U.S. Pays to Retain Iraqi Scientists

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S.-led administration will spend $2 million to retain Iraqi scientists and engineers for rebuilding the country and stop them from selling their skills aboard, officials said Saturday.

Top scientists who earned thousands of dollars a month under Saddam Hussein's deposed regime now are being paid just hundreds, and some already have gone to Iran, Syria and Sudan, officials have said.

"The knowledge and skills of these individuals are one of Iraq's most valuable resources, and badly needed for the reconstruction of Iraq," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said in a statement Saturday.

"It is essential that we give them an opportunity and a source of income, not only to prevent them from being tempted to sell their services to the highest bidder, but to rebuild their country."
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The authority likened the program to one aimed at preventing Eastern bloc weapons scientists from selling their talents after the demise of the Soviet Union. It said involvement in Iraq's weapons development did not constitute a war crime.

Newsday