Saddam's 'love shack' discovered
Furnishings include shag carpet, Kuwaiti china, fantasy art
Monday, April 14, 2003 Posted: 0815 GMT ( 4:15 PM HKT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The doors of the town house opened to reveal a playboy's fantasy straight from the 1960s: mirrored bedroom, lamps shaped like women, airbrushed paintings of a topless blonde woman and a mustached hero battling a crocodile...

"This must have been Saddam's love shack," said Sgt. Spencer Willardson of Logan, Utah...

But this home was different: beanbag chairs, a garden of plastic plants, a sunken kitchen and a room for a servant, all 1960s-style.

Dinnerware found includes Kuwaiti royal family china
The sunken wet bar was stocked with 20-year old Italian red wines and expensive cognacs, brandies and Scotch whiskeys, the same brands found in several presidential palaces...

Upstairs was a television room with bright blue, pink and yellow throw pillows. The bathroom included a whirlpool bath. The kingsize bed was fitted into an alcove with mirrors on two sides and a fantasy painting on the third.

The home's 1960s look -- parodied in the series of "Austin Powers" spy spoofs -- inspired a round of imitations from soldiers slogging door to door.

"Yeah, baaabeee," said Carter, doing his best imitation of actor Mike Myers' character.

"Shagadelic," another soldier shouted.

Indeed, the carpet was navy blue shag.