Two senior Iraqi scientists believed to have been involved in their country’s efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction surrendered to U.S. forces and other authorities over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, April 11).

Iraqi nuclear scientist Jafar Jafar, believed to have headed Iraq’s nuclear weapons program, surrendered outside of Iraq, U.S. officials said yesterday.  While Jafar is not in U.S. custody, he is being held in an unidentified Middle Eastern country where U.S. intelligence officials have met with him, officials said.

“U.S. officials have had access to him and will continue to do so,” a U.S. official said.

The announcement of Jafar’s surrender came one day after Iraqi Gen. Amir Saadi, the chief liaison with U.N. inspectors, surrendered in Baghdad.  Saadi is believed to have been a top scientist in Iraq’s suspected chemical weapons program, according to the Times.

U.S. officials hope Jafar and Saadi will provide information on Iraq’s WMD efforts.

“These are very, very significant,” a U.S. official said.  “They will have extremely valuable insights into where the bad stuff is, how they got it and where the other people are.  The potential is there that these two guys can crack Saddam’s weapons programs for us,” the official added.

The Bush administration might offer Jafar and Saadi amnesty in exchange for both their cooperation and their assistance in obtaining the cooperation of other Iraqi WMD scientists, officials said.

“We did it with Wernher von Braun,” a U.S. official said, referring to the German rocket engineer who helped pioneer the U.S. space program after he led 126 colleagues to the United States in “Operation Paperclip” in 1945.  “These guys can get others to come in,” the official said (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, April 14).

Insider Help Needed

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that U.S. forces would only be able to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction with the aid of those who had been involved in such efforts.

“The inspectors didn’t find them and certainly we’re not going to find them,” Rumsfeld said on CBS’s Face the Nation.  “It’s not like a treasure hunt where you run around and dig down and see if there’s a tunnel someplace.  You’ve got to find the people who dug the tunnels, the people who worked in those operations,” he said (Stephanie Ho, VOA News, April 13).

U.S. forces in Iraq have compiled a list of as many as 3,000 suspect Iraqi sites, with teams investigating up to 20 a day, according to U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks.  Iraqi residents and officials are also suggesting additional sites to add to the list, U.S. military officials said.

“There are so many sites, we are not able to get to all of them right away,” a senior U.S. Defense Department official said.  “It’s fair to say there are a lot of places U.S. forces are adding to the list,” the official said (Matt Kelley, Associated Press, April 14).

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that he was confident U.S. troops would find Iraqi WMD.

“The combat period is over, and we can now turn our attention to finding weapons of mass destruction,” Powell said in an interview with the BBC.  “There’s strong evidence and no question about the fact there are weapons of mass destruction.  We will find weapons of mass destruction,” he added (Andy Geller, New York Post, April 14).

More Suspicious Finds …

Meanwhile, U.S. troops in Iraq have discovered several suspicious finds, according to reports.

U.S. Marines yesterday discovered 278 artillery shells that initially tested positive for blister agent, according to the London Independent.  The shells, found in trailers parked in a schoolyard, will have to undergo further tests for more conclusive identification, the Marines said (Anne Penketh, London Independent, April 14).

Documents have also been found in several of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad that have provided more information on Iraqi WMD stockpiles and where they might be stored, according to military sources (Time, April 13).

In addition, U.S. forces in Baghdad yesterday found a trailer filled with Iraqi missiles based on information provided by an Iraqi computer technician, according to VOA News.

After a meeting with residents of Baghdad’s al-Muthana neighborhood, a computer technician told U.S. Marine 1st Lt. Michael Cerroni about a trailer with its doors ripped open that contained four missiles.

“We drove down there, and my jaw just dropped,” Cerroni said.  “Right on the side of a highway.  Anyone with a tractor could just back up and drive away with them,” he added.

The missiles initially appeared to be short-range, Russian-made Frog 7 missiles, Cerroni said.  Further evaluation of the missiles is needed to determine their exact type (Lauri Kassman, VOA News, April 13).

A U.S. military “sensitive site exploitation” team has recently investigated a facility located near the town of al-Qaim and is currently awaiting test results, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers said Friday.  Al-Qaim is home to a fertilizer plant that U.S. officials suspect of being part of Iraq’s chemical weapons program and a facility that was used to refine uranium ore (Bill Gertz, Washington Times, April 12).

…But Dead Ends Too

Several prior suspicious finds have turned out to be false alarms, according to the Financial Times.  For example, 14 drums of liquid found at an agricultural compound near the Iraqi town of Hindiyah, which were initially thought to be filled with chemical weapons agents, are now believed to contain pesticide.  Also, earlier reports of discovered chemical rockets have yet to be verified (Mark Huband, Financial Times, April 12).

IAEA Concerned for al-Tuwaitha Security

The International Atomic Energy Agency has asked the United States to properly safeguard radioactive materials stored at the captured al-Tuwaitha complex — the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear efforts — and to limit access to the site, according to an agency press release.

“I have written yesterday to the United States government asking that it ensure the security and safety of all the nuclear material there, which has been under IAEA seal since 1991,” IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in a statement.  “I indicated that until our inspectors return to Iraq, the U.S. has responsibility for maintaining security at this important storage facility,” he added.

The IAEA has received assurances from the United States that it will provide heightened security for the complex, the agency release said (IAEA release, April 11).

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