GI Guards Find Saddam 'Friendly'

Guards Say He Admired Reagan, Dislikes Presidents Bush

(CBS/AP)  "This is the opposite of Abu Ghraib," said GQ editor Andy Ward. "These young men showed Hussein a respect and courtesy that made possible an unusual bond between captors and captive. And because of this, they were able to see a very different side of one of the most controversial figures in modern history."

The soldiers say Saddam was preoccupied with cleanliness, washing up after shaking hands and using diaper wipes to clean his meal trays, his utensils and the table before eating. "He had germophobia or whatever you call it," said Dawson, 25, of Berwick, Pa.

The article quotes the GIs on Saddam's eating preferences — Raisin Bran Crunch was his breakfast favorite. "No Froot Loops," he told O'Shea. He ate fish and chicken but refused beef at dinner.

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 thinks CBS News Correspondent Dan Ratheris "a good guy," the soldiers said, and denies he ever had an association with Osama bin Laden.

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.'"

Saddam told the guards his capture in an underground hideout on Dec. 18, 2003, resulted from a betrayal by the only man who knew where he was, and had been paid to keep the secret.

"He was really mad about that," says Dawson. "He compared himself to Jesus, how Judas told on Jesus. He was like, 'That's how it was for me.' If his Judas never said anything, nobody ever would have found him, he said."

U.S. officials said at the time that Saddam's capture resulted from intelligence from several sources rather than a single informant.

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.