Baghdad: Saddam Hussein's science adviser surrendered to US military authorities on
April 12, insisting that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and the US-led
invasion was unjustified.
Lt Gen Amir al-Saadi is the No. 1 Iraqi wanted for questioning about Iraq's chemical
weapons because he was the senior weapons adviser to Saddam and oversaw the
country's chemical programme in the past. He is believed to have in-depth knowledge
of other weapons programme as well.
Al-Saadi arranged his surrender with the help of Germany's ZDF television network,
which said it was asked to film him leaving his Baghdad villa with his German wife,
Helga, and presenting himself to an American warrant officer, who escorted him
away.
The elegant, British-educated al-Saadi is believed to be the first of 55 regime
figures sought by the coalition to be taken into custody.
Al-Saadi told ZDF that he had no information of what happened to Saddam and repeated
his assertion, made often in news conferences before the US-led invasion, that Iraq
was free of weapons of mass destruction.
According to ZDF's correspondent in Baghdad, Ulrich Tigner, al-Saadi said he spent
the duration of the war at his home and decided to turn himself in after seeing on
the BBC that he was being sought.
In Doha, Qatar, the US Central Command said it had no information on al-Saadi's
reported surrender.
Al-Saadi was among the key figures who worked with UN weapons inspectors and often
spoke for the Iraqi government in news conferences between the resumption of
inspections in November and their end last month.
