Doll
Commander
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: The Beltway
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 Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:37 pm Post subject: US freeing Saddam's 'Dr. Germ' and 'Mrs. Anthrax' |
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This is just appauling! 
| Quote: | US freeing Saddam's 'Dr. Germ' and 'Mrs. Anthrax'
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq are freeing "Dr Germ and "Mrs. Anthrax," two of Saddam Hussein's leading biological warfare experts, following the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, lawyers said on Monday.
Partial results from last week's parliamentary elections suggested that Shi'ite Islamists would hold on to their dominant position in Iraqi politics. And bomb attacks in three cities signaled an end to a lull in violence during the vote.
The two weapons experts, British-trained microbiologist Rihab Taha and U.S.-educated genetic engineer Huda Ammash, were captured by U.S. forces in May 2003 after Saddam was ousted.
The women admitted working on Saddam's biological and germ warfare projects but said such weapons were destroyed long before the U.S. invasion.
Baghdad lawyer Badia Aref said Taha and Ammash were among 26 senior detainees in the process of being released. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said eight "high-value detainees" had been freed on Saturday, and were among 27 senior prisoners judged to be eligible for release.
The U.S. State Department said Taha was released because U.S. forces could not justify keeping her as a security threat. "Her internment was no longer necessary for imperative reasons of security," State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said.
"She has been fully screened. We do not believe she is linked to terrorists or other violent actors in Iraq."
The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, as well as the stubborn insurgency and rising U.S. death toll, have dented U.S. public support for the war and for President George W. Bush. This month, Bush acknowledged that mistakes were made, but insisted the decision to invade Iraq was still correct.
"It wasn't a mistake to go into Iraq," Bush told a year-end news conference. "It was the right decision to make. I think that there's going to be a lot of analysis done on the decisions made on the ground in Iraq ... History will judge."
ANGRY PROTESTS
Hundreds of angry Iraqis staged protests as the government hiked fuel prices to bolster an economy battered by war, sanctions, under-investment and widespread violence. The new administration that emerges after post-election horse trading will need to urgently confront anger over slow reconstruction.
The level of violence has risen since the successful and largely peaceful poll on December 15, the first parliamentary election since the war in which Sunni Arabs voted in strength.
In the latest attacks, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy carrying an Iraqi police colonel in Baghdad. Two civilians were killed by the blast, which left the smoking wreckage of eight cars strewn across a street. The colonel, two bodyguards and five civilians were wounded.
In another district, gunmen fired on the convoy of Baghdad's deputy governor Ziyad al-Zawbai. Three of his bodyguards were killed and Zawbai was wounded.
Attackers set off bombs in Basra, Iraq's second city, wounding three bodyguards of an adviser to the defense minister, and in Miqdadiya, 90 km (56 miles) northeast of Baghdad, wounding four civilians.
Insurgents released an Internet video they said showed the killing of U.S. hostage Ronald Schulz. The video was posted 11 days after the kidnappers said they had killed him because the U.S. government had failed to meet its demands, including the release of prisoners in Iraq.
The video showed a gunman firing repeatedly into the back of a blindfolded man kneeling on the ground.
Another Western hostage, 43-year-old archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, was safe in Baghdad after being released, officials said. She had been seized on November 25.
At least six other Western hostages -- two Canadians, two Americans, a Briton and a Frenchman -- are believed to be held in Iraq. Their fate remains unknown.
SHI'ITES DOMINATE AGAIN
Partial results from the election suggested the government tasked with taming the violence will be dominated again by Iraq's main Shi'ite Islamist coalition, at odds with Washington over human rights and ties to Iran.
The coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, may hold on to a slim parliamentary majority despite a big turnout by minority Sunni Arabs who boycotted the last election in January.
The alliance has been criticized by U.S. officials for its record in government this year and by Sunni Arab rebels who accuse it of backing sectarian militias.
The partial results showed the alliance had won 58 percent of the vote in Baghdad against just 14 percent for former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who had been expected to mount a stronger challenge in the capital.
In its southern heartland, site of some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines, the UIA appeared to have swept the board, and in one province, Maysan, it took over 20 times more votes than its nearest rival. |
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