Khidhir Hamza
Khidhir Hamza is an Iraqi nuclear scientist who defected from Iraq in 1994. He is the author of an infamous book “Saddam’s Bombmaker” co-authored with Jeff Stein, which became a key source of Bush Administration propaganda in the lead up to the war against Iraq. In the book Hamza contradicted his earlier claims that Iraq had stopped its nuclear ambitions, and inflated the threat. He was promoted by the INC and New York Times's Judith Miller.
Background
After being spurned by the CIA, which thought he knew little of interest, Hamza went on to join David Albright's Institute for Science and International Security in 1997. In 1998 he helped debunk a bogus story by an INC defector at a time when Chalabi was trying to rally support for the Iraq Liberation Act, earning him rebuke from the Organization which, according to David Albright, let him "shaken". Hamza, according to Albright, said "he’d never do that again”. Soon afterward, in 1999, Hamza left ISIS and underwent a metamorphosis; he wrote "Saddam's Bombmaker" in which he made claims, including about his own role, which according to Albright “were just ridiculous.”
- Hamza, who had not been involved in Iraq’s nuclear program for nearly a decade, asserted that Saddam was within years, and possibly months, of developing a nuclear bomb.
Chalabi's people, including Francis Brooke were soon promoting the book in the media, and his claims soon found their way into Cheney's alarmist speeches about the imminent nuclear threat from Iraq. Reports Mayer:
- Hamza, who had been managing a gas station in Virginia prior to his association with Albright, began taking high-paying speaking engagements. A former Chalabi aide said that many of the defectors who had given hyperbolic accounts were “desperate” people; the I.N.C. offered them a financial lifeline, and, to grab it, “many bent their ethical standards.”
When no nuclear program was found after the war Hamza, according to Albright, was "told not to talk about this W.M.D. stuff.” Hamza returned to Iraq after the war and the Coalition Provisional Authority ensconced him in a top post in the Ministry of Science and Technology, with partial control of Iraq’s nuclear industry. Due to poor performance, frequent absenteeism and squabbles with colleagues the CPA did not renew his contract after just one year.
