirut, the "father" of Iraq's nuclear program, Jaffar Dhia Jaffar, admitted that Iraq tried to hide its weapon efforts when U.N. inspectors arrived in early 1991. But he claimed that all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and weapon material were destroyed that summer. On the sidelines of the conference, Noman Saad al-Noaimi, a former director-general of Iraq's nuclear program, told the Associated Press that in his "personal estimation" Iraq was three years away from producing a nuclear bomb before the 1991 war. Both scientists said they were certain that Iraq did not revive any of its WMD programs after 1991.

During the conference, Jaffar called for a probe into what was known by U.N. inspectors before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. According to Jaffar, the inspectors had concluded that Iraq was free of nuclear weapons, but failed to declare this frankly to the U.N. Security Council because of U.S. pressure.