Iraq: Revenge and Corruption

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

19 Years of Socio-Cultural Destruction under the Muhasasa [1] System

Brief Introduction

Iraq’s ongoing tragedy is that the Shi’a and Kurdish enemies of the former secular nation who now ‘rule’ the country revile both pluralism and social equality. Freedom of expression, cultural development and individual freedoms have been trampled upon while establishing the ‘quota-system’.

Today in much of Iraq, public artistic expression is largely devoted to martyr portraits of Shi’a militia fighters, the IRGC Quds forces leader, Qassem Soleimani, killed in a drone strike by the Americans outside Baghdad airport on [3] January 2020 [2] and of the clerics. Beatific portraits of Imam Hussein are festooned across Iraq’s streets during the Shi’a religious holidays. Little has been built or created in the past nineteen years. A few extravagant Emirates-style towers and monotonous building complexes with high rise apartments and malls show changes, but much has been destroyed, neglected, abandoned, or simply ground down. [3] Baghdad is being buried under concrete construction.

Upping its game against the US and its regional allies and broadcasting accusations against Israel [4] remain Iran’s pretext for increasing regional dominion. This strategy is maintained via its loyal proxies inside the Iraqi government and their respective militia forces. Iran has also benefitted – like Russia – from its 11-year military experience in Syria and long decades backing Lebanese Hezbollah. The Kurdistan region is also at real risk of being crushed under Tehran’s feet, suffering missile strikes from within and without. [5]

Decimation of order in Iraq

The professionals that worked within the civil Ba’ath administration, in the scientific field, social services, in cultural activities, the sports arena [6], and all artistic pursuits during the Ba’ath era have faced adverse attention since regime change – and do so an ongoing basis. Their lives and their works have been ground small under the heels of Iran’s proxies.

Saddam Hussein, as President of Iraq, embarked upon social advances as well as driving building and art commissions. His architects, designers and engineers incorporated cultural tributes (in terms of the motifs highlighted, materials used, and craftsmanship exhibited) to Sumero-Akkadian, Babylonian, Moorish, Hispano-Islamic, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottoman and Far Eastern art and architectural influences.

Modern and post-modern architectural influences also came to characterise Baghdad under the Ba’ath party in most of its developing cities, including in the Kurdish dominated north. Works by Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius survive.

The legacy of the Abbasid caliphate remains just visible in Baghdad: The Abbasid palace situated in the Bab al-Moadem area remains preserved if little visited. Similarly, the spiral minaret and fort complex at Samarra resisted efforts by ISIS to destroy it and survived a shell lobbed at the top of the minaret. The Abbasid bridge outside Zakho is also still standing despite years of armed conflict.

Iraq’s rich culture, diversity and historic might was celebrated during the Ba’ath era.

The Americans wantonly targeted this culture dating increasingly from Iraq’s justified invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait had been stealing Iraq’s oil through a method known as “slant drilling” cutting beneath the international border – a fact omitted from most Western accounts blaming Iraq. Negotiations between Baghdad and the Kuwaitis failed. The Coalition seized the opportunity of the invasion of Iraq’s true province to seek to control Iraq’s oil using Kuwait as a pretext. The first Gulf War was launched. Even the retreating Iraqi forces and civilians were burned to cinders by the American bombers on the Highway of Death. The rest is history…

Reverence for Iraq’s history and architecture

Despite the draconian sanctions imposed on Iraq from 1990 onwards, at the Iraqi President’s behest, significant architectural projects were undertaken to restore Iraq’s prestige and remind the world of her greatness, drawing upon its 6,000 years of civilisation.

In 1972, Saddam Hussein had signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union, valid for fifteen years. He visited Moscow. This made him an American foe at the time.

Until the political mood spurred an about-face after the Iran-Iraq war and Kuwait debacle, Saddam Hussein had been a close ally of the UK and many European countries. When still vice-president, he had also visited Spain, including Madrid, Cordoba, Granada and Toledo in December 1974, touring museums and visiting the Moorish architectural treasures. He prayed in the Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral and visited Alhambra (the Red Fort – Qal’at al-Hamra) [7]. He received a full Guard of Honour reception in Madrid.

The French Presidents of the era similarly feted Saddam Hussein at the Elysée Palace. He met with the French Presidents in 1975 and well into the 1980s having very good relations with the French. The dignity of the occasions of his visits was captured in numerous photographs published at the time in the West. Saddam Hussein remained a ‘friend’ until policies began to shift around his claims against Kuwait’s theft of Iraq’s oil in July 1990.

On July 18, 1980, Foreign Minister, Tareq Aziz, accused Kuwait with strong evidence of violating Iraq’s border and stealing $2.4 billion worth of Iraq’s oil. He equated this with military aggression by the Kuwaitis. He also accused the UAE of cheating on OPEC quotas: He called it ″a premeditated and deliberate plan to weaken Iraq and undermine its economy and security.″ [8]

Saddam Hussein sponsored many artists and architects from this period onwards. Iraq’s Abbasid Caliphate, which succeeded the Umayyad Caliphate with its seat in Damascus, had first made its capital in Samarra then moved to Baghdad under the Caliph Mansour. Saddam Hussein referenced the cultural and architectural connections of this period with Islamic Spain and the Maghreb in many of the buildings and art works he commissioned or supported.

Motifs from the art of Islamic Spain and the Maghreb were carefully incorporated into the woodwork, panelling and stalactite formations of the palaces Saddam built. Furnishings were equally inspired by the French palaces, thereby fusing and harmonising European and Oriental motifs.

Intricate marble stonework designs in floral and geometric forms were featured on the floors and imagery deriving from Iraq’s ancient history fused with modern features in the huge painted ceilings. Much is still visible in the Babylon Palace, overlooking the ruins of ancient Babylon despite the graffiti covering the lower walls and the vandalism under the Shi’a dominated regime.

