Libertarian_Guard
03-29-2003, 08:40 PM
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2003/03/30/news/news09.asp
The US's "bunker-busting" bombs will not destroy Saddam's underground hiding place deep beneath one of his Baghdad palaces, the architect who designed it said on Friday.
Karl Esser, a German security consultant who planned the bunker , said only a direct hit from a nuclear bomb was capable of crushing the dictator's alleged hiding place.
"It could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear bomb the size of the Hiroshima one detonating 250m away," said Esser, adding that the ceiling was capable of withstanding the direct impact of a 500lb (about 225 kg) bomb.
The 1 800mē bunker has 5m -thick walls, a 5.4m- thick steel-reinforced concrete ceiling, and two escape tunnels - one of which leads 200m to the Tigris River and can house 50 people.
"Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors with bazookas and explosives," added Esser, who recalled showing the "friendly" dictator around the newly built complex.
"He was satisfied. He was totally friendly. He was wearing civilian clothes and looked like an ordinary civil servant."
The bunker was constructed at a cost of more than R1-billion in the early 1980s by the German firm Boswau & Knauer - which also built bunkers for Hitler - during the Iran-Iraq war when Western companies were legally supplying Saddam.
The budget for the bunker was exceeded by more than R500-million after Saddam ordered extra luxury touches such as gold switches, expensive tiling, a spa bath and built-in wardrobes.
Along with children's rooms, guards' quarters and a kitchen stocked with a year's supply of freeze-dried food, the bunker, which is 30m below ground, has an extensive audio library, a conference room with video-link facilities and a water-recycling facility.
Other features include a water tank, air filter, electricity generator, a 25mē command centre and an electromagnetic-pulse protection system to shield electrical circuits from the force of a nuclear blast.
Access to the refuge is believed to be via a lift hidden beneath the palace's swimming pool.
Esser' s assessment - backed up by that of a former Yugoslav army officer who helped to build the bunker - throws doubt on whether the US's bunker-busting bombs are as effective as the Pentagon has suggested.
According to CNN, US B-52 bombers dropped their first bunker-buster on Baghdad on Friday. It is unclear whether Saddam is in the bunker or whether he is even still alive.
Asked if the knowledge that he had constructed a hiding place for a dictator who has been compared to Hitler ever kept him awake at night, Esser said: "It's not just one person getting protection; it's several people, it's the palace staff as well. I just see it as an achievement of bunker technology."
The US's "bunker-busting" bombs will not destroy Saddam's underground hiding place deep beneath one of his Baghdad palaces, the architect who designed it said on Friday.
Karl Esser, a German security consultant who planned the bunker , said only a direct hit from a nuclear bomb was capable of crushing the dictator's alleged hiding place.
"It could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear bomb the size of the Hiroshima one detonating 250m away," said Esser, adding that the ceiling was capable of withstanding the direct impact of a 500lb (about 225 kg) bomb.
The 1 800mē bunker has 5m -thick walls, a 5.4m- thick steel-reinforced concrete ceiling, and two escape tunnels - one of which leads 200m to the Tigris River and can house 50 people.
"Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors with bazookas and explosives," added Esser, who recalled showing the "friendly" dictator around the newly built complex.
"He was satisfied. He was totally friendly. He was wearing civilian clothes and looked like an ordinary civil servant."
The bunker was constructed at a cost of more than R1-billion in the early 1980s by the German firm Boswau & Knauer - which also built bunkers for Hitler - during the Iran-Iraq war when Western companies were legally supplying Saddam.
The budget for the bunker was exceeded by more than R500-million after Saddam ordered extra luxury touches such as gold switches, expensive tiling, a spa bath and built-in wardrobes.
Along with children's rooms, guards' quarters and a kitchen stocked with a year's supply of freeze-dried food, the bunker, which is 30m below ground, has an extensive audio library, a conference room with video-link facilities and a water-recycling facility.
Other features include a water tank, air filter, electricity generator, a 25mē command centre and an electromagnetic-pulse protection system to shield electrical circuits from the force of a nuclear blast.
Access to the refuge is believed to be via a lift hidden beneath the palace's swimming pool.
Esser' s assessment - backed up by that of a former Yugoslav army officer who helped to build the bunker - throws doubt on whether the US's bunker-busting bombs are as effective as the Pentagon has suggested.
According to CNN, US B-52 bombers dropped their first bunker-buster on Baghdad on Friday. It is unclear whether Saddam is in the bunker or whether he is even still alive.
Asked if the knowledge that he had constructed a hiding place for a dictator who has been compared to Hitler ever kept him awake at night, Esser said: "It's not just one person getting protection; it's several people, it's the palace staff as well. I just see it as an achievement of bunker technology."