Iraqi Brig. Gen. Alaa “Saeed, perhaps the most senior weapons scientist to speak to a reporter since the war, says he would gladly accept a $200,000 reward U.S. officials here have quietly offered to anyone who can lead them to the poison gases, germ weapons and other illegal weapons that President Bush repeatedly insisted were secretly deployed in prewar Iraq. But Saeed said he cannot take them to what he insists no longer exists. ‘Their questions are the same as yours,’ he said. ‘ *Do you know of any documents or inventory of chemical agents? Any stockpiles? Any production programs? Any filled munitions? Do you have any idea where these weapons are?* I am ready to give them all the information I have. But the answer is always the same: *No, no, no.*’ ‘I tell them there are no hidden chemical or biological weapons,’ he said. ‘Maybe there is some other group, like the SSO [Hussein’s ruthless Special Security Organization] or the Mukhabarat [the Gestapo-like intelligence agency], who have done it. I don’t know. That is not my responsibility.’ ”
– Bob Drogin, “Iraqi ‘Chatter’ Threatens Use of Chemicals,” The Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2003