Prometheus 6   

Creating a Link Without the Link: Mrs Anthrax

On May 5, 2003, the United States announced that it had captured Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash. News reports heralded the capture as a major victory for Anglo-American forces, noting that the woman "dubbed Mrs. Anthrax" was in charge of Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program. They also noted that Ammash was the five of hearts in the military's deck of Iraqi fugitive playing cards.

What I want to know is when Ammash was dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax", and by who. A Reuters story from May 6 says "The moniker 'Mrs. Anthrax' was given to Ammash by Western journalists." It offers no further explanation.

There's just one problem. The earliest mention I can find of "Huda Ammash" and "anthrax" in the same Web page via Google is from May 5.

… I'm thinking the worst: that the Administration or some neoconservative or generic hawk planted the term "Mrs Anthrax" as a way of linking Iraq to the anthrax attacks on the United States that occurred after September 11.