Iraq’s Nuclear Suppliers May Never Be Named

Many specialists believe that the documents now in the hands of U.N. inspectors reveal the tawdry tale of companies and governments selling nuclear material and know-how to Saddam Hussein, but most of that story may remain hidden under present U.N. rules.

Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish diplomat who heads the U.N. commission that is trying to eliminate all of Iraq’s capacity to make weapons of mass destruction, said that the documents would not be made public. Instead, he said, a classified list of culpable governments and companies would be supplied to the Security Council.

Any government that asked for information about itself and its companies would receive details but not the entire list, Ekeus said. Governments that did not want to embarrass themselves need not ask for the information, or, if they did ask for it, they could simply refuse to make it public.

In a news conference Friday night, Ekeus said he recognized that this policy does not expose the nature of the problem of proliferation of nuclear weapons. He said his commission might have to reconsider. “That’s not the end of the story,” he said.

Many experts, hoping for a change in the policy, still looked on the documents as a treasure of information about the illegal commerce in the nuclear field.

For example, the records might prove that a company knew that its technology was being used by Iraq for weapons programs--even though officials of the firm signed written statements affirming its use for non-military purposes.

Moreover, said Gary Milhollan of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, the documents taken by investigators may provide the names of individual scientists--Iraqis or foreigners working in Iraq--who worked on Baghdad’s nuclear program. These scientists could be sought out and questioned about the details of the program.

But Ekeus said his commission did not intend to publish such names.

The Iraqi government, in fact, has insisted that publication of such names could expose such scientists to assassination by Israeli agents.

A Capitol Hill source said the documents may also provide new names of companies that helped supply weapons or technology to Iraq.