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Golden luxury amid the poverty
By Colin Brazier of Sky News Last updated at 00:00am on 07.04.03The floors and walls are made of Italian marble and giant chandeliers hang from the ceilings. In the grounds, treelined walkways run alongside an ornamental lake.
Amid the poverty which has blighted Iraq, welcome to just one of Saddam Hussein's many presidential palaces.
If there was any doubt about the extent to which the Iraqi leader has enriched himself while depriving his people, it was dispelled today as I accompanied members of the 3rd Armoured into the fantastic splendour of the Kasafaw Palace.
We arrived prepared for a firefight with members of the Republican Guard tasked to fight to the death. But as we arrived, the palace was guarded by just six men - all Syrian - who had been left to defend one of Saddam's prized possessions. Two were shot. A third fled for his life by hiding inside a refrigerator. The others ran.
What they left behind amazed us all. The walls are covered with ornamental designs. Spiral staircases rise to the expensively furnished rooms upstairs and Grecian-style pillars led us through the building. Though it was dark - Baghdad lost electricity several days ago - we could see gold-edged furniture and paintings. In one bathroom we saw expensive fittings and gold taps. There was a sense of mounting anger. This was bought with money from oil sales which should have been buying food and medicine for Iraqi children.
The US Army has a strict policy on trophy-hunting. The only latitude seems to concern pictures of Saddam Hussein. The Americans have been at pains to avoid any unnecessary damage and save for our initial moments at the gates of the palace, there was little euphoria. The commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade, Colonel Will Grimsbey, warned his officers that wanton destruction will not be tolerated.
Instead, with the building declared safe, some troops removed their body armour and others took off their helmets. Last week they killed 800 Iraqis in a battle for a key bridge. Today they wandered about the tyrant's well-tended garden.
Earlier, at the newly renamed Baghdad International airport, we had seen the first evidence of Saddam's expensive tastes. We were given a tour of the airport's deserted VIP terminal and found it clad with marble, alabaster friezes and gilt-edged everything.
Kitsch and gaudy, it was a monument to poor taste and brash self-promotion. This was where Saddam would welcome world leaders. Judging by the array of national flags we discovered - ranging from India to Iceland - the number may have been large.
As of last night, the airport is once again receiving flights but it remains a risky business to fly here. The first incoming flight, organised by the CIA, was welcomed with desultory bursts of anti-aircraft fire. Half-a-dozen Iraqi artillery shells have hit over the past 24 hours.
But things are changing and, as the days pass, minds are changing too.
A captured Iraqi colonel being held in one of the hangars listened in astonishment as his information minister praised Republican Guard soldiers for recapturing the airport.
He looked at his captors and, as he realised that what he had heard was palpably untrue, his eye filled with tears. Turning to a translator, he asked: "How long have they been lying like this?"