The visits to Spain would influence the Iraqi leader’s choice of motifs for the Palace Projects accomplished throughout the 1990s. Saddam Hussein has been quoted of Granada (and the Alhambra Palace) saying, “I will never say that I trod on Granada’s soil but that I embraced it.” [9] [10]

Saddam Hussein also met with the Algerian leader, Houari Boumeddine, their friendly terms leading to the Algiers Agreement of 1975 signed with the Shah. The Algiers Treaty spelled the collapse of the Kurdish revolution and put paid to Mullah Mustafa Barzani’s dream of securing an independent Kurdish nation at that time.

Pretexts for war: oil, and the cultural destruction wrought by the US-led invasion

Iraq was falsely accused of involvement of 9/11 to pursue its oil and effect the final destruction of the Ba’ath order there in the 2003 onslaught. Baghdad had suffered repeated destructive bombing sorties targeting key government buildings and often missing the target, such as in the 1991 bombing of the civilian shelter in al-Amiriyah that killed 408 civilians. [11]

Even under President Clinton, a Democrat President, further intense bombing was unleashed on Baghdad over four consecutive days between 16-19 December 1998. Iraq increasingly became the target of US political spleen, supported in its ‘special relationship’ by the UK. Biographies of Saddam Hussein were coloured by political bias and propaganda policies throughout this period. Western reporting still largely follows this scheme without reappraisal.

The US-led invasion of 2003 19 years ago (20 March 2003) capped the cumulative effects of years of wanton physical destruction and the economic bullying of Iraq by the United States, Britain and their Coalition partners.

Although it was well known that the Iraqi president rarely if ever slept in the palaces severe structural damage was inflicted for no good purpose other than a display of American might and determination. Iraq’s heritage sites and museums also suffered damage and vandalism in tune with the lack of forethought for protecting Iraq’s artefacts and preventing the subsequent pillaging by the masses.

Colin Powell and George W. Bush had also wanted to destroy Saddam Hussein’s symbolic Qadisiya Victory Arch with its large bronze arms modelled on those of the president himself, realised by the celebrated, late, Iraqi sculptor and artist, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat (20.04.1929-12.09.2011. The crossed swords arches had been designed by Khalid al-Rahal who passed away in 1987. The sculptor completed them thereafter. Attempts to dismantle them in 2007 by the usurping power ceased in the wake of public protest – for once – and they have since been protected as part of Iraq’s heritage although public access has largely been denied in line with securing the International Zone.

Creative works survive if not Ba’ath-linked

Mohammed Ghani Hikmat left behind a rich heritage of his wider work in Baghdad celebrating Iraqi themes with scenes and characters from the tales of the 1001 Nights – including Ali Baba and the 40 thieves (the Kahramana), the flying carpet (near the Palestine Hotel), Aladdin and his genie (near the Al-Rashid Hotel), King Shahriyar and Queen Scheherazade on the Abu Nuwas Tigris Corniche.

The ingenious Save Iraqi Culture monument commissioned by the Mayor Baghdad in 2010 with its multiple muscled arms propping up a cuneiform-inscribed pillar attracts scores of young people for hanging out and taking selfies. It succeeds because, like all meaningful art, the work is beyond sect and holds universal appeal.

Other of Mohammed Ghani Hikmat’s works were stolen from his studio after the invasion. He fled to Jordan and returned to Iraq years later in his old age. Much of his creative legacy has been lost forever. [12]

Iran’s Proxies Eradicate Iraq’s Socio-Cultural Identity

Concerted attempts were first made by the CPA and Interim Iraqi Government alongside the Shi’a opposition exiles to eradicate all imagery associated with Saddam Hussein. That included the palaces and the unfinished mosques – unless these sites were deemed useful to the usurpers of Iraq’s powerbase.

Many well-known public figures were pursued by their Shi’a adversaries into neighbouring Jordan whence many had initially fled after March 2003. They include film directors like Jordan-based Kurd, Muhammad Shukri-al-Jamil, numerous actors, singers and musicians. Many were paid by the leading family to appear before them at their formal parties, celebrations and for a wide variety of social occasions. That was sufficient to make them targets of revenge by the incoming Shi’a led administration.

Saddam Hussein had devoted his attention to the work of artists and architects; he had honoured many among them and closely guided those working on his favourite architectural projects, including the palaces. Archive film and photographs highlighted the “Beloved Leader”, Saddam Hussein, in the company of various of these professionals considering plans and designs. Many of them were also featured on Iraqi state television and in the Ba’ath newspaper, al-Thawra. He worked on urban development with Iraq’s modernist architects like Rifat Chadirji, the designer of the original Unknown Soldier Monument in Tahrir Square, who achieved international acclaim”. [13] That sculpture was replaced by the giant statue of Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War and toppled in 2003. A replacement was erected showing a symbolic Iraqi family unit by Basim Hamid, also removed for no clear reason. The once ornate site in Firdos Square where Iraqis used to sit at outdoor tables for coffee and discourse opposite the old 14 Ramadan Mosque is currently a ruin of broken rubble surrounded by unruly traffic. Even the post-Saddam sculpture by Basim Hamid representing a symbolic Iraqi family was removed by the new Shi’a dominated administration soon after.

Iraqi art and architecture: political statement and cultural phenomenon.

Long-term opponents of the secular Arab socialist regime in Iraq, like the son of exiled Shi’a architect Mohamed Makiya, Kanan Makiya (writing under the penname of Samir al-Khalil), focused largely on disseminating information on Iraq’s human rights abuses to a foreign audience. However, he also published a biting criticism of Saddam-era structures and monuments in a book called The Monument: Art and Vulgarity in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq [14]. Makiya condemned most of Saddam’s works as a crude expression of totalitarianism. This was an opinion and one based on his politics as a Westernised and well-educated Iraqi intellectual opposed to the Ba’ath Party government. Kanan Makiya was also a driving force behind the Iraq Memory Foundation and behind the preservation of the Ba’ath Party records archive, as was the current Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Al Kadhimi, a former journalist of sorts, went on to become Iraq’s new intelligence chief before being nominated as PM after the fallout of ISIS under Haider al-Abadi and successor, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, all of pro-Iran Da’wa Party background. He had been one of Makiya’s associates from the London exile circle around his father’s cultural establishments, Saqi Books and the Kufa Gallery. Both have since closed but at the time hosted quality art and literary gatherings alongside political debate. The Iraqi government run Iraqi Cultural Centre also produced much literature and showcased Iraqi art during Saddam Hussein’s early presidency and throughout the Iran-Iraq war until the 1991 [15] division of the north and south part of the country under the Coalition’s No-Fly Zones.

