Victory Over America Palace at Camp Slayer

Camp Slayer, a former Iraqi government palace and amusement complex near the Baghdad airport, featuring man-made lakes filled with Carp, was transformed into a logistics and operations base for US intelligence and weapons-hunting teams. The camp has also hosted US eavesdropping and other classified operations. Most of the 1,200 or so troops that have been based here, plus CIA and FBI officials, covert Special Forces teams, civilian experts and others, camp in two dozen or so garish guest houses that line three artificial lakes. 

Upon completion of the renovations, the Iraq Survey Group staff worked in the Perfume Palace. The ornate building has an indoor pool on the ground floor, military murals on the second floor, and a blue-domed ballroom on top level. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was an international, inter-agency organization that operated in Iraq from June 2003 to April 2005. The group's mission focused on the search for and elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Its responsibilities also included the exploitation of documents and media related to terrorism, war crimes, and POW/MIA issues. 

Also, a building at Camp Slayer was assigned a Forensic Analysis Facility, with equipment to analyze exhumation evidence from mass graves.

Additionally located at Camp Slayer, the pair of Iraqi trucks which the CIA claimed were mobile biowarfare production facilities, and a stockade that has been used to store some captured Iraqi weapons scientists and other top regime officials. 

All the buildings were looted, and most lacked air conditioning or running water. Soldiers have furnished their accommodations with chandeliers, wingback chairs, gilt-edged tables and pieces sculpture scavenged from the complex's five major palaces. One palace has an underground bunker with thick steel doors and gold wallpaper. 

From February to March 2004, soldiers from 1st Armored Division's 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment trained soldiers from the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps at Camp Slayer. The corps is a guard unit consisting of Iraqi citizens who volunteer to serve their nation and fight terrorist insurgents within their homeland. The training included both classroom and hands-on instruction. It encompassed 1 st Armored Division battle drills and focused on five key missions: dismounted patrolling, setting up traffic control points, performing route security, securing a forward operating base, and conducting raids and cordon and searches. The Iraqi soldiers also spent two days qualifying on an AK-47 assault rifle. 

In July of 2004, officers based at Camp Slayer were working out of lake front buildings that were once holiday guest houses for Baath Party loyalists. Opinion seemed to agree that the best part of the lake front offices were the marble bath rooms, complete with modern toilets and bidets that worked. Throughout Iraq water systems have been the last of the major infrastructure systems to be restored. On BIAP the soldiers were still using porta-johns, although contractors were working diligently to bring in toilets that flush. Looking across the lake from the headquarters are the ruins of one of Saddam Husseins vast palace complexes. One in particular was a recreational facility, with a huge theater, ballroom, conference room and swimming pool. One corner of the palace was completely demolished. It was attacked on the first night of the war by cruise missiles as it was suspected that Saddam Hussein was there. Unfortunately, this intelligence turned out to be wrong. 

 As of mid-2004, troops staionned at Camp Slayer had access to running water, functional toilets and showers. In addition, troops garrisoned there also had access to the internet. Source

Si Kapitan Vhance

Inside Saddam's bombarded Victory over America Palace, Baghdad, Iraq with Captain Valencia, US Air Force.

With Mike Sorensen - VBC Baghdad

cheers mike!

With Ding Marasigan - VBC Baghdad

yeah that's a beer but it's non alcoholic . . . cheers!

My Network in Baghdad

This is how it looks setting up a network in the middle of the desert.

We have two sat links. The bigger dish connects to an ISP in Austria(2 MBPS) and the smaller dish connects to the US(1.5 MBPS). This is a normal setup, say if one of the link goes down then you have the other link as backup. The thing with satellite links is that they are very very expensive. The link that connects to Austria costs 12,000 USD a month while the link that connects to the US costs 17,000 USD a month. Anyway Uncle Sam is paying for it :) . . . It's noticeable that the sat dish sits on top of a bunker.

This 6 foot trailer is the IT Room/Server Room . . . it contains the modems, routers, servers of the whole camp. It contains two AC units which makes 18 degrees celsius inside while its 47 degrees celsius outside . . .

There's a hole on the lower corner of the trailer in which cables from the whole camp passes through. If you notice the UTP cables just lay down on the ground on a pipe but still not that much protection. What I did was took 2 sand bags from the bunkers and dump it on top of the cables as an added protection. This kind of cabling already exist when we took over this camp:) . . . and that's my excuse. I don't wanna do a recabling again . . . besides it works!

