Iraqi authorities have released a top official in Saddam Hussein's former regime because he is apparently terminally ill.| Make sure he dies soon. |
| Painful. I like that. |
| Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash | Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash | Iraqi Baath Party | Iraq | 20030507 |
| Iraq |
| UIA takes the lead in Iraqi election returns |
| 2005-12-20 |
| Preliminary election returns Monday showed Iraqi voters divided along ethnic and religious lines with a commanding lead held by the religious Shiite coalition that dominates the current government. Meanwhile, an Iraqi lawyer said at least 24 top former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime were freed from jail without charges. They included biological and chemical weapons experts known as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax." Violent demonstrations also broke out across Iraq and the oil minister threatened to resign after the government raised the prices of gasoline and cooking fuel by up to nine times. And a militant group released a video of the purported killing of an American hostage. Early vote tallies suggested disappointing results for a secular party led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a U.S. favorite who hoped to bridge the often violent divide that has emerged between followers of rival branches of Islam since the fall of Saddam. As expected, religious groups, both Shiite and Sunni, were leading in many areas â an indication that Iraqis may have grown more religious or conservative. Still, the ruling Shiite coalition â known as the United Iraqi Alliance and endorsed by Iraq's most prominent cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani â was unlikely to win the two-thirds majority, or at least 184 seats, needed to avoid a coalition with other parties. A senior official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the main groups in the United Iraqi Alliance, said the alliance was expecting to get about 130 seats. "The United Iraqi Alliance strongly believes that all the various components of the Iraqi people should participate in the decision making, including forming the upcoming government. This means that the new Iraqi government will be a national unity government," Redha Jawad Taqi said. The alliance is headed by cleric Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of the most powerful figures in the country. "It's going to be 'Let's Make a Deal," said Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "The important thing in some ways was that there was a large vote. The concerns that it would fall along ethnic and sectarian lines were validated." U.S. officials hope a coalition government involving Sunni Arabs will weaken a Sunni-led insurgency. Sunnis, a minority group favored under Saddam, voted heavily on Thursday after boycotting earlier elections. Preliminary results of Thursday's elections for the 275-member parliament from 11 provinces showed the United Iraqi Alliance winning strong majorities in Baghdad and largely Shiite provinces in the south. Kurdish parties were overwhelmingly ahead in their three northern provinces, while results from one of the four predominantly Sunni Arab provinces, Salahuddin, showed the Sunni Arab minority winning an overwhelming majority. In Baghdad province â the country's biggest electoral district â elections officials said the United Iraqi Alliance took about 59 percent of the votes from 89 percent of ballot boxes counted. The Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front â which includes some religious groups â received about 19 percent, and the Iraqi National List headed by Allawi, a secular-minded Shiite, trailed with nearly 14 percent. Results from southern Basra province, also mixed but predominantly Shiite, saw the United Iraqi Alliance significantly ahead, winning 612,206 votes with 98 percent of ballot boxes counted. Allawi's list was far behind in second with 87,134 votes, while the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front trailed with 36,997 votes. By comparison, the United Iraqi Alliance received less than 8 percent in Saddam's home province of Salahuddin, where 89 percent of the ballot boxes were counted. Allawi garnered about 10 percent. Most of the rest went to Sunni Arab groups. The elections played a role in the release from prison of the 24 or 25 officials from Saddam's government, said Badee Izzat Aref, the Iraqi lawyer who made the announcement. "The release was an American-Iraqi decision and in line with an Iraqi government ruling made in December 2004, but hasn't been enforced until after the elections in an attempt to ease the political pressure in Iraq," Aref said. Among the freed inmates were Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert, who was known as "Dr. Germ" for her role in making bio-weapons in the 1980s, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher, a legal official in Baghdad said. Ammash was number 39, or the five of hearts on America's most-wanted deck of cards list. She was captured on May 9, 2003. "Because of security reasons, some of them want to leave the country," he said. He declined to elaborate, but noted "some have already left Iraq today." Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, would say only that eight individuals formerly designated as high-value detainees were released Saturday after a board process found they were no longer a security threat and no charges would be filed against them. Neither the U.S. military or Iraqi officials would disclose any of the names, but the legal official in Baghdad said Taha and Ammash were among those released. The official, who asked not to be identified because of fear of retribution from former Baathists, said those released also included Hossam Mohammed Amin, head of the weapons inspections directorate, and Aseel Tabra, an Iraqi Olympic Committee official under Odai Saddam Hussein, the former leader's son. The violent protests over gas prices came after the Cabinet raised the prices of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas on Sunday to curb a growing black market. The price of a liter of imported and super gasoline was raised to 17 cents, which is a fivefold increase from previous prices. There are about 3.8 liters in a gallon, meaning the new price is about 65 cents a gallon. The price of locally produced gasoline was raised about sevenfold to about 12 cents per liter, or about 46 cents a gallon. In Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, police fired into the air to disperse hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the provincial government headquarters. The demonstrators, however, did not leave, and some scuffled with police. Protesters also briefly blocked the main road between Amarah, Basra and Baghdad. Drivers blocked roads and burned tires near fuel stations in the southern city of Basra, and hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated outside the governor's headquarters to protest the price increases. In Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, about 500 people demonstrated against the price hikes, giving a letter of protest to the city council to hand over to Cabinet ministers. |
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| Saddam-era figures freed in Iraq | |
| 2005-12-19 | |
| A number of former officials in Saddam Hussein's government have been released from detention by US forces in Iraq. The military has not named any of the detainees, some of whom have already left the country, legal officials said. "Many were originally held as suspects in possible war crimes and as material witnesses," said a US army spokesman. Reports have been circulating about a pre-election deal to free former regime figures in order to appease Iraq's Sunni Arabs, correspondents say. The number of prisoners released range from eight to 26, according to reports. A US military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt Col Barry Johnson, would only say that eight individuals had been released after they were deemed to no longer present a security threat. "They were released as part of an ongoing process for many months in full consultation with the Iraqi government," he added. But a legal official quoted by Associated Press said about 24 prisoners were released, and that they included Dr Rihab Rashid Taha and Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, who worked on the former regime's banned biological weapons programmes. Ribab Taha is known as "Dr Germ", and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash has been dubbed "Mrs Anthrax". Both are alleged to have worked on making biological weapons.
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| Bill Clinton: Saddam's Aides Mostly Good and Decent People | |
| 2005-11-17 | |
| Former president Bill Clinton praised Saddam Hussein's lieutenants and their underlings on Tuesday, saying they were mostly "good" and "decent" people." "When [the U.S.] kicked out Saddam, they decided to dismantle the whole authority structure," Clinton told an audience at American University in Dubai. "Most of the people who were part of that structure were good, decent people who were making the best out of a very bad situation," he added. While Clinton didn't name, names, Saddam's authority structure was dominated by his two murderous sons, Uday and Qusay, as well as notorious characters like Ali Hassan al-Majid, [aka Chemical Ali], Barzan al-Takriti, who ran the Iraq's brutal intelligence service, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who governed northern Iraq during chemical weapon attacks in the Kurds, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash [aka Mrs. Anthrax], who was a member of Saddam's Baathist National Command. Clinton offered praise for Saddam's lieutenants during the same speech where he criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq as "a big mistake." While that comment received wide coverage, only the United Arab Emirates Khaleej Times noted his description of Saddam's underlings as mostly good and decent.
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| Top Saddam Official Released | ||
| 2005-05-23 | ||
Iraqi authorities have released a top official in Saddam Hussein's former regime because he is apparently terminally ill.
