The leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) Ahmad Chalabi
Defectors provided solid information about Iraq's weapons program: Chalabi
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The head of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), Ahmad Chalabi, said that he put US officials in contact with three Iraqi defectors who provided detailed information about Saddm Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction program.
"We ... introduced them to three defectors on the weapons program," Chalabi said after a briefing here with about 30 US lawmakers on a range of postwar issues, including the pace of Iraqi reconstruction and the prospects finding Saddam.
"One of them was an engineer," Chalabi said. "We believe that he had valuable information about sites. He did not have any operational information because he was not a military man, he was an engineer who built sites for the weapons storage areas," Chalabi said.
"The second one we introduced them to, he told them about the mobile biological labs," Chalabi said, referring to the trucks US officials have pointed to as proof of Iraq (news - web sites)'s weapons program.
After meeting the third individual, US officials decided not to pursue contacts, Chalabi said.
The former Iraqi exile denied that any of his contacts exaggerated claims of Iraq's weapons program.
"There was no hyping of information. There was no information that was given that was not substantiated," he said.
Chalabi said he is certain that US forces will ultimately succeed in their efforts to find deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
"There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Saddam had them and he was developing them continuously," Chalabi said after a meeting with congressional leaders here.
"I think if there is a correct way to look for them, then they will be found," he said.
The former Iraqi exile renewed his assertion that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein remains holed up somewhere inside the country.
"Saddam, I believe, is still alive and he is still inside Iraq working and I think, again, if we look for him in an intelligent way ... he will be found," Chalabi said.
Chalabi also renewed his charge that Saddam is one of the main instigators of continuing attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.
"He has put a bounty ... on the killing of American soldiers," Chalabi said.
"I believe that a US Apache helicopter was shot down by forces who are working under Saddam's control," he said, referring to an incident earlier Thursday in which an Apache helicopter was shot down by hostile fire in western Iraq.
The US military's Central Command (Centcom) said the two-member crew was injured shortly after the crash.
"It is not useful to deny that Saddam is coordinating these activities," Chalabi said.
"There are leaflets in Baghdad, distributed with his picture and with his name and slogan supporting him, so he is active," he said.
Chalabi renewed his call for swift US action to establish in Iraq a pluralistic, democratic government "that will be at peace with the Iraqi people and with Iraq neighbors committed to the renunciation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.