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$16 million plan keeps Iraqi weapons experts from working abroad

Dafna Linzer

Associated Press

November 16, 2003

The Bush administration is working on a $16 million plan to keep Iraqi scientists occupied with peaceful research at home instead of taking their expertise to countries or terrorist organizations that could threaten the United States, according to a draft proposal obtained by The Associated Press.

The State Department proposal covers costs for the first year of the program that would rely heavily on unpaid assistance from the American scientific community, according to the 11-page draft.

But with a handful of Iraqi top scientists already believed to have left Iraq for countries such as Syria and Iran — both on the U.S. list of terrorism-sponsoring states — some experts fear the initiative, which could take at least one year to implement, may be coming too late.

"There's a definite concern that people have already gone astray," said Michael Roston with the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council. "So the State Department's efforts to get this thing rolling are very important."

Roston is among a select group of nonproliferation experts and representatives from the American scientific community who have seen the Nov. 3 draft, which is circulating among outside experts and within the State Department.

Although the Bush administration said it would count on Iraqi scientists to lead weapons hunters to a suspected cache of chemical and biological weapons, none have so far. There was no plan for dealing with those who cooperated and only now are officials beginning to consider employing Iraqi scientists who have been out of work for eight months.

Officials at the State Department and within one Pentagon agency said they had pushed for plans before the war to help scientists re-adjust but their efforts were rebuffed by senior military and defense department planners.

"Brain flight was a capital concern for us but nothing was in place," said one official involved in the State Department project, speaking on condition of anonymity. "By the time it fell to us, there was no mechanism to track or restrain scientists."

Dr. Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi, the Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hussein's long-range missile program, has fled to neighboring Iran, AP has learned from U.S. officers involved in the weapons hunt. A handful of other scientists involved in former weapons programs have gone to Syria and Jordan, U.S. officials said.

Two members of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency involved in questioning scientists in custody told AP the Iraqis continue to deny the existence of illicit weapons programs in Iraq. Dozens of Iraqi scientists have been questioned and less than 30 remain in custody. All of them, including senior members of Saddam's regime, have been subjected to lie-detector tests, which have come up clean on weapons questioning, the DIA officers said.

But U.S. scientists and weapons experts, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, said they're having trouble finding some Iraqis and have no way of keeping tabs on others.

The State Department initiative hopes to encourage members of the scientific community to feel safe in coming forward and productive in directing their country's future.

The project is entitled the "Science, Technology and Engineering Mentorship Initiative for Iraq," and nicknamed "Stem II." It was developed by the office of George H. Atkinson, the State Department's special adviser on science and technology and some of the ideas originated with Rose Gottemoeller, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who was involved in retraining Soviet scientists.

"Right now, the main opportunities are in neighboring states so we need to try to engage them quickly," Gottemoeller said. "The best way to do that is through reconstruction of their country," she said.

The plan envisions a three-stage approach in which scientists would first be paid to submit research proposals. Each submission will be awarded about $450 — a huge sum in Iraq. The U.S. occupation is currently paying scientists there about $50 a month but they remain unemployed.

Planners imagine that about 750 scientists will submit proposals and estimate that about 75% will be viable.

As research proposals are accepted, costs estimates are expected to reach about $16 million for the first year — much of which would be used to fund approved ideas.

According to the draft, the money will support "that part of the Iraqi (scientific) community committed to peaceful professional activities not associated with weapons of mass destruction."

But it is unclear where the money would come from. State Department officials say they are waiting for more information from U.S. authorities in Baghdad.

Outlined benefits of the program include: a reduction in weapons of mass destruction research, prevention of a scientific exodus from Iraq and an alternative to research in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Saddam's former regime claimed for years that the country was no longer engaged in such programs. U.N. weapons inspectors working in Iraq for nearly four months before the war found no evidence to the contrary and U.S. forces have yet to discover any illicit weapons.

Still, scientists retain the know-how from past work and if recent chemical or biological weapons are discovered, those involved could be called to account for their actions.

Experts acknowledge a dilemma about whether such scientists should be prosecuted or retrained but most saw little legal or historical precedent for punishment.

"Some of the most important people in America's ballistic missile programs in the 1950s were former Nazi scientists so if we could employ these people, then we shouldn't have a problem with the Iraqis," said Roston, at the nuclear advisory council.