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| US probes Saddam's prison photos |
| 2005-05-21 |
 The US is holding an inquiry into how photos of Saddam Hussein were leaked to UK newspaper the Sun, which has now printed more pictures of him. The US military vowed to "aggressively" investigate how the photos of Iraq's ousted leader appeared in the paper.After printing images on Friday of Saddam Hussein in his underpants and doing his washing, its Saturday edition pictured him behind barbed wire. The paper has defended its decision to publish the photos. It said they were obtained from a US military source. The Sun's new photos show Saddam Hussein fully dressed, in a white robe-like garment, in a prison compound. The newspaper also ran photos of two top members of the former Iraqi regime, who were identified as Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali" and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash dubbed "Mrs Anthrax". US President George W Bush said he did not think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq. "I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that's so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think." A statement from the US military on Friday said it was "disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare, and detention of Saddam would take and provide these photos for public release". The US military and legal experts also said the photos - possibly taken more than a year ago - may breach Geneva Convention rules on the humane treatment of prisoners of war. The conventions say countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from "public curiosity". Friday's photos showed the 68-year-old former leader with a moustache, rather than the beard he sported when he was captured in December 2003, and again when he appeared in court last July. The Sun's front page showed him wearing a pair of white underpants in his prison cell. Other pictures showed him washing his trousers, shuffling around and sleeping. The photos also appeared in the New York Post, which - like the Sun - is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Defending the decision to publish, the Sun's managing editor Graham Dudman said: "People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that's happened to him is someone has taken his picture," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "This is a sort of modern-day Adolf Hitler. These pictures are an extraordinary iconic news image that will still be being looked at the end of this century." |
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| Female Zarqawi lieutenant busted |
| 2005-03-12 |
 US troops have detained a female Al Qaeda member headed by Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, US military officials said on Friday. She is "someone who was picked up" within the last 30 days "and is part of the Zarqawi network. She is at Camp Cropper," Major General William Brandenburg, the head of US military detention operations in Iraq, said, adding that she was one of three females in custody. She is the only known female arrested who worked for Zarqawi's Organisation of Al Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers.The other two female detainees are Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr Germ" for helping Saddam Hussein make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biology researcher known as "Mrs Anthrax". The general said that if Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, was captured he would be in the US custody. "He would be ours, the coalition. We would detain him and the central court of Iraq would be the one that would prosecute him," Brandenburg said. On the other hand, Zarqawi's group vowed to defeat "infidels and apostates" in a statement published on the Internet Friday in response to a Madrid conference on terrorism. "We tell the infidels and apostates, the enemies of God: whatever you do, you will be defeated. God promised us victory," read the statement from the Organisation of Al Qaeda of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, the authenticity of which could not be verified. The Madrid conference, grouping former presidents and heads of state of democratic countries, on Friday presented the "Madrid Agenda", a series of recommendations aimed at combating terrorism. |
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| UN investigators want to interrogate Tareq Aziz on oil-for-food | |||
| 2005-02-07 | |||
 A UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme wants to interrogate one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, Tareq Aziz, his lawyer told AFP. Badie Aref Izzat said he expected to visit the former Iraqi deputy prime minister in the coming days and would advise him to demand he be questioned in a foreign country, possibly France.Oh sure. Iraq will let him go to France. Get real. "I have received many messages over the past 10 days from the head of the panel, Paul Volcker, asking me if Tareq Aziz would accept to be interrogated on the oil-for-food programme," Aref said. A damning interim report by Volcker's panel released on Thursday found Benon Sevan, who headed the programme, repeatedly asked for oil allocations from Saddam's regime. Aziz denies any wrongdoing under the oil-for-food programme, but is believed to be ready to name names in a scandal that now threatens UN chief Kofi Annan, as well as several leading figures and companies in France, Russia and other countries. Why was it you wanted to get him to France again? "He is a political man, he is very clever, he holds a lot of information on this issue and he will assess the benefits that can be derived," Aref said. "But I believe that his moral sense will prevail on his political instinct." Why his moral sense never kicked in before?
