Here's the South Gate at the al-Salam Palace. It's the Entry Control Point (ECP) for Camp Prosperity...
The grounds are surrounded by Saddam's personal wall. Each segment is about 15 feet tall and has his initials at the top... see the tiny circle?
Each circle looks like the one below... an "S" & "H" or in Arabic "Saad" & "Haa" and read from right to left...
Here's a pre-2003 invasion view of al-Salam (Camp Prosperity) from Google Maps...
See the "CHU view" from our front door... nice real estate! Palace-front property...
Villar took us a tour of al-Salam... for the most part it's the Joint Area Support headquarters for HHC 72nd IBCT... a bunch of Texas National Guards...
The Palace has a gym on the first floor. It's cool to do bench press and look up at the mosaic ceiling...
Here's the MWR theater on the second floor... they show movies 24/7 at al-Salam...
Two soldiers looking down an al-Salam stairwell & looking like the Beatles' Please Please Me Album...
Villar and Martinez checking the view from a third floor balcony... In the distance is the al-Rahman Mosque in Baghdad''s al-Mansour neighborhood. It has been under construction since 1999. The Shi'a Hawza assumed control of the mosque after the regime fell.
There are several carved granite walls inside al-Salam. This one is on the second floor. Villar is feeling a connection with a matronly figure... possibly a Mother's Day gesture.
Here's a small section of ceiling above us on the second floor...
This is the North Gate and one of Saddam's man-made lakes...
A photo from the South Gate of the Baghdad Tower, al-Salam Palace and al-Rahman Mosque...
