Marines free 123 from Iraq hellhole

Back to the War on Saddam Page


APRIL 16, 2003
By
Derwin Pereira
INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT

BAGHDAD -- For three days, American tanks have been shelling a military intelligence building in the posh Al-Khathamia area in west Baghdad.

The dozen or so tanks are not here to pound intransigent fighters but to break down concrete beams and steel, to reach bunkers deep underground at the Al-Istikhbarat Al-'Askariya facility.

The Marines found 123 prisoners, including five women, barely alive in an underground warren of cells and torture chambers.

Being trapped underground probably kept them safe from the bombing of Baghdad by the coalition.

Severely emaciated, some had survived by eating the scabs off their sores. All the men had beards down to their waists, said onlookers.

Most looked absolutely dazed when they emerged, said Mr Sadoun Mohamed, 37, who lives in the area.

'They had not seen sunlight for a long time,' he said. 'They kept blinking and covering their faces.' He said they were taken to the Saddam Hospital for treatment.

Their names were posted on the walls of the Al-Hajabehia Mosque in west Baghdad, as were names of some 40 others known to have been executed or murdered in prison.

Hundreds of anxious locals wait for word of their family, relatives and friends, some of whom were taken away more than 10 years ago.

Outside Al-Istikhbarat Al-'Askariya, Mr Sadeq Al Saeed, 24, a construction worker, has been waiting sleepless for the last 36 hours. He said he had heard the facility had five levels below ground.

He said his father, an Iraqi army captain, was killed in 1991 during the first Gulf War, and his cousins Amer and Jasem and some 50 others were picked out by the secret police for chanting anti-Saddam slogans during the funeral procession.

'That was the last I saw of them,' he said.

'In the night, people raided their houses, blindfolded them and took them away.'

He hopes against hope that the Marines will be able to find his cousins, who were brought here to be interrogated.

This hellhole is believed to be one of many for Iraq's political prisoners. Thousands may still be behind bars though the regime released many criminals from prisons before the war.

The United States soldiers at Al-Istikhbarat Al-'Askariya would not say what they were doing there. Their tanks blocked the entrance.

This place could be part of the labyrinth of underground facilities which might still shelter regime members.

Under one palace, a German-designed 1,900 sq m bunker was built at a cost of US$90 million (S$160 million) with luxurious accommodation for the Iraqi President, his family, their bodyguards and staff.

More than 24 bunkers were identified 12 years ago. There may be more now, located under schools, hospitals, even mosques, and linked together.

The security police, or Da'irat Al-Mukhabbarat Al-'Amma; Iraqi Intelligence Service; and military intelligence, also built cells and tunnels underground.

Taxi driver Hathem Ejam, 36, said Mr Saddam's older son Uday, also used them for his harem discards.

Relaying widely-believed rumours, he said: 'He would pick any young girl he liked from the street, rape her, shave her head bald and then get his guards to dump her in an underground cell.'

Copyright @ 2003 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Reply 1 - Posted by: Standing Wolf, 4/15/2003 6:48:01 PM

Not in our name, right, leftist parasites?


Reply 2 - Posted by: Blue Moon, 4/15/2003 6:50:51 PM

I want to hear Michael Moore and Tim Robbins' repsonse to this atrocity. NOT IN THEIR NAME would these poor people be freed. How can they possible maintain such a sanctimonious "No war" attitude in the face of such evil?


Reply 3 - Posted by: foont, 4/15/2003 6:53:05 PM

Well, our magnificent troops certainly acted in MY name.

There will be a lot more of this stuff coming out. And, God willing, it will result in the complete marginalization of the left. There is no decency remaining with these leftists.


Reply 4 - Posted by: Penney, 4/15/2003 6:56:20 PM

Horrible, but yet, a must read.
Any comments from the anti-war peace-niks after reading this?


Reply 5 - Posted by: WyoEagle, 4/15/2003 6:58:12 PM

Where the hell were the cameras? I'm sure CNN knew about this place but just couldn't tell anyone. Barf!


Reply 6 - Posted by: Betty Jean, 4/15/2003 7:01:07 PM

It's just too bad this regime doesn't have to face what they inflicted on their citizens. I hope all of them are worm food by now but doubt it.


