| | | Salman Pak
Is there more than meets the eye to Salman Pak?
In 1998 former Iraqi army captain Sabah Khalifa Khodad Alami reported the training of foreign terrorists by Mukhabarat officers in hijacking using knives at the Salman Pak facility. This was done on a Boeing 707. Since then, the existence of this plane was confirmed by satellite photos.  Saddam Hussein had lied that there was no plane there. Khodada's drawing from memory of the Salman Pak facility is accurate, and he had not exaggerated his rank. He told PBS Frontline on October 14, 2001, "This camp is specialized in exporting terrorism to the whole world." [1]  While it was said to be a counter-terrorist training camp by Douglas MacCollan, this is immediately supect given the existence of a "Tiger Group" of suicide bombers, [2] and MacCollan's claim was falsified. [3] Former Fedayeen officer and Unit 999 trainer Abu Mohammad claims that he first encountered Al Qaeda operatives at the Salman Pak facility in 1998. Additionally, there were 3 boxcars at Salman Pak where terrorists trained in railroad attacks, and there was an urban assault training center.
Stephen F. Hayes reported:Beginning in 1994, the Fedayeen Saddam opened its own paramilitary training camps for volunteers, graduating more than 7,200 “good men racing full with courage and enthusiasm” in the first year. Beginning in 1998, these camps began hosting “Arab volunteers from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, ‘the Gulf,’ and Syria.” It is not clear from available evidence where all of these non-Iraqi volunteers who were “sacrificing for the cause” went to ply their newfound skills. Before the summer of 2002, most volunteers went home upon the completion of training. But these camps were humming with frenzied activity in the months immediately prior to the war. As late as January 2003, the volunteers participated in a special training event called the “Heroes Attack.” This training event was designed in part to prepare regional Fedayeen Saddam commands to “obstruct the enemy from achieving his goal and to support keeping peace and stability in the province.”
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