Alleged Mistress Recalls Life With Saddam

CAIRO, Egypt – A woman who claims she was Saddam Hussein's mistress described the Iraqi leader to an interviewer as a man filled with vanity who loved American movies and music, but ruthless enough to have ordered his own son killed.

The woman, identified as 54-year-old Parisoula Lampsos, told ABC's Claire Shipman that she was Saddam's on-and-off mistress for 30 years and that she now wears a veil in public to disguise herself for fear of retribution. The exclusive interview is to be broadcast this week on ABC's Primetime Thursday.

The interview was conducted at a secret location in Lebanon, but there has been no word on whether the woman was still in Lebanon at the time her relationship with Saddam was made public.

Inquiries with Lebanese security officials have so far turned up no information about her whereabouts. Other sources said she may have been interviewed at an earlier date and moved on to a different location.

Lampsos said Saddam enjoys American music and movies -- his favorite is The Godfather -- and would sometime dance to Frank Sinatra's hit, "Strangers in the Night."

According to excerpts released by ABC on Monday, Lampsos described tender moments with Saddam, who she said dyes his hair, uses herbal medicine to hide his wrinkles and occasionally takes the anti-impotence drug Viagra.

The Iraqi leader favors designer suits and his favorite drink is Scotch. He likes to have milk with honey, eats gazelle meat for dinner and swims everyday to keep fit.

She also gave insight into Saddam's dark side, claiming that he enjoyed watching videos of his foes being tortured, sometimes wearing a cowboy hat for the occasion

Saddam considers both President George W. Bush and his father as criminals, she said.

When asked whether Saddam was worried the younger Bush would come after him, she said, "Yeah, but he don't care."

Saddam cried when the U.S.-led coalition threw Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, she said.

"His eye, was red, red, red," said Lampsos, adding that Saddam vowed at the time to retake Kuwait. "'Who's America? Who are they, what they think they are? I am Saddam,'" she quoted the Iraqi leader as saying when Kuwait fell into the hands of coalition forces.

The present U.S. administration accuses Saddam of amassing weapons of mass destruction and has not ruled out attacking Iraq to bring about a regime change. U.N. weapons inspectors must verify that Iraq, as required under U.N. resolutions, has destroyed all weapons and dismantled the capability to manufacture them before sanctions imposed in 1990 for invading Kuwait could be lifted.

"He would say they will never find anything. But he would laugh about them," Lampsos said referring to the inspectors who left Iraq in late 1998 ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes. "They are crazy. Let them come ... They will not find anything," she quoted Saddam as saying, according to the excerpts.