Khidir Hamza
Encyclopedia
Khidir Hamza is an Iraq
i scientist who worked for Saddam Hussein
's nuclear programme in the 1980s and early 1990s. Following the Gulf War
, he left Iraq in 1994 and went into exile in the United States
. He provided testimony to Western intelligence agencies suggesting that Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
programmes were active and ongoing. However, since the 2003 invasion of Iraq
, most, if not all of his information on the Nuclear Weapons program have been widely discredited, and former UNSCOM inspectors insist that he was never part of the Nuclear Program at all.
Dr. Hamza first came to the United States in the 1960s, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and Florida State University
, obtaining degrees in nuclear physics
. He intended to stay permanently in America, but following the 1968 coup, Khidir heard about how families of relatives living in overseas were arrested and reportedly tortured. Fearing for his parents and threats from Mossad
and the PLO for turning down an offer to develop nuclear bombs for the PLO (the person who applied him for the job was allegedly assassinated by the Mossad in 1978 in Paris
), he applied for his return.
Upon his return to Iraq in 1970, he began work on nuclear research and nuclear weaponry. He has claimed that he had persuaded Saddam Hussein into starting a nuclear weapons program, brought Iraq in the IAEA, was in charge of the purchase, construction, and operation of the Osirak reactor and the surrounding Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility
(better known by its Iraqi name, Al Tuwaithia), by 1981, was in charge of Iraq's nuclear weapons programme (succeeding Hussain al-Shahristani
). By the Gulf War he claimed he was able to complete work a stable bomb capable of being used on Israel
, although it was too large to fit on a missile (he claimed it was 4 feet in diameter, about the size of Fat Man
), and it never had the nuclear core.
After the Gulf War
, in response to Saddam Hussein's increasing restrictions on scientists, Dr. Hamza left Iraq and defected
to the United States.
In 2000 he co-authored the book Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon with Jeff Stein (ISBN 0-684-87386-9).
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002, Dr. Hamza stated that Iraq possessed more than ten tons of uranium
, and one ton of slightly enriched uranium
, which he claimed was enough to allow them to build three nuclear weapons by 2005. This testimony, and other statements by Dr. Hamza, were used by the United States government as part of their justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq
.
Dr. Hamza's credentials and testimony have been challenged by others who dispute his knowledge of Iraq's nuclear programme. Imad Khadduri, a former scientist with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, accused Hamza of exaggerating "to a great extent his own role in the nuclear weapon program." Hussein Kamel al-Majid, son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, who defected to Jordan
in 1995, described Hamza as "a professional liar." David Albright
, a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq, stated "Hamza had some good information about Iraqi nuclear programs until his departure from Iraq, but that's it."
In 2002, Scott Ritter
, a long-time colleague of Albright heavily criticized the Bush administration and Media outlets for using the testimony of Hamza as a rationale for invading Iraq;
Articles
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i scientist who worked for Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's nuclear programme in the 1980s and early 1990s. Following the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, he left Iraq in 1994 and went into exile in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He provided testimony to Western intelligence agencies suggesting that Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
programmes were active and ongoing. However, since the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, most, if not all of his information on the Nuclear Weapons program have been widely discredited, and former UNSCOM inspectors insist that he was never part of the Nuclear Program at all.
Dr. Hamza first came to the United States in the 1960s, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
and Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, obtaining degrees in nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
. He intended to stay permanently in America, but following the 1968 coup, Khidir heard about how families of relatives living in overseas were arrested and reportedly tortured. Fearing for his parents and threats from Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
and the PLO for turning down an offer to develop nuclear bombs for the PLO (the person who applied him for the job was allegedly assassinated by the Mossad in 1978 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
), he applied for his return.
Upon his return to Iraq in 1970, he began work on nuclear research and nuclear weaponry. He has claimed that he had persuaded Saddam Hussein into starting a nuclear weapons program, brought Iraq in the IAEA, was in charge of the purchase, construction, and operation of the Osirak reactor and the surrounding Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility
Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility
The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility adjacent to the Tuwaitha "Yellow Cake Factory" contains the remains of nuclear reactors bombed by Israel in 1981 and the United States in 1991. It was used as a storage facility for spent reactor fuel and industrial and medical wastes. The radioactive material...
