Iraq Nuclear Bomb Authority Wants Probe

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Iraq Nuclear Bomb Authority Wants Probe

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=4&u=/ap/20040308/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_nuclear_3

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The father of Iraq (news - web sites)'s nuclear bomb program, speaking publicly for the first time since U.S. forces occupied Baghdad, called Monday for a U.N. probe of what nuclear inspectors knew before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and denied Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had tried to restart his atomic program.


"It was clear that reports of the United Nations (news - web sites) to the Security Council should have been clear and courageous," Jafar said. "I believe the United Nations should also investigate ... the facts that were known before the war and why they (nuclear inspectors) did not declare them to the security council."


"Saddam Hussein issued orders in July 1991 for the destruction of all banned weapons, in addition to the systems to produce them. It was carried by the Special Republican Guard forces," wrote Jafar and Noman Saad Eddin al-Noaimi, a former director-general of Iraq's nuclear program.

Three days before the invasion last March, Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said Iraq was "trying once again to produce nuclear weapons," even though U.N. inspectors had found no such evidence.