Tour of prison reveals the last days of Saddam Hussein - CNN.com

The guards at the Baghdad detention facility called their prisoner “Vic,” and let him plant a little garden near his cell. The rest of the world knew him as Saddam Hussein, a man blamed for the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis during more than 20 years as the country’s president.

The nickname and the garden are among the details about the former Iraqi dictator that emerged during a tour of the Baghdad cell where Hussein slept, bathed, and kept a journal in the final days before he was executed in December 2006.

U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Doug Stone, who oversees detention operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, shared excerpts from the journal and showed CNN the cell – the first time it’s been recorded on video.

Tour of prison reveals the last days of Saddam Hussein - CNN.com