Revealed: the last moments before Iraq's propaganda chief succumbed to reality

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | May 4, 2003 | Inigo Gilmore

[MadIvan]

The moment when Saddam Hussein's faithful minister of information, Mohammad Said Sahhaf, finally accepted that the game was up is revealed today by The Telegraph.

In the dying days of the regime the indefatigable minister, dubbed "Comical Ali", had haunted a radio studio in Baghdad, urging engineers to carry on pumping out Saddam's propaganda.

Even after the statue of Saddam was toppled on April 9, Mr Sahhaf refused to accept that Saddam's era was over. But in the early hours of April 10, with the sound of battle raging ever closer to the studio, in the al-Adhamiyah district, even Mr Sahhaf headed for the exit.

"Sahhaf slowly removed his black beret," recalls Raibah Hassan, 35, the manager of the Hikmat studio, the last person to have seen Mr Sahhaf in public. "He folded down the epaulettes on his military jacket to hide his rank and then he reached for a red and white kaffiyeh scarf.

"He wrapped it around his head as he told us to keep on re-broadcasting until 3am. He said goodbye, and then disappeared out of the back door."

Last week, the minister whose outrageous proclamations during the war earned him an international cult following - record producers are to create a dance track sampling his most popular catchphrases - was reportedly trying to strike a deal with the Americans that would allow him to go into exile in Egypt.

A former Iraqi general who is working closely with Gen Jay Garner, the man overseeing Iraq's post-war reconstruction, told The Telegraph that he had been approached by one of Mr Sahhaf's cousins, seeking a deal.

The general described Mr Sahhaf as "naive" and claimed that Saddam used to beat his minister of information.

Certainly, Mr Sahhaf's loyalty as a standard-bearer for the cause was remarkable. According to Mr Hassan, Mr Sahhaf and a team of aides arrived at the studio on April 8 and rarely left it. He says that Mr Sahhaf worked from a transmitter van parked in the studio garden, sustained only by a few cups of tea and an occasional slice of cake.

On the morning of April 9, the day American soldiers seized Baghdad, he set off as usual for the Palestine Hotel, where the world's media were based, to deliver his daily briefing but made a U-turn after spotting American troops.

"He was very tense," Mr Hassan recalls. "He had been cut off from the regime."

Nothing daunted, the minister carried on working. "He pushed it to the very end," Mr Hassan says. "I saw American tanks on Haifa Street across the river and I asked him about it. He said, 'No, no, no, maybe there are two or three tanks, but they will go'."

As the streets around the studio, which is near one of Saddam's biggest palaces, were being looted, desperate Ba'ath Party officials fled. Only Mr Sahhaf remained, making sure the regime's propaganda was pumped out over the airwaves. In the evening of April 9, a courier arrived with a videotape of what was supposedly Saddam's last recorded speech and an official handwritten note that ordered it to be broadcast continuously.

The minister's spirits visibly lifted, says Mr Hassan. "He said to me, 'As I told you, this is Saddam, this is the government, everything is normal'. But there was gunfire in the background."

When Mr Sahhaf finally accepted that all was lost, he left even his bodyguards behind. Barely three hours later, American troops swarmed down the street.

"I think he ran the battle alone," Mr Hassan said. "For two days he stayed with me with no food, nothing. He did his duty to the very end. He was brave."

Last week there were rumours that Mr Sahhaf had been hiding out in Baghdad, staying in an aunt's house.

"Sahhaf's cousin told me he wants to give himself up, but with certain conditions," the former Iraqi general says. "They know I had a connection with Jay Garner and I sent him to see Garner. But I warned him not to set conditions with the Americans.

"He wants to be outside Iraq," said the general, who did not wish to be identified. "He wants to get to Egypt. He has a lot of money stashed there in a bank and loves those Egyptian women very, very much."

[nicmarlo]

to what extent was this particular man acting, ever, of his own free will? Most were never allowed a free will to begin with under Saddam.

Good point, great question. And perhaps that's another reason why I don't have the same anger toward him. Perhaps that's it, he wasn't this 'military general,' he was a 'minister of [dis]information.' He probably had no real allies with those who were generals.....you should read Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night. It deals with a character, hired by the CIA as a double agent, hired afterwards by the Nazis, to speak propaganda that was acutally 'code words' for the Allies. There's much more to it than that, of course. It's a great book. I often thought of that character when Baghdad Bob spoke.

[nicmarlo]

Kurt Vonnegut is a pascifist, btw; however, he writes well, and you can probably check the book out from a library, if you don't want to help him financially. It was a part of my required reading in college. The book looks at free will, besides the propaganda issue. I really did enjoy it.

[elmer fudd]

I think the reason you don't see any outpouring of anger against him is because he appears to have been a minor flunky rather than a war criminal. Yep, he lied up a storm for a despicable regime, but I haven't heard that he was responsible for any real crimes like rape, torture, genocide, abuse of prisoners, etc... If he was then lets put him in front of a tribunal, but if all he did was lie then he's no more guilty than a used car salesman.

[nicmarlo]

if all he did was lie then he's no more guilty than a used car salesman.

or a politician! : )

[WOSG]

Dont feel sorry him. He's alive and well. Feel sorry for the Iraqis forced to carry guns on saddam's orders, forced to die under our arms or by saddam's death squads. May they rest in peace.

He made a nice living doing a vile thing: Lying on behalf of an evil murdering regime.
You should feel no more sorry him than you do George Stephanopoloous. No, not a fair comparison --- no more sorry than you would for Joseph goebbels in May 1945.

