Troops in search for prisoners 'buried alive in concrete grave'

The Times ^ | April 16, 2003 | Nick Parker

[MadIvan]

BRITISH troops were racing against time last night to free prisoners believed to have been buried alive by Saddam Hussein’s fleeing henchmen.

Army engineers were called in after British officers heard scratching beneath a wrecked statue of Saddam in al-Faw. Local people said they had seen two coachloads of prisoners being sealed into a secret chamber under the site.

Hundreds of Iraqis kept a vigil yesterday as engineers with pneumatic drills and a bulldozer worked to break through a yard of concrete believed to have been poured into a stairwell leading to the dungeon.

Several British troops said they had heard a response after they stopped digging, called for quiet and knocked on the ground.

The sound of a series of scratching noises has been distinct at least twice since work started on Monday afternoon.

Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Wolsey, of 29 Commando Royal Artillery, which called in the digging teams, said: “We stopped work and knocked on the floor after ordering complete silence and I definitely heard something.

“It sounded like someone scratching at the concrete from below. A medic who was with us used his stethoscope and confirmed he heard the noise. Locals are adamant that they saw coachloads of prisoners, possibly Kuwaitis from the last war, being brought here before the coalition forces arrived.

“We have an obligation to help if there is even the slightest chance of someone being alive down there.”

Men from 59 Commando Engineers were working in shifts inside the statue’s 30ft-high hollow plinth.

Others, backed by the bulldozer, were trying to burrow in from outside.

The steel figure of Saddam, which vanished during fighting, used to dominate a huge marble, pillared amphitheatre in al-Faw town which was dedicated to the tyrant.

British troops stepped in to help after finding local people on the site tearing at the rubble with their bare hands.

Staff Sergeant George Lamplough, 35, who was among the digger teams, said: “I’ve just worked 12 hours solid trying to get through the concrete, and it’s tough going.

“We can’t be sure we’ll find anything, but we’ve shown the locals that we believe what they’ve told us and that we’re willing to help.

“Noises have definitely been heard when we’ve stopped to listen, by some of us as well as the locals. So we’ll press on as long as necessary.”

Abu Alal, 47, a shopkeeper and the town’s self-appointed mayor, said yesterday: “We are certain that people are trapped underground and are very grateful to the British for their help.

“It would be a wonderful miracle if someone came out of there alive after all this time.”

The lavish amphitheatre was opened by Saddam 13 years ago and was once adorned with fountains clad in gleaming marble.

But Mr Alal said he recalled teams of foreign engineers arriving on the site and is convinced that a secret bunker complex was installed.

He pointed out masses of heavy-duty cables leading underground and said that two of the classical-style pillars were hollow air shafts. A heavy digging tool was later fitted to a bulldozer to aid the army teams last night.

[justshe]

Perhaps a more productive way to elicit contributions from the other 99,000 is not to carpet bomb every thread but to use that time and energy to ASK THEM why they aren't contributing. The answers may hurt, but they are sure to be enlightening.

---

We do what we can to help remind folks about FR being a 'donation only' run website. No one is ever turned away for LACK of donation, as this is not a PAY PER PARTICIPATION website. You can view AND participate without offering financial support. MANY are helping keep the servers up and running so that those who choose not to, or are unable to donate, can continue using this website.

The fund-raising is, so far, a necessary event. Each fund-raiser, however, we gain more monthly donors.

It is all our hope that eventually, there will NOT be a need for these freepathons.

If you have specific concerns, re: Free Republic, I suggest you post them and have them addressed on an appropriate thread. Might I suggest THE FREEPATHON THREAD.

As anyone who has ever participated in fund-raising knows, a small percentage responds. But....our percentage is growing. If I have not addressed your points, perhaps Jim Robinson can.

[MinuteGal]

The freeing of these poor souls from their underground tomb reminds me of an old Martin Luther hymn:

"The foes with all their power and pride
Would surely have dismayed us;
For we, His flock, would have to fear
Who rise in might against us.

Their furious wrath, did God permit
Would surely have consumed us
And as a deep and yawning pit
With life and limb entombed us.

Blest be the Lord, Who foiled their threat
That they could not devour us
Our souls, like birds, escaped their net
They could not overpower us.

Their snare is broken
We are free!
Our help is ever, Lord
In Thee."

Leni

[wallcrawlr]

Thats blasphemy not french.

[maxwellp]

I'm praying that they get these people out alive. Thank God President Bush recognizes evil.

