Origins of Al Qa'Qaa
Al Qa'Qaa was built in the 1970s with most of the equipment coming from Germany and Yugoslavia. It was completed in 1981, just in time to meet the demands of the Iran–Iraq War. Under the regime of Saddam Hussein the facility was a key agency of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization. It included plants for producing solid-propellant rockets and ammunition. The complex also included factories producing steel, aluminum, and centrifuges. It was Iraq's principal production facility for specialist explosives, notably RDX and HDX.
The facility was named after a distinguished soldier in the army of the 7th century Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, of whom it was said "the voice of Al Qa'qaa in an army is better than one thousand fighters." By analogy, as Saddam Hussein explained in a visit on May 23, 2001, the workers at Al Qa'qaa were equivalent to a far greater number of their enemies:
- "Every Iraqi works in the same way Caliph Umar Ibn-al-Khattab used to work with when the commander, who led the Muslims' army on Iraq's front, to back him with several thousands of fighters. So, he sent him four fighters only, including Al-Qa'qaa. He considered each one of these fighters equal to 1,000 fighters. Had the Iraqis not worked in this way and with spirit now, they would not have achieved, with this small number, what was not achieved by others who outnumber them."
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Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
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—Howard Moss (b. 1922)