CAIRO, Egypt, May 6, 2008

Saddam Feared Getting AIDS In Prison

Excerpts Published Of Iraqi Dictator's Prison Writings While In U.S. Custody

  • Saddam Hussein is seen speaking at an undisclosed location in a court room on a U.S. base, Thursday July 1, 2004.

    Saddam Hussein is seen speaking at an undisclosed location in a court room on a U.S. base, Thursday July 1, 2004.  (AP)

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(AP)  Saddam Hussein feared catching AIDS or other diseases during his U.S.-supervised captivity, a leading Arab newspaper said Monday in publishing excerpts of his prison writings.

The London-based Al-Hayat said the comments came in portions of Saddam's prison diaries that it obtained from U.S. authorities. The U.S. military confirmed some of the late Iraqi leader's writings had been released.

When Saddam found out his U.S. military guards were also using his laundry line to dry clothes, he wrote that he demanded they stop, according to the excerpts.

"I explained to them that they are young and they could have young people's diseases," Saddam wrote. "My main concern was to not catch a venereal disease, an HIV disease, in this place." He said some soldiers ignored his request.

A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Matthew Morgan, declined to describe the writings as a formal diary, but said the former Iraqi president produced thousands of pages of writing while in custody.

"The select material that has been previously released was viewed here by Arabic speakers and reported on accordingly," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Saddam was captured by American soldiers on Dec. 13, 2003, just over eight months after his regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion. An Iraqi tribunal convicted him of crimes against humanity and he was hanged at the end of 2006.

In the excerpts, Saddam also described having an intimate conversation with his American doctor about women and said his English gradually improved by talking to his captors.

"I was speaking it using my hands and signs if I could not find the exact word," he wrote. "But our language (Arabic) is more beautiful and deeper."

Saddam also wrote how hard it was to have to ask for things, such as once when he requested a flower.

"It was a serious sacrifice from me to ask for the first time in my life," he wrote.

Al-Hayat also published excerpts from what it described as poetry written by Saddam in prison.

In April 2004, the world had the first glimpses of Saddam's cell when two newspapers printed pictures of him emerging from the bathroom in his underwear after washing clothes. The Sun in London and the New York Post said the pictures were provided by U.S. military sources to "undermine the Iraqi rebellion."

©MMVIII, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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by algoresarse May 7, 2008 3:56 AM EDT
Posted by andrew_693 at 06:59 PM : May 06, 2008
+ report abuse

*********

it takes a liberal democrat to hate fa ggots with more intensity than a conservative..GOTTA GIVE IT TO THEM
Reply to this comment
by andrew_693 May 6, 2008 9:59 PM EDT
I imagine Saddam became afraid because he probably found out about all the republicans that came out of the closet and thought that since an army representing this party showed up in his doorstep he assumed they must all be a bunch of qu eerdos.
Reply to this comment
by mjvw2 May 6, 2008 6:52 PM EDT
Saddam Feared Getting AIDS In Prison

and I care because...?
Reply to this comment
by May 6, 2008 6:16 PM EDT
gocubs58, I think CBS does this just to see what the comments are. Nothing more, nothing less. Almost like a consensus of what people think.
Reply to this comment
by May 6, 2008 6:05 PM EDT
They must have made him watch the Shawshank Redemption....
Reply to this comment
by gocubs58 May 6, 2008 5:10 PM EDT
Who gives a s**t??

Why would anyone think this is newsworthy?
Reply to this comment
by rowdytexan2 May 6, 2008 5:05 PM EDT
red90210 - Hey Freddie.... The USA did not use wmd''''''''s against it''''''''s own people you moron.

Posted by guyfrompa45

The US gave him the only WMD''s he had, for pete''s sakes.
Reply to this comment
by rushlimpdrug May 6, 2008 3:24 PM EDT

And this is important because?

This reads more like the National Enquirer.
Reply to this comment
by Renegade.Rivers May 6, 2008 3:08 PM EDT
red90210 - Hey Freddie.... The USA did not use wmd''''s against it''''s own people you moron.

Posted by guyfrompa45
--------------------------------------------------------
Hey dumbazz, you are the one who needs to wakeup, The United States has used weapons of mass destruction against their own people, i.e. nuclear testing in which us soldiers were exposed to radiation fallout, and the American public as well during above air nuclear blast in the 60''s, Agent Orange in Vietnam, as well as such atrocities as the Tuskegee experiments, and the exposure of children to radiation at Oak Ridge, the exposure of the native American to smallpox by giving the blankets containing the smallpox virus.

There are many more, these are but a few of the atrocities committed by our own government against the American people.
Reply to this comment
by May 6, 2008 3:02 PM EDT
andersonk49...you''''re a funny little dingbat...why don''''t you practice what you preach and read some history books. Bush is Hitler reincarnated...only Bush is quite a bit dumber.

Posted by kittykatty2 at 09:08 AM : May 06, 2008

KK...you do realize that you have a screw loose, don''t you?
Reply to this comment
by martin9p2 May 6, 2008 2:44 PM EDT
Did he say AIDS-infected clothesline? I guess saddam squatted over the toilet to avoid diseases there, too.
Reply to this comment
by republic1776 May 6, 2008 2:43 PM EDT
Asking for a flower and writing poetry.
Spring time for Hitler! LOL
Reply to this comment
by realhdvideo May 6, 2008 2:15 PM EDT
Is this the most important issue today? Who cares about him. He is dead and enjoying hell where he can have fun with HIV. F**k Him.
Reply to this comment
by minnick8-2009 May 6, 2008 1:57 PM EDT
Yes, I bet it was just awful for Saddam to have to ask for things while he was in prison. He was so in the habit of just taking anything he wanted.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 May 6, 2008 1:47 PM EDT
I''''''''d have told Bubba to use a condom.
Posted by samrensho at 10:32 AM

LOL. I think no matter how hard he trys, Shrub will remain celibate during his prision term, no matter how long it is.
Posted by dragonwagon5

Maybe you can join him since the odds of that happening are nil.
Reply to this comment
by underdogus May 6, 2008 1:39 PM EDT
fibonacci_ is a foreigner ....why dont you post in your own country you friggin b.astard?
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 May 6, 2008 1:39 PM EDT
Xlib, Kit-kat

The United States government did something that was wrong%u2014deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. . . . clearly racist.
%u2014President Clinton''''s apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16, 1997


Presidents don''''t apologize for incidents that didn''''t occur or for incidents in which the government has no responsibility...

Plus, the PHS records are online.
Posted by Nancy_Naive

Yeah and it was done under the auspices of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Reply to this comment
by samrensho May 6, 2008 1:32 PM EDT
I''d have told Bubba to use a condom.
Reply to this comment
by mudrose-2009 May 6, 2008 1:29 PM EDT
mudrose, you crack me up. You can dish out the insults but you can''''t take them. How old are you? 13? Your insults go hand in hand with your reasoning though. Totally immature. But then, I''''ve read your posts before, they aren''''t any different in this story than others.
Posted by kittykatty2

Like I said cut and paste yourself to somebody''s azz. I have yet to hear an intelligent argument out of your mouth other than insulting me for my opinions. So please spare us all your gross insuperiority.
Reply to this comment
by kittykatty2 May 6, 2008 1:24 PM EDT
mudrose, you crack me up. You can dish out the insults but you can''t take them. How old are you? 13? Your insults go hand in hand with your reasoning though. Totally immature. But then, I''ve read your posts before, they aren''t any different in this story than others.
Reply to this comment
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