Located 25 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Salman Pak is 20 square kilometers of land that follows the horseshoe-shaped bend of the Tigris River. Literally translated, Salman Pak means "The Pure," referring to the first Persian to convert to Islam. Far from pure, much of Salman Pak was fenced and heavily guarded by a large force at all times to conceal one of Saddam Hussein's dirtiest secrets.

When the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force captured Salman Pak just two weeks after the invasion of Iraq began, soldiers and specialists combed what was Iraq's center of biological weapons development. The complex includes research facilities where Dr. Rihab Taha, later dubbed "Dr. Germ," engaged in the development of anthrax, botulinum toxin, ricin and other fatal poisons.

Salman Pak also served as a training ground for foreign Islamic terrorists. The area housed a Boeing 707 for terrorists' training purposes, where a former Iraqi agent revealed rebels were schooled in a six-month hijacking curriculum. In a disturbing parallel to the attacks of 9/11, the foreign terrorists trained in groups of four or five to overtake a commercial airliner using only knives or their bare hands.

Busloads of political prisoners were brought to Salman Pak and executed only five days before US forces invaded Baghdad. Townspeople claim insurgents hastily executed as many as 150 hostages before the incoming US forces arrived. Incoming troops found Salman Pak riddled with freshly dug mass graves.

The head of Iraqi intelligence described Salman Pak is "a guerrillas' fiefdom," and the stretch of road that runs through Salman Pak from Baghdad to Basra is infused with insurgents. Witnesses and residents report the rebels observe traffic leaving Baghdad from covert locations, then radio accomplices closer to Salman Pak if a convoy or other target of interest is approaching. The southbound convoys are left with little choice but to travel the perilous road: The only other southern route passes through Mahmudiyah and Latifiyah, which, along with Salman Pak, make up a region commonly referred to as the "triangle of death."