Loo of Luxury: Locked Inside Hussein's Palace Bathroom

Wall Street Journal ^ | April 20, 2003 | Yochi Dreazen

[WaveThatFlag]

There was no way around it: I was locked in Saddam Hussein's bathroom.

The intricately carved wooden door had a gold knob on the side facing into the marble hallway on the third floor of Mr. Hussein's presidential palace here, but the interior knob was missing and the door wouldn't budge.

[BunnySlippers]

•

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

NYT colmunists now almost have it as easy as Saddam once did.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

NYT = WSJ - need mu coffee.

[goldstategop]

Sounds like a palace fit for a king. The ostenstatiousness would have made Louis XIV blush.

[Bigg Red]

Why didn't the dope offer the Leatherman when the GI said he wished he had a tool? Why does he have it on his belt? As a fashion accessory?

[battlegearboat]

I hope they brought Lysol.

[Larry Lucido]

Locked in with me was Marine Staff Sgt. Leslie Ryan

At first I thought he was living one of my fantasies, until I found out Leslie was a guy.

[Catspaw]

They could do an entire episode of MTV's "Cribs" just on one bathroom.

[ThreePuttinDude]

After our hope of pushing the door open failed, we called out into the hallway to see if anyone out there could open the door from the outside. A colleague of mine from a Texas newspaper heard us and tried, but said the door wouldn't move. We stood in silence for a few minutes and then Sgt. Ryan noticed the Leatherman combination jackknife hanging from my belt. He took out the pliers in its handle and squeezed them around the wooden lever that had once held the doorknob. It turned immediately, and the door popped open.

WOW, I wouldn't want this one get out, they sound like a bunch of Valley Girls....."Like the door woodin open fershur man..."

[mass55th]

They actually published this stupid story? I can see that the Wallstreet Journal doesn't expect much from its journalists.

[goldstategop]

Hardly stupid. Its an illuminating vignette about the tastelessness of the guy our Left's backed for months.

[AnAmericanMother]

I wonder if this guy isn't exaggerating, just to tell a good story.

A similar thing happened to us while we were looking at a house with a real estate agent. There was a vestibule connecting the house with the garage, and the inner door had a spring-loaded lock that would lock automatically. Three of us walked into the vestibule, not realizing the spring lock was set, the deadbolt was on the outer door, and the real estate agent had left the key on the kitchen counter! Worse, there was no keyhole on the vestibule side of the inner door!

Fortunately, I had a screwdriver on my key chain, and I just took the door off its hinges. (Why anybody bothered to put a lock on a door when the hinges were on the opposite side is a mystery to me!)

We bought the house anyway (it was a goofy house but a bargain - had been untenanted for two years). One of the first of many things we did was to replace the doorknob on that inner door with a plain non-lockable latch.

[ThreePuttinDude]

That reminds me of the stroy about the guy that tried
to get in his car, but the battery on his key chain auto lock opener
went dead.....He called AAA to help him get in. The AAA driver
took the key chain, opened the door with the key......
Damn these newfangled gadgets..

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

I don't think I've EVER used my door key on my car. It has a key chain clicker and a door combination lock. But I do think I remember how to use it . . .

maybe.

[mass55th]

Hardly stupid. Its an illuminating vignette about the tastelessness of the guy our Left's backed for months.

It doesn't give any more insight into Saddam's tastelessness than we already knew. In my estimate, this article is a day late and a dollar short. We've seen all of this on TV news channels and read about it all since 4/11 when that statue of Saddam took the plunge in Baghdad. I think most of us knew that Saddam was a tasteless puke, especially after all the stories about the atrocities committed by him and his regime these past 30 years. I didn't need to hear about this journalist being locked in a bathroom with one of our troops. I don't think it's a newsworthy story. Now if he'd toured the place prior to its being looted, now there would have been s story.

[American in Israel]

Guy has a leatherman on his belt and does not know that he has tools with him? What, he never opened the knife?! What a maroon these media guys are.

[WaveThatFlag]

I think most of us knew that Saddam was a tasteless puke, especially after all the stories about the atrocities committed by him and his regime these past 30 years.

Not if we were watching CNN, apparently...

[mass55th]

"Not if we were watching CNN, apparently..."

ROFL! You're right...I forgot them.

[freedomlover]

Why didn't the dope offer the Leatherman when the GI said he wished he had a tool? Why does he have it on his belt? As a fashion accessory?

He probably only uses the corkscrew. Those other thingys (you know, like the plier thingy that only takes up half of the tool) just get in the way.