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'Dr Germ' and 'Mrs Anthrax' released from Iraqi jail 19/12/2005 - 12:48:51 Notorious Saddam-Hussein-era officials have been released from jail in Iraq and some have already left the country, an Iraqi lawyer said today. A legal official in Baghdad said between 24 and 25 top former officials in Saddam Hussein’s government have been freed, including Rihab Taha, known as Dr Germ, and Huda Salih Ammash, known as as Mrs Anthrax. The Iraqi lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref, said some of those released were his clients. “The release was an American-Iraqi decision and in line with an Iraqi government ruling made in...

US sets Saddam's scientists free Huda Ammash was educated in the US Eight former aides to Saddam Hussein - including two women accused of making biological weapons - have been released from US custody in Iraq. The freed detainees no longer pose a security threat, a US spokesman said. They include Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, nicknamed by the US "Mrs Anthrax" and Rihab Taha, also known as "Dr Germ". Reports have been circulating of a pre-election deal to free former regime figures in order to appease Iraq's Sunni Arabs, correspondents say. A US military spokesman in Baghdad said eight detainees...

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi lawyer said Friday that one of Saddam Hussein's former top scientists, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," has cancer and is dying in U.S. custody where she has been held for more than a year. A U.S. military spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq refused to comment on the report that Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash has cancer. "I am not able to discuss the health condition of our detainees," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson. "Certainly we have medical care available to take care of any detainee." Ammash, a top Baath party official and biotech researcher who got her...

The US has dismissed reports from Iraq's justice ministry that one of two female scientists held in a US-run prison was to be released. A US source told the BBC that both prisoners were in the physical and legal custody of the Americans and would not be freed imminently. Militants have reportedly killed two American hostages and are threatening to kill a third, Briton Kenneth Bigley. They had demanded the release of all Iraqi women held in US-run prisons. The US says it is only holding two women prisoners - Rihab Rashid Taha and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash - that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi authorities together with U.S. forces have decided to free one of only two high-profile women prisoners currently in American custody, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim, however, denied the decision was linked to a demand by militants who abducted two Americans and a Briton calling for the release of all female Iraqi prisoners. "The Iraqi authorities have agreed with coalition forces to conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail", Ibrahim said. "The decision ... has nothing to do with the threat made by the kidnappers," he said. Taha, a scientist who became...

<p>U.S. military forces in Iraq have taken custody of two key architects of Saddam Hussein's military machine: a microbiologist nicknamed "Dr. Germ" and the armed forces chief of staff.</p> <p>Rihab Rashid Taha, a top scientist with the Iraqi biological-weapons program, surrendered during the weekend after several days of negotiations with U.S. authorities, said Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command.</p>

Syrian intelligence, in a good-faith effort to boost cooperation with the United States in the war on terror, provided intelligence that resulted in U.S. forces taking custody of one of Iraq's top biological weapons scientists, administration officials said.U.S.-educated Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, popularly called "Mrs. Anthrax" and the only woman included in a U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqi officials, was taken into custody Monday by U.S. forces in Baghdad, after Syrian authorities revealed her location to U.S. officials, serving U.S. intelligence officials said.The capture comes in the wake of a visit last Saturday to Damascus by U.S. Secretary of...

SYRIA EXPELS LEADING IRAQI WMD SCIENTIST WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has captured one of the directors of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs who had been expelled by Syria. U.S. officials said coalition forces arrested the head of Iraq's biological weapons program. They identified the scientist as Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs. Anthrax, No. 53 on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted Iraqis. Ms. Ammash, whose husband, a senior aide to President Saddam Hussein, was captured last week, escaped to Syria in early April, officials said. They said her arrest came after strong U.S. pressure...

U.S. rounds up Chemical Sally WASHINGTON -- A top Iraqi scientist known as 'Chemical Sally' has been taken into custody, according to U.S. officials who say they suspect she has information about a banned biological weapons program. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, who has advanced degrees from two U.S. universities, was taken into custody Sunday, said a Defence Department official who had no other details. With Ammash's detention, 19 of the 55 Iraqis listed as the most wanted by U.S. officials have been reported captured. In a deck of playing cards with photos of the 55 that troops are using to...

IRAQ'S 'DR GERM' CAPTURED Coalition forces have captured one of Iraq's top biological weapons scientists. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, among the top 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, was taken into custody on Sunday, a US Defence Department official said. More follows... Last Updated: 15:31 UK, Monday May 05, 2003

Saddam's top WMD Scientist... The woman at Saddam's meetings... In Custody. updating the charts now.

<p>Huda Ammash, who is suspected of playing a key role in devising biological weapons for Saddam Hussein in Iraq, was arrested on a peace disturbance charge in 1983 at a lecture at the University of Missouri at Columbia while she was a student there.</p>

In a chilling signal to the Allies, the woman who runs Iraq's chemical warfare programme has been shown on TV at Saddam Hussein's war cabinet. Scientist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs Anthrax to Western intelligence, was sitting next to Saddam Hussein's son Qusay. The pictures, broadcast by Iraqi television, send a clear message to the West and increase fears that the Iraqi dictator is on the brink of using his weapons of mass destruction. The woman is the key figure behind Iraq's illegal weapons programme and helped rebuild his biological capibility after the Gulf war in 1991. But...

WASHINGTON, Mar 27, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A woman seen on Iraqi television Thursday meeting with Saddam Hussein is believed to be one of the regime's top biological weapons scientists, U.S. intelligence officials said. 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 on the condition of anonymity, said that the woman among the half-dozen men in the video is Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, believed to have played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's...