SPACE WIRE
Marines patrol through wreckage of Saddam's torture complex
BAGHDAD (AFP) Apr 10, 2003
US marines were patrolling through the bombed-out wreckage of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters Thursday, where Iraqis were once tortured in cells backing on to landscaped gardens and tennis courts.

"A lot of Iraqi people believe this place is evil and I think this place embodies the evil of the regime," public affairs officer John Hoellwarth told

"Underneath here are bunkers and hidden cells which the Iraqis believe were used for torturing their compatriots.

"The marines in this facility will give the Iraqi people some comfort and show the shroud of evil over the community has been lifted."

Most of the buildings in the sprawling compound on the eastern outskirts of the capital have been reduced to rubble after three weeks of bombing by the US-led coalition.

But the grim conditions in which prisoners were once held were all too evident in one building which housed some 30 cells and tiny rooms of solitary confinement.

The windowless cells which measured around 3 metres by 1.5 (10 feet by five) appeared to have held eight inmates at a time, who would have been forced to sleep on bunkbeds with strips of wood instead of mattresses.

No instruments of torture were immediately obvious although access to the underground bunkers was closed off.

Scraps of striped prison uniforms could be seen lying on the ground or in the rubble. Posters glorifying Saddam and his ruling Baath party were also scattered on the ground, again symbolising the end of his reign of terror.

It was not clear when the cells had been emptied although Saddam released thousands of prisoners as part of an amnesty last October in the lead-up to the war.

A US army demining specialist said that it appeared that the secret police had also vacated the compound before the start of the war on March 20.

"The Iraqis had definitely left before the bombing started. We have found no booby traps yet and there is little ordnance."

The marines have been warned to stay out of the buildings because their structures had been severely weakened by the bombing.

The buildings surround courtyards complete with fountains while the compound also features tennis courts and extensive gardens with greenhouses.

A cinema where members of the secret police would have relaxed remained largely intact, although spools of film reel were fluttering on the ground.

Huge amounts of expensive drugs and other medical equipment were also found abandoned.

US army medic Jack Graham stood beside a cache of pharmaceuticals, drugs and hospital equipment which he said was worth between two and four million dollars and came from China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

"It appears that Saddam Hussein reserved the best medical treatment for the Republican Guard and we intend to redistribute the supplies among the general population which has nothing," he said.

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