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Originally Posted by Marc Duffy
I'm going to be made to feel like Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf today I'm sure  |
"Al-Sahaf is probably most known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War, where his lies, fantasies, and colourful description of his enemies reached meteoric heights as the war progressed and caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob (in the style of "Hanoi Hannah" or "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.
On April 7, 2003, Al-Sahaf claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates, despite the fact that the imminent fall of Baghdad and the Hussein government was obvious to those aware of the progress of the war, and that American tanks were patrolling the streets only a few hundred meters 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. His (Arabic) name was often replaced by humorous nicknames such as "Baghdad Bob," "Comical Ali," or "IIM" (acronym for Iraqi Information Minister). A popular site, WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com, featured sound bites of the minister, as well as Photoshop-type doctored 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." At its peak, the site claimed 4,000 visitors a second."
Marc can you give us a press briefing. The crowd is at the gates of SI, open up and let us in!