Free Republic

A Shia nuclear scientist said to be close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is emerging as one of the frontrunners to become the new prime minister of Iraq. Hussain Shahristani spent a decade in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison for defying former dictator Saddam Hussein's command to turn his scientific expertise to the development of nuclear weapons. Lakhdar Brahimi, United Nations special envoy, and Robert Blackwill, a Bush administration official, are still finalising the composition of the new Iraqi government. Officials say that balancing the communal, religious and ethnic groups within the new government is proving difficult and fluid, and caution that...

May 26, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — The likely head of the new Iraqi government that takes power June 30 is a Shiite nuclear scientist jailed for years in Abu Ghraib prison for refusing to help Saddam Hussein make nuclear weapons, it was reported yesterday. The expected appointee is Hussain Shahristani, 62, a political novice close to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most powerful cleric, The Washington Post said. "If they consider my participation essential, I'll try to convince them otherwise. But if they're not convinced . . . I cannot refuse," Shahristani told the paper. Post Wire Services