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Posted on 04/08/2003 11:11:32 AM PDT by kattracks
Iraqi Information Minister Uses Insults
By SAM F. GHATTAS .c The Associated Press
DOHA, Qatar (AP) - The television images of U.S. tanks in Baghdad seemed undeniable, but Saddam Hussein's spokesman denied them anyway - with his usual flair for insult.
``There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad at all,'' Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told reporters outside Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday.
A day later, when the hotel had just come under U.S. tank fire, the Iraqi information minister had to acknowledge to reporters at the Palestine that U.S. and British columns had targeted the Information Ministry, the radio and television station, a neighborhood near the presidential compound and the Ministry of Planning.
But with a smile, he made it sound like it was all part of Iraq's plan:
``We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked,'' he said in hurried remarks that were a departure from his daily news conference.
Across the region, al-Sahhaf version is embraced by those Arabs desperate for a victory over the United States - who hate it for supporting Israel and believe it's attacking Iraq only for its oil. And even when they can't believe what he is saying, they like the way he says it, alternating between fluent English and his native Arabic.
Arab viewers of al-Sahhaf's daily news conferences broadcast live from Baghdad get a kick out of his ridiculing President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Some call it the ``al-Sahhaf show.'' He's even introduced insults virtually unknown to the Arab public. His use, for example, of ``uluj,'' an obscure and particularly insulting Arabic term for ``infidel,'' sent viewers leafing through their dictionaries and calling TV stations for a definition.
His enemies are never just the Americans or the British. They are ``outlaws,'' ``war criminals,'' ``fools,'' ``stooges,'' an ``international gang of villains.''
Al-Sahhaf has singled out Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for abuse, describing him as a ``crook'' and ``the most despicable creature.''
Al-Sahhaf's face, clean-shaven in contrast to most Iraqi officials who sport Saddam-style mustaches, has become a TV fixture, along with his black beret and green Baath party uniform.
``American cruise Tomahawk missiles bomb Iraq, and al-Sahhaf missiles of words deafen the American and allied ears,'' read one headline in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat last week.
Viewers ``don't exactly pause at what he (al-Sahhaf) says as much as they are eager to listen to his funny words,'' wrote Faisal Salman, managing editor of the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, in his daily column.
Some Arab commentators have dubbed al-Sahhaf the Iraqi Goebbels, after Hitler's master propagandist.
Al-Sahhaf is no stranger to the media and its impact - and to Iraq's rough politics.
He was studying to be an English teacher when he began his career in politics in 1963 by joining a violent group led by Saddam that targeted opponents of the Baath party.
After a 1963 coup, he revealed the whereabouts of his brother-in-law, an army general and the country's military prosecutor, who was then killed by Baath party militias.
By handing over his relative, al-Sahhaf proved his loyalty to the Baath party.
A Baathist regime was overthrown in another coup the same year, but the party came back five years later.
Then, al-Sahhaf was charged with securing the radio and television stations and was later put in charge of both outlets. He was known for his temper, and for even kicking TV and radio employees who displeased him.
Now in his early 60s, Al-Sahhaf has been information minister since 2001, and from 1993 to 2001 was foreign minister. He also has served as Iraq's ambassador to India, Italy and the United Nations.
Although al-Sahhaf has become the prominent face of the regime of late, he does not have the political and military clout of the relatives and clansmen who are Saddam's closest lieutenants.
Al-Sahhaf is from Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community that long has been dominated by Sunnis like Saddam. He has middle class roots - the family name refers to his father's bookbinding craft - in Hillah, south of Baghdad, not Saddam's Tikrit power base.
Still, it was al-Sahhaf who delivered the recent short message in the president's name calling for jihad, or holy war, and urging Iraqis to fight on.
Saddam also used al-Sahhaf to deliver some of his more conciliatory messages.
Late last year, al-Sahhaf apologized in a statement in the president's name to the people of Kuwait for the 1990 Iraqi invasion of their country. The statement, though, went on to criticize the Kuwaiti leadership for relying on American help.
EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press correspondents Salah Nasrawi and Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.
04/08/03 14:05 EDT
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I hate it when that happens.
No wonder he is so cranky.
Interesting how these people paid their initiation dues to Saddam, and how they were cleverly picked to represent (control) the different Iraqi sects. Al-Sahhaf is a Shiite. I wonder who the despicable alleged "Christian" Tariq Azziz had murdered to show his loyalty? His mother?
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