ATHENS, Aug 22 (AFP) - The screams could be heard down the stark corridor of the squat concrete building as Uday Hussein and his thugs tortured an Iraqi footballer who had failed to shine during a match in Iraq.
The punishment cell where the torture was carried out was in the administrative compound that housed the Iraqi National Olympic Committee, headed by Uday, Saddam's brutal and feared son.
Footballers who angered him had their feet scalded and toenails ripped off.
When Saddam was toppled in the American lead invasion, the troops discovered an iron maiden.
Big enough to house a grown man, the sarcophagus-shaped device was a large, metal closet with long spikes on the inside door that when closed impales the victim inside.
The iron maiden had clearly been used - the nails having lost their sharpness.
For the terrified footballers, they played for their country in fear.
What a difference 16 months makes.
Now they play for their country with pride.
And for Iraq, as they attempt to rebuild the country, the fairytale story of the football team at the Athens Olympics is the story of the Games.
One of the key reasons that Iraq is even here at the Olympics belongs to a little publicly known group within the International Olympic Committee called Solidarity.
When Saddam fell and Uday was gunned down in a firefight with American troops, it was Pere Miro, director in charge of Solidarity, and his team who had to recreate the Iraqi National Olympic Committee if the country's football team were to make Athens.
Only an NOC can put forward athletes to compete in the Olympics, and in the aftermath of war there was nothing.
Miro arrived in Baghdad and met with what was left of the sports leaders within the country.
There was no infrastructure, no administration, no federation. The national stadium was a parking lot for American tanks said the then Iraqi coach at the time, German Bernd Strange.
"Look, we're going to remake the process from scratch," he told the gathered officials, some from inside the country and others who had returned from exile after Saddam's fall.
"Helped by many different people and many organsiations, after six months more or less we had a (NOC) president and a secretary general in place," explained Miro.
"The structure is restablished. Everyone pulled together," he added.
But for Miro, the memory of the day the Iraq football team qualified for the Athens Games, is seared in his memory.
"When the guy scored the winner he was giving joy to everyone. For one full night the people were able to forget the situation in the country. The guns were fired in the air in joy, not at people," said Miro.
Now Iraq are in a semi-final showdown against Paraguay and two matches away from one of the most unlikely Olympic golds.
With Baghdad airport still closed to commercial planes, it was thanks to an Australian military plane that they able to begin the journey to Athens.
"We have come a long way just being here. It almost doesn't matter how it all turns out," said Mustafa al-Saraj, the international affairs director for the Iraq Olympic Committee.
Maybe not.
But no one would begrudge Iraq their first Olympic football gold medal and another fairytale with a happy ending.