Secrets come out in mock debate

About two years ago, Saipan served as a debriefing area for a captured Iraqi scientist involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta revealed that the scientist actually stayed on the island for six months during a mock presidential debate Saturday night at Northern Marianas College.

The governor, who had been tight-lipped over Saipan’s “contribution” to the war on terror, disclosed the information in defense of President Bush’s Iraq strategy during the debate.

Babauta represented Bush in the college-organized mock debate.

“The scientist was debriefed here… I finally met this guy at the airport when he was about to leave the island. He cared to say ‘I love your island. You’re enjoying a wonderful freedom here and I love it,’” he said.

“We’re a fortunate people. We are enjoying freedom while some people can only dream about it,” the governor added.

During the debate, Babauta justified Bush’s military strategy in Iraq, noting that the President “wants to fight this war away from the homeland.”

“We are currently at war. Sometimes we forget it. President Bush wants to fight and fight this war away from the homeland,” he said.

Babauta’s statement about the capture of the scientist clarified his earlier statement about “Saipan’s role” on the war on terror.

When asked by reporters a year ago about his then upcoming meeting with Bush in February 2003, the governor said that the President knows Saipan very well for some reasons.

“President Bush is very much aware of where Saipan is for a number of reasons—reasons which I can’t disclose,” he had said.

“ I just need to mention the word Saipan and that’s where I’m from, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. He will know what I’m talking about,” Babauta had said.

The capture and debriefing of the scientist came before the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year.

Babauta declined to identify the scientist, saying he was called by a nickname.

“I forgot the nickname,” he said.

As of the middle of last year, the U.S. government said that it has captured 19 of the 55 Iraqi scientists listed as the most wanted by U.S. officials.

They were reportedly involved in the WMD program.

The U.S., however, has not found any solid evidence of WMD, which the Bush Administration cited as justification for the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Saturday’s mock debate, organized by the Current Issues class of NMC instructor Sam McPhetres, was also participated by NMC faculty Danny Wyatt, representing the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate John Kerry, as well as Election Commission executive director Gregorio Sablan, who represented independent candidate Ralph Nader. Both Wyatt and Sablan, as expected, criticized the Iraq war.

Except for Wyatt, Sablan and Babauta had taken issues based on their opinion, not necessarily on behalf of the candidates they represented.

Sablan, who had spoken against the war in Iraq, at one time agreed that U.S. forces’ presence in that country had brought “a glimmer of hope” for the country’s citizens.