Iraq’s enemies were many and dangerous. Saddam knew himself to be threatened by Iran’s Iraqi agents and took all possible precautions to keep them under control. The precautions he implemented were not, however, sufficient to save him from the ill intentions of the Americans. [16]

On another level, membership of the Ba’ath Party provided the key for good or lasting employment and promotion prospects. Party membership records were closely maintained during members’ lifetimes.

When the Ba’ath Administration was decapitated by the US invasion, the former Ba’ath records were flown to the United States for research, categorisation, digital reproduction, and study with considerable input from Kanan Makiya. His best intentions for reconciliation were thwarted by the Iran-backed Shi’a hardliners that America put into power because some of them spoke persuasive English and knew how best to package their claims and grievances.

The US government also then made the error of very bad timing returning the Ba’ath documents material to Iraq during the premiership of Nouri al-Maliki coinciding with the raging sectarian slaughter against Sunnis and former Ba’ath era actors. Critics have since observed how, contrary to all hopes for their use in reconciliation, the records have been used systematically by the Shi’a led regime for revenge.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s artists, architects, structural and civil engineers working on Saddam Hussein’s monuments came under adverse attention and targeting by the religious militias. To work on the former Iraqi President’s high-profile art and building projects, these specialists were required to have solid Ba’ath party credentials and had constantly to demonstrate their loyalty.

March 2003 -The palaces are bombed – again

The importance of all the palaces located in the Green Zone led them to be among the first sites targeted by American bombing, but especially the Al Bairaq Palace. (This was known only to insiders and international intelligence under the code name, Project 2000, as part of the “bunker” palace [17]).

The late, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former Deputy Speaker of the Russian parliament, deceased of COVID in April 2022 [18] recalled of his meetings with Saddam Hussein in an interview filmed in 2006 with Al-Jazeera [19]: “He gave me presents too, he gave me two Patak Philippe watches and they are very expensive. I was always given photographs …and before my departure I was always given a set of photos too that I brought back to Moscow.

“I went to almost all of his palaces…he had five or six in Baghdad, all of them were magnificent, fairy tale, beautiful, usually there was nothing around, only parks, or empty space. The palaces were tall, beautiful, with mosaic and marble everywhere, gold-plated door handles, that sort of thing, magnificent, very quiet, no one round – there was a guard of honour by the door saluting, expensive carpets, magnificent…”

Al Bairaq Palace (The Victory Flag)

First built at the end of the 1980s by a Yugoslav company, it is one of the most important and little publicised palaces documented by the foreign security community as Project 2000, or the Bunker palace.

It is distinguished by two small blue domes at each end of the front elevation and a larger blue dome situated almost in the middle of its main building.

Al Bairaq palace and the Republican Palace face one another from a corner at the front side of each, in view in angle and orientation.

The extension undertaken of adding new buildings to Al Bairaq palace and an external corridor in the front elevation, covered by a luxurious white stone cladding roof and the addition of the two small blue domes on the top of the corridor were constructed after the first attack by the US in Desert Storm (under George Bush Senior) including the refurbishment of the damaged big dome and the roof of the original palace building.

The UN weapons inspectors had also visited it in 1998 before the US strikes during Operation Desert Fox. For the sake of safety, construction halted during such inspections where nothing was ever found.

The restored Republic Palace lies closer to the Tigris riverside than does Al Bairaq. Both palaces are separated by the road that passes between them.

All the construction works continued and were completed before the second attack in the 2003 invasion20, as in the photograph below, causing severe damage.

Al Salam (the Peace Palace)

The palace’s construction consisted of four-storeys set in finely landscaped grounds. Work was completed in September 1999 at a cost of about $100 million. Rather than being home to the Iraqi President, his wife and their five children, it mainly provided accommodation to visiting foreign dignitaries. It lies outside the area of Karadat Maryam that is now dubbed the Green Zone and the Qadisiya Expressway passes nearby.

The busts were removed by the US forces that also toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square. The Palace building and outlying structures remain in a semi-ruined state (2022). The once fine white dome was left to rust with a hole through its centre top and many parts of the exterior and interior severely damaged. The police now control the site as if its ghosts would escape to seek revenge.

Um al-Ma’arik mosque (renamed Um al-Qura)

Some of the similarities in domes shapes /curvature can be detected between al-Salam Palace and Um al-Ma’arik mosque also built and completed by Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War.

The bold, dark-blue domed, (post-Gulf War) mosque originally known as the Mother of All Battles Mosque (Um Al Ma’arik) was built by Saddam Hussein in the Ghazliya district of west Baghdad. It features symbolic missiles at the corners and a large artificial lake in the shape of the Arab world map in front. Its unique layout of buildings interspersed with water features remain intact today.

It was renamed the Mother of Cities mosque (Um al-Qura) after regime change.

Curiously, the new regime has not replaced the old Saddam-era Iraqi flag that is draped around the missile-shaped minarets. They did so with the sculptural giant flag emerging from beneath the Shuhada split-dome monument to the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war.

Um al-Ma’arik/Um al-Qura remains the largest Sunni mosque completed under Saddam Hussein’s direction as the other two projects under construction were still incomplete at the date of the invasion nineteen years ago.

The Iraqi President had always taken a very close personal interest in the ongoing work of all his projects. [21] This can be seen in the two illustrations I have adduced below.

Now these sites generally languish in neglect and have suffered from both public vandalism and attack unless considered useful by the new regime. This is entirely because of their association with the former administration. (Even portraits of the president are forbidden as are all the many collectors’ items associated with him such as clocks, watches, medals, awards and symbols the Ba’ath administration often used like the eight-pointed star. Penalties for possessing portraits of Saddam Hussein, the wrist watches or selling them can be excessively harsh. [22]

Those that worked on the president’s projects are at far greater risk as they were often in direct contact with their leader over a long period. Thy are therefore identified entirely with the past administration and at perpetual risk of arrest, torture and death on this basis.

