Saddam shed tears at defeat

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

A Greek-Lebanese woman who was Saddam Hussein’s mistress for 30 years said this week that the tyrant dreamed of immortality, took Viagra, and liked to dance to Frank Sinatra records. In an interview to be aired on ABC, Parisoula Lampsos, 54, said Saddam was a brave man who “does not fear America,” though he wept when he was forced to withdraw from Kuwait after the Gulf War. “His goal,” she said, “is for his name to live for 1,000 years as the new Arab hero, the second Saladin.” Lampsos said Saddam sometimes donned a cowboy hat to watch videos of his political foes being tortured, liked to dance, and was especially fond of Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night.” She escaped from Iraq earlier this year and was taken in by Iraqi exiles.