Senior U.S. officials have said Washington plans to offer former mid-level Iraqi scientists immunity from possible prosecution if they provide information on Iraqi WMD programs, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, Sept. 17).

The Bush administration determined that CIA envoy David Kay, who heads the Iraq Survey Group searching for evidence of alleged Iraqi WMD efforts, needed to offer the former scientists immunity to overcome their reluctance to provide information, according to the Times.  While some scientists have said that Iraq previously destroyed its WMD stockpiles, the White House hopes that such statements are merely bargaining positions and that the scientists might provide information if given immunity (Khalaf/Dinmore, Financial Times, Sept. 18).

Kay left Iraq yesterday to travel to Washington and is expected to present a report on the Iraq Survey Group’s finding as early as next week, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.  The report is expected to focus on evidence of Iraqi plans to resume WMD programs on short-notice and long-range plans to develop and produce weapons of mass destruction if U.N. sanctions against the sale of dual-use items were lifted, U.S. officials said.  No stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found in Iraq (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, Sept 18).

Meanwhile, former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said the United States and the United Kingdom overinterpreted prewar intelligence on Iraqi WMD efforts.

“They were convinced that Saddam was going in this direction and I think it is understandable against the background of the man,” Blix said during an interview BBC Radio 4’s Today program.  “But in the Middle Ages people were convinced there were witches.  They looked for them and they certainly found them,” he said (BBC News, Sept. 18).

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