The completed Um al Ma’arik mosque, shown in full view below, from a photo in the public domain, was to be used as a model for the Grand Mosque of Saddam that was supposed to be completed on the abandoned site of the Al-Muthana airport complex. The site has been given over to a building development called Iraq Gate. The mosque construction remains stalled behind it as it has been since the Americans overthrew the Ba’ath government.

As the Um al-Ma’arik mosque remained under a strong, but moderate, Sunni leadership after the De-Ba’athification drive was pursued under the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the Shi’a factions and Sunni jihadist groups did not succeed in physically destroying it despite several attacks and considerable bloodshed there. [24] US and Iraqi soldiers raided the mosque using the pretext of the abduction of Christian Science Monitor reporter, Jill Carroll. A pro-Iraq, anti-war reporter, Carroll had been abducted in the nearby al-Adel district in January 2006 after conducting an interview with an Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) MP, Adnan al-Dulaimi.

The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) based in the mosque later accused the American soldiers of desecrating the mosque, removing files and arresting one member and five guards. [25]

Um al-Ma’arik is now surrounded by a huge concrete blast wall separating it from the street. The Sunni district sees no share of the government’s budget for road and building maintenance.

Al Qaeda in Iraq/ISIS carried out a suicide bombing inside the main hall of the mosque during Ramadan prayers at 9.40 p.m of 28 August 2011, aiming to kill the head of the Sunni Endowment, Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, who was preaching at the time. Instead, he blew himself up when closest to IIP MP, Khalid al-Fahdawi, his security guards and several followers, killing al-Fahdawi and those nearest to him. Salafist militants were systematically targeting anti-fundamentalist Sunni leaders in this period along with public buildings and rival mosques. Rasheed al-Azawi of the IIP claimed that AQI sought to “silence the moderate voices to give the extremists more space inside Sunni areas.” The bomber wearing one arm cast in plaster to conceal the explosive detonated his device inside the main hall of the mosque. Accounts of the death toll and injuries ranged from 32 dead and 39 wounded to six dead and 12 wounded (al-Samarrai). [26]

Shi’a mosques, like the historic al-Askari shrine in Samarra in February 2006, were also common targets after regime change. A bomb attack destroyed the gold dome of the mosque intensifying the sect-based violence. AQI was blamed. It has since been rebuilt.

Um al-Ma’arik mosque today remains a symbol for many Iraqis of the best years of Saddam Hussein’s leadership despite its recent troubles.

Shrine of Sheikh Ma’ruf al-Karkhi

Worthy of note is Saddam Hussein’s endeavour to preserve one of Baghdad’s oldest shrines, including the minaret of Sheikh M’aruf al-Karkhi, a former Christian and convert to Sufism that was a contemporary of the Abbasid Caliph, Harun ar-Rashid. The Caliph is immortalised in the tales of the One thousand and One Nights and was a grandson of the second Abbasid Caliph, Abu Ja’far al-Mansour who established the the fabled Round City of Baghdad known as Madaint al-Salam (the City of Peace). [27] The mosque and minaret feature in the earliest written works of Arab geographers and chroniclers, foremostly Ibn Serapion,Ya’kubi, Mukadasi, Khatib, Hamd-Allah, Tabari (Abul Hasan Ali Al-Mas’udi, the 10th century Arab historian) Ibn Furat and travellers including the Berber, Ibn Batuta.28 Saddam Hussein built a ground breaking new mosque around and above the rebuilt shrine in the form of an eye gazing towards the heavens.

This structure still exists but the inscription at the entrance to Maruf al-Karkhi’s shrine bearing Saaddam Hussein’s name as responsible for the work has been covered over by the Shi’a regime for that very reason. Iraq’s ancient rulers traditionally attached theier nams to the palces and mosques they had built. The shrine mosque lies in Karkh, one of west Baghdad’s original ancient quarters, hence Sheikh al-Ma’rufi’ al-Karkhi’s name. “He died about the year 200 (A.D. 816) and Khatib names him as one of the city’s four saints, and guardians of Bagdhad, “whose intercession will ever prevent the approach of evil to the “City of Peace.” [29]

Al Sijood Palace (the Adoration Palace)

Al Sijood is a very fine building that was targeted by American bombing yet has largely remained intact, as seen in its setting in the photograph below, with the Tigris River behind. In a second view, the Palace is shown as seen from the Tigris. The UN inspectors had made very thorough mass inspections of the entire site including as recently as 2002. It was unoccupied at the time of their tour. [30] Despite this, and the lack of discovery of any weapons, it was not spared US bombing in 2003.

The turquoise-tile domed palace is situated on the north bank of the river Tigris in the Janain area and became known as the New Presidential Palace, as distinct from the Old Presidential Palace lying further to the northeast. It was the preferred residence of the President when built. (The palace and grounds were temporarily taken over by the Republic of Georgia’s forces.

Two different compounds flanked Al Sijood under the former administration. Along the river, west of the bridge and east of the palace was the “Tigris Compound” which housed the government’s top echelons – the Revolutionary Command Council, Regional Leadership, and Uday Hussein. West across the small Khair River sits the Qadisiya Compound that housed government ministers and party functionaries.

Investors are now reported to have been offered the palaces as touristic investment opportunities, beginning with Al Sijood, [31] but like so much else in Iraq there is little outward sign of progress. [32]

The Council of Ministers building

The distinctive, ziggurat-shaped building built in the 1980s featured heavily in the newscasts of the so-called Shock and Awe, US bombardment of Iraq in March 2003 where it was shown in flames.

It was built in the late 1980’s by CP Kukreja Associates, based in New Delhi. (CP Kukreja does not list this building in their current portfolio, but it can reportedly be found in Google’s cached version of it). The structure has since been restored and is back in use by the post-Ba’ath regime.

The distinctive blue dome with the white zigzag of Al Eiman Palace is shown in front of it.

The Al Eiman (Faith or Believers) Palace

The low horizontal complex lies to the left of the Council of Ministers building and is identifiable by its distinctive, flat, blue domes. A zigzag shape appears on one of the domes.

