Party Youth & Trade Bureau Chairman
Status: In Custody
No. 53 on the list of 55 most wanted Iraqis
Posted on 05/15/2003 1:36:34 PM PDT by rface
Saying there’s no evidence linking her to weapons of mass destruction, a publishing company is criticizing the detention of the University of Missouri-Columbia graduate accused of aiding Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime.
Huda Salih Mahdi Amash was taken into custody by coalition forces May 4. A U.S. Central Command news release issued after her capture described Amash as "a Ba’ath Party Regional Command member and weapons of mass destruction scientist. She is No. 53 on the U.S. Central Command ‘Iraqi Top 55’ list." But Andrew Dwinell, the co-publisher of South End Press, says United Nations weapons inspectors do not believe Amash aided in the production of biological weapons or other weapons of mass destruction and that Amash’s detainment is politically motivated.
"There hasn’t been any credible reason linking her to any weapons of mass destruction," Dwinell said yesterday in a telephone interview from his Massachusetts office.
South End publishes scholarly books from such fields and national and international politics. In 2002, the admittedly left-leaning firm published "Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War." The book contains an article by Amash blaming the United States for high levels of cancer and childhood diseases in Iraq. The article claims the disease rates are a result of America dropping bombs with depleted uranium shells during the ’91 Gulf War.
Dwinell claims it’s Amash’s criticism of the United States that has motivated her detention.
The illness rate is "an added cost of the war that the U.S. government is definitely trying to downplay," Dwinell said.
In an article that appeared Tuesday on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Website, Hiro Ueki, a spokesman for the U.N.’s inspection division, said inspectors interviewed Amash during the 1990s. Ueki told the publication inspectors "did not find any direct evidence that would link" Amash "to a biological weapons program."
The spokesman went on to say the more recent inspection team did not find any "clear evidence to link her to a biological weapons program."
"Having said that, we don’t know the full truth about her," Ueki added.
Amash graduated from MU in 1983 with a doctoral degree from the microbiology area program. She went on to serve as dean of the University of Baghdad. It’s been reported that, in 2001, she became the first woman to serve as a Ba’ath Party committee member.
MU records spell Amash’s last name with one "m," but press reports and "Iraq Under Siege" spell it with two.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Qatar said yesterday the military had no update on Amash’s status nor anything to add to the news release it issued after her capture.
Dwinell claims Amash’s detention violates the terms of the Geneva Convention’s guidelines for the treatment of prisoners. Dwinell claims the convention requires governments to declare whether those in their custody are a prisoner of war but that the United States has made no such declaration regarding Amash.
"They aren’t saying why" she’s being detained, Dwinell said. "They’re calling her ‘Mrs. Anthrax’ and saying the reason she is dangerous is because she can make weapons of mass destruction."
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Reach Nate Carlisle at (573) 815-1723 or ncarlisle@tribmail.com.
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