HP Proliant ML350 with HP Data Protector Express as Tape Backup

Cisco Catalyst Switches and iDirect Satellite Modems

We've got 2 server racks. The taller rack contains 2 HP Proliant ML350 servers with Xeon processors, an Untangle box as firewall/gateway and another box for Anti Virus and Windows Update Server. The smaller rack contains Cisco Catalyst switches, another Untangle box and a file server for movies and TV series (right now its around 300 GB of data) . . . What can you do in the middle of the desert? . . . watch movies and downloaded TV series :) . . . We have a projector and loud speakers and that makes our night . . .

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers Monument - Baghdad

We we're given the oppurtunity to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.
For an overview of this monument, here's what I've got from wikipedia . . .

The Monument to the Unknown Soldier is said to be inspired by the glorification of a martyr from the Iran-Iraq war. What looks like to many as a flying saucer frozen in midflight, represents a traditional shield (dira¹a) dropping from the dying grasp of an Iraqi warrior. The monument also houses an underground museum. The artificial hill is shaped like a low, truncated cone of 250 m diameter [1]. It is surrounded by slanting girders of triangular section that are covered with marble. Red granite, stepped platforms of elliptical form lead to the dome and cubic sculpture. The steel flagpole is entirely covered with Murano glass panels fixed on stainless steel arms and displaying the national flag colours. The cantilevered dome is 42m in diameter and follows an inclination of 12 degrees. Its external surface is clad with copper, while its inner surface features a soffit finished with pyramidal modules alternating steel and copper. The promenade is covered by a semi-circular, flat roof supported on a triangular steel bracing. The roof is covered with a copper sheet and the soffit displays V-shaped panels of stainless steel and Murano glass.




Static images can be viewed here.

Baghdad Boy - The Environment

The Office and area of work is just beside the building where you rest. The company provides everything from food to laundry. The place is being surrounded with Concrete T Walls as protection against mortar attacks.A few months ago daily mortar attack was normal. Expect at least 35 drops a day. A nearby police station was hit by a mortar. It's good that spy planes was able to locate the origin of the attack and it was neutralized. A mortar was also found nearby but didn't do a bang and it was found out that it's made in Iran.

There's no weekend here, what I mean is, you can't expect to have a weekend since there's no place to go except the office, your room, a nearby PX, the only available place where you could get some personal stuff with a little choice of electronic gadgets and military supplies. Just like a 711 (larger version). There is always a body and car search everywhere you go, you need to turn off your phone and go to a bunker while they search the car for possible bombs. Phone with camera is not allowed at all. Although it can cause so much delay but it's good for everybody. The guards who usually do the body search were latinos.

Baghdad Boy - Entry Point

As we all know that Filipinos are banned from entering Iraq as noted on the first page of a Filipino passport, "Not valid to travel to Iraq" but somehow Filipinos has "ways" and "means" on how to get to Iraq.

An early interesting experience was the route from Baghdad International Airport going to the so called International Zone or Green Zone, they said as the "safest" place in Baghdad. The escorts, personal security guys mostly ex military with tattooed arms. They will provide and let you wear bullet proof vest and give instruction in case under attack, that they are here to protect.

From Baghdad International Airport going to the International Zone is a 20 - 30 minutes ride on 4 car convoy equipped with radios and automatic weapons (AK47s, submachine guns and 9mms). The ride is on a Mercedes Benz with bullet proof doors. Distance between cars is always 100 meter apart. Along the way you could see lots of US Military on humvees in convoy. I cannot distinguish if they are US Marines or US Army and other groups of with personal body guards and having high end equiptments and hardwares. They said that the highway from Baghdad International airport going to IZ is the most dangerous highway on earth. They believe that there are snipers along the way and car bombers as well but I didn't know about it til I hear stories from other Filipinos who had been here for quite some time now. The adrenalin is high for a fresh meat like me. I don't know if I am scared or not. I've been asking myself if this is stupidity or just the call of opportunity to be here bringing myself to one of the most dangerous place on earth. I am here now doing my job. More experiences will be posted soon . . .

The Greenzone

Iraq News