The impressive tall ‘window’ building situated to the front of the Council of Ministers was once the location of the world headquarters for the Iraqi Ba’ath Party and was assigned to the Presidential Guards. At the time of the invasion, it was still only 70% completed.

It was then used by the Occupation to send a political message to Iraqis and the outside world of who was in control through being chosen as the location of the Iraqi High Tribunal. There the Iraqi President was subjected to weeks of televised show trial and inevitably condemned to death. The ‘legalised assassination’ by hanging was carried out just before New Year’s Eve at the end of December 2006.

Between the former Ba’ath Party headquarters building and the tomb lay a range of 1970s era buildings, which were also partially destroyed, but also partially inhabited. 

The occupying powers that had handed control over to the ‘Interim Iraqi Government” – a group composed largely of their old friends in exile – did not have the legal jurisdiction to try the Iraqi leader under international law, as was coherently argued by the defence team – but defence argument was to no avail. The outcome was inevitable even before the trial got underway. Saddam Hussein was to be made a blood sacrifice at the end of 2006 to the Da’wa (Islamic Call) Party and to the delight of the top Da’wa official of the day, Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki.

Another view of the Faith Palace below derives from a screen shot published on Wikimapia.org that includes a view of the blue domed gate on the right and the Council of Ministers building behind left, useful in providing a sense of orientation. The Iraqi public cannot access the Green Zone to this day. Tarik Aziz had escorted Iraqi journalists through the grounds in 1997, filming there as he spoke. [33]

The facility was hit by 8 bunker blast bombs that destroyed the top level but not the bunker beneath. [34] It has been built in the 1982 with further work in 1983 by a German firm, Boswau and Knauer, for an estimated $65 million. German security consultant, Karl Esser, designed the bunker and security system. “Esser said he assumes the plans of the bunker had been passed on to Germany’s foreign intelligence service…Esser remembers giving Saddam a personal tour of the bunker’s features, which include a water tank, electricity generator, air filter, 30-square-meter command center and so-called electromagnetic pulse protection system — to shield electrical circuits from the impact of an explosion…

“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.” [35]

The main dome was hit through the roof and all below collapsed. Two US B52s dropped a two-ton bomb on the roof on Friday 28 March 2003 – the Iraqi holiday. Looters, including American personnel did the rest.

“Construction took place at a time when western companies were legally supplying Saddam with arms and equipment during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. It served as an air raid shelter and not a combat bunker.” [36] It had also been hit and damaged in 1991.

At that time, it was stated by one of the German engineers, “Of course, this was in the high phase of the Iran-Iraq war, and the whole West, including the United States, supported Saddam Hussein against the evil archenemy, Ayatollah Khomeini,” Niedermeier said, referring to Iran’s former religious leader. “Why would anyone have objected then? Who could have known that it would help Saddam defend himself against the West today.” [37]

Michel Aflaq’s Tomb

At the far western end of what became the Ba’ath Party Headquarters and the Presidential compound sits the turquoise, blue-domed tomb of the founder of the Ba’ath Party, Michael Aflaq, built soon after his death on 23 June 1989. It survives intact.

The Great Hall of Meetings 

The Great Hall of Meetings (dubbed FOB Honor during the Occupation) was built as an extensive meeting hall for the Ba’ath administration, built at a cost of over $100 million during the sanctions regime. It contained some twenty medium-sized meeting rooms and lecture halls. It suffered heavy bombing during the opening strikes of the 2003 invasion.

“Entry by the middle front entrance admitted access to the largest hall. To the right was featured a large mural of Saddam Hussein. To the left a large bronze relief depicted Saddam Hussein above Nebuchadnezzar and Hammurabi leading the Iraqi army to victory. Leaving the front entrance and going south toward the Council of Ministers stepped-pyramid building provided access to the large southern entrance to the HOM. There, a vestibule exhibited a ceiling painted with scenes from a battle during Desert Storm. The painting showed the defeat of U.S. forces and the triumph of Iraqi troops and tanks. To the right of the entrance, a side room featured a mural of Saddam Hussein.” [38]

The Republic Palace (Old Presidential Palace)

The Republic Palace was originally built for King Faisal II in the 1950s, but the young king was assassinated before he could move in. The structure was enlarged by Saddam Hussein and two new wings added to the existing central building. It was one of the sites that was unsuccessfully searched for non-existent WMD by UNSCOM inspectors. Although the Republic Palace was also hit by American bombing and thereafter suffered years of attack by rockets and mortars it has since been repaired and furbished by a Turkish company at a cost of some $400 million. It was made ready for the Arab League Summit of May 2011 39 and is in regular use for official ceremonies of state.

The domed building, with its two sweeping wings, occupies a section of land about a half mile in length. The middle section, with its turquoise blue dome, was built between 1957-58 from Iraqi sandstone brought from Nissan Governorate. It was designed by a team of British and Iraqi architects for the Iraqi monarchy and constructed in the 1950s by Harold A. Claridge, a British army major of New Zealand birth, at the behest of Faisal II to become his official residence after his intended marriage to an Egyptian princess. Before the royal wedding could take place, the King was assassinated in the 14 July 1958 coup spearheaded by Brigadier Abdul Karim Kassem [40] and the monarchy dismembered. Kassem is still honoured by the post-Saddam administration. His statues in Baghdad remain intact.

The Republic palace structure was severely damaged by bombing in 1998 under Bill Clinton’s presidency during the so-called Operation Desert Fox but was rebuilt within a year. Desert Fox saw four intensive days of bombing.

Saddam Hussein then had his name inscribed on every 50th brick, somewhat like in the ruins of Babylon. This feature was said to still be visible in an open section of wall near the north wing entrance.

Renovation in the late 1990’s nearly tripled the structure’s original size through the addition of the large wings to the north and east of the building. It became the preferred meeting place of the President. It took some hits on January 18, 19, 22 and February 13, 1991.

Reconstruction work at the Palace got underway after the 1991 US Desert Shield and Desert Storm attacks on Iraq following the Iraqi Army’s retreat from Kuwait. This was despite the crippling sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s government by the Coalition allies.

