Iraqi President SaddamHussein’s eight palace compounds, singled out by UN weapons inspectors as places of special interest, contain some 1,058 buildings — luxury mansions, smaller guest villas, office complexes, warehouses and garages, UN documents show.“We’re not talking the Sleeping Beauty here. We’re talking massive structures, gigantic facilities, heavily guarded. What’s he hiding?” State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said on Wednesday.In 1997, the inspectors tried to get entry to the palaces as part of their search for places where Iraq may have buried documents relating to its nuclear, biological, chemical and ballistic arms. Iraq refused admission. But now the US has drafted a new Security Council resolution that would allow weapons inspectors into the grounds of Saddam’s palaces at any time or face a military strike. Charles Duelfer, the former deputy Chief UN inspector who in 1998 led the only tours of the palaces, said his mission was largely symbolic. “The Iraqis had lots of time to prepare,” he said. “You couldn’t get a cleaning service in Washington that was that good.”Wearing a blue baseball cap, Duelfer led a mile-long caravan of 73 cars filled with arms experts, diplomats and Iraqi escorts in late March and April of 1998. Before he arrived, the UN had sent cartographers to mark the sites, spread over 12 square miles . (Reuters)
