The Hindu : International : "Saddam Hussein wants to befriend Bush"

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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"Saddam Hussein wants to befriend Bush"

Rory Carroll

Former Iraqi President rails against confidant who revealed his hideout near Tikrit to U.S. forces Saddam wants to meet the U.S. President despite implicitly branding Bush a liar

BAGHDAD: He admires Ronald Reagan, respects Bill Clinton and bears no grudge against George Bush Senior or Junior. Saddam Hussein can forgive his enemies but not, say some of his U.S. guards, sweet cereal.

A mellow portrait of the former Iraqi President and his jail cell musings in broken English emerged on Monday, depicting an avuncular figure who bantered with his captors. ``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,'' said Specialist Sean O'Shea, a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard unit that watched over Mr. Hussein.

He and four other members of the unit were interviewed in the July issue of GQ, an advance copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press. The unit is believed to have been at Camp Cropper, a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, from 2003 to mid-2004. The guards said Mr. Hussein admired Reagan, whose administration fed Iraq intelligence and weapons in its war with Iran in the 1980s, and said Mr. Clinton was ``OK''.

``The Bush father, son, no good,'' one of the guards quoted Mr. Hussein as saying. That later softened into a desire to meet the President, despite implicitly branding Mr Bush a liar for citing weapons of mass destruction as the reason to invade Iraq. ``He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons,'' he was reported to have said. The soldiers said Mr. Hussein favoured Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, not Froot Loops under any circumstances, and chicken or fish for supper.

He prayed five times a day and cited Christ's betrayal by Judas when railing against the trusted man who allegedly revealed his hideout near his hometown of Tikrit in December 2003.

``Mr. Hussein was really mad about that,'' they said.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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