The palaces were struck again intensively in 1998 during Operation Desert Fox along with other government sites. The Washington Post noted: “The same mission folders that UNSCOM put together to inspect specific buildings and offices in its search for concealed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) became the basis for the targeting folders that missile launchers and pilots used in December…Welcome to the true Operation Desert Fox….It is clear from the target list, and from extensive communications with almost a dozen officers and analysts knowledgeable about Desert Fox planning, that the U.S.-British bombing campaign was more than a reflexive reaction to Saddam Hussein’s refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM’s inspectors.

“The heart of the Desert Fox list (49 of the 100 targets) is the Iraqi regime itself: a half-dozen palace strongholds and their supporting cast of secret police, guard and transport organizations. Some sites, such as Radwaniyah, had been bombed in 1991 (Saddam’s quarters there were designated “L01” in Desert Storm, meaning the first target in the Leadership category). Other sites, particularly “special” barracks and units in and around downtown Baghdad and the outlying palaces, were bombed for the first time.” [41]

The Republic Palace would later provide the HQ for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) after the 2003 invasion and until the massive new US “Embassy” complex was built at a cost of more than $750 million in 2004. (The American complex is devoid of architectural references to its Iraqi location.)

To the northeast corner of the compound, close to the Tigris River, lay the remnants of the former Republican Army base, now part of the vast US “Embassy” grounds.

The Republic Palace is back in use by the Shi’a dominated administration after refurbishment by a Turkish company for some $450 million.

An enormous degree of expense and aesthetic consideration went into its Saddam era reconstruction as recalled by its engineers today.

The newly-named Al Salam palace or former Sindbad Palace

Lying outside the Green Zone in east Baghdad, Uday Hussein’s former palace popularly dubbed the Sindbad Palace, has been renamed Al Salam Palace. It performs state functions and was spared destruction in the 2003 onslaught, perhaps on account of its location in the crowded residential and commercial Karada district of east Baghdad.

The Radwaniyah Palace Complex

Located near Baghdad International Airport, the complex with its two man-made hills and lakes contains the two palaces of Al Faw Palace (named after the war with Iran in the Faw Peninsula of the Shatt al-Arab waterway) and the Victory Over Iran Palace.

Both buildings were heavily damaged during the 2003 bombardment and the destruction is still extremely shocking today. The damage remains despite the vast site having been taken over by the invading forces that then ironically dubbed it Camp Liberty, including units of Camp Victory, and Camp Slayer, respectively. (The last name is doubtless the most apt considering the character of the invasion and subsequent occupation.) Saddam Hussein was imprisoned nearby until his transfer to the Shi’a dominated Kadhimiya district and his execution site, Camp Adala (Camp Justice) now occupied by the Iraqi forces and sealed from public view.

The Al Rahman Mosque – stalled 2003

One of the most ambitious projects undertaken by Saddam Hussein in 1999, but left incomplete owing to the 2003 invasion, is the enormous structure situated in the heart of the affluent Sunni Mansour district with its eight structures and main central building in the shape of an eight-pointed star. Although work halted at the time of the invasion, nineteen years ago, almost 80% of the project’s total structure was completed. This included the substructure foundations and superstructure installation, columns, walls and domes that were all completed by its engineers. Approximately 5000 underground piles went into the deep underground surface. Internal ground finishing and the cladding was just begun in some parts of its buildings. [42]

Possession of it after the Occupation was soon claimed by the Shi’a parties once they took over. It has since been used by the Shi’a militias, including the factions allied with the IRGC and its leaders.

According to an extensive report published by Al Araby al-Jadeed (The New Arab) in November 2017, the Former Director of the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in post before the invasion, Sheikh Ali Al-Badrany explained: “As soon as the American army entered Baghdad, the religious parties stormed the government headquarters, the palaces of former officials and mosques, and seized most of them… the “Virtue” Party close to Iran put is hand on Al-Rahman Mosque because of its vast area, and its location in the Al-Mansour neighbourhood…the mosque then turned into a den for militias linked with the party that divided it into party headquarters with a small training camp inside it and converting parts into parking. Members and families of the Virtue Party and its Raslioun militia from southern Iraq have squatted the mosque holding up the residents of Mansour for money. Robberies and kidnappings increased owing to their presence there.

Hordes of IDPs once camped around its edges for shelter. It had been conceived of as incorporating an Islamic university and colleges. Now it is home to the criminal militia.

The post-Ba’ath administration and Virtue Party has stolen and squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds and resources, including in Basra, yet they claim they could not afford to finish building the Al-Rahman Mosque. [43]

Had they been Sunnis, like their neighbour, Turkish dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, no amount of expense would have been spared. The Turkish president has sought to outdo all others in his lavish mosque construction projects in Turkey and the construction of a 1000 room Presidential palace. He has also contributed to the restoration of Sunni Ottoman mosques in Algeria and Libya in the extension of his neo-Ottoman ambitions.

The al Rahman Mosque occupies the site of the former Mansour horse racetrack. It is trapped in a time warp for political reasons.

The Great Saddam Mosque – stalled 2003

Only the foundations, sub structure, main supporting columns and walls were completed at the time the US invasion was launched. The site remains today just as it was then with its cranes and girders, but a vast new high rise apartment complex known as the Iraq Gate project [44] has gone up in the main section of the grounds within the former Al-Muthana Military Airport site. That project nears completion. In appearance it is like hundreds of those that have gone up in Beirut altering forever the human scale of the elegant old Mediterranean city.

Being an Islamic construction and the Sunnis of Iraq not entirely cowed, the Shi’a militias have not (yet) been able to destroy the foundations of the building which continues to extend into the Baghdad skyline, a symbol of an unnatural end to the former administration. For many Arabs and others, Saddam Hussein remains a cherished icon who achieved a great deal of good.

His three decades in office were not as painted by the ambitious and cynical Western governments that turned against their former ally in the name of oil, a military disaster and regime characterised by human rights abuses. Their own conduct since tars the critics by the same brush.

