http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21001330-1702,00.htmlSaddam

'read poetry, fed the birds'

From correspondents in WashingtonJanuary 02, 2007 10:45amArticle from: Agence France-Press

FORMER Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was an avid reader, fed birds and told jokes while he was in US custody, according to a military nurse who looked after him.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,'' Sgt Ellis said on CNN today."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,'' Sgt Ellis said in an interview from his home in Normandy, Missouri with the St Louis Post-Dispatch published yesterday.Saddam was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging on Saturday, an end that did not sit well with Sgt Ellis. "I was kind of disappointed (by the execution),'' Sgt Ellis said on 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,'' Sgt Ellis told the paper. He 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. Sgt 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," Sgt Ellis said. At no time did Saddam display hostility toward him, Sgt Ellis said, but his patient did ask him why the US had led an invasion of Iraq in 2003. "He said everything he did was for Iraq,'' Sgt 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.'''