(Washington Times) Jed Babbin - Saddam Hussein's palaces are the primary locations of his weapons of mass destruction programs. The Al-Seqoor ("the Eagle") palace in the main Baghdad "Presidential Complex" houses an underground biological weapons lab called Al-Tahaddi, "the Challenge," where work is reportedly underway on the Ebola and West Nile viruses, among others. Just west is the Al-Radwaniyeh compound, used to store biological weapons and with hardened bunkers for a large command and control facility. About 80 miles northwest of Baghdad is the Jabal Makhul Presidential Site, home of Project 555, Saddam's uranium enrichment program, with technicians working overtime shifts, trying to make fissile materials for nuclear weapons. Many of Saddam's palace compounds have man-made lakes built over the tunnels where WMD work is being done, as a barrier to bombardment. Typical of this is the Al-Tharthar Presidential Site, 150 miles north of Baghdad, where a large man-made lake sits above a tunnel complex housing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam's palace compound in his hometown of Tikrit includes another such tunnel complex for WMD storage and research.
2002-10-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive