Held: Iraq's Scientists

CORRECTION APPENDED

American and Iraqi authorities are deciding what to do with prominent Iraqi weapons scientists who were captured or turned themselves in after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. In March, the top CIA sleuth hunting for Saddam's missing WMD arsenal, Charles Duelfer, reported that some high-ranking scientists who feared prosecution by Iraq's new government were reticent with U.S. interrogators. But former Iraqi technocrats "tended to be quite cooperative," Duelfer said: "As far as the WMD investigation is concerned, there is no further purpose in holding many of these detainees."

Discussions about what to do with scientists still in detention are going on both inside the Bush administration and between Washington and Baghdad. Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said that "appropriate leadership" figures in D.C. were involved in the talks and the Pentagon was consulting with other U.S. agencies. Whitman said the review process was ...