It seems there is life behind bars for Iraq's deposed leader...
According to a new report, Saddam Hussein loves Doritos, hates Froot Loops, admires the late US President Ronald Reagan, thinks Bill Clinton was "OK" and considers both Presidents Bush "no good." He talks a lot, worries about germs and insists he is still president of Iraq...
Those and other juicy details of the ousted Iraqi leader's life in U.S. military custody appear in the July issue of GQ magazine, based on interviews with five Pennsylvania National Guardsmen who went to Iraq in 2003 and were assigned to Saddam's guard detail for nearly 10 months.
The five soldiers told GQ of their personal interactions with Saddam, saying he spoke with them in rough English, was interested in their personal lives and even invited them back to Iraq when he returns to power.
"He'd always tell us he was still the president. That's what he thinks, 100 percent," said Spc. Jesse Dawson, 25.
The GIs recalled that Saddam had harsh words for the Bushes, each of whom went to war against him. "The Bush father, son, no good," Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, quoted Saddam as saying.
Spc. Sean O'Shea, then 19, said Saddam later mellowed in that view. "Towards the end, he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to (George W.) Bush, to make friends with him," he told the magazine.
Dawson quoted Saddam as saying, "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them."
Saddam was friendly toward his young guards and sometimes offered fatherly advice and even marital tips...
When O'Shea told him he was not married, Saddam "started telling me what to do," recalled the soldier. "He was like, `You gotta find a good woman. Not too smart, not too dumb. Not too old, not too young. One that can cook and clean.'"
Then he smiled, made what O'Shea interpreted as a "spanking" gesture, laughed and went back to doing his laundry in the sink.
The soldiers also said Saddam was a "clean freak" who washed after shaking hands and used diaper wipes to clean meal trays, utensils and table before eating. "He had germophobia or whatever you call it," Dawson said.
It turns out Saddam is also quite picky in his food preferences. The article said Saddam preferred Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, telling O'Shea, "No Froot Loops." He ate fish and chicken but refused beef.
For a time his favorite snack was Cheetos, and when that ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story said. One day, guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson said.
The magazine said Saddam told his guards that when the Americans invaded Iraq in March 2003, he "tried to flee in a taxicab as the tanks were rolling in," and U.S. planes struck the palace he was trying to reach instead of the one he was in. "Then he started laughing," recalled Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'"
Saddam also said his capture in an underground hideout on December 13, 2003, resulted from betrayal by the only man who knew where he was, and had been paid to keep the secret. "He was really mad about that," Dawson said. "He compared himself to Jesus, how Judas told on Jesus. He was like, `That's how it was for me.' If his Judas never said anything, nobody ever would have found him, he said."
Meanwhile, the Iraqi court established to try Saddam Hussein released a tape earlier this month showing the ousted leader being interrogated, in an apparent bid to assert its independence after the government called for a swift trial.
Saddam is accused of ordering revenge killings after villagers allegedly tried to assassinate him, along with other alleged crimes against humanity. If convicted, the former president faces the death penalty.
Saddam, who was ousted by U.S.-led forces in April 2003 and arrested the following December, is accused of committing a string of crimes against humanity during more than two decades in power.
Accusations against him include the 1988 chemical attack on the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja, the strong repression of the 1991 Shiite rebellion and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