End to heritage-based construction projects

The palace and mosque projects were managed by the President’s Palace Office designers and its architectural engineering department. One designer was responsible for the domes and minarets, another for interiors; head construction designers oversaw the projects, such that similarities exist between them, but the scale and focus shifted.

The palace and mosque projects were a labour of love, of art and skilled craftsmanship.

Multi-coloured marble cladding adorned the walls and the interiors boasted fine wooden sculpture and joinery, as can still be seen in the abandoned Babylon Palace in Babel governorate overlooking the ancient ruins of Babylon itself. Detailed plasterwork is modelled on Moroccan and Andalusian techniques as in the palaces at Alhambra and Marrakech. The craftsmen worked together in their own special workshop devoted to the Presidential palaces. The head engineer and director of the Presidential Palaces Office had been Hussam Kaduri Bahnam who passed away from a heart attack.

The President, his secretary, and his personal guards would visit the sites as the work progressed, sometimes making changes such as curves in place of rectangular edges and in the colour of the marble cladding or elimination of smaller arches to a plain shape. The visits usually took place in the quiet part of the late evenings or early mornings when the site was not busy with labourers and other staff. Only the night watch including one of the main engineers’ team and an electrical technician along with the project’s special security guards would be there when the President visited. Only the project’s night-staff and site guards would be present when the President came accompanied by his own guards and his personal secretary. For security purposes neither his name nor those of his attendants could be spoken. The visits would only be referred to under the term “the assignment visit” (Arabic, Al-Wajeb).

Comments from the visit would be relayed next day by his secretary. At other times his comments would be fielded to the director of the engineering office. In this case, it would usually lead to follow up visits by the director to the project team until all the President’s comments were complied with.

Before the invasion of 2003 many of the palaces in different areas were completed whilst others were not yet furnished, or occupied, and yet others were nearing different stages of completion. [45]

Only the ancient Abbasid palace and the Republic Palace existed before Saddam Hussein’s period in office. The Abbasid palace sits near the former Defence Ministry near Bab al-Moadem and was spared targeting in the successive wars and strikes. Saddam Hussein’s focus was not based on sect, for during the same period he financed the restoration of the major historic Shi’a shrines also from his own budget. This was despite them having their own revenues including from pilgrims from Iran and huge foreign donations.

The Iraqi leader also intended for the Tikrit palaces to be completed at an earlier date and this was achieved.

Much of the Tikrit palace complex was heavily damaged in 2003 and surviving buildings occupied by the American military forces. [46] Further destruction ensued when battles raged between ISIS and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in 2014 after the Camp Speicher massacre of some 1700 people including Shi’a air force recruits [47] [48]. Certain of the Shi’a militia brigades then enacted revenge on the indigenous Sunni community, Sunni residential areas and mosques and former government sites including most monuments, city gateway arches and the palace complexes. The resting place of Saddam Hussein and his sons in the nearby settlement of al-Ouja just south of Tikrit was also desecrated.

The future – hope enflamed by oppression

Most of the recently built structures and ongoing construction sites were attacked during the various wars and partially damaged with rockets falling on those that worked there. Nearby buildings sometimes collapsed even as the palace buildings were struck over and again. Most were never occupied by the president or his family on a regular or permanent basis. Tons of broken marble cladding lay in piles after each strike or continuous aesthetic changes, like with Baghdad itself today.

Many Saddam-era government sites remain in a semi-ruined or barricaded state whilst others have been taken over by his successors.

Tehran’s list for the destruction of Baghdad’s monuments

An article dating to mid 2017 on the Gulf Online website charted specific instances of heritage monuments being deconstructed by those loyal to Tehran based on a list. These monuments were deemed either pro-Ba’ath or denigrating to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its part in the Iran-Iraq war. The list included several major monuments, which have so far been spared owing to mass public opposition and UNESCO designation as protected sites.

Works of art by some of Iraq’s most renowned sculptors to suffer destruction include ‘The March’ (Al-Masira) by Khaled al-Rahal in reference to the decades’ long march forward of the Iraqi people and not to Ba’athism, the pretext for its obliteration. In the form of a prow of a ship topped by a fine statue with smaller bronze sculptures on all sides the forms recall those of the Liberation sculpture in Tahrir Square that could not so easily be destroyed owing to its symbolism and prominence.

The article next observed how Alaa Bashir’s sculpture called ‘The Meeting’ (or ‘Encounter’ in Arabic, Al-Nidaa) formerly in Mansour was targeted and taken down, noting “The monument consisted of two high walls embracing one another through which the meeting of brothers was referred to. “It is claimed this was because during the sanctions imposed during the 1990s by the coalition transportation was coming in aid to Iraq from Jordan and Syria. Another interpretation was that ‘The Meeting’ expressed the hope of meeting anew Iraqi expatriates on their return home. Yet another source claims it commemorated the occupation of Kuwait49. It was devastated and stripped before being demolished. Neither in form or meaning is there any Ba’ath association aside from its era of creation.

Yet another noted in the article was the Prisoner (al-Asir) monument to honour Iraqi POWs held in Iranian prisons and constructed during the 1980s. The individual sculptural forms derive from a video frequently aired on Iraqi television during the Iran-Iraq war. The Iraqi prisoner’s arms were being dismembered in full view of the public highlighting the brutality of the Iranians towards their POWs.

Such a video is also in circulation today, where militiamen dismembering a suspended man are heard accusing him, “You killed Shiites.” It is too disturbing for most people to view.

A fourth monument of the Iraqi pilot, Abdullah Laibi, who gave his life by crashing his plane into that of an Iranian bomber en route to bomb Sulaymaniyah city was also destroyed. The collision caused both planes to explode in mid-air. His heroic act in defending his country was commemorated in the monument commissioned in his honour by President Saddam Hussein and installed in the 1980s.

Yet another sculpture to commemorate the Iraqi fighter, designed by a French artist who won the contract following a competition hosted by the Ministry of Culture was moved out of sight. Long after the invasion of Iraq it was removed and placed inside the Ministry of Defence on the pretext of building a tunnel beneath the site. The monument pays testimony to the strength and readiness of the Iraqi fighter to do battle for his country and his connection to his land and people.

