IRAQ: The two women nicknamed Dr Germ and Chemical Sally - the only Iraqi women believed to be imprisoned by US forces - were two of Saddam Hussein's most notorious weapons scientists.
Dr Germ, real name Dr Rihab Taha, is the former head of the former Iraqi regime's biological weapons programme. The microbiologist was educated in Britain at the University of East Anglia, where she completed a PhD in plant toxins between 1980 and 1984.
After her studies, she returned to Iraq and took charge of the country's major biological facilities in the late 1980s.
Given her nickname by UN weapons inspectors, Dr Taha earned herself the title Dr Germ by running the facility which made weapons out of anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin. Current and former inspectors who interviewed her in the mid-1990s described her as a difficult and dour character.
She was married to Amir Rashid, who held top posts in Saddam's missile programmes and was oil minister before the war.
In an interview for BBC television's Panorama current affairs programme, the scientist admitted that Iraq did produce biological agents but insisted that under her command, the deadly anthrax and botulinum toxin were never "weaponised".
Dr Taha surrendered to coalition forces in May last year.
The second female detainee is Dr Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, who was also nicknamed Mrs Anthrax. Unlike Dr Taha, Dr Ammash was among the 55 most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
She was captured in May last year.
Intelligence officials believe that the top microbiologist played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's biological weapons capability after the Gulf War in 1991.
Born in 1953 in Baghdad, her father was Salih Magdi Ammash, a former vice president, defence minister and member of the Baath Party's leadership. Saddam is believed to have ordered his execution in 1983.
She studied extensively in the US, receiving a master of science in microbiology from the Texas Woman's University in President Bush's home state.
She later received a doctorate in microbiology after spending four years at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Dr Ammash was also trained by Nassir al-Hindawi, described by UN inspectors as the father of Iraq's biological weapons programme. She was president of Iraq's microbiological society and a dean at the University of Baghdad.
Dr Ammash is said to have played a role in organising Baath activities in Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen and was reportedly the only female to serve on Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council.
US authorities have refused to release her, despite reports that she is suffering from breast cancer. - (PA)