Iraq's Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions

Rating:
Summary: The best unclassified view of Iraq's nuclear program, period
Review: "A reader's" review of June 25, 2004 has got it back to front.

First off, Khadduri's grasp of English is not colloquial, but it is far more than adequate for a work of this type.

Secondly, while his seperation from that program predate's Hamza, his information is far more detailed and credible. You see, Hamza, it would appear, was a CIA stooge. Not many people know that, and it took me quite some months to become convinced. But the next to the last straw was his disavowal, by people who had supported and trusted him publicly since his defection.

The last straw was Hamza's being co-opted by the CPA to work in occupied Bagdhad, reviewing Iraqi science and technology. Hiw work was so poor that the CPA sacked him, in mid-April of 2004.

It now appears that Hamza was not indeed the number two man in the Iraqi program. Instead, he seems to have been a mid-level functionary, who was terrified of radiation, and spent all of his professional time on the three-body problem.

Frankly, Khadduri's account is the best one you're going to find, outside of locked bookshelves in reading rooms for classified CIA documents.

Too bad it wasn't published a year earlier. If it had been, the United States might not now be involved in a futile and unwinnable war.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I must confess that it's been several months since I tried to read this book, so I can't provide details of why I found the work so distractingly awful. However, I can point out three serious flaws that would argue against ever wasting your time with Khadduri:
1) He left the program about ten years ago, meaning that he could provide no up-to-date information on Iraq's current WMD programs. The info of which he was aware prior to his departure was of interest, but mainly for historical reasons.
2) He weighted the book too heavily with personal trivia. If you want to hear intimate details of his American girlfriends, or his dabbling with the PLO and other discredited socialist movements, then dip right in. However, if you're looking for a dispassionate account of Iraq's WMD programs after the first Gulf War, then pass this one by.
3) He has no command of written English. The book is in dire need of editing by a native English speaker. There's not a page that goes by without a handful of howlers (I laughed aloud at the time he returned to Iraq with a dozen people in his toe, for instance). Mind you, I wish I spoke Arabic half as well as Khadduri does English, but I wouldn't think of publishing something in Arabic without asking an educated Arab at least to proof read what I had written. I could find no evidence that any English speaker of near native ability had seen this work before publication. Believe me, the language is so distractingly terrible that it makes reading this book a positive annoyance.
Overall, I give this book one star. A reader is much better off with "Saddam's Bombmaker."

Rating:
Summary: Iraq's Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions
Review: This book should have become more widely known. Many of our questions on WMD in Iraq would have been answered.

Imad Khadduri's book is a well written and detailed account of the beginings of Iraq's WMD program, and right through until the author finally got out of Iraq. However, he was an integral part of the weapons program for many years, unlike others, who have since been discredited. I first read this man's work on the internet version of Yellow Times and emailed him for more information as everything he said sounded so genuine. He replied courteously to me. His was a lone voice trying very hard to get the truth about the non-existance of WMD in Iraq in order to stop the plans for war, which was built around the lie that the WMD had not been found, even with the extensive searching of UNSCOM etc.

I would recommend this book as another source of information if we are ever to understand the true story of Iraq and the Western Powers' interest in it.