Saddam Hussein’s Poetry

Ever wonder what Saddam’s last days were like? Well, according to a new book by Charles Duelfer, once the CIA’s top weapons investigator in Iraq, the deposed dictator flirted with American nurses, said he wanted to restart a nuclear weapons program, and even wrote poetry. Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq—held up for more than nine months by CIA reviewers—focuses on Duelfer’s decade-long hunt for WMD, but it also offers nuggets about Vladimir Putin’s corrupt oil deals with Iraq and the Russian leader’s effort to persuade Saddam to step down to avert a US invasion. Best bit: Saddam “once asked his top commanders if Iraq had any hidden weapons he didn’t know about.”