Woman from Mizzou is Iraqi bio-weapons scientist, say feds

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Professor Olen Brown knew her as the daughter of an Iraqi diplomat, a "bright, diplomatic, very intelligent" student whose doctoral dissertation in molecular biology he supervised two decades ago.

So the retired University of Missouri-Columbia professor was "extremely distressed" Friday by news reports naming his former student, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, as one of Saddam Hussein's top biological weapons scientists.

U.S. intelligence officials said she is believed to have played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's biological weapons capability since the first Gulf War.

"You are always pleased when your students progress and are appointed to a professorship or make some committee or council, but the difference in this case is obvious," Brown said. "I had no basis for thinking she wasn't as normal and moral and altruistic and dedicated as many of my students, and I am extremely distressed."

U.S. intelligence identified Ammash after she was seen on television Thursday meeting with Saddam, the only woman among about a half-dozen men. It was not known when the meeting happened nor what was the significance of her visibility on camera.

Ammash, 49, spent four years at the Columbia campus in pursuit of her doctorate in microbiology, which she received in December 1983. She had earlier received a master of science in microbiology from Texas Woman's University, a state school in Denton, Texas, and received an undergraduate degree from the University of Baghdad.

Brown said she studied in a research area in which he specialized -- the biology of oxygen.

Her 183-page dissertation focused on how oxygen, which is used by cells in the production of energy and other processes, affected certain cancer drugs, Brown said.

Intelligence officials said that Ammash is among a new generation of leaders named by Saddam to leading posts within Iraq's Baath party. In May 2001, she assumed a high-level post with the Baath party regional command.

The U.S. officials said she was trained by Nassir al-Hindawi, described by United Nations inspectors as the father of Iraq's biological weapons program.

Ammash has served as president of Iraqi's microbiological society and as dean at University of Baghdad, where she served in the biology department after her graduation from Missouri.

Christmas card

Brown, who now does consulting work and writes, said he had lost contact with Ammash, although at some point after her Missouri graduation he recalled receiving a Christmas card from her.

He likened the cancer research in which she participated at Missouri to the precision allied bombing under way in Iraq.

"You hope to achieve the death of the cancer cells by using a destructive chemical in a delicate body while trying to spare the good cells. We were trying to understand the mechanism by which the cancer drugs acted," he said.

Brown said he had met her husband, Ahmed, and their daughter, Zena. And he said he believed their son, Sayf Al-Deen, was born in Missouri.

The professor said he once visited the family's small apartment near campus and heard Ammash's recollections of growing up with a beloved father who raised Arabian horses.

"She was very dignified and articulate and obviously accustomed to speaking about more than the weather," he said.