Aref said he believed he would be able to meet Aziz this week to pitch the idea of a meeting with UN investigators. "My client has four options. He can refuse to answer the questions. He can wait for the prosecution to decide on a release. He can demand the meeting be transferred to another country or he may decide to answer all the questions without conditions. "I think the best solution is to have this meeting in another country, like I am sure he would love to get out of jail and travel to any one of those countries to beat the death sentence he will get in Iraq. It's not happening. "I think France would be the most suitable place, as it was opposed to the invasion and it was also against the embargo," Aref explained. Why does France keep popping up again?
The only time he was allowed to see his client so far was for a six-hour meeting on December 23. Aref said Aziz had ruled out testifying against the former president then and would probably not change his mind. "He is not faithful to Saddam Hussein, he is just faithful to Iraq and for the moment his country is under occupation. All he told me was: 'When I am free, I will write a book about Saddam Hussein'," the lawyer said. Aref also said Aziz had urged him to plead for the release of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a woman captured in May 2003 and accused of being a leader of Saddam's alleged biological warfare programme. The scientist is dying of breast cancer, Aref said, warning the US and Iraqi governments that her case was now a "humanitarian emergency".
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| Iraq's 'Mrs. Anthrax' Has Cancer | ||
| 2005-01-01 | ||
 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.
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| A Close Look at Fallujah Insurgents' Lab | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-30 | |||||||||||||||||||
Sarah Whalen, sawhalen@xula.com.edu
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| Zarqawi wants Saddam's scientists freed to keep them from singing? |
| 2004-09-22 |
| It's Debka, you know the drill ... The dreadful moment - 2:44 am Iraqi time on Tuesday September 20 - when the Jordanian terrorist Musab al-Zarqawi applied a knife to the 53-year old American construction worker, Eugene Armstrong, from Hillsdale, Michigan, was meticulously recorded on one of al Qaeda's unspeakable videotapes for broadcast. US sound experts who checked the tape identified the voice reading the short statement before the "execution" as belonging to the masked man who dictated the terms for freeing all three hostages on the tape released soon after their capture, namely Zarqawi in person. The two remaining hostages, the American Jack Hensley and British Kenneth Bigley, now face the same dread fate as Armstrong within 24 hours unless Iraqi women prisoners are released from Baghdad jails. In the White House and 10 Downing Street, president George W. Bush nor prime minister Tony Blair are holding firm against surrendering to the demands of al Qaeda's operations chief in Iraq. But they are quietly questioning why Zarqawi attaches so much importance to securing the release of the only five Iraqi women left in American hands. Washington sources say the answer comes in two interrelated parts: 1. Zarqawi is smart enough not to pose wild ransom demands, such as the release of Saddam Hussein or top-flight Iraqi ex-generals like Chemical Ali Majid to buy the lives of hostages, because then, Bush and Blair's refusal would be fully backed by Western opinion. He is therefore setting the seeming inconsequential price of five Iraqi women. He reckons that if he keeps on snatching hostages and meting out the same barbaric treatment as he did to Eugene Armstrong on a series of videotapes, public pressure will build up and force the two Western leaders to put a stop to the savage slaughter by abandoning their dogged resistance to the hostage-takers' demands and setting the women free. Such surrender would then be hailed as a major triumph for the al Qaeda terrorist chief and augur a rising scale of increasingly steep demands. 2. The only five Iraqi women held by the Americans are a long way from being inconsequential. They include two senior scientists attached to Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program: Dr. Rihab Taha, a microbiologist known as Dr. Germ, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, head of his anthrax project and member of the Baath ruling command council. Syria handed the two women over to the Americans on April 28, 2003, together with Dr. Taha's husband, Gen. Amir Muhammed Rashed, director of Iraq's missile development program — as first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 107 five days later, on May 2, 2003. According to DEBKAfile's intelligence sources, Zarqawi has been tipped off that one of the two Iraqi scientists is on the point of breaking under questioning and spilling the beans on Saddam's WMD to her American interrogators. He therefore interceded by seizing the three