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April 9, 2003

Augustana Speaker Once Directed Iraq's Nuclear Program

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Khidhir Hamza, an Iraqi defector once responsible for Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program, speaks at Augustana College on Thursday, April 24.

Hamza's talk, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Elmen Center, is sponsored by the Augustana Concert and Lecture Committee. Tickets for the general public are $2 in advance and $3 at the door. Tickets will be on sale at the front desk in the Morrison Commons on Thursday, April 17. Seating is limited.

The speaker is president of the Council of Middle Eastern Affairs in New York City. He is the author of “Saddam's Bomb Maker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda.” The book focuses on Hamza's role as the designer of Saddam's atomic bomb.

In 1994, Hamza defected to the United States after an astonishing escape over the mountains that took him through Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, and Hungary, where he was able to contact the American Embassy. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranged for his family's escape the following year. He is the only close advisor to Saddam to have lived to tell his amazing story.

“Saddam's Bomb Maker” explores territory to which Hamza's previous media appearances with the New York Times, 60 Minutes II, NBC Nightly News, Frontline, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered only alluded. The book describes the building of a nuclear weapons program from scratch and also provides an up-close and personal account of the Iraqi strongman and his inner circle. The author not only knew Saddam, he lived in the presidential compound in Baghdad for several years.

Through his writing and lectures, Hamza wishes to present the heinous activities and mentality that is at the core of Iraq under the influence of Saddam Hussein.