(U-WIRE) COLLEGE PARK, Md.- The former head of the Iraqi nuclear
weapons program discussed Tuesday night how the United States
should approach the threats it is facing.
Khidir Hamza described the terrorism conflict as asymmetric
to about 100 students in Taper Hall of Humanities.
“The U.S. has massive destructive power, but al Qaeda
is small,” he said. “(Al Qaeda) must fight the war
differently.”
Hamza also spoke about his work with the nuclear weapons program,
but the Iraq conflict was the main topic of his speech.
“We have thousands of nuclear weapons,” he said,
“but are we ready to use them? Saddam is ready to use
his.”
Hamza first came to the United States in 1961 to attend the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Florida State University.
He returned to Iraq in 1970.
In 1973, Hamza met Saddam Hussein for the first time to help
the nation develop nuclear weapons.
“He was cultured, nice and elegant,” Hamza said,
“but so are the Mafia guys.”
When the nuclear program first began, he said, the scientists
had very few resources. Iraq had no manufacturing capabilities
and had to import “everything from screws to screwdrivers.”
Hamza said he and two other American-trained scientists were
the heads of the program.
Israel was the initiative for the program’s creation,
as Hussein feared the country would attack Iraq.
“Look at the emphasis,” Hamza said, noting how Hussein
closed a steel factory because it employed a foreign scientist
who could help develop steel for nuclear weapons.
During the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, Hamza
worked with the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. He was named
the head of the program in 1987.
Hamza defected from Iraq in 1994. He first went to Libya and
then came to the United States through an American embassy
in Hungary.
Hamza testified Aug. 1 before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that Iraq may have more than 10 tons of uranium,
enough to make three nuclear weapons in three years.
In the question-and-answer session after the speech, many
students asked for Hamza’s opinion of weapons inspections.
He said they were a good idea, because if weapons were hidden,
they could not be used against troops, although the current
system would probably not uncover anything.
Between 1991 and 1995, 6,000 inspectors went through Iraq
and did not uncover anything, he said. Many of them had been
in a weapon-making environment before, including Los Alamos,
N.M.
