Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf

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For other persons named Mohammed Said, see Mohammed Said (disambiguation).

Former Iraqi Information Minister

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf (Arabic: محمد سعيد الصحاف‎ also Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf, born 1940) is a former Iraqi diplomat and politician. He came to wide prominence around the world during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, during which he was the Information Minister of Iraq.

1 Before the Iraq war
2 During the Iraq war
3 Post-war life
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Before the Iraq war

Al-Sahhaf was born in Hilla, near Karbala. After studying journalism^[1] at Baghdad University he graduated with a Masters degree in English literature.^[2] He planned to become an English teacher^[1] before joining the Ba'ath Party in 1963. In the early days of the Ba'athist regime he read out regular announcements of newly executed Iraqis on state television.^[3] He served as Ambassador to Sweden, Burma, the United Nations and Italy, before returning to Iraq to serve as Foreign Minister in 1992. The reasons for his removal as Foreign Minister in April 2001 are unclear, but his achievements in the position were often claimed to be less satisfactory than that of his predecessor, Tariq Aziz. At least one report suggests that Uday Hussein, son of the President Saddam Hussein, was responsible for the removal.

[edit] During the Iraq war

Al-Sahhaf is known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War. His colorful appearances caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob (in the style of previous propagandists with alliterative aliases such as" "Hanoi Hannah" and "Seoul City Sue") by commentators in the United States and Comical Ali (an allusion to Chemical Ali, the nickname of former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid) by commentators in the United Kingdom; commentators in Italy similarly nicknamed him Alì il Comico.

On April 7, 2003, al-Sahhaf claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates. At that time, American tanks were patrolling the streets only a few hundred yards from the location where the press conference was held. His last public appearance as Information Minister was on April 8, 2003, when he said that the Americans "are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender".

He gained something of a cult following in the west, appearing on T-shirts, cartoons, and from internet phenomena came satirical websites. One such site featured sound bites of the minister, as well as photoshopped pictures of him on the Star Wars Death Star, at The Battle of Waterloo and at the D-Day landings, in all cases maintaining that "everything is just fine."^[4]

The utterances by al-Sahhaf described the fictional world of Saddam Hussein and his inner circle^[5] and were well received in parts of the Arab world most fiercely opposed to the war. Thus the quick fall of Baghdad was to some a total surprise; Syrian television did not broadcast images of the events. Many in Arab countries who were interviewed later were incredulous and were forced to conclude that al-Sahhaf and their own media had been lying all along,^{[citation needed]} comparable to a similar watershed event that came out of the Arab-Israeli wars several decades earlier.^{[citation needed]} Another theory is that al-Sahhaf was part of a deliberate operation of deception against coalition forces and the people of Iraq, to provide senior Iraqi officers with time to hide and escape. Al-Sahhaf's denials may have also contributed to the deaths of some Iraqi civilians during the Battle of Baghdad. The civilians, apparently believing official assurances that American forces were nowhere near the city, were killed after driving directly into intense firefights between American armored units and Iraqi forces.^[6]

[edit] Post-war life

On June 25, 2003, the London newspaper The Daily Mirror reported that al-Sahhaf had been captured by coalition troops at a roadblock in Baghdad. The report was not confirmed by military authorities and was denied by al-Sahhaf's family through Abu Dhabi TV. The next day al-Sahaf himself recorded an interview for the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news channel. Al-Sahhaf said that he had surrendered to US forces and had been interrogated by them. He was reportedly paid as much as $200,000 for the television interview, during which he appeared very withdrawn in contrast with the bombastic persona he projected during the war. Many of his answers consisted of a simple "yes" or "no". He refused to speculate on the causes of the downfall of the Iraqi government and answered only "history will tell" when asked if video clips purporting to prove that Saddam Hussein was alive were genuine, amid speculation at that time that Hussein had been killed during the war.

His fame quickly evaporated as the war continued into the "insurgency" phase; from the middle of 2003 onward, he faded from the public spotlight, and is no longer a figure in the war.

Although questioned by American authorities, al-Sahhaf was released, and there has been no suggestion of charging or detaining him for his role in the Saddam Hussein government. He is now living in the United Arab Emirates with his family.

When asked where he had got his information he replied, "authentic sources—many authentic sources".^[7] He pointed out that he "was a professional, doing his job".

Mr. al-Sahhaf has since become a symbol for corporate and other communications that stubbornly refuse to acknowledge facts. One such instance was the reaction of Sampo Bank to reports of vulnerabilities in the new IT platform the bank switched to in March 2008.^[8]

Much of the information given by al-Sahhaf during the war was clearly inaccurate. It has been argued that the same is not true of his predictions about the post-war situation. In 2007, British journalist Marina Hyde contrasted the comments of al-Sahhaf with those made by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, arguing that the former's view of the likely outcome of the war reflected the 2007 situation more accurately than Blair's descriptions.^[9]