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Posted on 04/14/2003 3:05:04 PM PDT by TrexDogs
Matthew Fisher
National Post, with files from Agence France-Presse
BAGHDAD - Inside the massive headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret police, some Marines were having a bit of fun yesterday with the remnants of a statue of the Iraqi dictator.
"Hello, Saddam. Can you hear me?" joked a corporal as he held up a huge ear, left over from a statue destroyed by civilians before the Marines had arrived.
Other soldiers mugged with the dictator's mustache and an eyeball.
The moment of levity was out of character in the complex on the eastern side of Baghdad, the very epicentre of Saddam's police state. Touring the well-groomed and carefully maintained facility was a harrowing and haunting experience.
Outside were landscaped grounds with greenhouses and tennis courts and buildings laid out around courtyards containing elegant fountains.
Inside were tiny windowless cells where it was all too possible to imagine the screams of the victims who had died of torture at the hands of the Mukhabarat, Saddam's secret police.
Although a Tomahawk cruise missile had flattened part of the prison, enough remained to be visited yesterday.
The surviving cells measure no more than 1.5 metres by about three metres. Eight people at a time would have been crammed into this space, forced to sleep on bunks without mattresses.
Scraps of striped prison uniforms lay in the rubble. Posters glorifying Saddam and his ruling Baath party were scattered around. No instruments of torture were visible, although the Americans have yet to investigate the basement.
"The Iraqis destroyed some of the buildings here in the complex, presumably to get rid of evidence," said Captain Andrew Young of the First Marine Regiment, which has established its Baghdad headquarters at the site, now renamed Inchon Forward.
It is a vast complex, surrounded by a wall, drab-looking from the outside despite the careful grooming of the grounds. It reminded me of the headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret police, whose headquarters were similarly invaded in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The difference between the Stasi and the Mukhabarat is the sheer volume of information collected by Saddam's henchmen. Like the Nazis, they both appear to have been meticulous record keepers. The files, which sometimes appeared to include information on both a husband and wife, often had 30 or 40 items in them. The files filled building after building in a compound that dwarfed that of the Stasi.
In addition to its mass of files, the police headquarters contained more than a million rounds of ammunition.
There was also a superbly equipped hospital, though Iraq has been telling the world for years that its medical facilities have been severely damaged by UN sanctions.
A U.S. Army medic showed off a cache of drugs and equipment he said was worth between US$2-million and US$4-million.
"It appears that Saddam Hussein reserved the best medical treatment for the Republican Guard," said Jack Graham, a U.S. Army medic. He said the supplies will be handed out to Iraqi hospitals.
Some of the buildings had been looted by Iraqis before the Americans took control on Wednesday night. A cinema where secret police members would have relaxed remained largely intact, although spools of film were scattered on the ground.
"This is a place where the highest officials came and now we are right here in the middle of it," said Major John Broderick, a Grade 4 teacher from Massachusetts who was called up by the Marines for the war.
"Frankly, I find it very weird to be in this building."
People gathered in the street outside to thank the Americans for liberating them from 24 years of Saddam's rule.
"They left everything, including their weapons, two days ago and escaped," said Omar Eskala, 24, a university student.
"I think they felt that continuing to try to kill was useless because whatever they did the Americans were going to win this war anyway."
A few blocks away, a group of young Iraqi men, all shabbily dressed, threw kerosene on a 10-metre-high portrait of Saddam, then began to stone the smouldering billboard.
"This is our holiday," said Allah Abad, one of those throwing kerosene.
Baghdad was calmer yesterday than on Wednesday, when the last remnants of Saddam's power quickly slipped away. Baghdadis continued to steal anything they could carry, but the crowds seemed more subdued.
"Wednesday was euphoria. Today was reality," said Colonel John Pomfret, the chief logistician for the Marine forces in Iraq.
"Now the Iraqis are also thinking about food and water and work. These are very serious concerns because Saddam Hussein left his country with so little."
Water has been turned back on for most of the city and electricity is promised in the next few days.
© Copyright 2003 National Post
A U.S. Army medic showed off a cache of drugs and equipment he said was worth between US$2-million and US$4-million. ... He said the supplies will be handed out to Iraqi hospitals.
Instead of whining about the looting and the deplorable hospital conditions (which were deplorable before the war!), why isn't the mainstream press focusing on the medical supplies that Saddam had hidden away??
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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That is my question, too.
The other night Larry King was speaking with a woman with the Red Cross. She was billed as speaking to him from Kuwait. She made all kinds of claims on the condition of hospitals. The implication was nothing good would be done until THEY got in.
That very day I had heard from Dr.Bob Arnot on MSNBC who is right in Baghdad and had been right at a hospital. First, he reported a quick return to normalcy. Second, he could not say enough to praise the Marines and how they were moving heaven and earth to make sure supplies and medicines and such were being distributed and such.
And as you point out, the hoarding of equipment and the drugs and medicines is a telling story. It is just what we tried to tell the crowd that blamed "sanctions" for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Dr. Bob has exposed military barracks stuffed to the rafters with food, too. Food from the "oil for food" program. Including baby food.
Why isn't the mainstream, stateside media focusing on these various angles. We know--hatred of GWB. But thank God for the embedded reporters, many of whom have really come to appreciate and respect the troops they are with. I'll take their eyewitness accounts as long as they have proven trustworthy.
Yes, you are correct.
Funny how the reference to "civilian casualties" is made by some in the media with no further comment, leaving the impression that these innocents were hurt due to combat fallout, and the further implication, due to the coalition.
It is a stunning report, the gunshot wounds, and the testimony of the families and doctors as to how those wounds came to be.
The story of the Saddam regime's atrocities committed upon their own people WILL be told despite the attempt by some to squelch it.
Excellent! Go, Lou!
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