Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein loves Doritos, hates Froot Loops, admires President Ronald Reagan, thinks Bill Clinton was "OK" and considers both Presidents George Bush "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 next month's 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, which reached newsstands Monday, said the GIs could not tell their families what they were doing and signed pledges not to reveal the location or other details of the US-run compound where Saddam was an HVD, or "high value detainee," awaiting trial by Iraqi authorities for mass killings and other crimes.
`still president'
However, the five soldiers told GQ of their personal interactions 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 percent," said Specialist Jesse Dawson, 25.
A Pentagon spokesman had no comment on the article.
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," Corporal Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, quoted Saddam as saying.
Specialist 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."
Their description of the man who once lived in palaces and now occupies a cell with no personal privacy matched recently published photos, apparently smuggled out of prison, showing Saddam in his underwear and a long robe.
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 GI had to help Saddam back to his cell, while another carried his underwear.
friendly
Saddam was friendly toward his young guards and sometimes offered fatherly advice. 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.
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