People: Karen Jansen

KAREN JANSEN: KEEPING SADDAM HUSSEIN HONEST

Since the Gulf War, the allies have tried to check Iraq's production of weapons of mass destruction. But their efforts have been frustrated by a recalcitrant Saddam Hussein. Slowly but surely, however, despite massive intimidation, the U.N. team has been winning the battle--thanks in large part to Maj. Karen Jansen, '78, a weapons expert on loan from the U.S. Army.

During Desert Storm, working with Gen. Norman Swartzkopf at Central Command in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jansen organized the U.S. defense against chemical and biological warfare (CBW). 'I returned in May, 1991,' she recalls. 'I was on vacation in Myrtle Beach, when the call came (to head the U.N. inspection team).'

Karen promptly accepted, becoming chief inspector of four multinational CBW teams. Since then, after dozens of trips to Iraq and appearances on CNN, Jansen concludes, 'Iraq has played a shell game. They said they had no nuclear weapons, no chemical and biological weapons. They lied on all counts.'

For example, despite denials, Jansen's inspection team found 100 machine tools specifically designed to make bombs at a sugar factory in Mosul. 'In addition, chemical weapons were dispersed throughout for hiding,' she notes.

She also uncovered nuclear material hidden in a petro-chemical factory, plans to develop a nuclear bomb, and other weapons hidden in the desert. The scariest moment took place at the Ministry of Agriculture, which refused U.N. entry to inspect SCUD-related documents. 'Four of five times during that confrontation we reached the brink of war,' she says.

Karen attributes much of her success to MSU, where she studied microbiology and became a distinguished military graduate. 'I visited one summer to present a science paper and I fell in love with the campus,' she recalls.

She attended MSU despite receiving 'a full scholarship from another university in the state.'

After MSU, she was assigned as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne and then commanded a 280-troop company in Hanau, Germany. She and her husband John, also an Army major, live in Maryland and enjoy their work. As she told her mother during Desert Storm, 'You have no idea how exciting it is!'