Posted on 01/03/2007 9:59:52 AM PST by presidio9
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was an avid reader, fed birds and told jokes while he was in US custody, an American military nurse who looked after him said in interviews with US media.
Robert Ellis, 56, an operating room nurse assigned to Saddam during his US military detention, described a courteous, contemplative figure in stark contrast to the brutal reputation Saddam earned during his rule over Iraq.
"He basically talked about his wife, and his children," Ellis told CNN on Monday.
"He was an avid reader. Loved to read and write. He had a lot of stories that he had written. He had a pamphlet that he wrote in every day and then when time came to visit him he'd read things to me," the army reservist said.
The master sergeant said he had strict orders to ensure Saddam stayed alive while in US hands.
"That was my job: to keep him alive and healthy, so they could kill him at a later date," Ellis recounted in an interview from his home in Normandy, Missouri with the St Louis Post-Dispatch published on Sunday.
Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging on Saturday, an end that did not sit well with Ellis.
"I was kind of disappointed (by the execution)," Ellis told CNN.
"I thought that they would more or less put him in jail for the rest of his life to kind of stem some of the violence that I knew was going to take place," he said.
When Saddam at one point was allowed short walks outside, the former president would feed birds pieces of bread saved from his meals, the nurse told the St Louis newspaper. Saddam also watered a plot of weeds.
"He said he was a farmer when he was young and he never forgot where he came from," Ellis told the paper.
Ellis said he did not believe Saddam was lonely while in detention "because he was jovial at times."
Saddam "had a good sense of humor. You know, made jokes, you know. And he spent most of his time reading, and praying," he said.
Ellis said he monitored Saddam's health from January 2004 to August 2004, visiting him twice a day, giving him medicine daily, checking his blood pressure and temperature and ensuring he was receiving enough food and water.
Guards referred to Saddam by the code name "Victor," he said.
Saddam went on a hunger strike at one point, refusing to eat when guards slid food through the slot on the bottom of his cell door. But when guards starting opening the door, Saddam dropped his hunger strike.
"He refused to be fed like a lion," Ellis said.
At no time did Saddam display hostility toward him, Ellis said, but his patient did ask him why the United States had led an invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"He said everything he did was for Iraq," Ellis told the St Louis newspaper.
"One day when I went to see him, he asked why we invaded. Well, he made gestures like shooting a machine gun and asked why soldiers came and shot up the place. He said the laws in Iraq were fair and the weapons inspectors didn't find anything.
"I said, 'That's politics. We soldiers don't get caught up in that sort of thing.'"
Saddam never spoke of dying and unlike his defiant, angry appearances at his trial proceedings, he rarely complained, Ellis said.
"When he was with me, he was in a different environment," he said. "I posed no threat. In fact, I was there to help him, and he respected that."
Ellis had mixed feelings about his role, knowing he was treating a patient who would likely be put to death.
"I knew all along what they were going to do. This went against my grain as a nurse, but as a soldier -- well, that was my job."
Hitler supposedly liked dogs and listened to opera ....didn't change the facts of what he did...ditto for Saddam.
And since the birds eat worms, he's still feeding the birds. Gaia-woshiping liberals ought to be so proud that he's come full circle.
The softening of Saddam's image has begun. The left does things like that. They are the ones who visit serial/mass murderers in prison and sing their praises about what good people they really are.
< sarcasm>
Can't be judgemental about their murders. Society made them do it. Bad genes made them do it. There is no free will.
< /sarcasm>
"BACKGROUND MUSIC! WHERE is the background music?
You know; Vivaldi's "Spring"? "
How about 'Springtime for Hitler?'
I am reminded of the last words of Nero:
"What a great artist dies with me!"
And Gacy painted pictures of clowns, so what?
I think this nurse was getting buggered by Saddam and fell in love.
Why they'll all say, look at him reading poetry and feeding the birds. Why, he wouldn't even hurt a fly!
... and Hitler was kind to dogs and went to the Opera.
Birds eh ?
I say let him feed the buzzards.......
OMG thank you Alouette that remind me of something I need get to you TUBE more often ROFL
Here it is actual video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=32xjsHBCanE
Thanks :)
ES just do search mode Saddam and Satan you see alot there on YOU TUBE ROFL
Hitler had a girlfriend, and he loved his dog.
Mao was a teacher who loved children in his classroom.
And so on. Yes, Hussein fed the birds. BFD
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