'Comical Ali' wanted to surrender (the saga continues)

News24 ^ | April 24 2003

[knighthawk]

Lisbon - Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi information minister whose briefings made him a worldwide celebrity during the recent war and who is now high on a list of people wanted by the United States, tried to hand himself in via a contact with Portuguese journalists, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias said a family claiming to be sheltering Sahhaf, reportedly in the women's section of a home in a poor neighbourhood of Baghdad, had been in contact with two journalists, but they had failed to come up with the former information chief.

The reporters, one from Diario and the other from the weekly magazine Visao, had acted on a rumour that Sahhaf was hiding out in the home of a former civil servant, the paper said.

A member of the family in question had negotiated with the reporters for five days, saying that the former aide's presence in their home was unwanted.

The family member told the reporters that Sahhaf "wants to hand himself over to the Americans, but doesn't know how to do it," Diario said.

The reporters said they had received the promise of an interview with Sahhaf via the reported host, and said that in exchange they would help him to hand himself over safely to US forces.

However, at the time and place agreed for the interview, only the person they had spoken to turned up, and he told the reporters to simply forget about the whole affair and not to mention it to anyone, the paper said.

The reported host had said the former minister was being sheltered "in the women's room, a completely protected part of the house, where no-one enters."

He added that Sahhaf had been practically cut off from the outside world since US forces entered Baghdad on April 7, save for news received via the BBC on a short-wave radio.

[knighthawk]

Or maybe he wanted the US to surrender instead!

[presidio9]

Baghdad Bob Bump.

[dinok]

I think he has a job waiting for him at CNN

[Shermy]

He added that Sahhaf had been practically cut off from the outside world since US forces entered Baghdad on April 7, save for news received via the BBC on a short-wave radio.

He's a BBC listener? No wonder he thought America was losing the war.

[knighthawk]

LOL!

[The KG9 Kid]

"... The family member told the reporters that Sahhaf "wants to hand himself over to the Americans, but doesn't know how to do it,"

It's simple. Locate any Coalition soldier in Iraq and turn your silly arse in.

[JennysCool]

Bob does realize after he surrenders he'll be sought after by every comedy show and movie producer in the Western hemisphere, does he not? If he's alive, he's got it made.

[facedown]

Weird bump.

[Brett66]

Is he one of the figures on the deck of cards?

[John Beresford Tipton]

"Is he one of the figures on the deck of cards?"

No.

[knighthawk]

No, and I don't think there are too many charges against him. Only his connection to the Iraqi regime. But we cannot hold him for lying to us. And making us laugh is no crime either.

[Tex-Con-Man]

Is he one of the figures on the deck of cards?

The Joker?

[vigilante2]

BREAKING NEWS: BAGHDAD BOB HAS COME BACK TO HAUNT

[Migraine]

told the reporters that Sahhaf "wants to hand himself over to the Americans, but doesn't know how to do it,"

That's what he gets for being in his ivory bunker. How many million leaflets did we drop just so the lowest buffoon in the country could know how it's done? Oh, yeah; but he was the HIGHEST buffoon (so let's cut him some slack).

[FourPeas]

...and the tension builds. Where is Baghdad Bob? Inquiring minds want to know.

[F16Fighter]

I imagine Baghdad Bob dashing around in a perpetual panic from window blind to window blind, in nothing but a pair of boxers and black socks, and bottle of Scotch -- waiting for the inevitable knock on the door from Spec Ops.

[joesnuffy]

6 months from now he will be hosting SNL and a DJ on MTV

[johnb838]

I think the over-the-top hyperbole was a signal that he knew the game was up and was basically a hostage. Like a POW blinking his eyes to spell out S-O-S or something.

Everybody wants BB to turn out to be OK. I think he should go to work as Galloway's PR guy.

[aristeides]

He has good reason to want to make sure it's the Americans he turns himself in to. He's a Shiite who betrayed members of his family to the Saddam regime and then became a leading figure in that regime. A lot of Shiites would not treat him gently.