U.S. says ‘Dr. Germ’ surrendered in Baghdad

[Zero Signal]

Dr. Rihab Taha, the Iraqi scientist credited with starting her nation’s biological weapons program, has surrendered, military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Monday. Taha, who has become known as “Dr. Germ,” turned herself in to American forces in Baghdad after a week of negotiations, they said.

HER SURRENDER on Sunday came a week after another leading Iraqi scientist, Dr. Huda Ammash, was taken into U.S. custody.

However, Ammash — dubbed “Mrs. Anthrax” in the Western media — has so far failed to provide anything useful on Saddam Hussein’s weapons program, officials told NBC.

More than a month after the downfall of Saddam’s regime, evidence of his alleged biological, chemical and nuclear program has been elusive.

However, U.S. military teams searching for biological and chemical weapons have reported discovering three trailers believed to be mobile biological weapons laboratories capable of producing deadly germs for weapons, NBC News reported.

Taha is credited with starting Iraq’s biological weapons research while Ammash is believed to have converted her research into the program.

Taha was dubbed “Dr. Germ” by U.N. weapons inspectors after she was given the task by Saddam of creating an extensive and expensive stockpile of what the Pentagon described as “bug bombs.”

She was married to Gen. Amer Rashid al-Ubaidi, who was the chief Iraqi negotiators with U.N. inspectors. They have a 6-year-old daughter.

“There is no question that she was the driving force behind the Iraqi biological weapons program,” said Dr. Gordon Oehler, who ran the CIA’s Non-Proliferation Center during the 1990’s. “Until she came along, the program had neither the leadership nor the technical expertise.”

Separately, U.S. officials told NBC that the former head of the Iraqi armed forces was also in custody. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd Al-Sattar Muhammad al-Tikriti was denoted as the jack of spades in the deck of cards distributed by American officials to help find the 55 most wanted regime figures.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/897268.asp?0cv=CA01

[mburbank]

Sure, she has a super villian nickname, but how important could she possibly be when she doesn't even have a playing card assigned to her?

[Zero Signal]

I hadn't thought of that. :/

Maybe they should have used Uno cards since there are more in the deck that regular playing cards.

[kellychaos]

The deck needs some "SKIP" and "REVERSE" cards.