Iraqi scientists detained for far too long

[struggle4progress]

23.09.2004 1.45pm - From PATRICK COCKBURN in Baghdad

The US has detained for far too long Iraqi scientists arrested last year in the belief that they would provide information about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, according to an Iraqi government source.

Even when US investigators concluded that no such weapons existed the scientists were not freed because the US Administration feared that their release would be seen as a tacit admission that Iraq had no WMD. Earlier this year some 70 Iraqi scientists were under arrest.

This may explain why the US embassy in Iraq is determined to detain Dr Rihab Rashid Taha, who once worked on biological weapons, while the Iraqi Ministry of Justice says it sees no good reason for her continued detention. <snip>

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3594085&thesection=news&thesubsection=world