BAGHDAD , Iraq ( CNN ) -- The guards at the Baghdad detention facility called their prisoner `` Vic , '' and let him plant a little garden near his cell . The cell where Saddam Hussein spent his final days is furnished with the basics . 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 . Hussein was hanged on December 30 , 2006 , for his role in the killings of 148 people in a town north of Baghdad after a 1982 attempt to assassinate him . Watch Stone tell how Hussein prepared for execution » . Stone described how Hussein began that day . `` So he got up . He was informed that , in fact , [ this ] would be the day that he would be going to the execution . He bathed himself here in a very modest manner , '' Stone said , pointing to the sink in the corner of the room . `` It was winter , so it was cold . '' Hussein took extra time to put on the familiar dark suit he always wore to court , Stone recalled . `` As he went out , he said goodbye to the guards and then got into the vehicles and proceeded to the execution , '' the general said . See timeline of events leading up to Hussein 's execution » . Notes taken by the guards assigned to Hussein said he asked them to give his belongings to his lawyer and tell his daughter he was going to meet God with a clear conscience , as a soldier sacrificing himself for Iraq and his people . The cell is a small , windowless room painted a nondescript beige , with a gun-metal gray floor and concrete sleeping platform . It has a stainless-steel combination sink and toilet in the corner . Those guarding the former Iraqi leader developed a sort of rapport with him , giving Hussein the nickname Vic -- derived from the initials V-I-C posted near his name in the holding facility . `` Why did you all call him Vic ? '' asked CNN 's Kyra Phillips . `` Ah , a little-known secret , '' Stone said . `` When he came here there was a debate . Do you call him Mr. President ? No , that does n't sound very good . What do you call him ? '' Hussein also had a prisoner number , but that was n't going to work as a name either . `` One day he looked across at us and said why do you have initials by my name ? '' Stone said . `` And we said , well , that stands for 'Very Important Criminal ' '' ... and he said , 'OK , that 's what I want to be called . ' '' Guards allowed Hussein to exercise and keep a garden in a small outdoor courtyard . `` This was probably his favorite area , '' Stone said of the courtyard , where Hussein also smoked cigars and wrote in his journal , trying to shape his legacy even though he had lost control of the country . In his writings , Hussein said it was his responsibility to document history so that `` the people ... may know the facts as they are and not as those who want to counterfeit it . '' `` So he is afraid that history will not be recorded as he wants it recorded ? '' Phillips asked . `` As he wants it recorded , exactly ! '' Stone said . The former Iraqi leader showed a philosophical side in his poetry . `` The nights are darker after the sunset , but the smoke and the burning overwhelms the city , '' Hussein wrote as bombings and fighting enveloped Baghdad and echoed into the prison . `` You will feel suffocated under its skies . The days are now nights . No stars . No moon , but lots of screams . '' In another piece , Hussein called on citizens to change . `` Dear nation : Get rid of the hatred , take the clothes of hate and throw it into the ocean of hatred , '' he wrote . `` God will save you and you will start a clean life , with a clean heart . '' Though authorities executed Hussein for his role in killing about 150 people , he was on trial at the time of his death for genocide . Those charges implicated him in the killings of up to 100,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels -- a campaign that included the use of poison gas against Kurdish towns in northern Iraq . Stone said Hussein 's poetry may have been another attempt to ensure his legacy . `` There is a certain cunningness to him , '' Stone said . `` There 's a desire to sort of piece things together so that this is what you 'll remember . ''
CNN shoots first video inside Saddam Hussein 's cell , gets a look at his journal . Marine general describes Hussein 's last day and preparation for execution . Hussein planted a garden , worked out , wrote poetry while in prison . Hussein was friendly with guards , who called him `` Vic '' for Very Important Criminal .