Mission of Iraq to UN (NYC)

This building at 14 East 79th Street serves as the permanent mission of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations.

While under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the building's basement was eqipped with a jail and torture chamber, according to Iraqi officials. Mukhabarat intelligence agents would imprison local Iraqis, up to 15 days at a time. Inside the soundproofed chamber, guards would reportedly beat prisoners with copper wire, rubber hoses, and wooden planks, and would even pull out prisoners' fingernails. When guards would go as far as killing prisoners, they would secretly ship the bodies back to Baghdad in Customs-Exempt Packages, avoiding suspicion.

Following the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, U.S. Federal Investigators stormed the building and took computers and other pertinent information from inside. The torture chamber and all evidence of it has reportedly been destroyed.