'Vegetating in Solitude'

摘要

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Gen. Amer al-Saadi was the ubiquitous voice and face of Iraq's scientific establishment. An urbane, white-haired fig-ure who spoke impeccable English, he famously challenged Britain and the United States to provide "one single [shred of] concrete evidence to support" claims that Iraq was hiding unconventional weapons. "I have always told the truth about these old programs," Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser said in an interview with German TV last April. "The future will show it." After surrendering to U.S. forces on April 12, al-Saadi was jailed, interrogated by the CIA and declared a prisoner of war. But his line on WMD never changed, and now-following declarations by former weapons inspector David Kay-it seems that al-Saadi was indeed telling the truth. "I'm still vegetating in solitude," al-Saadi wrote to his wife last month. "[I feel] degraded."