Gość: MACIEJ
IP: *.ny325.east.verizon.net
29.01.03, 05:54
Bush jest zazdrosny o ilosc i wyposazenie palacow Saddama i po wojnie,mysle
ze co najmniej kilka z nich beda sluzyly dyplomatom amerykanskim i samemu
George'owi.
Tikrit Palace, Iraq: Located 90 miles north of Baghdad and covering 4 square
kilometers, this is the largest and most elaborate of the presidential sites.
In addition to palaces and VIP residences pictured here, the site also
includes farms and retreats for officials.
• Iraq's extensive leadership infrastructure
Saddam’s palaces triple in 10 years
Satellite imagery gives inspectors plenty to look at
By Robert Windrem
NBC NEWS PRODUCER
NEW YORK, Jan. 24 — They are the gold-plated living memorials to the
20-year reign of Saddam Hussein, enormous in scale, exquisite in material and
opulent in taste — the 100 palaces and “VIP luxury residences” Saddam has
built across Iraq. U.S. officials and a former U.N. inspector say they also
are perfect hiding places for weapons of mass destruction.
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THE PALACES, say U.S. and U.N. officials, are the only places in Iraq
that are secure enough, large enough and protected enough to conceal not just
documents about the development of weapons, but the weapons and weapons
material themselves.
“It would be ideal for the storage of weapons of mass destruction,”
says former chief U.N. inspector Richard Butler, now an NBC analyst. “They
were places directly associated with the president of Iraq’s special security
apparatus — the people who both protect him and protect the weapons of mass
destruction.”
So far, only two of Saddam’s palaces — the Republican Palace, Iraq’s
White House, and the Sijood Palace, Iraq’s executive office building, have
been examined during the current round of inspections, but the United States
wants inspectors to be more aggressive — and soon.
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They won’t lack for locations. Of the 100 palaces built by Saddam,
half were constructed after the Gulf War at a rate of around five per year,
said U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
During the war, seven were struck by coalition bombs; all were rebuilt.
The total construction cost, as estimated by United States
intelligence: $2 billion. “We based it on regional construction costs,” said
one official, “and that doesn’t include the furnishings.”
The palaces range in size from villas to one, in Saddam’s home town of
Tikrit, with an area 50 times that of the White House or Buckingham Palace.
In Baghdad, there are five spectacular palaces. In Jabul Makhul, much of the
palace built there is underground.
In addition, Saddam has refurbished older palaces, including the 12th
century Abbasid Palace in central Baghdad.
January 23 — The secret world of Saddam Hussein’s lavish palaces. Will they
be among the first targets in a war with Iraq? NBC’s Lisa Myers has this
investigative report.
Between 1991 and 1995, when Iraqis lost two-thirds of their income
and the United Nations was searching for weapons of mass destruction, the
pace of construction accelerated.
“You have to remember this was at a time when Iraqi officials were
complaining to the United Nations about a housing shortage” said one U.S.
official.
The U.S. State Department says in a report out this week on Iraqi
disinformation that the cost of Saddam’s palaces was more than the $1.74
billion the World Food Program spent in 2001 to deliver 660,000 metric tons
of food to 77 million people worldwide.
Entifadh Qanbar, an Iraqi construction engineer who worked on three
palaces during the Iran-Iraq War in the late 1980s and now lives in suburban
Washington, says the palaces symbolize ego and power.
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“People are under the impression here in the United States and the
West that the palaces are residences for the president,” said Qunbar. “This
is not the case for Saddam. For the bigger part, the palaces are a show of
business for Saddam, a show of his existence and power. And the second part,
palaces for Saddam. Each palace will occupy huge land of area and it will
contain barracks for his bodyguards, training camps within the palace, depots
for weapons, depots for weapons of mass destruction, prisons, torture
chambers.”
Qunbar says the buildings are double-walled to withstand explosive
charges, and underslung with warrens of tunnels.
But there are also parks for the children of loyalists. At the
Republican Palace, a water park features small man-made lakes connected by a
network of canals. There are restaurants and boat docks.
At Lake TharThar, north of Baghdad, there is a giant Ferris wheel and
a pendulum along with a merry-go-round and a resort village of more than 100
condominiums, all near Saddam’s Green Palace.
“Diplomatic officials who have visited the palaces tell of a world of
splendors not seen even in European palaces that have long since become
museums,” said one U.S. official.
“One described the grounds of the palace at Basra as ‘more extensive
and sophisticated than Versailles, filled with exotic flowers and shrubs.’ ”
Each palace features multiple big-screen televisions and elaborate
digital sound systems that fill each room with the “ubiquitous sound of Iraqi
Muzak.”
All of the palaces are appointed with gold faucets, silk rugs and
marble. A palace in Mosul has 50-foot waterfalls inside.
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• Chris Matthews and a 'Hardball' panel discuss the President's State of
the Union speech until 12 a.m. ET. Additional coverage from 12 a.m. ET to 2
a.m. ET will be anchored by former congressman Joe Scarborough.
“Furniture has to be made of the best woods in the world, linens has
to be gold weaved, all doors has to be super solid teakwood, expensive wood,”
said Qunbar. “Accessories for bathrooms has to be gold plated, yes. I
mean ... money is of no concern. Me, as an engineer, we learned in school we
have to balance between quality and budget. That was not the case here.”
If Saddam didn’t like the choice of materials, “things could be
trashed away and replaced with something else and it’s not a big problem. So
it was something that [was] a very unique experience for an engineer,” said
Qunbar.
Butler, who visited several of the palaces during his early days as an
inspector, said: “What they all have in common is size and bombastic
character — you know grand — the sorts of things that you would expect a
dictator to build. Monumental would be a nice way of putting it.”
Since 1995, the pace of construction has slowed a bit, but Iraq still
has built anothe
