Posted on 12/09/2002 8:08:02 AM PST by Wallaby
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
"World's most dangerous woman" heads Iraq's weapons programme
Channel NewsAsia
December 9, 2002 Monday
The name Rihab Rashida Taha may not be familiar to many, but she has been dubbed the world's most dangerous woman for heading Iraq's biological weapons programme.
Her name comes second only to her boss -- Saddam Hussein -- on the US list of Middle Eastern enemies. Born in Iraq in 1956, Dr Taha travelled to the United Kingdom in the late 1970s to pursue a PhD in microbiology.
The woman, nicknamed "Doctor Germ" by UN inspectors, then admitted the factory made enough anthrax and botulinum to kill millions.
The powerful yet elusive scientist became Production Chief of Iraq's Biological Warfare Programme, and is believed to be behind the manufacture of an estimated 10 billion doses of deadly viruses and bacteria.
That is enough lethal germs to kill every human on the planet.
But Iraq denies that it had such capabilities.
When UN weapons inspectors first arrived after the Gulf War, Dr Taha told them only a tiny number of biological weapons had been produced, and all had since been destroyed.
The inspectors however did not believe her.
She kept mum about one secret germ warfare factory she supervised at Al Hakam which was detroyed by UN weapons inspectors.
She claimed it made chicken feed.
But it became more difficult to lie when President Saddam's son-in-law defected and told how Dr Taha had worked on previously unknown forms of germ warfare.
The woman, nicknamed "Doctor Germ" by UN inspectors, then admitted the factory made enough anthrax and botulinum to kill millions.
Little has been heard of Dr Taha since the UN inspectors left Iraq in 1998.
And much like the woman at the helm, Iraq's biological weapons programme is the most feared and least understood of the country's weapons of mass destruction.
Mind reader!
Normally, perhaps, but the warning is only mandatory if the piece puts her in anything but an unfavorable light.
Already there are unconfirmed reports that some scientists or their families are interned in special camps. The reputed founder of Iraq's bioweapons program, Abdul Nasser Hindawi, was jailed in 1998 for allegedly trying to defect. And the most famous of all, the woman known as Dr. Germ, Rihab Taha, is supposed to have retired. But the human shell game Saddam has played with his scientists in the past is his most complex gambit. Former inspectors know he created a complex web of lies and fictional relationships to deceive them."The Secrets of Dr. Germ," Christopher Dickey and Colin Soloway; With Rod Nordland in Amman and Dan Blumenthal in New York, Newsweek, December 9, 2002.
Among scientists the inspectors want to question are Dr Rihab Taha, a biological weapons expert known as "Dr Germ" who is now described as a Baghdad housewife, and Hazem Ali, a virologist who was said to be no more than a university tutor in 1998." Iraq hides key weapons staff to thwart UN ," DAVID WASTELL AND INIGO GILMORE in Jerusalem , Sunday Telegraph, December 8, 2002.
Scott Ritter, a former UNSCOM inspector tasked with controlling Iraqi weapon stocks, believes there's no point in trying to find biological or chemical weapons in Iraq. He claims that UN anti-proliferation officials should look instead at just one person, Rihab Taha Al Azoui, the head of the regime's biological weapons program. Called "Mrs. Germ" by her critics, she is married to oil minister gen. Amer Rachid. Aged 48, and born into a wealthy family in Baghdad, she joined the Baath party at early age. After graduating with a chemistry degree, she was given a scholarship by the education ministry to study for a PhD in the United Kingdom. Living in that country for a number of years, she followed courses dispensed by John Turner, her research tutor. A renowned biologist, he suggested she conduct a survey on the damage caused by the fermentation of mushrooms in cereals. She won her PhD with her dissertation in London in 1984 and decided to return to Baghdad. But at the time war was raging between Iraq and Iran and Saddam Hussein's regime was looking for an alternative to nuclear weapons following the Israeli air force's destruction of the Osirak reactor in 1982. Al Azaoui was chosen to head a research team in the biological field. She came into possession of dangerous viruses from the Pasteur Institute in Paris at the ATCC in Atlanta. One of her first facilities, the El Hakam laboratory in the southern suburb of Baghdad, was destroyed by U.S. bombs. Al Azaoui lives at present with her husband and their eight-year-old daughter in the wealthy El Mansour district of Baghdad. The CIA and MI6 take a strong interest in her."Rihab Taha Al Azoui (Iraq)," Intelligence Newsletter, WHO'S WHO; N. 401, March 8, 2001.
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.