'Mrs. Anthrax' released -- no charges

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/28/EDG2IGCVKK1.DTL

WHY IS IT not bigger news that those infamous Iraqi female scientists once routinely referred to in the media as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" have been quietly released from imprisonment in Iraq without any charges being brought by their U.S. captors? Don't the newspapers and TV networks that all but pre-convicted them of crimes against humanity owe them -- and us -- the courtesy of an explanation for the sudden presumption of their innocence?

After all, it was to stop these mad leaders of Saddam Hussein's allegedly booming weapons-of-mass-destruction programs that the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. We were told at the time by the White House that the U.N. inspectors scouring the country were being blocked by lying officials and scientists, themselves complicit in breaking U.N. sanctions, and so we wouldn't get the truth until we could interrogate them as prisoners.

Yet, when Rihab "Dr. Germ" Taha and Huda "Mrs. Anthrax" Ammash, both of whom were once on a Pentagon most-wanted list, were released after two-and-a-half years, their U.S. captors didn't even announce it.

When questioned afterward as to why no war crimes charges had been brought against the pair, U.S. commander Gen. George Casey said in a joint statement with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, that they "no longer posed a security threat to the people of Iraq and to the Coalition forces." U.S. forces "therefore, had no legal basis to hold them any longer."

Or were those names something the administration cooked up to demonize them? How 'bout 'Chemical' Ali? I envision a conversation where Dr. Germ says to Mrs. Anthrax, "Chemical's coming over for tea. Care to join us?"

Dr. Anthrax, Chemical Ali, Butcher of Baghdad...

I'll bet that they were treated humanely and weren't tortured or anything. <sarcasm alert>