Khidir Hamza

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Khidir Hamza is an Iraqi scientist who worked for Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme in the 1980s and early 1990s. Following the Gulf War, he went into exile in the United States and provided evidence to Western intelligence agencies suggesting that Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programmes were active and ongoing.

Dr. Hamza first came to the United States in the 1960s, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Florida State University, obtaining degrees in nuclear physics. Upon his return to Iraq in 1970 he began work on nuclear research and nuclear weaponry. He has claimed that by 1987, he was in charge of Iraq's nuclear weapons programme, although this claim is disputed.

After the Gulf War, in response to Saddam Husseins increasing restrictions on scientists, Dr. Hamza left Iraq and defected to the United States.

In 2000 he coauthored the book Saddam's Bombmaker: The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon with Jeff Stein (ISBN 0-684-87386-9).

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002, Dr. Hamza stated that Iraq possessed more than ten tons of uranium, and one ton of slightly enriched uranium, which he claimed was enough to allow them to build three nuclear weapons by 2005. This testimony, and other statements by Dr. Hamza, were used by the United States government as part of their justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Dr. Hamza's credentials and testimony have been challenged by others who dispute his knowledge of Iraq's nuclear programme. Imad Khadduri, a former scientist with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, accused Hamza of exaggerating "to a great extent his own role in the nuclear weapon program." Hussein Kamel, son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, who defected to Jordan in 1995, described Hamza as "a professional liar." David Albright, a former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq, stated "Hamza had some good information about Iraqi nuclear programs until his departure from Iraq, but that's it." Scott Ritter, a long-time colleague of Albright, insists Hamza is a "documentable fraud."