Saddam’s Bunkers

Newsweek ^ | April 7, 2003 | Stefan Theil

[Cultural Jihad]

Saddam’s Bunkers

Beneath the ground, a realm of catacombs and secret passages, storehouses and hideouts

By Stefan Theil and Christopher Dickey
NEWSWEEK

April 7 issue — When one of the most secure and luxurious of his palace-and-bunker complexes was completed in 1984, at a cost of $70 million, Saddam Hussein moved in right away. But even protected by enormous layers of concrete, sand and steel, behind zigzag corridors and blast doors made to withstand a Hiroshima-size explosion, and guarded by men who knew they’d have to be ready to die for him, or be killed by him, Saddam apparently could not sleep.
	“ALL NIGHT LONG he heard a sound like the cocking of a pistol,” remembers Wolfgang Wendler, the German engineer who supervised the project. Wendler was summoned by angry officials to find out what was wrong. He discovered a faulty thermostat.         Today the bunker beneath the “305 Guest House” in Baghdad’s main palace compound is part of an underground world of tunnels, shelters and storage depots where Saddam may be hiding his most fearsome weapons, as well as himself. Iraqi scientist Hussein Shahristani and other exiles even talk of a phantom subway that was built but never opened in the 1980s. (“I’m still waiting to take a ride in it,” says a skeptical former U.N. inspector.) What is certain is that many underground bunkers and tunnels do exist, and they could be a subterranean nightmare for American and British forces. Day and night some of the most powerful “bunker-busting” bombs in the U.S. arsenal are being brought to bear on the massively fortified infrastructure. Some of the bunkers are buried so far beneath the city that when British Member of Parliament George Galloway met with Saddam in one of them last August, he wrote about taking a high-speed elevator “so deeply under ground my ears were popping.” ....

[Heyworth]

This isn't going to turn out to be like those dreaded caves of Tora Bora, is it? I remember the papers had these elaborate diagrams that made them out to be like Dr. No's secret headquarters, with secret entrances, generators, hospital wards and vast arsenals, when they were actually a little dugout in the rock with some old RPG rounds in the back.

[Argus]

Solution to Saddam's bunkers:

Determine all entrances and exits.

Seal them with several yards of concrete.

Forget about them.

(Solution borrowed from ending of Joan Collins movie LAND OF THE PHARAOHS)

[Orion78]

I agree. Hopefully, when his food store runs out and he realizes he is trapped and going to die of starvation, he will shoot himself in the head like Hitler did and the world will be a better place.

[old school]

Bunkers, Shmunkers! That boy is burning in Hell right about now! And he's surrounded by seventy, dark-eyed harpies, stickin' forks in him to see if he's done!

[Servant of the Nine]

What is certain is that many underground bunkers and tunnels do exist, and they could be a subterranean nightmare for American and British forces

Not necessarily.
Shooting a few seismic lines across the city once it is taken will map every last underground crevice.
Then you set up drilling rigs over the most easily reached parts and pump in concrete till no more will fit.
Take a week max to fill the whole system solid.

So9

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sounds like they really exist!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[chuknospam]

Well I for one think Sadamm made a critical mistake in thinking that GWB wouldn't stick to the "48 hours to get out of Dodge". I think that Sadaam & Aziz and a number of the others were not deep within the bunker system. I think they were in a secure location expecting to drag it out somemore with further UN foot dragging & anticipating an advanced warning when GWB o.k.ed the strike. I for one thing GWB got him with the first shot, we won't know for months but it will be one hell of a celebration when the truth comes out.

[sistergoldenhair]

Take a week max to fill the whole system solid.

Also creates an excellent foundation for rebuilding on the old palace sites.

[try phecta tom]

just like gophers,yeah that's the ticket

[Tunehead54]

What he said. Exactly.

---

Bump for dead dictators.

[jejones]

Wouldn't it be better to just seal them off, wait for the occupants to die, and then go back in to fetch whatever information might be available? Then pump in the concrete...

[Riley]

This ought to keep the History Channel busy for years.

[No One of Consequence]

No need to waste time pumping concrete when the Tigris river is near by. Just cut a channel from the river to the tunnel and flood it.

[rageaholic]

I believe you are correct. The attack took them by surprise and killed Hussein on day one.

On the other hand, these bunkers were built to specs based on 1980's weaponry and using WW2 era construction experience. The "Bunker Mania" of third world despots led to a shadowy arms race of bunker buster bombs. The penetrating capability of the latest are highly classified secrets. I would not be surprised if the frugal Germans supplied 3" thick concrete floors. And I would not be surprised if a deep penetrating bomb exploded these floors upwards.

I'd never buy a bunker from a German.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Heh heh, you caught that, too...

[amigatec]

Well the answer is simple dig down to the bunker set up a drill like the one used to get to the trapped coal miners. Drill a hole in the top of it and then you can either drop explosives down the hole, or just throw a water hose in the hole and start up the pumps.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Wall him up and leave him a cask of AMONTILLADO.

[mathurine]

I think boiling oil is what you use in that area of the world under such circumstances.