Stewart Stogel
Monday, Jan. 27, 2003

The official, who requested anonymity, has doubts as to how effective any prospective interviews may eventually turn out to be.

"We will never know how the Iraqis may seek to influence these people," the source explained. He added: "They [the Iraqi government] may center on an interviewee's brother, a sister, a cousin, a grandmother, someone not immediately obvious, not easily detected."

All of this comes as the U.N. issues its critical inspections "update" to the Security Council, and while President George W. Bush is on the cusp of delivering his State of the Union speech and conferring with British Prime Minister Tony Blair later in the week.

'Credibility' Issue

The source, a U.N. official who has detailed knowledge of the arms inspections, says the problem with the interviews is also the "credibility" of those being interviewed.

"We have to be concerned about whether the Iraqis may be trying to plant information, or whether those interviewed may pass on false information."

The comments echo the concerns raised by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolowitz in a speech in New York City last week

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, Wolfowitz relayed Washington's belief that Baghdad, while offering the UN access to weapons scientists and engineers, is doing everything behind the scenes to silence those people.

Though some scientists have indeed been interviewed by the U.N. and the International Atomic Energy Agency, little, if any new information has come out of the meetings, say U.N. sources.

Two people on the U.N.'s list of "prospective" interviewees are Gen. Amir Mohammed Rasheed and his wife Dr. Rihab Taha.

Until mid-December, Gen. Rasheed was Iraq's oil minister and a member of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council.

For reasons still unclear, Gen. Rasheed "resigned" from the oil ministry and the Council after more than a decade in power.

U.N. diplomats speculate that Saddam had grown "uncomfortable" with Rasheed's friends in Europe and the U.S., especially with the prospects of war increasing.

The U.N. believes that the Iraqi government has made "contact" with a daughter of Rasheed's from a previous marriage, in advance of any prospective interviews with arms inspectors.

'Dr. Germ'

Since the resignation, Rasheed and his wife have disappeared from public view, though both are still believed to be in the Baghdad area.

Rasheed's wife, Dr. Rihab Taha, also known as the celebrated "Dr. Germ," was a senior scientist in Iraq's biological weapons programs and directed much of its research.

Taha recieved a PhD in mircobiology from the University of East Anglia in Britain.

According to reports in the British press, Dr. Taha may have directed the production of up to "10 billion" doses of deadly bio-toxins such as anthrax and botulism.

Washington claims that "tons" of those biological toxins left over from the Gulf War still remain unaccounted for.

The Pentagon also believes that Iraq has been conducting new secret biological weapons research using mobile refrigerator vans as ad hoc laboratories.

The U.S. believes that Taha may have some knowledge on the missing toxins and the secret mobile labs.

Though the U.N. has yet to "request" interviews with the two, it is believed they are on a list of Iraqi personnelthe U.S. wants the inspectors to see in the near future.

Ironically, Rasheed first met Taha through the "good offices" of former U.N. Chief Arms Inspector Rolf Ekeus in the early 1990's.

Ekeus once jokingly referred to his role in the Baghdad matchmaking as "the Cupid from Hell."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

Editor's note:
"Living Terrors: Surviving the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe"
Saddam Hussein’s race to make a nuclear bomb