[icwhatudo]

Forces halt search for prisoners

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1347176,00.html


Basra - British army engineers abandoned their search on Sunday for prisoners that locals said were trapped in underground cells beneath the bombed-out ruins of a prison complex in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

"They found nothing of any substance," an officer with the Scottish Black Watch Regiment said. "On current information, our investigations have been completed."

Members of the Royal Engineers, attached to the Black Watch, had moved into the sealed-off area at first light with two heavy earthmovers as well as pneumatic drills, but they abandoned the search about six hours later.

On Saturday night, desperate residents, who said they had heard voices coming from underground, burrowed into the soil with their bare hands amid rumours that there were prisoners held somewhere deep below.

Hundreds of people swarmed into the area after the British gave up their search and continued frantic efforts to make contact with anyone suspected of being trapped in the cells under the complex, which also houses a police station.

Abud Ali, a teacher at a nearby school, said it was widely believed that Kuwaitis captured after Iraq invaded its tiny southern neighbour in 1990, setting off the first Gulf War, were being held there.

"This building was opened in 1968 but no one knows what is going on in there. There must be secret tunnels but even people who have worked here do not know all about them."

Earlier, Captain Justin Prowse with the Black Watch said there had been "no evidence so far apart from local information" to back up the claims that the sound of banging and voices had been heard.

But he said some basement cells had been found and that hooks were hanging from the ceilings.

Prowse said it was not firm proof that torture had been carried out in the cells but it appeared that prisoners had been held in sub-human conditions.

It was not immediately clear if the cells were part of a larger network linked to the courthouse nearby.

Saddam's regime had always insisted it lost track of its Kuwaiti prisoners during an uprising by Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

Kuwait on Saturday offered a reward to anyone who helps determine the fate of more than 600 people who disappeared during Iraq's occupation and said that it was actively cooperating with coalition forces to try to find them.

"We have no information on the whereabouts of the POWs after the fall of the Iraqi regime, but we hope for a speedy solution to end the suffering of the POWs and their families which has lasted for more than 12 years," said Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Some families of Kuwait POWs have expressed concern that the Iraqi regime, while battling US-led coalition forces, might take revenge on any Kuwaiti prisoners still being held.

[Cultural Jihad]

Linked: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/893935/posts

[areafiftyone]

Why isn't this on the cable news networks? Did anyone see anything on the networks on this? This should not be swept under the rug! It should be shove in the face of all the peaceniks and liberals! This story is really Sickening! Please pray for anyone who is down there!

[Cultural Jihad]

Oops. I mean: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/893976/posts

[areafiftyone]

OMG there were two? Jesus!!

[visualops]

Thanks!

[Benjamin Dover]

I suspect that WMD's will not be the real story in Iraq. They'll be found bit by bit, but the human atrocities will be the real story. Saddam will go down as bad, if not worse than Hitler. We've only been looking; unobstructed, for a couple of days. Just wait. I fear it gets worse.

[CurlyBill]

I suspect that WMD's will not be the real story in Iraq. They'll be found bit by bit, but the human atrocities will be the real story. Saddam will go down as bad, if not worse than Hitler. We've only been looking; unobstructed, for a couple of days. Just wait. I fear it gets worse.

I couldn't agree more! WMD will be a more of a side issue when this is all said and done .... IF .... the stories are reported. I just don't understand why this particular story is not getting more press!

[Brad’s Gramma]

I was told they're different sites.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/893976/posts?page=101

[oyez]

I saw a political cartoon the other day that pictured Saddam's stature being replace by one of Ronald McDonnald. Is all they think of? I think these 'toons and letters are introspective of many shallow and selfish individuals. I would also go as far to say they can't reason their way out of a paper bag.

[sistergoldenhair]

I would say Saddam and his henchmen are like animals but that would be an insult to animals.

And they call us the Great Satan.

[Free Trapper]

This is in an entirely different place from where the others were rescued.

Lord help them all.

[MeekOneGOP]

And they call us the Great Satan.

Yep. That's the Al-Jazeera / Saddam Propaganda label.

[Disgusted in Texas]

If he isn't ,I'm certain there are hundreds of people who would love to help him there. My God in Heaven,what a monster.

[Free Trapper]

I know it's reaching but I wonder what the left would say if our guys saved more lives than are lost in this war?

[WOSG]

Why does the seattle times print such drivel?

This kind of poor logic, thinking and fact-free nonsense can cause brain damage.