Hussein Safe in Super-Bunker, Paper Says

A German newspaper says Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is safe from U.S. air attacks in a nuclear-bomb-proof bunker built under the shattered presidential palace in Baghdad.

Bild am Sonntag reported that German companies, including one based in Munich, designed the bunker, which is 60 feet under the palace, furnished it and “worked for years to build it,” but none was identified by name.

Storage chambers are “filled to the ceilings” with food and medicine, and up to 25 people could hold out in the bunker for “more than a year without worry,” the report in the Sunday newspaper said.

Western news reports have spoken of such a complex under the palace, but details have been sketchy. The weekly did not say how it learned the details, and they could not be independently confirmed.

Located on Jamia Street, not far from the Tigris River, the bunker is directly underneath the presidential palace, which has been shattered by American bombs, Bild said.

The bunker’s walls, ceiling and foundation are six feet thick and built with special concrete for added strength, the newspaper said. The doors are made of steel-reinforced concrete a foot thick, and access is via German-built elevators.

The bunker can withstand heat of up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit, and a nuclear blast above would produce only a slight vibration, Bild said.

It said the bunker is built on a roller-bearing system and swings up to 24 inches so that the pressure waves do not crack its structure.

Ducts and filters bring fresh air into the complex. Even the water for flushing the toilets is specially processed so that chemical or biological agents cannot enter the system, the newspaper said.

A graphic accompanying the Bild report showed luxuriously furnished quarters.