and evacuate the related numbered magnetic discs to outside the location
Could mean they had a repository so that they could keep records....but it would be hidden from the UN inspectors....wonder if there is a document that would tell us where that was....or directions in setting up a such a repository for each research center....bet that each location had such a place.....
"Could mean they had a repository so that they could keep records....but it would be hidden from the UN inspectors....wonder if there is a document that would tell us where that was....or directions in setting up a such a repository for each research center....bet that each location had such a place....."
These repositories could have been official secret places or hidey holes in the back yards of those involved.
Yes, it sounds more like the person in charge of each research station was ordered to make sure that the disks (numbered!) would be stored in a repository organized by the official in charge.
That would be a good thing for us, because there would probably be a number of documents sent back to the MoD to acknowledge and describe where the disks had been stored. Better chance to find one of many documents....
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Six Iraqi scientists working at different Baghdad research institutions were ordered to destroy some bacteria and equipment and hide more in their homes before visits from U.N. weapons inspectors in the months leading up to the war, the scientists told The Associated Press.
In separate interviews, all of the scientists said they were involved in civilian research projects and none knew of any programs for weapons of mass destruction. It was not clear why their materials, ostensibly for nonmilitary research, were ordered destroyed.
But their accounts indicate the government of Saddam Hussein may have had advance knowledge of at least some of the inspectors' visits, as the United States suspected, and that the former Iraqi regime was deeply concerned about any material that could raise the suspicion of U.N. experts.
"An hour or two before the inspectors came to the university, I got my orders from the chairman," said a biochemistry professor at Saddam University for Science and Engineering.
"The order was to hide anything that might make the inspectors suspicious. Any bacterium, any fungus. I destroyed seven petri dishes in the autoclave and I put the others in the trunk of my car."
He said the petri dishes held Staphylococcus and E. coli bacteria and a fungus that can cause severe skin problems -- all commonly used for experiments.
The scientist and several others would only speak on condition of anonymity.
While U.S. troops are firmly in control of the Iraqi capital, university officials, some of them linked by blood to Saddam, remain in their academic positions and scientists fear they could be fired if they are discovered providing information that slights their bosses.
Saddam University's assistant dean, Ameer Abbas Ameer, said inspectors visited his university three times, checking the chemistry, biology and physics departments. He denied ordering professors and researchers to destroy or hide materials.
"The inspectors never found anything because there wasn't anything to find," he said. "They were even joking about it when they were here. They were never serious. You don't search for weapons of mass destruction under the carpet."
But the professor and other scientists said orders came from Ameer's office, through the department chairman, to hide and destroy materials when the inspectors were on their way.
"The chairman told us not to answer questions from any inspectors, to go to the cafeteria and stay there until they left," the professor said. "They were afraid. What they were afraid of, I don't know."
President Bush claimed during his State of the Union address that Iraqi spies had penetrated the U.N. inspections. While some inspectors privately suspect as much, none of the inspection teams found any firm evidence to support the president's claim.
"Clearly we were well aware that the Iraqis were trying to figure out our inspection plans and we took many practicable precautions against that," said Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors. He said information was handled on a "need to know" basis and precautions included "silent briefings" between inspectors to elude any listening devices the Iraqis may have placed at U.N. offices in Baghdad.
excerpt