The continued detention of Iraqi scientists and officials by coalition forces in an attempt to gain evidence on Iraqi WMD efforts has begun to raise human rights concerns, the London Observer reported Sunday (see GSN, July 18).

The International Committee of the Red Cross has called on the United States to clarify the status of 36 Iraqi scientists and officials in custody, the Observer reported.  There has been no word on where these Iraqis are being detained, nor have journalists been allowed to see them.  Some of the scientists and officials are suspected of being imprisoned in solitary confinement or in tents near the U.S. base at the Baghdad airport, according to the Observer.

The wife of Amer al-Saadi, the former Iraqi liaison to U.N. inspectors, said it has been “more than three months” since her husband turned himself in to coalition forces for questioning.

“I don’t want to aggravate the Americans or make them feel provoked, but I’ve had no official notification of why he is being held or what charges he’s facing,” Helma al-Saadi said (Jonathan Steele, London Observer, July 20).

Senior Spanish Official Says No Proof of Iraqi Nuclear Weapons Program

Meanwhile, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said yesterday that, while it was presumed before the war that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program, there had been “no proof.”

“There was a presumption that there was a nuclear program going on,” Palacio said in an interview with the Washington Times.  “There were no evidences, no proof, but yes, a pervasive idea that they were, that [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein was in a way or other involved in a nuclear program,” she said (Sharon Behn, Washington Times, July 24).

Hussein Regime Not Coming Back, Bush Says

U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday that the deaths of Hussein’s sons Qusay and Uday during a U.S. military raid Tuesday would send a signal to Iraqis that Hussein’s regime “will not be coming back” (see GSN, July 23).

“Saddam Hussein’s sons were responsible for torture, maiming and murder of countless Iraqis,” Bush said.  “Now more than ever all Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and will not be coming back,” he said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday also welcomed the news of the deaths of Hussein’s two sons, saying it was a “great day for the new Iraq.”

“These two particular people were at the head of a regime that wasn’t just a threat because of its weapons program, but was also responsible for the torture and killing of thousands and thousands of innocent Iraqis,” Blair said (Spiegel/Clover, Financial Times, July 23).

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