Iraqi Information Minister . . . UPDATED AGAIN on pg. 2 with Top Ten List

[Deb in IA]

This guy is getting really irritating . . .

From MSNBC:

Though evidence of the U.S. forces’ presence in the capital was easily seen, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf continued to deny that the enemy had breached the city’s defenses. “They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true,” he told reporters, standing on a Baghdad rooftop as sirens blared and smoke billowed into the sky. “There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all.”

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Yup, it's all just a sham...they're actually filming on a Hollywood Lot.

 

[becka]

Originally posted by Deb in IA
This guy is getting really irritating . . .

From MSNBC:

Though evidence of the U.S. forces’ presence in the capital was easily seen, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf continued to deny that the enemy had breached the city’s defenses. “They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true,” he told reporters, standing on a Baghdad rooftop as sirens blared and smoke billowed into the sky. “There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad, at all.”

Maybe we are being too hard on this guy. After all we probably did not bring 65 tanks into the center of the city. It was probably 70!

And he was right when he said no "American infidels" are in the city of Baghdad but there are lots of American liberators in Baghdad!

 

[Geoff_M]

That guy could sell tickets to his press briefings! I think I'd have tears in my eyes from the laughter if I was in that room each morning. During the next daylight raid, we ought to leave a calling cards in the form of some M1A's outside the Information Ministry and see how he explains them away after that!

 

[pat fan]

I have wondered how he can stand up there and say all that with a straight face. I know I couldn't....

 

[Geoff_M]

It all seems pretty straight forward to us, but the WSJ reports that, believe it or not, the Minister of Silly Statements still holds sway in the Arab world:

Is It Cake Yet?
A man's home is his castle? Not if he's Saddam Hussein. Coalition forces have sauntered into Baghdad and taken control of two of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces, Reuters reports. "I do believe this city is freakin' ours," the New York Post quotes Capt. Chris Carter of Watkinsville, Ga., as saying at one of the palaces. The Post notes that some American soldiers "said they planned to enjoy a shower in Saddam's palace." So much for the Baath Party.

Although "embedded" TV crews have provided extensive footage of the move on Baghdad, as well as last week's capture of Baghdad International Airport (né Saddam International), Iraq's "information minister," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, in which CNN dryly calls "an apparent show of defiance," is insisting none of it is happening. The BBC has the transcript of one of his statements:

There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never! . . . As President Saddam Hussein said: God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis. . . . Their infidels are committing suicide in their hundreds under the walls of Baghdad. The battle was fierce and God granted his soldiers victory. He granted heroic Iraqis victory. The battle is continuing on the main fronts. Be reassured, Baghdad is safe, fortified and great.

He goes on to complain about the footage of a VIP lounge at the airport: "Instead of showing the tragedy of their soldiers, they speak about a lounge--does a lounge represent the dignity of a people?" Anti-American polemicist Robert Fisk echoes the claim that the coalition isn't at the airport.

Sahaf is starting to remind us of the Flat Earth Society, the folks who think the moon landing was a Hollywood hoax. Or maybe Scrappleface.com has it right. It "reports" that coalition troops "have discovered a massive cache of the chemical agent lysergic acid diethylamide." It "quotes" Sahaf as saying that using the chemical, also know as LSD, "helps him to see Abrams tanks as gentle lavender camels and Bradley fighting vehicles as enormous pansies and petunias."

Reuters quotes one Abdul-Aziz, "a Saudi writer who would not give his last name," as saying: "Sahaf is vulgar but he is a brave liar. . . . If the rest of the Iraqi government or army were this brave, they would inflict many more losses on U.S. and British forces."

Not everyone on the Arab street is as realistic. An Associated Press dispatch from Riyadh quotes a Saudi accounting instructor: "How can we know this is for real and not just coalition propaganda?" And in Cairo, "the news made some more determined to join the fight in a jihad, or holy war, alongside the Iraqis":

Another volunteer, Abdelfattah, 41, a worker in a regional city council, said the reports were "all lies."

"It is a psychological war," said Abdelfattah. "If it is true, then it is only a military strategy, to lure the American forces into a trap."

So it turns out denial is a river in Egypt after all.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110003308

To quote Lester Burnham in "American Beauty": "Never under-estimate the power of denial."

 

[Mermaid02]

So what are they going to say when the Iraqi people start ruling themselves?

 

[jenjie]

 

[jenjie]

 

[MrsMud]

I haven't watched any news yet this morning, but has he been heard from at all since yesterday's BIG bomb?

