Mrs. Anthrax – Member of ‘Iraqi Top 55’ Out of Play

 

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar – Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash was taken into the custody of Coalition forces last week. She was 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.

The high ranking female scientist known as "Mrs. Anthrax" is believed to have had a lead role Iraq’s biological warfare programs. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, incredibly was educated in the United States.

Ammash, was the only female on the U.S. list of the 55′ ‘most wanted’ Iraqis headed by Saddam Hussein and the Coalition considers her arrest a major catch as she reportedly has a legacy within the regime of creating the world’s most feared biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

A U.S. official said, "This would be very important to the coalition in their ability to get additional information about the scope of the [biological warfare] program."

U.S. Admiral Jacoby said of the search for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction: "This is piecing together a major jigsaw puzzle, and we’re only just beginning to gain insights and to work the puzzle." Jacoby added, "Actually, I remind myself more often that we’re dealing with a regime that was expert at hiding things, very practiced at it."

In a note of optimism in uncovering the depth and extent of the Iraqi programs of WMD through regime members such as Ammash, U.S. Secretary Defense Rumsfeld told Tony Snow of FoxNews,"We’re going to find what we find as a result of talking to people."

However, this week U.K. and U.S. officials are investigating a tractor trailer that was discovered by Coalition forces and is very similar in configuration to mobile biological agent labs that UK and US intelligence had discovered prior to the war from various intelligence avenues including Iraqi scientists.

The AP is reporting that the tractor trailer contained a fermenter, gas cylinders to supply clean air for production and a system to capture and compress exhaust gas to eliminate any telltale signature — a function not normally used for legitimate biological processes.

Ammash in the past had been highly visible, being seen on television with Saddam in what appears to be meetings with his most trusted staff. Reportedly, Ammash would make an entrance that involved deliberately walking or stomping on flags of the U.S., Israel and other democratic free nations.

Born in Baghdad Ammash completed graduate studies in the United States in the areas of science that later would enable her to be useful in Iraq’s WMD programs. After graduating from the University of Texas College for Women in the late seventies, in 1983 she gained a doctorate from the University of Missouri.

Afterwards, Ammash returned to Iraq where she reportedly developed a legacy within Saddam’s regime for her aggressive work in the area of microbiology and her contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction.