Probably an exaggeration, and partially past the 20-year mark(sorry) but Saddam Hussein is said to have stocked his moats with carnivorous fish. Here's an account by a comedian who toured Iraq after liberation

One of the more fascinating things that I’ve never heard reported on MSNBC was the existence of the fish that lived in the moat around Saddam’s palace. These particular fish could literally only be found there, in that little moat and the lakes surrounding the resort. Allegedly, Saddam commissioned the best genetic engineers in Iraq to create a new species of fish called “Saddam bass,” an enormous, peculiarly aggressive breed of bass coated with shiny, diamond-shaped scales.

There was debate about the reasoning behind the creation of the creature. Some thought that it was just another ostentatious display of wealth and power that Saddam could flout to friend and enemy alike. Others whispered that the reasons for the genetic mutations were more…. ominous.

As many of you may remember, the tales of torture, beheadings, and imprisonments never matched up with the actual body count compiled when the army took the palace. It was never a huge scandal, and no one seemed to care anyway, but sticklers for war data have always scratched their collective heads at the disparity. Were they buried in remote locations? Were they cremated in mass quantities? How come the records of these acts don’t exist?

Enter the fish.

Legend has it that the Saddam Bass developed a taste for blood, and they consumed people, dead or alive, thrown in the moat or the lakes by their captors. Someone confirmed for us that the bass were fed all the wasted food from Saddam’s missed dinners, but rumor persisted that some of the more hated prisoners and/or resistant females were chucked into the moat alive with the simple challenge: make it to the other side. If they survived the swim across, they were free to go. Clearly, the odds must have been stacked severely in the house’s favor for Saddam to offer that bet. One of the officers escorting us laughed it off, saying it was an old wives’ tale that people spread just to make the fish seem more interesting. After seeing the fingerprints, I wasn’t sure what to think.

We walked as a group to the entrance bridge over the moat. On cue, one of the local Iraqis gave us bread. As we threw the bread in, the bass started circling underneath us, giant mouths gaping upwards and pushing away rivals for the chunks. The diamond scales looked like tiny mirrors when the fish arched above the surface of the water. Some appeared to be up to five feet long. We watched them, transfixed both by what we were seeing and what we had heard. Jamie was curious about their reputation for eating anything and everything. He threw in a full packet of cigarettes. Within seconds, it was gone. It never resurfaced.