Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein allegedly maintained a torture chamber at the Iraqi embassy in New York City, right across the street from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s house.
A division of Hussein’s secret police, known as the Mukhabarat, reportedly captured, detained and in some cases murdered Iraqis in the States who fell out of favor with the former president’s regime, several unnamed former Iraqi officials told the New York Post. In some cases, Mukhabarat would ship the corpses to Iraq using diplomatic packages, which can’t be searched by customs and border officials.
“They just put [the body] in a diplomatic box and it can just be shipped. This is diplomatic — nobody has the authority to examine it or open it,” a former Iraqi official told the New York Post.
The Mukhabarat had a prison room in the embassy where they would detain, torture and kill enemies of Hussein’s regime. “It was a dark room. The doors were reinforced in a way that nobody could break in or out. You didn’t need to soundproof it. … You’re not going to hear someone screaming down there,” one official said.
The torture methods involved wire, wooden boards and rubber hoses. The Mukhabarat would also beat up their prisoners and pull out their finger and toenails, according to one of the officials.
The agents would get orders to nab someone living in the States from Baghdad, then wait for a relative of the target to come to the diplomatic mission building on their own and hold that person hostage until their mark surrendered. (RELATED: Trump Says Saddam Hussein Did Some Good Stuff)
“Mukhabarat wouldn’t bring the relative of the target to the mission. They would lay in wait like a snake for the relative to arrive for some ex-pat business and then grab him and lock him into the room,” one official said.
“Saddam said once, ‘If my own finger betrayed me, then I would have it removed or cut off,’” one of the officials said.
When the U.S. ousted Saddam’s regime in 2003, authorities searched the New York City embassy, but did not find any implements of torture. Hussein was executed in 2006 for his crimes against humanity.
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