Iraq's Torture Chambers
April 19, 2003— -- Wild dogs now guard what was once Iraq's largest prison.
Digging up the remains of the tens of thousands of prisoners suspected by human rights groups to have been executed here.
Executed in this large room, with twin gallows.
A chilling symbol of the Saddam Hussein regime. Estimated to have put to death a quarter-million people in prisons all across the country over the last ten years.
But this prison, the Abu Gharab prison, was considered the worst, according to former CIA officer Bob Baer, now an ABC News consultant.
Bob Baer (Former CIA Agent): One question I've always had is, why didn't the Iraqis rise up against Saddam? And the reason is this prison. Because, they knew that if they even whispered a word of dissent, they would end up here for their entire lives, either tortured to death or dying in one of these cells.
No one was safe. Even members of Iraq's Olympic team were sent to prison by Saddam's son, Uday, the head of the Olympic committee, when team members failed to win key matches or gold medals.
The Olympic team members were sent to a separate prison at the foot of Uday's country palace. This was Uday's personal prison, a place of dark, dank cells, jammed with dozens of prisoners at a time, with final, prophetic messages scratched into the wall. And a torture room around the corner.
Local residents demonstrated for us how prisoners would have their hands tied behind their backs and then be hung from the ceiling for days on end.
ABC News consultant Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat and now a human rights activist, says the guilt goes far beyond Saddam and his sons.
Peter Galbraith (Former U.S. Diplomat): Obviously, the orders came from the top. But tens of thousands of people are involved in implementing the torture, in imprisoning people, in guarding these prisons, in carrying out the executions. They have blood on their hands.
The cells across Iraq are empty now. The officials responsible have fled. Only the wild dogs, the looters, and the dead remain.