Saddam friendly, feels both Bushes no good: US guards

Saddam Hussein loves Doritos, hates froot loops, admires President Ronald Reagan, thinks Bill Clinton was ‘‘Ok’’ and con...

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 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, which reached newsstands yesterday, 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.

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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 per cent,’’ said Spc. 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,’’ Cpl. Jonathan ‘Paco’ Reese (22), quoted Saddam as saying.

Meanwhile in Brussels today, Iraq’s Justice Minister Abdel Hussein Shandal said Saddam’s trial on war crimes charges will be over by the end of the year, and that the ousted leader would be tried in Iraqi courts. —PTI

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