Saddam Slept Here

By DAVID ELLIS

Saddam can seek shelter in a palace bunker some 40 miles out of Baghdad, but allied forces are unlikely to find him there. During wartime, the Iraqi leader makes a habit of hiding in civilian areas. A Shi'ite opposition leader recalls that his cousin's family was rousted by soldiers at dawn several years ago. The group was sent to Baghdad's Al Rasheed Hotel for the next 24 hours before being permitted to return home. Only then did government officials tell the family that Saddam had spent the previous evening in its quarters. In thanks for the coerced hospitality, he sent the family a suite of designer furniture.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart