Rafy
Retired
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2004
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- 10,719
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- HSC
- 2005
- Uni Grad
- 2008
Saddam Hussein loves Doritos, hates Froot Loops, admires Ronald Reagan, thinks Bill Clinton was "OK" and considers both George Bushes "no good". He talks a lot, worries about germs and insists he is still president of Iraq.
Those and other details of the deposed Iraqi leader's life in US 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 magazine said the soldiers could not tell their families what they were doing and signed pledges not to reveal the location or other details of the American-run compound where Saddam was an HVD, or "high-value detainee", awaiting trial by Iraqi authorities.
The five soldiers told GQ of their chats with Saddam, saying he spoke with them in rough English, was interested in their 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 per cent," said Private Jesse Dawson, 25.
The soldiers said Saddam had harsh words for the Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.
"The Bush father, son, no good," Corporal Jonathan Reese, 22, quoted Saddam as saying.
Private 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.
Private Dawson quoted Saddam as saying: "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them."
The story said that once, when Saddam fell during his twice-a-week shower, "panic ensued. No one wanted him to be hurt while being guarded by Americans."
One soldier had to help him back to his cell, while another carried his underwear.
Saddam was friendly towards his young guards and sometimes offered fatherly advice. When Private O'Shea told him he was not married, Saddam "started telling me what to do", the soldier recalled. "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, and made what Private O'Shea interpreted as a spanking gesture.
The soldiers also said Saddam was a "clean freak" who washed after shaking hands and used baby wipes to clean meal trays, utensils and table before eating.
The article said Saddam preferred Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, telling Private O'Shea, "No Froot Loops." He ate fish and chicken but refused beef.
For a time his favourite snack was Cheetos (a cheese-flavoured snack), 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," Private 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 US planes struck the palace he was trying to reach instead of the one he was in. "Then he started laughing," recalled Corporal Reese. "He goes: 'America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace'."
Saddam also said his capture in an underground hide-out on December 13, 2003 resulted from betrayal by the only man who knew where he was, and who had been paid to keep the secret.
Saddam's trial on war crimes charges will be over by the end of the year, Iraq's Justice Minister says, but no date has been set.
Associated Press
Those and other details of the deposed Iraqi leader's life in US 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 magazine said the soldiers could not tell their families what they were doing and signed pledges not to reveal the location or other details of the American-run compound where Saddam was an HVD, or "high-value detainee", awaiting trial by Iraqi authorities.
The five soldiers told GQ of their chats with Saddam, saying he spoke with them in rough English, was interested in their 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 per cent," said Private Jesse Dawson, 25.
The soldiers said Saddam had harsh words for the Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.
"The Bush father, son, no good," Corporal Jonathan Reese, 22, quoted Saddam as saying.
Private 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.
Private Dawson quoted Saddam as saying: "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them."
The story said that once, when Saddam fell during his twice-a-week shower, "panic ensued. No one wanted him to be hurt while being guarded by Americans."
One soldier had to help him back to his cell, while another carried his underwear.
Saddam was friendly towards his young guards and sometimes offered fatherly advice. When Private O'Shea told him he was not married, Saddam "started telling me what to do", the soldier recalled. "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, and made what Private O'Shea interpreted as a spanking gesture.
The soldiers also said Saddam was a "clean freak" who washed after shaking hands and used baby wipes to clean meal trays, utensils and table before eating.
The article said Saddam preferred Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, telling Private O'Shea, "No Froot Loops." He ate fish and chicken but refused beef.
For a time his favourite snack was Cheetos (a cheese-flavoured snack), 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," Private 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 US planes struck the palace he was trying to reach instead of the one he was in. "Then he started laughing," recalled Corporal Reese. "He goes: 'America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace'."
Saddam also said his capture in an underground hide-out on December 13, 2003 resulted from betrayal by the only man who knew where he was, and who had been paid to keep the secret.
Saddam's trial on war crimes charges will be over by the end of the year, Iraq's Justice Minister says, but no date has been set.
Associated Press
