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Posted on 04/14/2003 5:11:18 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
A NORWICH trained Iraqi scientist – dubbed Dr Germ - is believed to have fled into hiding in Syria after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's reviled regime.
Dr Rihab Taha, who studied microbiology at the University of East Anglia, may have been among a group of high-profile scientists to have slipped across the border in recent days.
Intelligence agencies believe they might include Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, nicknamed "Mrs Anthrax" for her role in Iraq's biological weapons programme, as well Dr Taha.
The fleeing of officials linked to the Saddam regime comes as America stepped up its hunt by offering a multi-million-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of any other figureheads who feature on its list of the "55 most wanted".
Dr Taha took her PhD at the UEA biology department between 1979 and 1984. She recalled her time in the city as "happy days" during which she worked hard.
She left Norwich in 1984 telling colleagues she was to become a lecturer at the university in Baghdad and married Gen AmerRashid the man in charge of liaising with UN inspectors over the decommissioning of weapons after the Gulf War.
She has been called the world's "most dangerous woman" after being exposed as the head of Iraq's biological weapons programme until 1995.
Mike O'Brien, the junior Foreign Office minister, is expected to raise allegations that Syria has helped Iraqi fugitives when he visits Damascus this week.
US president George Bush today fired a warning shot across the bows of the Government in Syria, warning Damascus not to act as a safe haven for Saddam Hussein and his henchmen.
Mr Bush told the Syrians it is important that they do not try to undermine the coalition's efforts to finish off Saddam's regime.
"They just need to co-operate," Mr Bush told reporters in Washington.
"We expect co-operation, and I'm hopeful we'll receive co-operation,' he said after returning to the White House from his country retreat of Camp David.
Leading administration officials made clear that the administration was increasingly frustrated by Syria.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed leading members of Saddam's government had fled to Syria.
US forces captured one of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers in northern Iraq, and said he was planning to cross the border to Syria.
Earlier US Secretary of State Colin Powell, interviewed for BBC 1's Breakfast with Frost programme, cautioned: "We think it would be very unwise ... if suddenly Syria suddenly becomes a haven for all these people who should be brought to justice who are trying to get out of Baghdad.
"It seems to me that Syria would not find it in its interests ... (if) Syria would become a place of haven for people who should be subject to the justice of the Iraqi people.'
Mr Powell suggested that the course of events in Iraq would provide an example to other nations labouring under oppressive regimes.
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