Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Saddam's day: gardening, reading and eating muffins
Saddam is being held in a white-walled air-conditioned cell, three metres wide and four metres long, Mr Amin said. He is kept apart from the other prisoners, who can mix freely with each other during the daily three-hour exercise periods.
Since appearing in court, Saddam had taken to reading the Qur'an and writing poetry, Mr Amin said. "One of the poems is about George Bush, but I had no time to read it."
Saddam's health was "generally good" but he was being treated for high blood pressure and had suffered a chronic prostate infection for which he had received antibiotics. The former president had refused a biopsy to test for signs of cancer.
Mr Amin said Saddam "was regaining weight again" after a self-imposed diet in which he "resisted all fatty foods and had lost 11lb".
Like the other high-value detainees, Saddam's day begins with a substantial breakfast, an MRE (meal ready to eat), which provides 1,300 calories. He also gets hot food twice a day, which could consist of rice or potato and broccoli, along with either fish, beef or chicken. For dessert, there might be oranges, apples, pears or plums, but the former leader has developed a penchant for American snacks such as muffins and cookies.
There is regular access to showers and a barber, and a personal grooming kit that includes soaps, toothpaste, comb, shampoo and deodorant, and plastic sandals.
For relaxation there are no newspapers, TV or radio, but there are 145 books - mainly novels and travel books - donated by the Red Cross, which visits the detainees every six weeks.
Mr Amin said Saddam works out in his cell and then uses the daily exercise period to tend a small garden in an outside yard.
"He is looking after a few bushes and shrubs and has even placed a circle of white stones around a small palm tree," said Mr Amin, a Kurd from Kirkuk, who is the first member of Iraq's new interim government to visit Saddam. "His apparent care for his surroundings is ironic when you think he was responsible for one of the biggest ecocides when he drained the southern marshes."
Saddam is being held in a white-walled air-conditioned cell, three metres wide and four metres long, Mr Amin said. He is kept apart from the other prisoners, who can mix freely with each other during the daily three-hour exercise periods.
Since appearing in court, Saddam had taken to reading the Qur'an and writing poetry, Mr Amin said. "One of the poems is about George Bush, but I had no time to read it."
Saddam's health was "generally good" but he was being treated for high blood pressure and had suffered a chronic prostate infection for which he had received antibiotics. The former president had refused a biopsy to test for signs of cancer.
Mr Amin said Saddam "was regaining weight again" after a self-imposed diet in which he "resisted all fatty foods and had lost 11lb".
Like the other high-value detainees, Saddam's day begins with a substantial breakfast, an MRE (meal ready to eat), which provides 1,300 calories. He also gets hot food twice a day, which could consist of rice or potato and broccoli, along with either fish, beef or chicken. For dessert, there might be oranges, apples, pears or plums, but the former leader has developed a penchant for American snacks such as muffins and cookies.
There is regular access to showers and a barber, and a personal grooming kit that includes soaps, toothpaste, comb, shampoo and deodorant, and plastic sandals.
For relaxation there are no newspapers, TV or radio, but there are 145 books - mainly novels and travel books - donated by the Red Cross, which visits the detainees every six weeks.
Mr Amin said Saddam works out in his cell and then uses the daily exercise period to tend a small garden in an outside yard.
"He is looking after a few bushes and shrubs and has even placed a circle of white stones around a small palm tree," said Mr Amin, a Kurd from Kirkuk, who is the first member of Iraq's new interim government to visit Saddam. "His apparent care for his surroundings is ironic when you think he was responsible for one of the biggest ecocides when he drained the southern marshes."
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