- BERLIN (Reuters) - The German
architect of one of Saddam Hussein's main bunkers in Baghdad said on Friday
the Iraqi leader can survive anything short of a direct hit with a nuclear
bomb if he stays within its 1.5 metre thick walls.
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- "It could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear
bomb the size of the Hiroshima one detonating 250 metres away," said
Karl Esser, a security consultant who designed the bunker underneath Saddam's
main presidential palace in Baghdad.
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- U.S.-led troops will also find it hard to fight their
way in through its three-tonne Swiss-made doors, Esser told Reuters in
an interview.
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- A retired Yugoslav army officer who helped build other
bunkers for Saddam also told Reuters this week that the shelters were impenetrable
and could survive an atomic bomb.
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- CNN reported on Friday that U.S. B-52 bombers dropped
a two tonne (4,500 lb) "bunker busting" bomb on the capital for
the first time in the campaign.
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- The palace bunker can accommodate 50 people and has two
escape tunnels, one leading 200 metres to the Tigris river.
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- It was built in 1982 and 1983 by German firm Boswau &
Knauer, which merged into what is now the Walter-Bau AG building group.
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- At the time Esser was a consultant for a German government-sponsored
civil protection body and had his own company, Schutzraumtechnik Esser
GmbH, which supplied equipment for Saddam's bunker.
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- Whether Saddam is using the bunker or is even still alive
is unclear, with London and Washington saying they were not convinced that
television broadcasts he has made since the war started were live.
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- The U.S. and Britain launched the war on Iraq last week
with a bombing attack on Baghdad intended to target Saddam, and have pounded
the city for nine days.
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- NO CHANCE FOR "BUNKER BUSTERS"
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- But Esser said "bunker busting" bombs like
the one dropped on Friday would fail to penetrate the 1,800 square-metre
bunker because they first have to get though the palace built directly
above it.
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- "The presidential palace above gives natural protection
so the bunker can only be cracked by ground troops or a tactical nuclear
bomb," said Esser.
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- The bunker ceiling itself, made of steel-reinforced concrete
and up to two metres (yards) thick, was designed to withstand the direct
impact of a 230 kg bomb, said Esser.
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- "It's not a combat bunker, it's an air raid shelter,
otherwise it would have had to be built with gun slits and a variety of
other features," said Esser.
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- "Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors
with bazookas and explosives."
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- Construction took place at a time when western companies
were legally supplying Saddam with arms and equipment during the 1980-88
Iran-Iraq war.
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- Esser said he assumes the plans of the bunker had been
passed on to Germany's foreign intelligence service.
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- 'Friendly Saddam' Liked Bunker
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- Esser remembers giving Saddam a personal tour of the
bunker's features, which include a water tank, electricity generator, air
filter, 30 square metre command centre and so-called electromagnetic pulse
protection system -- to shield electrical circuits from the impact of an
explosion.
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- "He was satisfied," said Esser. "He was
totally friendly. He was wearing civilian clothes and looked like an ordinary
civil servant but you could tell he was important because everyone immediately
went quiet when he started talking."
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- Esser said he had no qualms about having helped to protect
a dictator likened to Hitler.
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- "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," said Esser.
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