[andysandmikesmom]

They also made that novel into a movie, I think it was also called 'Mother Night'...I saw it long ago, and dont remember who was in it, but thanks for your reminder of the book...I had forgotten all about that...

[MHGinTN]

George Steponallofus continues his lickspittle service to corrosive liberalism; at least Baghdad Bob has stopped spewing the party lines.

[WOSG]

You dont begrudge him because he came into your living room. And because his lies were so false and hollow it could be laughed off.

But there is a vileness of propaganda and the vileness of the CNN etc. reporting of it: It gave a 'human face' to the regime that killed so many, in order to deliver their lies; unbelievable to you - but believed by millions of Arabs and perhaps Iraqis too, for a time. truth be told, he said nothing different from Tariq Aziz, or Saddam himself. He was part of the evil regime. And was willing to do it, or he wouldnt have had such high station.

Now, dont forget that if they could have killed 100,000 American troops instead of 100 they would have celebrated it. This mouthpiece was a key part of the war machine and his lies directly contributed to additional deaths, thanks to his 'dedication'. One small example: Just remember the 100s or Iraqis killed in a counterattack on Iraqi airport. Their inability to fight better made them seem more absurd than dangerous, but 150 Americans still lost their lives in this 'easy victory'.

As for his character, I dont really know it, but I do know he did have choices and he cast it with saddam. that is so whatever his other characteristics: I am sure OJ Simpson is a suave gentleman at times and Scott Peterson is a decent neighbor. And I hear Hitler loved animals and children, etc.

Just some cold water 'pondering' on baghdad bob.

[Risa]

>>But you don't see this outpouring of anger and hatred for him, not even from President Bush. Why is this????? <<

I found Baghdad Bob's rantings to be irritating and pathetic. After all, he was lying to his own people, and by deceiving them about the location of the American forces, while encouraging them to fight, he was sending them off to certain death--all while he stood safely at his little T.V post.

I think we shouldn't attribute some warm, human quality to Baghdad Bob, just because his absurd rantings elicited our laughter. People always laugh at the absurd--in this case-- the juxtaposition of contrasting realities.

(just my personal thoughts on the matter.)

regards, risa

[nicmarlo]

I tried to watch that movie, IMHO, it was really bad....I would not recommend it at all, Nick Nolte (sp?) played the main character....I watched 3/4 of the way through....but it was so bad, I couldn't finish it. The book, however, is really good. I wrote a paper on it, comparing it with Slaughterhouse Five, on free will (Mother Night) vs. determinism (Slaughterhouse Five). The character in Mother Night makes a cameo appearance in Slaughterhouse Five (another required read...that was a weird book, I must say...). : )

[andysandmikesmom]

Thanks for the info...

[WOSG]

George S. is annoying but the depth of evils and lies of Liberalism and saddamite baathism are not comparable. Baghdad bob was more analogous to Joseph Goebbels, both supporting an evil, genocidal dictatorship .. but Baghdad Bob was a second-rater at best and thanks to modern technology, totally outmatched by 'facts on the ground'.

He is lucky he failed as badly as he did - we would like him MUCH LESS if his lies succeeded at hurting us.

[WOSG]

Ithink you pegged it right.

[nicmarlo]

Just some cold water 'pondering' on baghdad bob.

It's well deserved. I have thought about this guy quite a bit; yes, he made me laugh, because he was so absurd; but as I have stated earlier, there must be some culpability by him....then I flip over to the other side....and just don't have those angry feelings. Then I try to think, what does God think about this. And I can't believe HE thinks this man did the right thing.....but, I'm not God. I chalk this up to our ability to want to forgive others (a good thing) but it must be weighed against the terrible wrongs one commits. We don't know this man's heart, only God does; it's wrong to murder or be complicit with murder....maybe one day we will know his story. (But, maybe, we just will never really know.)

[nicmarlo]

After all, he was lying to his own people, and by deceiving them about the location of the American forces, while encouraging them to fight, he was sending them off to certain death--all while he stood safely at his little T.V post.

I agree with you there, too; my, how everything connected to this regime was so absurd!

[nicmarlo]

yw.....reading is one of my greatest pleasures in life....if I wasn't on FR so much, I'd have finished reading dozens of books by now! : )

[SkyPilot]

The general described Mr Sahhaf as "naive" and claimed that Saddam used to beat his minister of information. ..... According to Mr Hassan, Mr Sahhaf and a team of aides arrived at the studio on April 8 and rarely left it. He says that Mr Sahhaf worked from a transmitter van parked in the studio garden, sustained only by a few cups of tea and an occasional slice of cake.

Luxury. When I was a lad, I used to have to get up a half hour before I went to bed. I slept in a corridor with my 15 brothers and sisters. We would trudge barefoot through rusted nails to the salt mines, work 25 hours a day, then come home, have a lump of dried poison for dinner, lick the road clean with our tongues, and then our father would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle.

[andysandmikesmom]

I know what you mean...I also love to read, but have noticed that during the last past few years, that I have been online, I have let my reading habits go to heck...no one to blame but myself, tho....

I need to get more self control...

[BenR2]

"He wants to get to Egypt. He has a lot of money stashed there in a bank and loves those Egyptian women very, very much."

I'm sorry but isn't that a funny comment to make? lol

///
It is a scream.

[nutmeg]

ping!

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