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 Saddamâs 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: âWith Saddam the motto âMade in Germanyâ, whether it be cars, furniture or bunkers, stood for something.â
Saddam demanded âNato standardsâ in withstanding fire, bombs, missiles and poison gas. Buffalo engaged the Dusseldorf firm Boswau and Knauer, which had built many air raid shelters for Hitlerâs 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. One worker told Germanyâs Focus magazine: âWe 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.â 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 âless of a shelter and more of a mini-palaceâ. The accommodation includes a living room for Saddam and his family, bathroom with whirlpool bath and a dressing room with built-in wardrobe. Saddamâs bedroom boasts a tent-style bed of the type favoured by another of historyâs notorious figures, Napoleon. It cost an amazing £20,000. There are several other bedrooms and bathrooms, kitchen with eating area, kidsâ rooms and quarters for guards. The command room is virtually a mini-Pentagon with video and communication links to Saddamâs 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: âWhatever happens to Saddam, we are certain of one thing. In any American and British attack on Baghdad, the bunker will live through it.â