SADDAM Hussein was afraid he would catch venereal diseases, including HIV, from the US soldiers guarding his prison, according to diary notes reported in a leading Arabic newspaper.
The London-based al-Hayat quotes Saddam's writings from prison saying he thought he might get a disease from his American guards because they hung their clothes on his laundry line.
The report also said that Saddam improved his English by talk
ing with his guards and had intimate conversations with his captors.
Bisan al-Sheikh, an al-Hayat reporter, said she received the dairies from US authorities.
When the former Iraqi leader found out his guards were using his laundry line to dry clothes, he wrote that he demanded they stop.
"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 of the soldiers ignored his request.
Saddam added: "I was speaking (English] using my hands and signs if I could not find the exact word." He described having a conversation with his US doctor about women.
Saddam also wrote how hard it was to have to ask for things, such as when he once requested a flower: "It was a serious sacrifice from me to ask for the first time in my life."
The full article contains 235 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