Reply 7 - Posted by: CEP, 4/15/2003 7:05:15 PM

Lets not forget those museum directors who would have much prefered that people be left in this hellhole, at least their museum stuff would have been okay.


Reply 8 - Posted by: Kalkin, 4/15/2003 7:23:05 PM

All the press seems to be more interested in broadcasting some protesting Iraqis and some unfounded charges that US troops fired upon crowds, ignoring of course the probable firing by snipers at the US troops and possibly the crowds. Count the number of times that story is flashed on the news compared to this story and the comparable opening of the children's prison.


Reply 9 - Posted by: mythman, 4/15/2003 7:27:53 PM

Are you reading this, Robert Fisk? CNN staff?Jacques chIRAQ? Vladimir Puke'm? Jean Cretin?

This is one of your millions of sins of the hardened heart.


Reply 10 - Posted by: chocoholic, 4/15/2003 7:31:49 PM

Let's hope the Coalition shoves the pressies in there to record the condition of these poor souls and the place they were kept. If this report is true, it should be headline news everywhere.


Reply 11 - Posted by: Ruskin, 4/15/2003 7:37:09 PM

The french were probably hoping to make pate' out of them.


Reply 12 - Posted by: Neocon, 4/15/2003 7:44:18 PM

Horrible. This sounds like the same prison where last Friday, some Iraqis were trying desperately to reach people they heard shouting for help from beneath a steel and concrete floor inside a political prison. There is apparently some secret entrance in the catacombs beneath the city. Our guys were forced to use the direct approach to rescue them. God bless the US Marines and the USA.


Reply 13 - Posted by: voxpopuli, 4/15/2003 7:49:07 PM

all in the DEMO-COMMUNIST party are responsible for this...
weigh this story with the idiotic one about the kid who lost his arms in a supposed air attack by the LIBERATORS OF IRAQ...


Reply 14 - Posted by: shadeau, 4/15/2003 7:52:16 PM

ABC and Jennings spent the majority of the evening snooze on how the hospitals aren't open yet(as if they were so efficient before the war) how there is growing resentment toward America in Baghdad and other major cities in Iraq. It's as if this network is openly attempting to create a news story where there isn't one.


Reply 15 - Posted by: sunflower, 4/15/2003 7:53:24 PM

Hey, the protestors, the commie liberal leftists in our Congress would have preferred this story not have happened. They would rather have kept the citizens entombed, as they were, rather than show what liberalization has done for the Iraqis. cnn, go bury a hole, put yourselves in it, pull the hole in after you. You were aware, cnn, of these atrocities, yet chose not to mention them to the USA, the UN, you cowards. Would you all had been in that last restaurant with saddam, which I hope got he and his evil sons.


Reply 16 - Posted by: little walter, 4/15/2003 8:11:52 PM

and little brit miss clare short thinks those peoples lives are worthless.


Reply 17 - Posted by: Chance, 4/15/2003 8:12:21 PM

Those embedded reporters must get the pictures of the horror Saddam and his sons inflicted on the Iraqi people and show them world wide every day for a long time.
Plus a continuous showing of the attack on the WTC, and people jumping out windows to their deaths, rather than burn to death. Maybe this would make Chirac, and all the other Saddam lovers shut the hell up.


Reply 18 - Posted by: rosiek, 4/15/2003 8:19:49 PM

Anyone who still criticizes our pres. for taking out Saddam after hearing what has been found is evil or so proud their is no hope for them...


Reply 19 - Posted by: Ceci, 4/15/2003 8:25:11 PM

Baghdad Bob Fisk can't be bothered with such trivial things as people dying in dungeons as Marines try to dig them out. He's got bigger fish to fry at the National Library that some Iraqis set on fire.


Reply 20 - Posted by: JLoophole, 4/15/2003 8:26:28 PM

There is a God and he heard their prayers. It's due to the courage and convictions of strong men who flew in the face of hateful rhetoric that these people have been freed.

121 Coalition forces have died. 123 Iraqi's were freed. It is so bittersweet that it breaks my heart.

We as a nation must never forget what our soldiers and Great Britain's soldiers have given - for the sake of freedom.


Reply 21 - Posted by: teegore, 4/15/2003 8:33:25 PM

More and more of these horrors will surface as the days go by, and they must be made known to the public as they come. The left in this country must be held responsible for their complicity in supporting the terror regime of the Butcher of Baghdad.


