'Saddam misses Reagan'

The jailed former Iraqi leader described how Reagan, who was president during the time of Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran, sold him planes and helicopters. "Reagan and me, good,"' Saddam said, according to the article by Lisa DePaulo in the July issue that goes on sale June 28.

"He said, 'I wish things were like when Ronald Reagan was still president,"' said one of the soldiers who guarded him.

The article recounts the stories of five US soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard who watched over the captive for nearly a year. All five have completed their tours of duty and returned home, the article said.

President Bush and his father, former President George H. W. Bush, are "no good," while former President Bill Clinton was "OK," Saddam told his captors. The former president led a UN-coalition that defeated Saddam in the 1991 Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

No date has been set for the trial of Saddam before an Iraqi Special Tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity.

Saddam said he wants to talk to Bush "to make peace with him," they said. "He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them," they quoted him as saying.

He told the soldiers he had never dealt with Osama bin Laden. The toppled leader, whom the Iraqi government wants to put on trial for mass killings, seemed convinced he would return to power, they also said.

"He still thinks he's the president," one soldier said. They said Saddam told them "when this was all over," he wanted them to stay in his palace and see how beautiful Iraq was.