Gawk gawk time :0)
Monday, April 14, 2003
Kitsch love shack fit for a dictator
scmp.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Baghdad
The doors of the townhouse opened to reveal a playboy's fantasy straight from the 1960s: mirrored bedroom, lamps shaped like women, airbrushed paintings of a topless blonde woman and a moustachioed hero battling a serpent.
US troops thought it was the home of Saddam Hussein's mistress, though on the wall and in the bedroom were photos of the Iraqi president and a woman who appeared to be his wife. The company commander suspected they had found one of the Iraqi leader's many safe houses.
"This must have been Saddam's love shack," Sergeant Spencer Willardson said.
The split-level, one-bedroom house is in a Ba'ath Party enclave in central Baghdad. But this home was different: beanbag chairs, a garden of plastic plants, a sunken kitchen and bar and a room for a servant, all 1960s-style.
When it came time to eat dinner, Mr Hussein was served his food on the official fine china of the Kuwaiti royal family, complete with family seal and gold and maroon trim.
Upstairs was a television room, and a bedroom with a kingsize bed. The closets and drawers were empty except for a man's night shirt, two pairs of boxer shorts, two T-shirts and a bathrobe. |