Western hostages, either to gain her release or scare her into holding silent. Our sources also believe that Zarqawi has personal acquaintance going back five years with one or both the Iraqi women scientists. A poisons expert himself, the Jordanian terror master frequently passed through Baghdad in the years 1998 and 2002 on his way to the biological and chemical weapons laboratories made available to al Qaeda in the northern Iraqi town of Biyara. He may even have been supplied with equipment, materials and instruction manuals by those very women. The facility was located in an area controlled by Ansar al-Islam which it later transpired was an operational wing of al Qaeda. Zarqawi may be seeking their release so that they can be hired by al Qaeda to continue the biological weapons researches they performed for the deposed Iraqi dictator. In any case, their loss would put paid once and for all to the Bush administration's best chance of obtaining evidence to prove Saddam Hussein was running an active banned weapons program. Outside Iraq, the argument over Saddam's weapons of mass destruction may have ended in favor of the gainsayers; not so on the battlefields against the terrorists. |
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| Iraq |
| Whoâs accounted for from the deck? |
| 2003-12-15 |
| The 55 most-wanted Iraqis and their status, according to U.S. Central Command. Forty-two have been captured or killed and 13 remain at large. Captured or killed: * No. 1: Saddam Hussein, president. Captured Dec. 13.Still at large: * No. 6: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman, longtime Saddam confidant. |
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| Iraq |
| Most Wanted Iraqis Bagged as of 7 May |
| 2003-05-07 |
| Ask and ye shall receive: Twenty of the 55 wanted members of Saddam's inner circle are in custody. One other was reported killed. Drumroll, Please! - No. 10 Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti, who headed Iraq's air defenses under Saddam. Queen of diamonds. - No. 16 Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish, director of the Office of Military Industrialization and a deputy prime minister in charge of arms development. Ten of hearts. - No. 18 Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, former member of Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council and central Euphrates regional commander. Played key role in brutal suppression of Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991. Queen of spades. - No. 21 Gen. Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib, former head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence. Seven of hearts. - No. 24 Samir Abd al-Aziz al-Najim, senior figure in Saddam's Baath Party. Four of clubs. - No. 32 Ghazi Hammud, Baath regional chairman in the Kut district. Two of hearts. - No. 40 Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, Saddam's son-in-law and deputy head of the Tribal Affairs Office. Nine of clubs. - No. 41 Mizban Khadr Hadi, appointed commander of one of four military regions Saddam established on the eve of the war. Nine of hearts. - No. 42 Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf, only Kurd among Saddam's hierarchy and one of Saddam's two vice presidents. Nine of diamonds. - No. 43 Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister. Eight of spades. - No. 44 Walid Hamed Tawfiq al-Tikriti, former governor of Basra province and member of Saddam's clan. Eight of clubs. - No. 45 Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi, finance minister and deputy prime minister. Eight of diamonds. - No. 47 Amer Mohammed Rashid, oil minister and a former general who led Iraq's top-secret missile program. Six of spades. - No. 48 Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih, former trade minister. Six of hearts. - No. 49 Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, national monitoring director. Six of clubs. - No. 51 Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother. Five of spades. - No. 52 Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, another half brother of Saddam. Five of clubs. - No. 53. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a top biological weapons scientist known as "Mrs. Anthrax" and the only woman on the list. Five of hearts. - No. 54 Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Gafar, Iraq's minister of higher education and scientific research. Four of hearts. - No. 55 Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi, who officials say led Iraq's unconventional weapons programs. Seven of diamonds. Reported killed: No. 5 Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" and the "Butcher of Kurdistan" for his role in a 1987-88 campaign in which chemical weapons were used to kill tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq. King of spades. No sign of Sammy & Sons, Inc. I have not heard anything about if any body parts came out of that Baghdad crater. |
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