 Going underground ... bombproof bunker where the tyrant will hide |
Posted on 03/10/2003 6:09:16 PM PST by MadIvan
Going underground ... bombproof bunker where the tyrant will hide |
THIS is the Hitler-style bunker Saddam Hussein hopes will save him when the bombs start raining on Baghdad.
The Iraqi dictator will scuttle 100 yards underground beneath tons of blast-proof reinforced concrete and steel.
The £60million bolthole carries grim echoes of the bunker where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler fled and committed suicide as Berlin fell in the final days of the Second World War.
Ironically it was built by a firm from GERMANY — now trying to block efforts to nail Saddam — and was tagged the Fuhrerbunker of Baghdad by the men who worked on it.
It is protected by huge steel doors and walls 9ft thick. But inside it is furnished with the last word in luxuries, even down to fancy loos and mother-of-pearl toilet roll holders.
The details of Saddam’s secret bolthole beneath his presidential palace in Baghdad were revealed for the first time in Germany this week.
It was built in 1982 as Saddam sought a refuge in case the war he had unleashed on Iran threatened his life.
Architect Lorenzo Buffalo, who was commissioned to design it and find builders, said: “With Saddam the motto ‘Made in Germany’, whether it be cars, furniture or bunkers, stood for something.”
 Bunker bed ... one of the many bedrooms hidden away in bolthole |
Saddam demanded “Nato standards” in withstanding fire, bombs, missiles and poison gas.
Buffalo engaged the Dusseldorf firm Boswau and Knauer, which had built many air raid shelters for Hitler’s Third Reich.
It was codenamed Project 305 and costed at £7million, with 20 Germans overseeing hundreds of Iraqi and Filipino labourers.
But the bill soared because Saddam insisted on luxuries such as gold inlay on light switches and elaborate tiling in the conference room.
 Impregnable ... steel doors that will protect dictator |
One worker told Germany’s Focus magazine: “We worked flat out, under great pressure to get the foundations and walls finished. All the time we were under threat of air attack from Iranian bombers.”
The bunker is reached by a lift hidden beneath the swimming pool, walkways and car park of the palace guesthouse.
Another German company, Vereinigte Werkstaetten of Munich, was brought in to provide all the wood and fittings. Its workers were directed to make it “less of a shelter and more of a mini-palace”.
The accommodation includes a living room for Saddam and his family, bathroom with whirlpool bath and a dressing room with built-in wardrobe.
 Every convenience ... Saddam's lair has six bathrooms |
Saddam’s bedroom boasts a tent-style bed of the type favoured by another of history’s notorious figures, Napoleon. It cost an amazing £20,000.
There are several other bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchen with eating area, kids’ rooms and quarters for guards.
The command room is virtually a mini-Pentagon with video and communication links to Saddam’s forces in the field.
Doors leading to an emergency stairway are made of 12in-thick steel capable of withstanding temperatures of 300°C.
The walls could withstand an atomic bomb the size of the one that destroyed Hiroshima exploding 250 yards away.
There is also an escape tunnel under the Tigris River, protected by three-ton doors.
The firms who built the bunker have both been absorbed by larger concerns in Germany.
But a Boswau and Knauer worker said: “Whatever happens to Saddam, we are certain of one thing. In any American and British attack on Baghdad, the bunker will live through it.”
At least we know Saddam is not only paranoid, but has no taste, I suppose. ;)
Regards, Ivan
Bets anyone? My guess is it needs electricity from somewhere.
Guess we'll just have to see about the "blast-proof" part.
And then call it "Miller Time." ;-)
They know this for a fact???
He built himself a tomb.
Dominique Villepin?
Oh. bolthole. Sorry.
Saddam's bunker babes.
Can you imagine having to take Saddam's $@*& every day.
Those darn change orders always put you over budget!
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