Some Europeans Inside Iraq Are Not Hostages, U.S. Investigators Say : Technicians: A number of foreign nationals may actually be working voluntarily to keep key facilities operating.

In apparent defiance of international sanctions against Iraq, a number of Europeans portrayed as hostages in Baghdad actually are technicians working voluntarily to keep Iraq’s weapons facilities and other key industries operating, American investigators now suspect.

Although the number of foreign nationals involved is believed to be small, investigators said they are helping to maintain key facilities, including Iraq’s main chemical-weapons plant. Some are Germans who appear to be moving in and out of Iraq freely through Jordan.

The suspicions are based, in part, on accounts provided by freed hostages who have reported seeing Europeans at work, apparently voluntarily, at strategic sites where “human shields” have been held to deter a possible U.S.-led military strike.

The critical assistance poses a threat to the effectiveness of the U.N. embargo against Iraq and is a source of particular frustration to U.S. officials eager to find a way to stop the workers.

German federal prosecutors confirmed that they are investigating 20 to 30 cases involving companies and individuals believed to be providing illegal services and commodities to Iraq.

“We suspect there are Germans who indeed may be doing things they are not supposed to be doing,” said a Bonn official who spoke on condition that he remain anonymous. “We can’t do anything to stop them if they are over there already. We can’t exactly shoot their families or confiscate their property here.”

Former hostages have reported that as recently as last month that some Germans were seen working at a cannon factory north of Baghdad, while others have been working at Iraq’s main chemical-weapons plant in Samarra.

The evidence indicates that other foreign nationals, including Brazilians and Japanese, may be assisting Saddam Hussein’s regime under the guise of being held hostage, a congressional investigator said Thursday.

When he appeared Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State James A. Baker III was asked privately by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to contact the German and Brazilian governments about the status of their nationals in Iraq.

In testifying before a House committee that day, CIA Director William H. Webster said the sanctions have curtailed Iraq’s imports and exports substantially. But he acknowledged that most vital industries are still operating and that some goods are being smuggled into Iraq.

“What little leakage has occurred is due largely to a relatively small number of private firms acting independently,” Webster said.

Many Western businesses provided technology and expertise to Iraq before the invasion of Kuwait.

For instance, a congressional panel reported Thursday that the Commerce Department has approved sales of $700 million worth of sensitive equipment to Iraq in recent years, including more than 20 shipments of biological agents. Although the agents could be intended for medical purposes, they also could be used to develop biological weapons.

By far the largest suppliers of Iraq in recent years have been the Germans. A recent Senate report identified 68 German firms involved in the sale of military-related goods to Iraq. The Germans routinely provided workers to operate the equipment.

The German government source said the number of German workers who have stayed behind in Iraq is between 10 and 20, and that all “had a chance to get out but decided to stay.” However, spokesmen for the chancellor’s office and the Foreign Ministry in Bonn both said they had no knowledge that Germans still in Iraq are supporting the production of chemical weapons.

A chancellery spokesman said that there are 15 Germans still in Iraq, all married to Iraqis, and that none want to leave. The Foreign Ministry spokesman put the number at 10 and said they will be coming home in the next few weeks.

One recently released German hostage, Manfred Ritschel, said in an interview that he heard secondhand of Germans working for the Iraqis at one “human shield” site, a steel plant north of Baghdad used to manufacture cannons.

“When I was shifted from Samarra to the atomic research plant, I met some American and English hostages who told me, ‘You should have been at this other prison where we were--then you could have spoken with some of your countrymen who were working there,’ ” said Ritschel.

He said he was aware of chemical production at the Samarra site when he was held there.

“We could smell the stench every day when they took us outside to go to the dining area,” said Ritschel. “I used to live near a chemical factory in Germany where there were emissions once or twice a day, and I know a chemical smell.”

He said he did not see any workers or hear anyone speaking German or English. Other reports have indicated, however, that foreign workers are being used at the Samarra facility.

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported this week that a returned hostage saw German experts working at a military research center in Mosul, which is equipped with a large amount of German machinery.

The congressional investigator said that Brazilians are believed to be working at the Mosul site and that Japanese employees of a nuclear-fuel reprocessing firm also are suspected of working in Iraq.

When Ritschel was released in mid-November and flew back to Germany, he said a group of two dozen or so Germans aboard the plane apparently had not been hostages. He said they were the only ones who did not join in the party during the flight home.

“One guy was working up to the last day on a pipeline in the north,” he said. “Nobody on the plane mentioned anything about anybody being forced to work.”

Frantz reported from Washington and Jones from Bonn.