Who is Dr. Rihab Taha ("Dr. Germ")?

Who is "DR. GERM"

The believed mastermind behind Iraq's bio-weapons program is thought to be Rihab Taha. Dr. Taha could be the grande dame behind what's going on now. She has been dubbed 'Dr. Germ' by western media. It is of some embarrassment to the UK Government, that after arriving in 1979 to study crop diseases, she took her Phd in plant toxins at the University of East Anglia between 1981-84.

In 1995, she admitted that a secret germ factory she set up near Baghdad had made thousands of gallons of anthrax and botulism, enough to kill millions thanks in part to her efforts when she returned to Iraq. Taha led a team that made germs causing victims' eyes to bleed and produced a bacteria that gave babies a deadly diarrhea.

U.N. inspectors believe Taha, who has a 5-year- old daughter, tests her poisons on human guinea pigs. Dr. John Turner, who once taught Taha biology, told London's Sunday Mirror: "It's a great shock, like finding your daughter has gone and done something dreadful." Military officials in Washington recently identified Taha as "the leading official in charge of Iraq's biological weapons program."

She is also politically well-connected. Her husband is Iraqi oil minister Amir Rashid Ubaydi, who helps direct the country's relations with the U.N. weapons inspection teams.

After years of denying that it even had a biological-weapons program, Iraq admitted in 1995 that it had produced 8,500 liters of concentrated anthrax and 19,000 liters of undiluted botulinum toxin. UNSCOM destroyed most of those supplies, but officials believe that Iraq hid four times as much anthrax and twice as much botulinum as was discovered. Iraq still has the best biological expertise in the region and experts agree that since UNSCOM left, Saddam has been aggressively stockpiling materials and converting his chemical weapons factories to underground production facilities in anticipation of a possible bombardment by U.S. and British forces for bioterror use.

A woman who, close to tears, finally admitted to Unscom that British-educated "Dr Germ", and the anthrax program, is still in place. One of the former leaders of Unscom, Richard Spertzel, now deputy director of the US bio-weapons research facility at Fort Derek, Maryland, believes that if Saddam was trying to manufacture a new generation of bio-weapons, it would be of global potency.

Before U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspectors were forced to pull out of Iraq in December 1998, the world knew what Iraq had. At least four tons of VX gas--a sulfurous compound that is among the most toxic chemical agents--were unaccounted for, as well as an estimated several hundred metric tons of the raw materials required to make Sarin and Mustard gas.

Chemical agents affect the nervous system, breathing centers, skin, eyes, nose, or throat. They include gases, liquids, sprays, and powders. They can be sprayed from airplanes, dropped as bombs, fired by artillery in explosive shells, or dispersed by land mines. Some chemical agents are not fatal, but cause temporary blindness or confusion and make their victims unable to fight. Nerve agents or poison gas, may be colorless, odorless, and tasteless. They cause death rapidly if the victim inhales them or if they are splashed on bare skin. A blister agent called Mustard Gas used during WWI caused 30 % of the casualties. Since World War I, chemical agents have not been widely used in warfare.