U.S. Guards Find Tunnel in Iraq Prison

WASHINGTON -- U.S. military guards discovered a 600-foot tunnel -- dug with makeshift tools -- leading out of the main prison facility for detainees in Iraq before anyone had the opportunity to escape, officials said Friday.

The tunnel at Camp Bucca was 12 to 15 feet deep and as wide as 3 feet and had reached beyond the compound fence, said Army Maj. Flora Lee, a spokeswoman at the Army's Combined Press Information Center in Iraq said by telephone. She did not know when guards discovered the tunnel.

Camp Bucca holds 6,049 detainees, nearly two-thirds of all those in Iraq, Lee said. Situated near the southern city of Umm Qasr, it is one of three detainee facilities in Iraq.

A bucket cut from a water container and a shovel made of tent material were used to dig the tunnel, Lee said. The opening was under a floorboard of the compound and was concealed with dirt.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-iraq-tunnel,0,4525970.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Seems like a movie was made of American heroes -- "The Great Escape".

...of "The Great Escape." Guess who the bad guys will be.

Let me get this straight...someone dug a hole that was 600 feet long and reached outside the compound and no one escaped? I'll believe that when someone convinces me we should have invaded the country in the first place.

They may not have reached the surface.

You have to keep the tunnel going so you come up far enough from the fence that you won't be seen and easily recaptured again.

frustrated look with that little fist clench...

"hooooo-gann!"

Let me guess...the entrance to the tunnel was obscured by a giant poster of Rita Hayworth. And the entrance to the tunnel was discovered when the warden through a rock at the poster and the poster tore--revealing the tunnel behind the poster.

Somewhere on the coat of Zihuatenejo--a liberated Iraqi awaits his friend.

*sniff*

600 feet, which is two football fields, and no cave-ins? in sandy soil? why does this not compute?

would it still be sandy soil?

I have claustrophobia. The very idea makes me shake.