Saddam's lawyer plans book on dictator's secrets

AMMAN: Saddam Hussein's Iraqi lawyer plans to write a book revealing "many secrets" told to him by the executed dictator about the fall of Baghdad, his arrest and imprisonment.   

"The book will contain information never before revealed and many secrets about the fall of Baghdad," Khalil al-Dulaimi said.   

"It will contain 200-300 letters, poems and other texts handwritten by President Saddam while the rest will be devoted to stories he revealed to me during more than 140 interviews in jail," Dulaimi said.   

"It is not just his memoirs," he added.   

According to Dulaimi the book will be more than 500 pages long and "could be out in a year."   

"I am still collecting the material before writing it and finding a publisher," he said.   

The ousted Iraqi dictator was hanged in Baghdad last December 30, a month after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiite civilians following an assassination attempt against him in 1982.   

He was captured by US troops in December 2003, eight months after the fall of Baghdad, in an hole on a farm in his Tikrit, near his hometown, and jailed in a US-run prison at Baghdad airport.   

Dulaimi said he met Saddam 140 time in jail, including 70 times alone, and "wrote down every single word he told me" about the fall of Baghdad, his capture, life in jail and his views on the future of Iraq.