The Arch of Triumph or Victory Arch with its sabres meeting in mid-air leading to the Monument to the Unknown Solider has defied Tehran’s list. UNESCO considers it an important monument preserving the heritage of the people. Khaled al-Rahal designed the two sabres. Among his last wishes was to be buried in a corner of his monument and that wish was honoured. Saddam Hussein had worked closely with the sculptor throughout the planning and construction process. “The Monument Removal Committee, which was established after the conquest of the country had proposed the removal of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier because it symbolized the Iraqi solider that fought ‘neighbour Iran’ and with it the body of Khaled al-Rahal was to be disinterred.

Strong opposition has so far protected it as also with the Shuhada, (The Martyr) also listed by the pro-Iran regime for its commemoration of the Iraqi martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war. Al Da’wa’s leaders took it over and positioned interior cardboard photograph panels of their own martyrs propped up in front of the gilded names inscribed on the marble wars of the Iraqis killed in the war.

Propaganda photographs and ancient torture equipment are also on display in the below ground area. The Shuhada was designed by Iraqi artist, Ismail Fattah al-Turk, and is considered a major achievement of Iraqi art and architectural symbols.

Basra Statues of Iraqi Officers killed in the Iran-Iraq war

In 1989, the Iraqi government spent an estimated $6 billion to restore Basra after the devastation it suffered in the Iran-Iraq war. The Shatt al-Arab waterway was littered with sunken ships and the date palm groves all the way from Basra down the Fao peninsula were burned and decapitated by shelling as far as the eye could see. I toured this area in September 1989 as a guest of the Iraqi government. Iranian forces had arrived to within 6 miles of Basra city and 90% of its infrastructure was wiped out.

Some 80 statues of Iraqi officers killed defending the city were erected along the Corniche of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, one arm of each man pointing eastwards in accusation at Iran. The road was renamed the Boulevard of Martyrs.

The LA Times published an article on the post Iran-Iraq war reconstruction of Basra dated June 4,1989 written by Salah Nasrawi called Iraq Builds a $6-Billion Dream in Basra After Devastation of Long War with Iran. Engineer Nawaf Abdullah is cited there, emphasising: “What we are doing cannot be compared with the sacrifices of thousands of brave men who lost their lives in defending Basra,” said engineer Nawaf Abdullah as he supervised a street repaving in downtown Basra…Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in February imposed a three-month deadline for completing reconstruction of this strategic city overlooking the Shatt al Arab waterway, Iraq’s main outlet to the Persian Gulf.”

The government spearheaded the national drive for the reconstruction of cities carrying out the work with its own machinery and personnel rather than appointing contractors. [50]

After regime change in 2003, it was not just the statues of the president that were taken down and destroyed but also those of the Basra officers killed in the war. These were shattered on 6 May 2003.

British and American troops had also clearly been told to destroy the images of Saddam Hussein and the symbols of the Ba’ath government and then did so everywhere they came across them.

The famous statue of poet, Abu Nuwas, by Ismail Fattah al-Turk in Baghdad saw the glass of wine removed from his upraised hand. Political analyst Jassem al-Musawi told Al-Monitor, “The current events are part of a media battle between those trying to turn Iraq into a theocracy and the forces seeking to build a democratic state not under the hegemony of any political or religious party.” [51]

Shi’a sectarian propaganda billboards

Most public squares today feature billboard displays of the Shi’a clerics showing who oversees the country now. Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian IRGC leader assassinated outside Baghdad airport in January 2020 by the Americans is given a prominent place on scores of commemorative billboards beside Abu Mahdi al-Muhendes or among the faces of his most loyal martyred followers. So too, the Popular Mobilisation Forces fighters and police killed in the conflict with ISIS.

A similar video panel is on display in Baghdad Airport’s international departure lounge and at the exit of the arrival’s terminal.

These are not, of course, works of art, but of propaganda. A sculpture on the airport road depicts al-Sadr and Bint Ahuda, shown faceless and wearing hijab, commemorating their deaths attributed to the former administration. Al Khaleej Online had also noted the same asserting that prominent politicians they spoke with confirmed the Iranian desire through the Shi’a parties to establish alternative monuments bearing sectarian religious expressions to replace those they sought to destroy and demolish. [52]

Overall, now, hangs a sense of neglect – and perhaps, also, increasingly of regret.

Notes:

Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm were launched under the US Presidency of George Bush Senior – The Operation involved widely attacking important security sites and the palace buildings, 1990-1991

Operation Desert Fox under the US Presidency of Bill Clinton was conducted during four days in December 1998, specifically targeting security locations.

The March 2003 US invasion of Iraq launched under the US Presidency of George W. Bush damaged most of the presidential and government sites – even those that had been restored more than once.

References

-Iraq Alahrar, June 05, 2008, by Ahmed Al-Jubouri Ibn Al Furat, The Role of Ali Hadi al-Yasiri in the sectarian killings after the Samarra incident that claimed the lives of 50,000 Iraqis
–Barrrucand, Marianne, and Bednorz, Achim, Moorish Architecture in Andalusia, 2002
–Coup de Soleil Association, De Courdoue a Palermo Un Dialogue en chemins, Paris and Maghreb, 2015
–Al-Jibouri, Yasin T. and Sarhan, Layla Murad, Inside the Art Directorate of the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, March 2018.
–Yasin T al-Jibouri, Sarhan Murad, Layla, Meet Great Contemporary Iraqi Plastic Artists, online edition, 2019 Urlink Print and Media, LLC
–Kennedy, Hugh, When Baghdad ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty, Blue vase Books, US, 2017
–Le Strange, Guy, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, reproduction, 2011, first published 1900, UK. Lovatt-Smith, Lisa, Moroccan Interiors, Taschen, 1995
–Makiya, Kanan, The Monument, Art and Vulgarity in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Bloomsbury, 2003
–Ahmed Naji, Under the Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jewad Selim, Rizzoli, 2019.
–Pieri, Cecilia, Baghdad Arts Deco: Architectural Brickwork, 1920-1950, American University in Cairo, 2011
–Ahmed Naji al-Saeed Under the Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jewad Selim