Ba'ath Party Convention Center

The other big building on the Camp Slayer tour is the Ba'ath Party Convention Center. The construction design of this building is one of many that follows the Iraqi/Muslim convention that no sin can happen on water. It is only connect to the mainland by a bridge and is surrounded by water on all four sides. Essentially, it is a rectangle of large hallways big room complexes at each corner consisting of a pool area, theater, dining room, and conference room. It also has two docks right in the middle of the building.

This building was actually the location of the "first strike" of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM in March 2003. The President had received intelligence that there was a large gathering of the Ba'ath Party/Iraqi Government in this building, specifically in the theater. A Navy Tomahawk missile launched from the USS Bunker Hill completely destroyed the theater and took out nearly 200 of the top government and military officials. We missed Saddam by 15 minutes. Some of you may have already heard this, but the movie that was in the theater's projector...Pretty Woman.

The first picture is the center "courtyard", showing the stilts supporting the building coming out of the lake. You will also see a JDAM bomb hole at the far end. The second picture is the pool, which as I understand it, was never filled...used primarily for torture and executions. Next is the dining room, which originally had the largest continuous chandelier around...now interrupted by another JDAM bomb hole. This last picture is an example of the ornate painted plaster ceilings that fill all of these buildings.