(better known by its Iraqi name, Al Tuwaithia), by 1981, was in charge of Iraq's nuclear weapons programme (succeeding Hussain al-Shahristani
Hussain al-Shahristani
Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani is the current Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy.Born in 1942 in Karbala, Iraq, Shahristani received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 1965, and an MSc from the University of Toronto in 1967, from where he also received a PhD in...
). By the Gulf War he claimed he was able to complete work a stable bomb capable of being used on Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, although it was too large to fit on a missile (he claimed it was 4 feet in diameter, about the size of Fat Man
Fat Man
"Fat Man" is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date , and its detonation caused the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more...
), and it never had the nuclear core.
After the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, in response to Saddam Hussein's increasing restrictions on scientists, Dr. Hamza left Iraq and defected
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
to the United States.
In 2000 he co-authored the book Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon with Jeff Stein (ISBN 0-684-87386-9).
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002, Dr. Hamza stated that Iraq possessed more than ten tons of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
, and one ton of slightly enriched uranium
Enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
, which he claimed was enough to allow them to build three nuclear weapons by 2005. This testimony, and other statements by Dr. Hamza, were used by the United States government as part of their justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
.
Dr. Hamza's credentials and testimony have been challenged by others who dispute his knowledge of Iraq's nuclear programme. Imad Khadduri, a former scientist with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, accused Hamza of exaggerating "to a great extent his own role in the nuclear weapon program." Hussein Kamel al-Majid, son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, who defected to Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
in 1995, described Hamza as "a professional liar." David Albright
David Albright
David Albright, M.S., is the founder of the non-governmental Institute for Science and International Security , its current president, and author of several books on proliferation of atomic weapons. Albright holds a Master of Science in physics from Indiana University and a M.Sc. in mathematics...
, a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq, stated "Hamza had some good information about Iraqi nuclear programs until his departure from Iraq, but that's it."
In 2002, Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter
William Scott Ritter, Jr. was an important United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass...
, a long-time colleague of Albright heavily criticized the Bush administration and Media outlets for using the testimony of Hamza as a rationale for invading Iraq;
We seized the entire records of the Iraqi nuclear program, especially the administrative records. We got a name of everybody, where they worked, what they did, and the top of the list, Saddam's 'Bombmaker' was a man named Jafar Dhia Jafar, not Khidir Hamza, and if you go down the list of the senior administrative personnel you will not find Hamza's name in there. In fact, we didn't find his name at all. Because in 1990, he didn't work for the Iraqi Nuclear Program. He had no knowledge of it because he worked as a kickback specialist for Hussein KamelHussein KamelHussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid was the son-in-law and second cousin of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He defected to Jordan and assisted United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency inspection teams assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in...
in the Presidential Palace.
He goes into northern Iraq and meets up with Ahmad Chalabi. He walks in and says, "I'm Saddam's 'Bombmaker'". So they call the CIA and they say, "we know who you are, you're not Saddam's 'Bombmaker', go sell your story to someone else." And he was released, he was rejected by all intelligence services at the time, he's a fraud.
And here we are, someone who the CIA knows is a fraud, the US Government knows is a fraud, is allowed to sit in front of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign RelationsUnited States Senate Committee on Foreign RelationsThe United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid programs as...
and give testimony as a expert witness. I got a problem with that, I got a problem with the American media, and I've told them over and over and over again that this man is a documentable fraud, a fake, and yet they allow him to go on CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, MSNBCMSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
, CNBCCNBCCNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
, and testify as if he actually knows what he is talking about.
External links
- Interview on 'Frontline'
- Profile
- Transcript of a presentation by Dr. Khidir Hamza, Carnegie Endowment, November 2, 2000
Articles
- CNN.com Inside Politics: Defector: Iraq could have nukes by 2005, 2002
- San Francisco Chronicle: Bush's evidence of threat disputed: Findings often ambiguous, contradict CIA, 2002
- Scott Ritter, Address at St. Lawrence University, The Iraqi Threat: How Real Is It?, October 2002
- Imad Khadduri, Iraq's Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions Hushion House Publishing, 2003
- World Net Daily: Hamza's War, October 18, 2003