The Inspections Maze | csmonitor.com

As part of its monitoring mandate, the UN required that Iraq provide monthly records for Al Hakam, such as raw-materials orders, water-consumption data, and quality-control measures. The Al Hakam scientists obliged, but their accounting didn't add up.

"It was so embarrassing how they presented their science, because even mathematically it wasn't correct," says one UN inspector.

To try to get to the truth, inspectors conducted grueling interviews with Iraqi scientists in Baghdad hotels. Tucker says that this was an arduous process because the scientists were unable speak freely.

"Iraqi officials insisted on having a minder sitting in on all the interviews," he says. "People knew that they could be signing their death warrant if they said too much."

Mr. Spertzel says that the minders would make eye contact, gestures, and even coughing noises to keep scientists from revealing too much. Some scientists couldn't explain the details of their supposedly legitimate jobs. Others changed their stories midstream - one, notably, after strangely ducking under the table several times. Rihab Taha, head of Iraq's biology division, smashed a chair in frustration after a tough interview.

Despite the obfuscation, UN inspectors made several unsettling discoveries. For example, much of the equipment used at Al Hakam had been transferred from Salman Pak, a known bioweapons facility that was destroyed during the Gulf War. Inspectors also discovered that the entire biotech team at Salman Pak was now working together at Al Hakam.

Dual-use equipment and material found in Iraqi facilities. UN

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Orders from above?
Iraq was allowed to place three officials at the table whenever inspectors interviewed one of their scientists. The contingent of officials refused UNSCOM efforts to have them sit back from the interviewee.

While they may not have been told to lie, Spertzel believes Iraqi scientists were given guidelines from the Baghdad regime. In one instance, the Iraqis admitted to applying pressure on an interviewee. During two hours of UNSCOM interrogation, an Iraqi scientist divulged more than he should have. After giving him a short break, inspectors returned to find the interviewee trying to change his story. Spertzel says inspectors grew suspicious and asked all the Iraqis at the table whether they had coached him during the break. They denied it. The next day, however, when confronted about it in front of UNSCOM's chairman and Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz, the interview officials admitted to asking the interviewee if he was "really" recalling what he said.