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Those comics are hysterical!

 

[Goofyposter]

Hummmm......US spy satellites


photos this morning...might offer some clues on this guy.....

 

[MrsMud]

Hummmm......US spy satellites

Okay, What am I missing?

 

[auntie]

They should give him a new job...the Iraqi MissInformation Minister!

 

[Geoff_M]

I like the title of "Minister of Silly Statements" (With apologies to Monty Python).

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Maybe the guy should step off the same street corner giving statements and walk around the city!! Why do the journalists even bother with this guy?!

 

[Deb in IA]

Iraqi Information Minister Uses Insults
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf Has Flair for Insulting Coalition Leaders

DOHA, Qatar April 8 —
The television pictures of U.S. tanks in Baghdad seemed undeniable, but Iraqi President 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," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf asserted outside Baghdad's Palestine Hotel on Monday.

A day later, when the hotel came under U.S. tank fire, the Iraqi information minister had to admit to the journalists staying there that coalition forces were in the capital. But, smiling, 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, Arabs hoping for victory over the United States hated for its support of Israel and portrayed as attacking Iraq only for its oil embrace al-Sahhaf's version. And even when they can't believe what he is saying, they like the way he says it.

They get a kick out of the way he ridicules President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in daily news conferences, broadcast live. Some call it the "al-Sahhaf show."

Al-Sahhaf has even introduced insults virtually unknown to the Arab public. His use, for example, of "uluj," an obscure and particularly insulting 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 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 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 a headline in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

Viewers don't "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 Joseph Goebbels, 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 got his start 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. Al-Sahhaf was put in charge of securing the radio and television stations and then put at the helm of both. He was known for his temper even kicking TV and radio employees who displeased him.

Al-Sahhaf, who is in his early 60s, has been information minister since 2001. Before that, he was foreign minister, from 1993 to 2001. He also has served as Iraq's ambassador to India, Italy and the United Nations.

Although al-Sahhaf has become the most prominent face of the regime of late, he does not have the political or military clout of Saddam's relatives and clansmen.

Al-Sahhaf is from Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community, long dominated by Sunnis like Saddam. He has middle-class roots the family name refers to his father's bookbinding craft and comes from Hilla, south of Baghdad, not Saddam's Tikrit power base.

Still, it was al-Sahhaf who delivered a recent message in Saddam'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. The statement, though, went on to criticize the Kuwaiti leadership for relying on American help.

 

[Geoff_M]

In another nod to Monty Python, I saw this little blurb on andrewsullivan.com:

JUST A FLESH WOUND:
Yes, I know I'm a Python freak. Got 'em all on DVD. But I suddenly realized who Mohammed Said Sahaf reminds me of, declaring victory as allied troops police the streets around him, explaining that the Baghdad Airport is still held by Iraqis, etc. etc. He's that wounded knight in the "Holy Grail," with every limb cut off, daring his opponent to have another whack at him. If he weren't a monster, he'd be quite funny.

But it looks like Mohammed has some competition. Here's some gems from Iraq's representative to the Arab League:

Israel pushed America to wage war on Iraq and provided equipment and training to U.S. soldiers, Iraq's ambassador to the Arab League said Monday.

"Iraq will not be defeated" in the war, Ambassador Mohsen Khalil told a news conference in Egypt. "Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities."

(snip)

Khalil accused U.S. forces of choosing Iraqi targets with secondary military importance, but public significance, such as Saddam Hussein International Airport in Baghdad.

The American troops "parachute in" with their journalists, get chased away by Iraqi troops, and the Western media publish pictures and stories, Khalil said.

Asked what had happened to the elite Republican Guard divisions around Baghdad, who have offered much less resistance than expected, Khalil said they "are everywhere, not only in Baghdad but in many other places."

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=097w0625

Stop it you two, you're killing me!!! One person I saw responded "And Saddam is alive - apart from some technicalities."

 

[jenjie]

"Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities."

Translation - Iraq has already achieved victory - apart from the fact that their leader is (hopefully) dead, their spokesmen are all delusional, their army is surrendering, their people are welcoming us...

oh I know! He must've slipped up on his Iraq-to-English translation. Wonder if he was using one published by the French government? I'm sure their translation must be a doozy.

The French idea of "Victory" is defeat - or at the very best, a tie.

Chiraq's definition of peace? The same as Nevil Chamberlain's - coddle the madman.

 

[MJames41]

Actually, Iraq did win - at least the Iraqi people did! It's just the regime that lost.