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Jason Chudy ©Stars and StripesIraq, October, 2003: A U.S. soldier relaxes amid the opulence of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's Al Faw Palace at Camp Victory, near the Baghdad International Airport. An Indiana National Guardsman who was in charge of maintenance at the palace shared a secret about those famous chandeliers and gold-plated fixtures: "It looks nice, but it’s plastic and tin,” he said. “The [current] fixtures ... [seemingly] went to the cheapest bidder.”

RELATED MATERIAL: Stars and Stripes' October, 2003 story about the palace.