Reply 22 - Posted by: Altera, 4/15/2003 8:39:07 PM

Michael Moore will get his. He will pass purgatory and go straight to Heck!


Reply 23 - Posted by: Double Dog Dare, 4/15/2003 8:57:38 PM

#23 go ahead and say it.....HELL


Reply 24 - Posted by: Dolley Madison, 4/15/2003 8:58:05 PM

Saranwrap Susie and her non-husband-non-father Whining Timmie will be leading cheers to keep this prison in place. Saranwrap and Timmie would love to have popcorn while they watch the torture chambers in action!

Did everyone hear timmie, whining on Fox News about their "persecution"?! What a LOSER!

God bless our Marines; our REAL men! They won't be found anywhere, whining about the consequences for their actions.


Reply 25 - Posted by: sunflower, 4/15/2003 9:03:37 PM

I would like to see these whining liberals, leftists, commies watching the people jumping from the
WTC. However, I don't feel they would have cared a dam, just as they don't care to see the prisoners freed that saddam has held for years. However, imagine how they would have felt, had the WTC happened in follywood? hopefully, most of them protesting the War which they helped create with their corruption, would not be here today.


Reply 26 - Posted by: DCJE, 4/15/2003 9:05:52 PM

Is this article for real? It is hard to comprehend such evil. Why isn't this all over the news?


Reply 27 - Posted by: lexusep@aol.com, 4/15/2003 9:26:03 PM

How come this isn't getting move coverage, this is the first I heard about it. I saw that whiner at the Nat'l Press Club. His diaper was all wet after he got done crying about his persecution. Oh yeah, Susan's too.


Reply 28 - Posted by: SmithL, 4/15/2003 9:35:29 PM

This is a great disappointment to Clare Short.


Reply 29 - Posted by: wes mouch, 4/15/2003 9:37:47 PM

Every day Blix pleaded for and got was another day in hell for each of these poor prisoners.


Reply 30 - Posted by: 1618, 4/15/2003 9:43:43 PM

Hitler seems to have been an amatuer as compared to Sodom and his two Sodomites. If we missed them in the bombing, God will get them!


Reply 31 - Posted by: kennowen, 4/15/2003 10:17:18 PM

Not that it does much good to repeat what others have posted, but there are NO mainstream news reports about any of this! They only do a story if there is excess looting or they mention that the search for weapons of mass destruction continues (usually with a hint of sarcasm.)


Reply 32 - Posted by: Zarin , 4/15/2003 11:13:13 PM

Don't worry - Fox will pick this up or Rush and then in 2 or 3 days this will get about 30 seconds of braodcast airtime.
What worries me is how many more of these places are there? The Soddamites have fled so who knows where all these places are hidden. God grant that our wonderful troops can save more and also that the world will know the good their sacrifices have done. Some of us will NEVER forget.


Reply 33 - Posted by: SallyVee, 4/15/2003 11:16:15 PM

Beards down to their WAISTS???

Dear God, we are talking YEARS here aren't we?


Reply 34 - Posted by: Dimpled Darling, 4/15/2003 11:16:17 PM

Iraq needs another museum that will be dedicated to the history of the tortures and murders of their people by Saddam and his henchmen. Oral histories must be taken and photographs of these prisoners. I'm sure there will be more to follow. This horrible situation is another holocaust and the world must never forget.


Reply 35 - Posted by: sunflower, 4/15/2003 11:22:50 PM

Please, let our God direct our Marines to all the underground cells holding prisoners of saddam, including Speicher, from 1991, and please let him be alive. Would that these protestors had been held prisoners since 1991, what a different tale would be told, huh? President Bush went after the snakes head, as klintoon was cowardly to do, and is going after the rest of the body of the snake, syria hopefully, and the valley in damascus, training camps for osama bin laden wanna bes. Bomb damascus while we are there.


Reply 36 - Posted by: nyirish67, 4/15/2003 11:24:39 PM

Anyone heard from Baghdad Petey lately? LastI heard was our battle plan has failed.


