Global Policy Forum

The US-British coalition occupying Iraq on Wednesday urged Iraqis to come forward with any information about banned weapons programmes and offered "generous rewards". Having failed to come up with proof to support the main justification for invading Iraq, the coalition broadcast by radio the appeal for help from "honourable Iraqis". People were asked "to supply any information in their possession about these weapons" of mass destruction.

"Generous rewards await (those who provide) any information on the whereabouts of components, products or equipment used to develop, process, produce or maintain weapons of mass destruction," the report said. "This includes laboratory equipment and computers or any document relating to the planning, purchase, sale, export, storage, maintenance or use of weapons of mass destruction," the radio announced. Al-Manar newsaper, a new independent daily, said the ward was up to 200,000 dollars.

The appeal also covered "any person having taken part in the development or use of arms of mass destruction" as well as "any site having served for the production or manufacture of such weapons." Any informers were ensured anonymity. Washington and London insisted before launching the war that Iraq was developing banned weapons and put up satellite pictures of sites and intelligence reports to back up the claim. But despite occupying the country for more than 40 days and a host of alerts and tips, nothing substantial has been made public and the international community remains sceptical.

Iraq repeatedly denied the allegations. Saddam Hussein's scientific adviser General Amer al-Saadi surrendered to coalition forces on April 12, three days after the war ended and insisted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. The former head of Iraq's biological warfare program, Rihab Rashid Taha, known as "Doctor Germ," was held by US forces earlier this month, again raising hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt for prohibited arms. Taha shared the distinction as leader of Iraq's biological warfare program with Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a US-trained microbiologist, dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax," captured at the start on May.

Also in US hands is Taha's husband, Amer Mohammad Rashid, a former oil minister and top weapons adviser to Saddam, who surrendered April 28, and Hossam Mohammad Amin, an army general who was head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate and chief liaison to UN weapons inspectors. The Pentagon, which has preferred to search for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction itself, has until now blocked the return of UN arms inspectors who were charged before the war with ridding the regime of weapons of mass destruction.

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