Iraq is set to hand secret service agents diplomatic posts in embassies abroad from the start of 2001 with the aim of spying on opposition figures living in exile, a newspaper reported Thursday.
According to Asharq al-Awsat, the powerful eldest son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Uday, has decided to dispatch the agents to embassies to "intensify information gathering on Iraqi opposition figures in exile".
Agents will be given posts as "first and second secretaries, commercial, cultural and press attaches in Iraqi embassies", the paper said, citing the "director-general of an Iraqi ministry".
The jobs were previously reserved for employees of the information, trade and higher education ministries, the London-published daily added – DUBAI (AFP)
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