Iraqi defector points to weapons plants at civilian sites

Associated Press

NEW YORK — An Iraqi defector claims he helped repair secret storage facilities for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in government buildings, a hospital and private villas until nearly a year ago, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a civil engineer who defected in August, gave details of the projects and copies of contracts during an interview in Bangkok, Thailand, the newspaper said.

He said he personally visited at least 20 sites he believed were associated with Iraq’s chemical or biological programs, and that he had done repair or construction work in nuclear weapons facilities.

Al-Haideri claimed Iraq used companies to purchase equipment with United Nations blessing, then secretly used the equipment to further its program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

It was not possible to verify his claims.

Advocates of targeting Iraq next in the U.S. war on terrorism say Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is trying to rebuild his unconventional weapons programs that U.N. inspectors tried to dismantle after the 1991 Gulf War. Inspectors have not been allowed into Iraq since departing ahead of U.S. airstrikes in late 1998.

The Times said the interview with Al-Haideri was arranged by the Iraqi National Congress, an Iraqi opposition group that seeks to overthrow Saddam. Al-Haideri said the group helped him flee Iraq in August.

Sherif Ali, a senior leader of the group in London, did not immediately return phone messages.

Al-Haideri told the Times he worked for the Iraqi government’s Military Industrialization Organization and an affiliated company, Al Fao, until just before being arrested on what he called trumped-up fraud charges.

He said he was imprisoned in January, but bribed his way out in the summer, then fled Iraq after hearing he soon would be re-arrested.

Al-Haideri told the Times that several production and storage facilities were hidden at government companies and private villas in residential areas. The United States long has accused Iraq of deliberately placing weapons in residential areas as a civilian shield intended to lessen the likelihood that U.S. bombs would be trained on them.

Some, he said, were built underground in what were designed to look like water wells but were lined with lead-filled concrete and contained no water. He also said he was shown biological materials from a laboratory beneath Saddam Hussein Hospital in Baghdad, but had not personally visited it.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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