Reply 37 - Posted by: SallyVee, 4/15/2003 11:25:48 PM

Alright, people, this is getting WEIRD. This story was posted 5 hours ago. There's nothing on Drudge or BlogsOfWar and I haven't heard a peep about it from FoxNews.

What. Is. Up.

I'm emailing Shepard Smith right now.


Reply 38 - Posted by: Ruskin, 4/15/2003 11:34:31 PM

Reply 39 - Posted by: Thrawn , 4/15/2003 11:37:27 PM

WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?!


Reply 40 - Posted by: SallyVee, 4/15/2003 11:41:17 PM

Okay, John Little over at BlogsOfWar just put it up. Now pay attention to Shep. Why aren't Leventhal and Kelly getting any info on this?


Reply 41 - Posted by: Pleiades, 4/16/2003 12:13:27 AM

I was going to say the same thing; I haven't seen this anywhere yet. Then I relooked at the printout I made of the story and it is dated tomorrow April 16, (I'm on MST) so maybe it's just now breaking?

Thanks to LeBain for catching it....

I'm so relieved they were rescued my eyes became, uh, blurred.


Reply 42 - Posted by: Chris in FL, 4/16/2003 12:21:26 AM

Yes, there is a God and I truly believe that George W. is acting on His behalf and with His advice.
God Bless our President.


Reply 43 - Posted by: shilohsharps, 4/16/2003 12:21:45 AM

Robbins, Moore and Sarandon are correct.

None of this was done in their name.

This was done for freedom, glory, honor, duty, love of life, love of fellow mankind, safety, peace, truth, justice and to be a By God American.

They are none of these things for they are vile offal.

So....Not In Our Name???

Damn right.


Reply 44 - Posted by: The Road Apple, 4/16/2003 12:33:30 AM

I just wish that those mentioned in reply #43 and the rest of their ilk would be forced to spend at least a year in one of these special Iraqi cells. Perhaps at the end of that time there would be a bit of an attitude change. Pukes.


Reply 45 - Posted by: boscon, 4/16/2003 12:37:20 AM

But... but... women can't join the Augusta National Golf Club... ohh the inhumanity.


Reply 46 - Posted by: SFGOP, 4/16/2003 1:07:28 AM

NOT IN OUR NAMES

In other words, ignorance is bliss!


Reply 47 - Posted by: quityerwhining, 4/16/2003 1:20:12 AM

What's worse than war?

Human beings held underground and tortured for ten years. Our forces have done a noble deed, and should be proud of their efforts forever.


Reply 48 - Posted by: amereagle, 4/16/2003 1:25:38 AM

Leftists are evil.


Reply 49 - Posted by: IGWTrust, 4/16/2003 1:49:09 AM

"Eating the scabs from their sores" such inhumanity these people experienced.
I'm at a loss for words about the monsters who allowed this.


Reply 50 - Posted by: mamamoose, 4/16/2003 1:54:54 AM

No. 17, do not worry about not having pix. You can be assured that the DOD AND the Marines have photogs recording all of these activities. It is vital that the gummint have these to document the atrocities and to use as justification for the strike on Iraq.
This war is being very well recorded, not just by the embedded and otherwise reporters, but by all of the military units involved. This was a terrible story, a horrible story, and one that should not be read by naive people such as me just before bedtime. Think I'll have a cup of tea.


Reply 51 - Posted by: Liberty Girl, 4/16/2003 2:50:04 AM

C-Span aired the entire Tiny Timmie crying session today. I'd say it might have been around the same time these poor people were being released by our soldiers. And we're such baaaaad people for boycotting his films. Poooooor baby!

Wondering where, if at all, The Oregonian Pravda will be publishing this story tomorrow. If they do it will probably be buried deeply. Would be a nice momento for those of us who supported the war to shove in the face of the thousands of ''not in our names'' terrorist supporters who have been zealously marching out here.


Reply 52 - Posted by: valleystorm, 4/16/2003 3:21:05 AM

I've made copies of several of these reports, and given them to acquaintences who profess hatred for war but who believe themselves to be compassionate liberals.


Reply 53 - Posted by: puffy1, 4/16/2003 3:47:35 AM

I have a cousin who has 2 TWO sons fighting in Iraq and he spent yesterday picketing a post office in Naples FL so that Americans couldn't mail their income taxes. I have given up trying to understand these people.