In the eyes of the U.S. government, the kidnapping of Iraqi scientists would have an additional benefit to providing a pretext for war. It would effectively destroy Iraq’s technological expertise, further undermining an economy already devastated by war and a decade of economic sanctions.
Washington’s eagerness to lay its hands on an Iraqi scientist has grown as the weapons inspections have gone forward. Inspectors have visited sites previously identified by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others in the administration as weapons production facilities, finding no evidence substantiating these charges.
While publicly pledging “full cooperation” with the U.N. inspectors, the White House has made it increasingly clear that it intends to go to war whatever the result of the weapons inspections. Bush’s heavy-handed attempt to bully the inspectors has fueled resentment within their ranks.
“You bet there are differences,” said Demetrius Perricos, who heads the biological, chemical and missile inspections, describing tensions between Washington and the inspectors. “The people who sent us here are the international community, the United Nations. We are not serving the United States; we are not serving the United Kingdom.” He added that Washington had provided the inspectors with none of the intelligence it claims to have about existing weapons.
Washington’s eagerness to lay its hands on an Iraqi scientist has grown as the weapons inspections have gone forward. Inspectors have visited sites previously identified by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others in the administration as weapons production facilities, finding no evidence substantiating these charges.
While publicly pledging “full cooperation” with the U.N. inspectors, the White House has made it increasingly clear that it intends to go to war whatever the result of the weapons inspections. Bush’s heavy-handed attempt to bully the inspectors has fueled resentment within their ranks.
“You bet there are differences,” said Demetrius Perricos, who heads the biological, chemical and missile inspections, describing tensions between Washington and the inspectors. “The people who sent us here are the international community, the United Nations. We are not serving the United States; we are not serving the United Kingdom.” He added that Washington had provided the inspectors with none of the intelligence it claims to have about existing weapons.