Scientist To Be Iraqi Premier

According to Reuters:

The United Nations is expected to pick Hussain Shahristani, a Shi'ite nuclear scientist who spent years in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein, as premier of a new interim Iraqi government, U.S. sources said on Tuesday.

I don't know what to make of this. Does anyone know anything more about Shahristani?

UPDATE: From the February 23, 2003 edition of Austrailia's Sunday. Reporter Jana Wendt interviews Dr. Shahristani:

Dr. Shahristani was the chief of the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission. For refusing to help Saddam develop his weapons of mass destruction he was tortured and thrown into jail for more than a decade. Dr. Shahristani eventually escaped from Iraq in 1991, during the chaos following the Gulf War.He maintains a network of contacts inside Iraq.

Dr. Shahristani also authored this piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for early elections in Iraq.