Saddam 'oddly endearing'

2005-06-21 16:33

Washington - Iraqi former president Saddam Hussein munches corn chips, washes his own clothes and tends his garden during captivity, according to United States troops who guarded him at an undisclosed location for 10 months last year.

For Sean O'Shea, one of five Pennsylvania national guard soldiers assigned to watch Saddam around the clock, he was the "oddly endearing crazy man" who liked to crack jokes in fractured English and shared gift packages from his daughters.

In an account of their guard duty in the July issue of GQ magazine, the soldiers said Saddam still believed himself to be the legitimate president of Iraq, and imperiously dismissed Iraq ministers who came to read criminal charges against him.

When he got back to his cell after that meeting, O'Shea said Saddam "kept pacing back and forth".

He said: "Ministers? Ministers of what? It's my country. I'm still the president of this country'."

Kuwaitis 'a bunch of dogs'

The troops said Saddam was firmly convinced that Iraqi people still loved him and that everything he did was for their benefit, including invading Kuwait.

Sergeant Casey Dunnigan said: "He said the Kuwaitis were a bunch of dogs, raping Iraqi women."

He even invited the guards, whom he called "his sons, his brothers, his friends," to come back and visit him when he was re-installed in one of his palaces.

But, for the time being, Saddam's life is one of confined, sparsely furnished spaces and small pleasures.

O'Shea, who was only 19 when he was assigned to the Saddam watch, said the prisoner loved Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast.

Saddam 'likes chicken, fish'

The magazine reported that when the guards ran out of that and brought him Froot Loops instead "it was one of the few times Sean ever saw him defeated".

He could ask for any food he liked within reason - and he seemed to like chicken, fish and salad - but only with Italian dressing.

The soldiers said his favourite food used to be Cheetos, a cheese-flavoured crisp.

That was until the supply ran out and the guards gave him a bag of Doritos, a similar snack, instead.

Specialist Jesse Dawson said: "He kept asking for doris. He'd eat a family-size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes."

The five guardsmen took over the responsibility for Saddam shortly after he was captured while hiding in an underground cave, near Tikrit in December 2003.

Saddam 'moved to rat-free room'

The magazine reported that they were first introduced to him in a cell at the end of a long filthy hallway past empty rooms.

Later, he was moved to cleaner, rat-free room furnished only with a bed, toilet, red plastic chair, prayer mat and a few books, including a fire-singed Koran with a bullet-hole through it.

Under US military rules, the soldiers said they were unable to say exactly where Saddam was imprisoned.

The soldiers said Saddam was neatly barbered, washed his own clothes, and was a "germophobic".

- AFP