A woman claiming to have been Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's mistress for over thirty years told ABC News that she witnessed at least one meeting between Saddam and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
During an interview to be broadcast Thursday, 54-year-old Parisoula Lampsos, said that during the mid-1980s, Osama bin Laden, blamed for the terror strikes of September 11 that killed over 3,000 people, visited one of Saddam's palaces in Iraq.
She alleged that the Iraqi leader's eldest son, Uday, told her the two met again about a decade later, an exchange that saw Saddam giving money to the Saudi militant.
"He give to Osama bin Laden, he give to Palestine," she is quoted as saying in halting English. Even though Saddam expressed reservations about the election in 2000 of George W. Bush, he was confident that he would be beyond the president's reach and would one day retake Kuwait, which he lost after Bush's father, the 41st US president George Bush, committed US troops to the Gulf War, Lampsos said.
ABC News interviewed Lampsos for its "Primetime Thursday" news program to air later this week. The network released excerpts of the interview on Sunday.
Lampsos, who currently resides in Lebanon, also offered details about Saddam's personal life. He apparently liked to drink alcohol and smoke cigars while watching videos of his enemies being tortured.
In the interview, Lampsos claimed Saddam tried to have Uday assassinated because he was worried his son would try to remove him from power. Uday was shot and paralyzed in that attempt.
"I will kill him someday. Really, I mean I will kill him," Lampsos said was the threat Saddam made against his son. When Uday became paralyzed, Lampsos said Saddam told her, "I didn't want in this way. I wanted him to die. It was better for him."
In addition, Lampsos told the network that Saddam sometimes wore cowboy hats and took Viagra, a drug that seeks to curb male impotence. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
