Posted on 03/28/2003 1:02:18 PM PST by rface
The woman who U.S. intelligence officials say is a top Iraqi biological weapons scientist is a University of Missouri-Columbia alumna who was once issued a summons by campus police for disturbing a speech about Iraq and Iran.
Huda Amash received her doctorate from the MU microbiology area program in 1983, according to campus records. Yesterday, she was seen on Iraqi television with Saddam Hussein. The video recording of the meeting, which included other Iraqi leaders, was portrayed as current by Iraqi television, but U.S. officials said it was unclear when it was made.
Intelligence officials, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, said that one of those on the video was Amash, who is believed to have played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad’s biological weapons capability in the mid-1990s.
Amash’s 1983 doctoral thesis was titled "The Effects of Selected Free Radical Generating Agents on Metabolic Processes in Bacteria and Mammals." According to the paper, she was born on Sept. 26, 1953, in Baghdad and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Baghdad in 1975.
She came to America "on a scholarship from the Iraqi government to complete her graduate study" and earned a master’s degree from Texas Women’s University. She came to MU in the fall of 1979.
She dedicated the paper to her parents and also thanked her husband, Ahmed, and children, Zena and Sayf Al-Deen.
According to an MU police report, Amash was among a crowd of about 200 who on April 2, 1983, gathered in Allen Auditorium to hear a speaker discuss conflict between Iran and Iraq.
"I remember we were having trouble with a couple in the group," MU Police Maj. Jack Watring said this morning. "I think it was during the Iran-Iraq war and there were a couple in the group who disrupted it."
The report, which spells her name "Hoda Amash," says Amash began yelling and disrupting the speech and was removed from the auditorium. She then was issued a summons.
"Mrs. Hoda Amash was not cooperative," reads the last line of the report.
University payroll records say Amash was a graduate research assistant in the Dalton Research Center from June 1981 until she resigned Oct. 20, 1983. Her annual salary was $5,920.
Over the years, Amash has been cited in many news articles and a few books that mostly discuss the impact sanctions have had on Iraq. But the fact that she attended MU was apparently not common knowledge until NBC and CNN reported it last night. News reports all spell Amash’s name "Ammash," however MU records spell her name with only one ‘m.’ MU also lists her full name as "Huda Saleh Amash" while news reports from CNN and the AP give it as "Huda Saleh Mehdi Ammash."
Richard Finkelstein, who served as chairman of the microbiology department at the MU School of Medicine from 1979 to 1993, said he never heard of Amash until last night.
Finkelstein was quick to say this morning that Amash should not be referred to as having graduated from MU with a microbiology degree.
In the early 1980s, according to Finkelstein, MU had what was called a "microbiology area" where the medical school, the College of Veterinary medicine and other schools and departments contributed to educating students wanting to study microbiology but who couldn’t get accepted to a specific college’s program.
"The department of microbiology prides itself on its graduates," Finkelstein said. "I can’t say the same about the area program.
"If she graduated from the area program, I feel a lot better about" Iraq’s "weapons," Finkelstein added.
-Reporter Josh Flory and the AP contributed to this report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Nate Carlisle at (573) 815-1723 or
ncarlisle@tribmail.com.
I put this on "Breaking News", but the Moderators may feel that it does not belong there. Put this where it belongs...
Dr. Huda Amash, professor and the only woman in the Baath Party leadership, responsible for the development of the youth branches.
she is mentioned in this article
IRAQ: THE SECRETS OF DR GERM
But is Rihab Taha the banal genius of evil behind the biological-weapons program? Or was there someone else? Former inspectors interviewed by NEWSWEEK said they thought she was a front. "I always had the impression we never met the person who was really in charge," said chief biologist Spertzel. No inspector was sure who that was-or is. But they look to Taha's superiors and most intimate colleagues as possible candidates.
One is Abdul Nasser Hindawi, who may have recruited Taha even before she was sent to England to study in 1979. Hindawi supposedly authored a paper that persuaded Saddam to invest heavily in bioweapons development. Among his arguments: the relatively low cost of wiping out Israel. Although Hindawi's information would not be up to date (he was jailed four years ago), he could be a source of vital history if inspectors can find him, and if he is still alive.
Spertzel thinks another scientist may be very important now. Huda Amash, dean of the University of Baghdad's College of Science, is the only female named to the inner circle of Saddam's political elite, the Revolutionary Command Council. Former inspectors vividly remember trying to chase her down in 1997. Amash was "never where she was supposed to be," says Spertzel. During one visit to the College of Science, an inspector spotted a "student" dressed in lab coat and goggles who looked suspiciously like Amash-and was. After an extensive search of the lab, the inspectors found equipment and reagents that Amash had brought back from her travels abroad.
The man who headed the virus program in 1990, Hazem Ali, may also be of central importance now, says Spertzel. In March 1997, Ali left his position at the Razi Research Institute. He said he was taking a position as an instructor at Baghdad University's College of Veterinary Medicine, but when inspectors went to interview him there, employees at one point said he wasn't on the faculty, Spertzel recalls. Then the Iraqi government told inspectors that Ali had taken a teaching post at the university's College of Medicine. Another lie.
dep
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.