Rumsfailed
06-20-2005, 11:07 AM
Posted on Mon, Jun. 20, 2005
Report: Saddam friendly with U.S. troops
RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday.
GQ magazine's July issue says Saddam greatly admired President Reagan and thought President Clinton was "OK," but had harsh words for both President Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.
"The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying. But his fellow GI, Specialist Sean O'Shea, then 19, says Saddam later softened that view.
"Towards the end he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to Bush, to make friends with him," O'Shea, of Minooka, Pa., told the magazine.
A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "`He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"
...
For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says. One day the guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson says.
Saddam prayed five times a day in his cell and kept a Quran that he claimed to have found in some rubble near the underground hideout. "He proudly showed (it) to the boys because it was burned around the edges and had a bullet hole in it," the story says.
According to the author, 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 the U.S. planes attacked the palace to which he intended to escape rather than the one he was in, injuring some of his bodyguards.
"But then he started laughing," recalls Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'"
For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says. One day the guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson says.
Saddam prayed five times a day in his cell and kept a Quran that he claimed to have found in some rubble near the underground hideout. "He proudly showed (it) to the boys because it was burned around the edges and had a bullet hole in it," the story says.
According to the author, 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 the U.S. planes attacked the palace to which he intended to escape rather than the one he was in, injuring some of his bodyguards.
"But then he started laughing," recalls Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'"
...
The article says that if Saddam knew the statue of himself in Baghdad's Firdos Square was toppled on April 9, 2003, he never mentioned it to the GI guards. He insisted that everything he did, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was for the good of his people, and invited his guards to return to Iraq and stay at his palace after he was restored to power.
"He'd always tell us he was still the president. That's what he thinks, One hundred percent," says Dawson.
The rest of this story at:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/world/11940069.htm
Report: Saddam friendly with U.S. troops
RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday.
GQ magazine's July issue says Saddam greatly admired President Reagan and thought President Clinton was "OK," but had harsh words for both President Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.
"The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying. But his fellow GI, Specialist Sean O'Shea, then 19, says Saddam later softened that view.
"Towards the end he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to Bush, to make friends with him," O'Shea, of Minooka, Pa., told the magazine.
A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "`He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"
...
For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says. One day the guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson says.
Saddam prayed five times a day in his cell and kept a Quran that he claimed to have found in some rubble near the underground hideout. "He proudly showed (it) to the boys because it was burned around the edges and had a bullet hole in it," the story says.
According to the author, 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 the U.S. planes attacked the palace to which he intended to escape rather than the one he was in, injuring some of his bodyguards.
"But then he started laughing," recalls Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'"
For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says. One day the guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. "He'd eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes," Dawson says.
Saddam prayed five times a day in his cell and kept a Quran that he claimed to have found in some rubble near the underground hideout. "He proudly showed (it) to the boys because it was burned around the edges and had a bullet hole in it," the story says.
According to the author, 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 the U.S. planes attacked the palace to which he intended to escape rather than the one he was in, injuring some of his bodyguards.
"But then he started laughing," recalls Reese. "He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.'"
...
The article says that if Saddam knew the statue of himself in Baghdad's Firdos Square was toppled on April 9, 2003, he never mentioned it to the GI guards. He insisted that everything he did, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was for the good of his people, and invited his guards to return to Iraq and stay at his palace after he was restored to power.
"He'd always tell us he was still the president. That's what he thinks, One hundred percent," says Dawson.
The rest of this story at:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/world/11940069.htm