1996 : (IRAQ'S BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAM SHIFTS FROM AL HAKIM TO TUWAITHA AFTER DEFECTION OF HUSSEIN KAMIL; PUTTING THE BIOOWARFARE PROGRAM AT TUWAITHA FOOLS THE UN BECAUSE TUWAITHA WAS THOUGHT TO BE A NUCLEAR SITE AND SO, UNSCOM BIOWEAPONS EXPERTS NEVER SEARCHED IT; KAY FINDS IT AFTER US INVASION OF IRAQ IN 2003) The CSIS website carries notes by Anthony Cordesman from a recent trip to Iraq.Those covering an interview with David Kay on Iraq's weapons programs (pps 6 & 7, lower left #'s ) are at: http://www.csis.org/features/031114current.pdf The notes underline the importance to Saddam of Iraq's biological weapons program: "Situation is complicated by shift of bio program from Al Hakim to Tuwaitha in 96 [ie after Hussein Kamil defected], which fooled the UN because Tuwaitha was seen as a nuclear site at [sic] looked at by IAEA and not UNSCOM." --"Latest on Iraq's Weapons ," by Laurie Mylroie, IRAQ NEWS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2003
AUGUST 1998 : (IRAQ : WEAPONS SCIENTISTS ARE ORDERED TO RETURN TO DUTY) Scientists who had previously worked on the weapons programme were made to return to their duties in August 1998, four months before Saddam expelled the inspectors, ...according to Salman Yassin Zweir, a design engineer who was employed by the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission for 13 years, the instruction came in a document marked "top secret" which identified a research centre on Al-Jadriya Street, Baghdad, as the headqarters of the new operation. .....Zweir was arrested and tortured after refusing to go back to the programme. He later escaped to Jordan where he would be reunited with his wife who was also tortured and their children. - Source : Times of London 12/23/00